OUR GLORIOUS INHERITANCE
Part II
My teaching notes for “Search the Scripture”
Conference, June 20/21, 2014 in Ibadan, Nigeria
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AN EXEGESIS OF I PETER 1
Vs. 3-4. ----- “Let us give thanks to the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by
raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope, 4 and so we
look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people. He
keeps them for you in heaven, where they cannot decay or spoil or fade away.”
GNT
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that
can never perish, spoil or fade — kept in heaven for you” NIV
Point 1: It is clear that
two people are mentioned here, not one person in two different forms. Mention
is made of one God who is also the Father of another personality - our Lord
Jesus Christ. Though this is not our point, I need to point it out in passing
because there are sects within Christianity that sincerely believe that it is
one single personality simply manifesting in three different ways. That is one
in three and not three in one. But it is so clear in this opening greeting of
Peter, as also in the greetings of Paul in virtually all his letters (Rom. 1:7,
I Cor. 1:3, II Cor. 1:2, Gal. 1:3 etc), and in fact, all other epistles that
two different persons are in view. The early church never had any confusion
over this matter. The confusion arose a number of centuries later when
Grecian/scholarly minds began to ask, “You Christians, just how many Gods are
you worshipping: one or two or three?” Now, in the attempt to use human
thinking to relate with that allegation, one is pushed to the defensive and made
to say, “Well, yes, it is only one God... but... em... you see... actually...”
While this discussion is not at all focused on explaining how three persons can
be one, anybody reading plain English will immediately see this unambiguous
distinction in the opening greeting: there is God who is the Sovereign
Potentate; this one God also happens to be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ - two unquestioningly distinct personalities - full stop. A separate
seminar might be put together sometime later to do a comprehensive exegesis on
the doctrine of the Trinity.
Point 2: It is the
resurrection of Jesus from the dead that our new life is anchored on. Wait a
minute; don’t just hurriedly gloss over this. Do you really believe that
somebody somewhere at a time actually rose up from the dead – all by himself?
Is this just a casual mental belief that is powered by a religious spirit or
has this become a deep-rooted conviction that has found a place in your heart?
If the latter is true concerning you, in the same vein, you can also dare to
believe that your old person have died and begin to express the new life of
yours on the strength of your conviction that Christ indeed rose from the dead.
For through faith, i.e. by believing in His death burial and resurrection, I
have identified with Him in his death. That means, I was actually in his loins
when he was dying and of course, I was also in him when he rose. I can
confidently say, it is no longer I that liveth but the resurrected life of
Christ now living in me. The old Temidayo who loves to fight everybody and
keeps malice and proudful and arrogant has died in the old Christ who hung on
the cross. It is now a new man, living in the new life that the resurrection of
Christ gives – halleluyah. I believe it – and that settles it.
Beloved, this is
no mind-job or religious hypnotism or indoctrination. This is faith – for we
walk by faith and not by sight and without this faith, you can as well forget
about a life in the Spirit or a walk with God. The me you now see is not the
same guy just trying to turn over a new leaf. I am a new being in Christ Jesus!
Christianity
today has a big problem with authenticity because there is hardly any
difference between its adherents and the rest of the world. What excites the
world excites us; we enjoy glorious fellowship with one another in our exotic
meeting places but when we get out there into the real world, the difference is
almost negligible. This is not supposed to be. When a man comes into Christ,
there should be a clear testimony both within himself and to those around him
that certain things have very definitely changed about this man. This change
goes beyond a moralistic attainment which other religionists may also claim. It
is not a superficial momentary change but a true heart change which has had a
profound effect on previous attitudes, temperaments, likes/dislikes, tastes,
appetites, preferences, interests, aspirations, ambitions, values & life
principles, pleasures, company/relationships, allegiances, commitments – you
name it. The more authentic the new life is, the more profound and deep-rooted
this change is.
Today, the
Spirit of God is challenging us to begin to live out our new life in Christ; to
make it clear that we are strangers and pilgrims here. Our allegiance is to
another value system, another culture, another Kingdom. Our behavioural pattern
derives from an entirely different life philosophy and ethos. That is what
differentiates us from other religious folks who preach morality but remain
slaves to the principles and philosophies of this present world.
