What is Eternal?

V. 20 “He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you”

After the fall of man God did not worry about what to do with this creature that He loved and desired to fellowship with. He had before the foundation of the earth, before the law was given, or any sacrifice was given, had preordained that Christ, as the lamb, would take away the sins of mankind. Also from this sacrificial system, Christ was the significance and the virtue, from which God’s people would be saved. As each bull was slaughtered, and its blood sprinkled around the altar, God’s was pointing to the ultimate sacrifice of His Son preordained as the reconciliation of man to his God.

The last times, or the dispensation of grace, are a time of great change, but also a time of unity. This time stretches from Christ ascension to His coming in judgment.

V.21 “who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

The statement to believe in God, and believe there is a God can be confused. Many believe there is a God, and believe He is the God of the bible, but God wants us to more than just believe in Him as just existing. What good is it to believe that there is a God and not believe that He is an active part of your life? Jesus say in John 14:1; “you believe in God, believe also in me.” To truly believe in someone is to grasp the truth of their existence and support their lives. From reading Peter Pan and watching the many takes on the screen, I learned that in order for Peter to exist, others had to believe in him. Want to fly believe in him, want to defeat the pirates, believe in him, want to return to never never land believe in Peter. “I would recommend you either believe God up to the hilt, or else not to believe at all. Believe this book of God, every letter of it, or else reject it. There is no logical standing place between the two. Be satisfied with nothing less than a faith that swims in the deeps of divine revelation; a faith that paddles about the edge of the water is poor faith at best. It is little better than a dry-land faith, and is not good for much.” C.H. Spurgeon.

Faith is the action of belief, it is through faith that we believe in God, and it is that faith which leads us to love Him. It is out of that love that we desire a relationship with Him, and it is by faith that we realize that we can not have a relationship with Him, save by the blood of Christ, and it is by faith that we accept that sacrifice and offer it back to God, as the only atoning sacrifice for the sins that we have committed against a just and holy God. Furthermore, it is by faith that we believe that God is an active part of our lives and that Christ will return for His church and we shall be with Him forever.

The resurrected Christ is the substance upon which we base our faith on. By His resurrection, God has declared openly His acceptance of Christ as the sacrifice for our sins. Jesus also received power to enable Him to impart faith to us; our faith is not only in Christ, but also through Him. Our faith in God comes through the resurrected Christ, we come to God through the resurrected Christ, and we too one day will have complete fellowship with the Father through Christ.

V 22. “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,”

To purify something is to get all impurities out of it. The word of God received through the Holy Spirit, cleanses us of all untruths, and is manifested in our lives by our unconditional love to the brethren.

We first heard the truth, the gospel, as it was given to us, either through another, or through reading it ourselves. This is why we are called to witness to the truth that is found in us, and in the word of God, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. There have been many times I shared in this truth with others that I was amazed that I was even able to remember all that I was able to share, and other times I stumbled for the right words to say. By making ourselves available to God, He will use us to spread the gospel to others, in a way in which He wants it spread, through the Holy Spirit.

Our faith is manifested by our obedience of the word, and by that obedience we believe on the one who came into the world to save us. To believe in something is one thing, but to believe on something is put your very existence on it. By believing in Jesus as our savior, we trust our eternal salvation to the fact of His death, resurrection, ascension, and return.

Peter mentions that we are to have a sincere love for the brethren. This love is given without hypocrisy; it is not put on as we would a play, but given without pretending. This love is born out of a relationship with God, and manifested through the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Loving with a pure heart also means loving without a motive, whether it is out of personal gain, or avoiding conflict, we tend to pretend to love someone, when in truth we confess with our mouths that we don’t even like them. How do we get to the point of expressing this love? Our prayer is “Lord, teach me to love.”

V 23,24,25. “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because ‘All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers away, And the flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever.”

Peter wants us to see as we were born into an earthly family with ties, and devotion to that family, we are reborn into the family of God with the tie that binds us together in Jesus Christ. We are to have the same devotion to each other, being brothers and sisters in Christ. For we have all received the same salvation, by the word of God. Not to say that the word of God is our salvation, but the word is the means by which we come to the need of a savior.

All flesh is perishable, and all our glory is pale compared to the glory of God. All things will pass away and the one thing that will be left is the eternal souls of believers. So if we are all that will be left, where should our investment be made? Shall we cut each other down and worry over petty arguments, or out of love for others, invest in them, listening to them, hurting with them, celebrating with them as we share in the joy of the Lord, and our salvation.

We are beginning to see Peter’s answer to the persecution they are experiencing, it lies in each other. Supporting one another in times of trial makes us stronger and helps our love for one another grow.