“3 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. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 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.” NIV

Somebody once asked, ‘If there is a hole in human history the size and shape of the resurrection of Christ, with what does the secular historian propose to fill it?’

Christianity is about life. Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and all those who are linked to Him by faith share His resurrection life now (partially), and one day will share it (fully). We have ‘’a living hope’’ as we trust in the living Lord Jesus. Peter says that ‘’salvation’’ is ‘’ready to be revealed in the last time’’ (5b). The ‘salvation project’ (God’s rescue operation for the human race), is now in process, and will one day be completed. We have a great ‘’inheritance’’ ahead of us, on top of all we are enjoying this day. If you come to Jesus now, He will give you resurrection life now. But one day, He will give you a resurrection body. There is so much more about God’s saving work in Jesus ‘’to be revealed’’. C.S.Lewis wrote wonderfully about this reality, saying:

‘’…remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship…’ (From ‘The Weight of glory’).

The Christian has such an inheritance to look forward to. If someone left you money in a will, you might want to invest it in a bank, or on the stock-market, or in a pension or property etc. But we are seeing clearly today what we’ve always known, but didn’t really want to face: that such entities and institutions are fundamentally unstable, and subject to being battered by winds of change. Share prices can fall as well as rise. You can’t trust in wealth. It does ‘’perish, spoil’’ and ‘’fade’’ (4).

But if you put your confidence in Jesus, He will keep your inheritance safe in heaven, and He will also keep you safe for that inheritance (4,5). There’s a double-keeping going on.

PRAYER: In uncertain times, I want to thank you Lord for the security you give. Thank you that build my life on you is to build on Rock, and not on a foundation of sand.