Look What God Has Done!
April 16, 2006
Resurrection Day
To begin, let us turn back the clock about 80 years. In November of 1922, Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, his financier and co-worker, were in their seventh season of exhausting archaeological work in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. They had been searching for a certain tomb for years. And the past six years of labor had resulted in nothing, not even any minor artifacts to fill Lord Carnarvon’s cabinet at home. Howard Carter recorded his thoughts as the seventh year began, “season after season had drawn a blank; we had worked for months at a stretch and found nothing, and only an excavator knows how desperately depressing that can be; we had almost made up our minds that we were beaten, and were preparing to leave the Valley.”
Then on November 1st, as the workmen were clearing away some aged huts near the mouth of another tomb, someone’s shovel hit stone. Everyone fell silent and Carter was summoned. They cleared away some debris and there, in the dirt could be discerned an ancient stone stair, much like the first step in a stairway leading down to a tomb. For the next three weeks work went on, clearing step after step until on the 24th of November they were able to uncover a dust covered stone doorway on which Carter found the seal of the king he had been hunting for many years: Tutankhamen! Wondrously, the original seals were intact. With great anticipation, they broke them and found the passage blocked. It took two more days to clear the rubble intentionally put in the passageway by the Egyptian priests centuries before. They dared not hope that past all of that rubble there would be an inner door that would lead to an actual tomb and not just a burial cache.
By November 26th they had nearly cleared away the last of the fill. Carter wrote about that day: “[It] was the day of days, the most wonderful that I have ever lived through, and certainly one whose like I can never hope to see again . . . Slowly, desperately slowly it seemed to us as we watched, the remains of the passage debris that encumbered the lower part of the [inner] doorway were removed, until at last we had the whole door clear before us. The decisive moment had arrived. With trembling hands I made a tiny breach in the upper left hand corner. Darkness and blank space . . . I inserted the candle and peered in, Lord Carnarvon, Lady Evelyn and Callender standing anxiously beside me to hear the verdict. At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold—everywhere the glint of gold. For the moment—an eternity it must have seemed to the others standing by—I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, “Can you see anything? It was all I could do to get out the words, “Yes, wonderful things.”
We know what those wonderful things included. They included thousands of items of rare gold and precious jewels and alabaster and sculptures and artifacts of the most amazing kind. Some of us got to see these very artifacts as children. I remember being stunned as a 12-year-old by the beauty and number of the things that came out of King Tut’s tomb as they were displayed at the Seattle Science Center in 1977. And of course, the most exciting feature for Carter was the burial chamber--the gilt shrine, the unopened sarcophagus, the burial mask and the untouched mummy itself. All of this, all what Carter describes as the “exhilaration of discovery, the fever of suspense . . . the thought . . . that you are about to add a page to history, or solve some problem of research” and much more started with the sound of stone under the blade of a shovel. It all began with the revelation of a single stone step. That one piece of stone promised all the riches and wonder of an ancient Egyptian tomb that had been untouched for more than 3000 years.
That stone step, which prefigured and promised so much to hard-working archaeologists, is a shadowy picture of the resurrection from the dead that we celebrate today. When we comprehend the resurrection, we are like archaeologists who have just struck stone with our shovels after digging for what seems an eternity. The sound—not of metal upon stone, but of the word “resurrection”—speaks the promise of things so good we struggle to imagine them.
For one thing, the resurrection is, in itself, incomprehensible—Jesus Christ who was brutally killed, came back from the dead? A person who was truly dead is now alive? But the resurrection of the man Jesus Christ not only imparts everlasting life to Him, it simply changes everything for humanity. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead to eternal, indestructible life is the event that changes everything. It does not mean mere riches or fame or advancement of research or extending human knowledge or such paltry things as that. The resurrection of Christ is the clue that there is another, better world. It is the assurance of God’s victory. It is the ground of our hope. It is the pledge of His return. It is the permanent, unmovable reason for joy. It is the transformation of our relationships with God and with each other. Let us think again carefully about the resurrection of Jesus Christ today on this Resurrection Sunday.
There are two ways to title our study today. First, we could call it “Look What God Has Done.” This small passage is crammed with many kind deeds that God performed for you and I. Or, we could call our study “Yesterday, Tomorrow and Today.” In verse three we see what God has done in the past. In verse four we see what He is storing up for us in the future. And in verse five and six we will see how we are to live in the time between our new birth and our inheritance. But first let us get a bit of context.
1 Peter 1:1-2
To begin we will briefly observe some features of the opening verses to gain context for the passage we will spend our time in.
