City Life Starter

Written by Efe Abbe

The Word

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

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, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 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. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:1-9

Reflection

Biblical hope is far from wishful thinking. Throughout the Bible, The Creator and God of Heaven and Earth called men, women, and even children (1 Samuel 3:1-21) into radical trust in His character. God says what He means and what He says will definitely be. So what exactly is it that our God calls us to trust Him for? And what is the guarantee of this trust?

Simply put, we are called to trust God to truly be alive.

Why? Unfortunately, when Adam and Eve (and every human since) chose to reject God’s call to trust Him for wisdom to discern between good and evil, the Human condition became subdued by death. Death in our relationship with our Maker and in our relationships with each other. Death to our calling to rule over God’s good creation in His likeness and we all feel the weight of our sentence. Even in the midst of God’s just judgment of death, He mercifully promised that death wouldn’t have the last say. He gave His Word that one day death itself would eventually die. This is the Hope we are called to and what we celebrate during Advent. Our Hope has come, is alive, and He is a person: Jesus the Christ. He is our King, who came to serve us by taking our death sentence. He died once, is resurrected, and can never die; he is death’s killer!

Application

In the midst of our rejoicing that our King has come once, we still reside in the shadowland that is before His promised coming again. All of life and creation is still wearily ground down by the effects of sin and death. So what do we do? As certain as this promise is, God dignifies us not by imposing but inviting us to respond by receiving His gift of grace by placing our ultimate hope in His Son Jesus and increasingly submitting all of our lives to Him daily. We are invited to respond with trust in our King who has put everything on the line to save us from death. His resurrection life is the guarantee that everything God the Father promised – the certain total destruction of sin and death – has begun and will be completed. May we respond in trust.

Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for the indescribably merciful gift of Your Son, our Lord Jesus. Help us by the power of Your Holy Spirit to trust You with all we are, because You alone are the wholly trustworthy One from eternity past, now, and for eternity to come. Amen.