Seeds for 04/09/2024 - 1 Peter 1:8-9
Scripture:
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.
Observation:
The opening passage from Peter’s first letter that we’ve been reading establishes the foundation for these believers’ faith and the reason and rewards for their faithfulness. He’s got more to say about this throughout the letter, but this is the core of what Peter is doing from the very beginning. Their faith is built on Jesus and on the power of His resurrection. They persevere in faithfulness because of the salvation they share in Him—both the status that they are saved and the process of being saved, as Wesleyan Christians would say, “to the uttermost.” By “to the uttermost,” we mean that salvation includes transformation, freedom, and restoration in the image of God.
I appreciate that Peter addresses head-on the reality that his readers are not eyewitnesses, but (we presume) believe on the basis of the original disciples’ testimony, searching the scriptures to see how it fits for themselves, the authenticity of the early church community, and personal experiences of Jesus that together brought them to faith.
Peter points out that their belief in Jesus brings them great joy because of the confidence they have in the salvation they have through Him. This is true for us too! We do not have the eyewitness experience of Jesus that the earliest disciples did, but like them we have the scriptures, the church and the people who both told of and demonstrated the love and grace of Jesus. Furthermore, we have the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, leading us to consider faith, search the scriptures, bring us to repentance, and then grow us in faith.
The verses share a remarkable resonance with Jesus’ comment at the end of John’s Gospel (20:29-31), after appearing to Thomas and showing His wounded hands and side—just as He had done for the others a week before.
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
The words of Jesus and the comments of John make the same points: not all can have the same experience of seeing Jesus the way the first disciples did, but those who believe without having seen—on account of the witness of the scriptures and other believers—are richly blessed just the same. The same saving and transforming grace is available to all!
Application:
How have you seen God transform some part of your life?
How have you seen God’s process of transformation in someone else?
What else might the Holy Spirit be speaking with you about in the text today?
Prayer: Lord, keep my hope and faith grounded in your saving love and let me overflow with joy in you. Amen.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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