Peter is writing as an apostle of Christ
He is writing to believers in Christ who live in various provinces of the Roman Empire. This is the area that today comprises northern and western Turkey which runs along the south shore of the Black Sea.
Then, in the very opening lines of his letter, Peter reminds his readers of who they are and how they got that way:
a. They have been chosen by God. God actually chose them.
b. God chose these believers according to or in reference to His foreknowledge.
c. The Holy Spirit sanctified them (or set them apart).
d. They were chosen so that they might actually obey Jesus Christ.
e. The blood of Jesus Christ sprinkles or cleanses them.
To these victims of God’s amazing work, to these “aliens”, he then extends grace and peace.
What a salutation! There is enough meaty encouragement in that opening line or two to feed our souls for a week.
But let us go on the next four verses as our focus.
1 Peter 1:3-6
In this first verse, Peter tells us who God is, what He has done, why He did it, and how.
A. WHO He is: Note right away how Peter describes God. He is blessed. That Greek word is the very basis of our word “eulogy” and it conveys the idea of speaking well of someone. In other words, it is the case that God is blessed and thus, we have in very concise fashion, the imperative of praise. If God is actually blessed, then it makes sense that His people would be constantly about the business of praising Him.
Also, Peter reminds his readers that God is intimately related as Father to the Son, Jesus Christ. Lest we think that the Son is somehow not God, or less than God, he describes Christ as the Lord. That is, God as Father of Christ, is delighted to have His Son rule the Universe as Lord.
B. WHAT He has done: He has begotten us again. He has caused these people in Pontus and Galatia and elsewhere, as well Peter, and the other disciples, as well as those who now follow Christ, to be born again. That means that God not only allows human beings to experience physical birth, but there is another kind of birth that God Himself causes in those who are His chosen. This is a very mysterious and remarkable thing. Everyone who exists has obviously been born physically. But here, the Scriptures tell us that it is possible for a person who has been born physically, to be reborn and that this birth is something that God Himself brings to pass. That is what He has done, and it is amazing.
C. WHY He did it: But even more amazing, is the reason in God, or the motive of His heart that caused Him to make human beings be born a second time. What does the Scripture say? It is God’s mercy that is the cause. The reason He makes people to be reborn is because He is merciful.
Now this word mercy is packed with implications. First off, it implies that there is something judge-able about the people to whom God gives new birth. Mercy makes no sense in the context of righteousness. If I am obeying the speed limit, I need no mercy from the judge, for I have no cause to be found guilty before him. How much sense would it make for me to receive a ticket for speeding on the highway if I were going 58 mph? And then, suppose I nevertheless received that ticket. How much sense at all would it make for the judge to say to me when I appear in court, “Mr. Turnbull, I am going to have mercy on you. I could fine you, but I rescind the fine and you are free to go.” That is a laughable event.
But if I am an inveterate speeder and find myself going 40 in school zones, and 55 up Icicle canyon, and 82 on the highway to Wenatchee then I am in a woeful state. And it is precisely that woeful state that makes mercy possible. Having over $1200 of speeding tickets to pay and a possibility of one year in jail and the surety of a revoked license, it becomes a dramatic and remarkable event in my life when the judge says to me, “Mr. Turnbull, I am going to have mercy on you. I could fine you, but I rescind the fine, I waive the jail time and I restore your driver’s license. You are free to go.” In that context, not only is mercy possible, but it is the most beautiful thing I could know.
But we are more than speeders before our holy God. We are murderers (if we have hatred for our brothers), we are adulterers (if we lust after others), we are liars (if we have told a lie) and we are many other things. Most of all, we are rightly guilty before a guiltless, righteous God. But the miracle of new birth is that He does not discard us or carry out our condemnation, but He shows us mercy.
Romans 5:6-8 (NASB95)
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for
the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though
perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God
demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us.
Note also, that it is because of God’s great mercy that we are born a second time. As though mercy, in itself, was not miraculous enough, this adjective removes every shred of stinginess or reserve from the process. Sometimes we like to think God has to be kind to us or that He regulates His kindness much like we do an allowance to a child. But that is not the case. He delights in being merciful. He does not just do mercy. He actually is merciful. And He is not just merciful, He is greatly merciful. The Greek word means “the most, at the very most.” God is most merciful, the very most merciful. And because He is that way, He chooses His enemies for salvation and then clothes them, through a mysterious process of spiritual rebirth, with new life. Blessed be God, indeed.