Point 3: This new life,
made possible by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from death, is actually
expressed in hope. This new life is defined and characterised and powered by
hope – a living hope, a hope that is full of conviction. That new life is lived
and expressed in the context of this hope. Looking at that verse again, the NIV
says he has given us a new birth INTO a living hope. Using the illustration of
a babe in the womb, the environment of that babe, of course, is the womb. But
once there is the push and the babe comes out of the previous environment, it
gets born INTO an entirely new environment. It must learn to live in the
context of this new environment else it may not survive for long. Now, we can
only survive our new life in the environment of hope – a living hope. Hope is
the new environment into which we were born. How much I really wish this fully
dawns on you.
Casting my mind
back to my growing up years as a Christian right up to this period (that covers
about 25years within which I have seen a bit), I try to review how much of this
subject of hope has been emphatically taught. If you have been around for a
while yourself, particularly in mainstream Pentecostalism, you will agree that
the subject of hope, if mentioned at all, is often perceived as something
subservient and inferior to faith. We are not emphatically taught that we are
saved in hope (Rom. 8:24) and that this hope is actually a sure anchor for our
soul (Heb. 6:18,19); and that our new life cannot be lived outside of this
context of hope. The average Christian today understands very little, if any at
all, of this hope. This study aims to shed greater light on this subject.
Point 4: A living hope
implies that there is a perishable or a dead hope. This is too crucial a point
to miss but we’ll come back here.
Point 5: Hope of what? Of
obtaining or possessing an inheritance incorruptible, unfading and
imperishable. That inheritance is actually reserved in heaven. Thank God for
whatever we get on the earth but the gospel message of Christ - which he handed
down to the apostles who later penned down the same for subsequent generations
- clearly portrays this glorious inheritance as its primary (if not sole)
reward awaiting all faithful believers who are also expected to look forward to
it in earnestness and eagerness. In fact, that inheritance cannot be compared
in any way to anything of this earth. Relating with the gospel message of the
New Testament as well as the spirit and epistles of the apostles in their
truest context, anything and everything that is of this earth diminishes and
fades into oblivion in the light of this glorious inheritance that awaits the
children of God. A Christianity that does not speak, breathe and glory in that
inheritance is at best a dangerous distraction; an Ishmael perhaps, or an
Ishbosheth. We must begin to critically rethink Christianity today to centre
around that inheritance.
Let me make a
comment on this. That inheritance within modern day Christendom is hardly known
or understood and would be something so vague and abstract, something
intangible and impractical, and something that has no bearing with present
realities. But that is because we have not given ourselves to speaking about
it, to studying it, to research into it, to analysing it and applying it to
everyday life. The more we do this, the more we begin to see it come out of
vagueness into our living reality.
Point 6: This inheritance
is reserved in heaven – for safe custody. This doesn’t mean that heaven itself
is our inheritance or we are to think of spending eternity in heaven. Just
limit yourself to what that scripture says: our inheritance is reserved for us
in heaven; in the same way the gratuity of a civil servant is reserved in the Ministry
of Finance or Central Bank in Abuja until he has served meritoriously. That
civil servant, upon retirement, is not expected to relocate to the Ministry of
Finance in Abuja and demand for an apartment there, in order to enjoy his
retirement benefits – certainly not. We’ll come back here.
Point 7: There is a deeper
dimension to salvation beyond what is currently understood as salvation. Vs. 5
--- “Who through faith are shielded by
God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in
the last time.” We usually say that we are “saved” whenever we recite the
sinner’s prayer and become “born again.” To an extent, yes, but, as we shall
see more and more, ultimate salvation is to be revealed at the last hour.
Again, we’ll look at this in more detail as we go on.
Let us stop our
study of I Peter here and ask ourselves: what is our current understanding of
this inheritance in the context of the church today?
- Enjoying the
best of things here on earth?
- Going to
heaven at last?
At surface
level, this is it. But can we establish a strong theological foundation to
support this popular assumption? Perhaps, we need to take a deeper look at this
subject of our inheritance to see if the bible has more to say about it. We
have read earlier that it is unfading, incorruptible and imperishable and that
it is reserved in heaven. Are these allegorical statements or poetic
expressions or statements that border on esotericism? What would they mean in
literal context? Is that even all that the bible has to say about what lies
ahead? Can we attempt to compare scripture with scripture in order to get a
fuller picture of this inheritance?
To be
continued...
