Watch as R.D. opens 1 Peter 1:3-9.
The Scripture
“Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.” 1 Peter 1:8
More than Eternal Fire Insurance
Christian saving faith is about more than just changing your mind. It is more than just superficial mental assent to Jesus. It is more than just eternal fire insurance. Christian faith is even more than just letting Jesus tell you how to live, what to value, and what to stay away from. True Christian faith is something that happens at the level of the affections. It is about our hearts, our desires. It is about loving the Lord Jesus Christ. Desiring to spend time with Him. Treasuring Him as your greatest treasure. It drives deeper than just the mind – it goes down to the heart. If you have a Christian faith that has grown a little cold, then pray that God will touch your heart and affections with a love for Jesus.
A Changed Heart
The picture of saving faith is that of a faith that touches, shapes, and forms your affections, so that you fall in love with Jesus. Christian faith not only changes your mind – it changes your heart. It brings about rightly-aligned affections.It makes you truly human in the way God meant us to be. As a result of the fall, our affections are corrupted. We love the things we should hate and we hate the things we should love. But saving faith mends this brokenness and re-orders our affections by placing it all on Jesus.
Rightly-Ordered Love
St. Augustine defined virtue as ‘rightly-ordered love’. When we talk about faith, we often talk about what we believe, but perhaps we should talk equally as much about what we love, treasure, and desire. When you come to faith in Jesus, you will go through a process of having your affections and loves deeply re-shaped. Belief results in changed affections.
It is possible to know all the right things about Jesus, but to have your heart untouched and cold. Falling in love with Jesus will breathe a new life to your entire Christian journey.
In the Face of Suffering
In 1 Peter, the apostle is writing to a first-generation of Christians who conceived of themselves as exiles, whose true citizenship was heaven. He was writing to christians who were well acquainted with suffering, loss and persecutions. Peter writes that we ought to have a love for Jesus in the face of suffering and exile.
Rightly-aligned affections, a love for Jesus Christ, gives you a different perspective on your suffering, because you come to see that your suffering is just for ‘a little while’. In the middle of suffering, it feels like it will never end. We are short-sighted creatures with bad memories. But scripture tells us that no matter whether your suffering is short and fleeting or as long as a lifetime – in light of eternity, that suffering is for ‘a little while.’
Our View of Eternity
As Christians we need a more robust view of eternity. So much if what plagues us is as a result of an anemic view of eternity. The more that you believe that eternity is real, the more the hardships of this life will pale in comparison to all of the eternity of heaven. Do you believe that there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun? If so, you can be grieved by various trials for a whole lifetime and still it will only be, as 1 Peter 1:6 says, ‘a little while’. The pain that you are experiencing is real, tragic, and unjust, but seen through the perspective of eternity, all of life is fleeting and passing.
Your Trials Serve a Purpose
There is nothing more beautiful and precious than when a Christian says in the words of Job, ‘though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Your suffering is serving the purpose of refining you so that you will be more beautiful and precious than gold that perishes. Your hardship serves a purpose, don’t waste it.
Charles Spurgeon said that,
“I am certain that I never did grow in grace one-half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain.” Charles Spurgeon
The purpose of the hardship you’re facing is that you would grow in grace. Even if I could wave a wand and get rid of the suffering you’re facing, I shouldn’t, because in those moments God is working out something beautiful in your life. Your present suffering, your present exile, is only a little while in the light of eternity, and it is pressing you into a deeper faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is All You Have
One of the purposes of grievous suffering and hardship is got bring you to a place where you can no longer rely on yourself – your own clever devices, your own work strength, your own work-ethic, your own pedigree. It is to bring you face-to-face with something that you cannot fix. And don’t waste that moment. Allow it to bring you to the Lord Jesus Christ who is more than able to sustain you through your hardship and deliver you out of it. The purpose is to bring you to a place where you find that Jesus is all you have and all that you need.
Your Inheritance
Even if we know that suffering has a purpose, how do we know if it will be worthwhile? How can we know that it will be worth every tear, every loss?
Everything in this life fades, but the inheritance that waits for those who love the Lord Jesus Christ is imperishable and unfading. And the God of the Universe is keeping that inheritance for you. And not only is He keeping the inheritance for you, He is keeping you for the inheritance (1 Peter 1:5). Your inheritance isn’t even subject to your own frailty.
The Love of the Cross
In the face of suffering and persecution, you can say with Peter, ‘Though I have not seen him, I love him.’ This deep love for Jesus comes from understanding the deep love of Jesus. If you want to have a deep love, passion and desire for Jesus, than start by looking to the cross and see how much He loves you. Look to the cross and see the God who loves you to the end and lays down His life for you, so that these grievous trials, that are only for a passing moment in the light of this inheritance, seem to fade away in the light of eternity. This is when faith becomes more than just eternal fire insurance or mental assent. This is when you go all-in on Jesus, because you love Him.