D. Now, as we continue in the verse, we see HOW He did what He did: through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
All of the overwhelming mercy of God and the mystery of our spiritual rebirth comes through one person and one event and one work: the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
See how the resurrection of Christ according to the Bible has much more to it than the odd event of a Jewish itinerant teacher being crucified and then being rumored to have come back from the dead and appearing to his intimate followers for forty days? According to the Scriptures, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead actually transforms the lives of those who believe in Him. His death to sin, becomes their death to sin. His resurrection to new life, becomes their resurrection to new life.
Romans 6:4 (NASB95)
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death,
so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so
we too might walk in newness of life.
And this resurrection of Christ is the means by which God, at an actual moment in human history, has accomplished salvation. When Christ wrapped himself in death like a robe of linen and then rips it away and discards it, death is actually swallowed in victory and we can become the recipients of the great mercy of God and we are born again.
Now, note the words Peter uses to describe what gift this resurrection bestows upon us: a living hope. It is not a hope in a thing. It is not hope in a truth. It is hope in a person. We do not look to the resurrection as though it were a mere fact of history. We do not look to the resurrection as a scientific principle. What cold comfort the principle of gravity gives to the man who forgot his parachute. What weak encouragement a dying soldier gets from the memory of Julius Caesar’s victory over the Gauls. But both the dying soldier and the falling jumper can actually have real comfort and hope if their trust is in a living Saviour who rescues the perishing and brings back the dead. We look to the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the event that displays for us the nature of our Saviour. As Paul said in Romans 1, He “was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.” He is our hope. He is alive. And thus, our hope is living.
So we set our hope on a Blessed God who has great mercy and has actually imparted new life to us through the resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.
If we want to look at this passage in terms of time, we see in verse three what God has done in the past. And now in the next verse the gaze is straightforward into the future.
1 Peter 1:4
This next verse shows us the main treasure promised by the resurrection of Christ. It is an inheritance. Many of us are not used to thinking in terms of inheritance, particularly in a nation and social context wherein how one lives is more a function of how hard one works and what efforts one makes toward a living, than a function of what one’s father has given to them. But such was not the case for Jews. The idea of the inheritance was vital. So let us consider it here.
This verse says that by virtue of our new birth, in which God is the Father and the cause, and which comes to us through the new life of the resurrection, we have become sons. And as sons, we stand to inherit that which our Father has prepared to give us.
There are four features of this inheritance which Peter wants us to have clear in our understanding.
1. Our inheritance is imperishable. Apthartos That is, it is like God, not capable of corruption or decay or dying. To illustrate, we can imagine how temporary your inheritance would be if your father bequeathed to you, upon his death, a handmade wicker basket full of fresh fruit and condolence cheeses. The half-life of the cheese would be quite a bit longer than the fruit. But even with careful refrigeration your inheritance would not last more than a month or two. That is a ridiculous example. But compared to the permanence of God and His kingdom, earthly inheritances like money, or investments, or stocks, or land, or cars or houses or titles, though they may last for fifty or one hundred or even 150 years, with proper refrigeration and care, are perishable. Even if they weren’t perishable (which they are), you are. If my money lasts one hundred years, it will outlast me. I cannot enjoy that kind of inheritance. By contrast, this inheritance that God gives to those who are His children, not only lasts forever, it changes you so that you can enjoy it forever! Our inheritance is imperishable.
2. Our inheritance is undefiled. Amiantos It cannot be soiled or defiled by anything. It is, again like God, incapable of moral corruption or decay. The root word for this term has to do with dyeing or coloring or staining. And the idea conveyed is that your inheritance in God, like a piece of expensive fabric, once colored by Him, is incapable of being redyed or stained a different color. There is no way to defile your inheritance, because God created it. And unlike the creation we know, that is corrupted directly by our sin, this one that awaits you cannot be. By its very nature, it is incapable of defilement.
3. Your inheritance will not fade away. Amarantos (Note the alliteration in the adjectives.) This word indicates that, even with use, even after the first ten thousand years of enjoyment in heaven, your inheritance will not lose its brilliance or youth or shine or beauty. This is the kind of inheritance God gives to His sons.
4. Finally, Peter tells us one more thing about our inheritance. It is reserved in heaven for you. That is, the inheritance cannot be taken away. Remember that Naboth had a vineyard that was beautiful. It adjoined King Ahab’s royal palace and Ahab wanted it for his own. He offered land and money for the vineyard. But Naboth said, “The Lord forbid me that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers.” So, unable to persuade him, Ahab killed Naboth and took his inheritance. Ultimately, God brought justice about. But the event proves the truth that earthly inheritances, though they have your name on them, are vulnerable to robbery and loss. Unlike inheritances of property or money or even of a good name, this inheritance is kept for you and watched over by God on your behalf. It is reserved for you in heaven.
1 Peter 1:5
Look right away at the end of verse 5 and notice that it is the nature of this inheritance and our salvation that we will not receive it in its fullness until the last time. This is very forward-looking. We are talking about your salvation being complete not yet in the present, but in the future at the last time. In fact, it says that our salvation is prepared for us and is yet to be revealed. Note that. This means that there are wonders of which we do not know a thing as of yet. Right now there is a salvation that has not yet been revealed to the saved! You and I have only experienced a foretaste of our inheritance. As a side question, we have to ask what fool would enjoy such rich appetizers and conclude that the main course to come must be sawdust and then leave the table? We have a great portion of our salvation which is yet to be revealed to us. In the meantime, there is a crucial era of our lives between our new birth and the receiving of our inheritance and the revelation of our full salvation. This presents a problem.
It can be posed as a question and Calvin framed it well: Of what use is it that salvation is reserved for us in heaven, as in a calm, secure haven, when we are tossed in the world as in a troubled sea in the midst of a thousand wrecks?
This question Peter answers in verse five and in doing so, he helps us look at not the past, nor the future, but today.
God has provided for His children between the time of their new birth and the time of their receiving their inheritance in heaven. Look at how He has done this.
1. God is powerful and He disposes His power toward human beings who are born again. Don’t miss that this power is actually measured not by kilowatts or by stone size or by horsepower. This power has only one measure and that is God Himself. It is God’s power that is disposed toward us. And see how He expresses it.
2. God’s power is expressed toward us in the shape of protection. Do you remember being very sick as a child? The love and care of your parents took the form of nurturing and seeking to enlist the aid of medical care on your behalf. Do you remember being confronted with an enraged snake when you were young? The love and care of your father may have taken the form of his interposing himself between you and that snake. Notice that your parents loved you and so they did many things to provide for you against the dangers that beset you. In the same way, God, in all of his majestic power, protects you now.
The mere mention of protection indicates that there is danger involved in being a Christian. What need do we have of protection if we are completely safe? God knows those dangers, even before we do, or in spite of our complete unawareness of them, and He has already provided His power as your protection.
3. Peter also shows us in this verse that there is a way to appropriate this protecting power of God and that is through faith. Faith is the way a Christian lives in this world. As Paul said in Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh (this time period between new birth and receiving the inheritance) I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.”
As a child of God, reborn, and looking forward to the inheritance and the fullness of salvation, we walk not by sight, but by faith. And through that faith, God protects us according to the measure of His immeasurable power.
1 Peter 1:6
We have seen what God has done—He has given us new birth: why He has done it—according to His great mercy: How he has done it—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have seen very clearly the nature of the inheritance that is promised to us who have been born by Him. It is imperishable, undefiled, unfading and reserved for us. We have also begun to see what kind of life we are to live in the time between our being born again and our receiving the inheritance. We are to have faith and thus be protected by God’s power. Now in verse six we are going to see the force of all of this truth applied to the worst of human experiences: trials and sufferings. It is as though the question is being asked: Can the realities of the new birth and of hope in Christ endure through trials and sufferings? In other words, what does it look like for me to suffer as a child of God?
There are three things to take up and live by from this verse.
1. Right away we can see that the background assumption behind the truth in this verse is that—contrary to our hopes or expectations—being protected by God’s power DOES NOT mean escaping trials and suffering. One would assume such royal personages, by virtue of their being chosen by God and objects of His mercy, would therefore be protected from distressing trials. This is false. The protection of God is not from trials, but experienced in the midst of them. Thus, distressing trials are an assumed part of our lives as Christians. And God is actually allowing us to experience them and protecting us at the same time.
Can we adjust our expectations right now? Much of our suffering comes from the assumption that we should not suffer. If we could only grasp and accept the idea that, if necessary, there are seasons of suffering appointed to us as God’s chosen people, we would be better equipped to meet their inevitable approach.
The power of the teaching in this passage is not that we are exempt from distressing trials. It is that we can rise above them. Look at what verse six tells you and I:
2. In this [your salvation] you rejoice greatly. It is expected that we will experience distressing trials. It is also expected that we will and can rejoice greatly in the midst of them! We are to rejoice and to do so greatly. That verb is a unique one. In one word it means what it takes two English words to communicate: rejoice greatly. We are to be exceedingly glad. We are to exult.
So, to the activity of faith (in verse four), we should add that of rejoicing as the calling placed upon us during the time of our stay on earth until we receive our inheritance. Actually, rejoicing greatly in the midst of trials is probably just what faith actually looks like. Doesn’t that make sense? Doesn’t it make sense that a person who is directly in the middle of suffering and rejoicing at the same time has to be living in light of something or Someone unseen?
This point could actually change our lives. Reading this verse feels to me a bit like visiting a foreign country. There is a wonderful strangeness to it. It is extremely exciting to see that it is expected and therefore possible that I could live my life in such a way that right in the middle of distressing trials I can actually exult, be glad exceedingly, rejoice greatly. And the way to get there seems very plainly to be a mere step of faith. It is not that I won’t be distressed by the trials, for that is the very nature of the situation. It is that, accepting the distress as God’s will, I will rejoice nevertheless. But how can you and I actually do that?
I think the secret is right here in the passage. It seems that Peter is teaching his readers that God is so blessed, that His mercy is so great, that our hope is so alive because of the resurrection, that our inheritance is of such an unmatched, peerless quality that if we really grasp all those realities we will naturally rejoice greatly—even in the very middle of the sorrow and distress caused by various trials. Thus, to rejoice, to be glad in God is to betray a confidence and a conviction of a reality that is much larger and much greater and, though invisible because it is not yet revealed, is the “realest” reality about our situation. That means that though I am hurting or sorrowful or financial stretched or afraid or nervous or persecuted or lonely, it is reasonable for me to rejoice greatly because God’s goodness is much greater than the trial is bad. Perhaps you don’t think so. Perhaps you think your trial is too great to be rejoiced in. Perhaps you consider your trial of such a magnitude that it outweighs the glory of God and glory of heaven which belongs to you right now.
Let us consider Paul’s life then. He is constantly calling his readers to rejoice always (Philippians 1 and Thessalonians 5). This command comes by way of the man who knew what it was like to experience sorrow and distress. His resume of suffering is impressive and so far in my short 40 years, his difficulties far outstrip my hardships.
2 Corinthians 11:25-28 (NASB95)
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times
I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26
I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from
robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers
in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false
brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many
sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and
exposure. 28 Apart from such external things, there is the
daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.
The call to rejoice from Paul doesn’t come from a guy who has had a pleasant life. And it does not come from someone who is trying to put a sugar coating on everything. It comes from a person who is steeped in realism and is constantly distressed but, who, nevertheless is so clearly convinced of the wonder of God and the blessings of knowing Him that, even in the very center of a trial, he rejoices in God because He knows that the biggest element in every situation, even in the face of death is God’s great mercy and His promise of eternal life and a glorious inheritance with Him.
You and I must catch this if we are to even remotely comprehend this part of God’s word. God Himself and the inheritance He promised and has reserved for you is so utterly excellent and so completely worthy of your contemplation that, barring every other difficulty in your life, you are warranted in rejoicing greatly right now. This passage is begging for us to apply it to our lives. Rejoice greatly in God. Hurt and suffer and be distressed. That is the proper function of trials. But even while you are suffering, rejoice greatly in God. Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. To refuse to rejoice is disobedience and it is to reveal your lack of comprehension of the glory and mercy of God and the excellent inheritance He has waiting for you. It is to belie a shallow conviction in the sovereignty, the majesty, the excellence, the rich calling and the intimate presence of God, Himself.
For me, this passage is speaking loudly that we must consider God. Meditate on His excellence. Believe the Word. Become the kind of person who takes big chunks of time to just read and mull over the truths of God’s word and especially the truth of His salvation and the wonderful riches of the inheritance. And pray what Paul prayed for yourself and your brothers and sisters:
Ephesians 1:18-20 (NASB95)
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so
that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the
glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing
greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance
with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought
about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right
hand in the heavenly places,
We celebrate the resurrection today. It is the bright glimpse of that glorious reality that is coming. It is the sprig of olive in the dove’s beak that told Noah that a new world was emerging from the waters of the flood. It is the first messenger from the field of battle with news of glorious victory. It is the sound of a shovel hitting an ancient stone step under Egyptian dirt. It means imperishable, undefiled, unfading treasure. The resurrection is the promise of new life. It is the sign of God’s mercy. It is our living hope. It is the cause of our great rejoicing in the midst of trials. The resurrection means that Christ is alive, never to die again, and that for you and I, absolutely everything is and will be different.