I'm Rich

There have been lots of comedies in plays and movies that portray someone suddenly becoming rich as a result of an inheritance. Contained within many of these silly stories is someone who has great expectations, yet throughout their lives never did what ought to be done. Suddenly they are surprised when they receive nothing.

Others do all kinds of things in their lives that were a blessing to the family and sometimes end up being surprised when they are completely overlooked . Then some do what they ought to do, with no expectations, and then find themselves totally surprised when they receive a huge inheritance.

Last week, we observed Peter laying some powerful foundational markers about salvation. When one considers the persecution that Peter was going to be reminding his readers about, which they already were starting to experience, the appropriateness of that wonderful reminder that God had saved them and they belonged to Him regardless of what may be happening here on this earth. I believe that we also can be encouraged to worship the Lord, while focusing upon Him and His glorious promises, rather than getting bogged down and discouraged from whatever may be happening to us from those who would oppose us.

Now think about this inheritance idea I spoke of earlier. If the readers of Peter’s letter, and we, would consider our promised inheritance through the Lord Jesus Christ, we begin to realize that we are indeed rich. So, today we’re going to consider several different parts that Peter points out that gives great reason to rejoice in our inheritance.

When feeling as though things and people are against you, the Christian can rejoice in the certainty of our eternal inheritance.

The Resource - 1:3a

An inheritance cannot just come out of thin air. It doesn’t happen by wishful thinking. It cannot come from a person who has nothing. So what is the resource for our inheritance? Let’s look at 1 Peter 1:3a:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ

Our inheritance comes from the One Who has the ability to provide eternal life. If we look first of all at the titles for our Savior, we will find some interesting facts. Peter starts off with Lord, signifying that Jesus is the sovereign ruler of all that there is and that He is fully God. Jesus is commonly known to be the human name given to our Savior. This is a great reminder that He is fully man; God in the flesh. Then we have Christ given as a reminder that Jesus is the Messiah and King of Kings. The pronoun which precedes this series of titles is also very relevant—our. The imagery is brought to our minds immediately of the absolute inclusiveness for all peoples, regardless of ethnicity or nationality.

Just this little portion of the verse gives us great reason to rejoice. But let’s jump back to the beginning of this section. God is referred to as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Previously, God had been understood by the Jewish people, as well as Gentiles who became followers of God before Jesus, as the God of creation. Uniquely to the Jews, He was recognized as the One who redeemed and rescued them out of Egypt. This description of God by Peter was completely different, signifying the incredible importance of God the Father in providing salvation to all peoples that were chosen and would believe through Jesus Christ.

So, when you begin to get a little down with your state of affairs, knowing the solidness and eternality of our resource and source for our inheritance should cause us to rejoice.

The Rationale - 1:3b

We recognize the source as being quite capable, obviously, of being the source or resource for our eternal inheritance. However, it begs the question of why and how this is really possible. Read a bit further in verse 3:

who according to His great mercy

We’ve seen that God is sovereign and is totally in charge of our salvation. Here we get a glimpse into the rationale for why He did this. It was His great mercy. It’s not just mercy, it’s great mercy. Look at , where we see that God was rich in mercy.

Ephesians 2:4–5 NASB95

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Let me take a little time to discuss mercy and compare it briefly with grace. We know a simplistic definition of grace is getting what we don’t deserve. After all, we deserve the punishment of hell. Instead, we have been given eternal life. A simple definition of mercy is not getting what we deserve. That would have been hell.

You see, we truly were lost. We were enemies of God. We actually were the walking dead, blindly headed away from God. We were in desperate need for help. We needed someone to have compassion on us. Just in case you need to hear it from God’s Word, which is always best, look at what Paul writes in Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:1–3 NASB95

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

Praise God for the fact that in spite of us, God chose to show great mercy in providing all who would believe an inheritance of eternal life.

The Result - 1:3c - 4a

We’ve seen that God has the ability to provide an eternal inheritance. We also have seen the reasoning and the rationale for our inheritance. So let’s look a bit more carefully at the result of our eternal inheritance. Just what does it involve?

has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away

I have made the humorous comment, at least I thought it was, It’s easier to milk a chicken than to get certain things to happen. Whatever the impossible situation was, fit in that description. Well, that’s the picture of a person trying to stop being a sinner on their own. It requires something supernatural for that change to occur in a person’s life. Peter refers to this as God caus[ing] us to be born again. It’s not something we can do. Yet, this is what God’s great mercy results in the life of all who were dead in sin, which was everybody.

For many, this phrase born again sounds quite familiar, as it should. Again, it’s not something we can orchestrate; it requires God’s supernatural work in our lives. Listen to a conversation between Jesus and an extremely educated scholar:

John 3:1–15 NASB95

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. “If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? “No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

John 3:1-15

In simple terms, borrowing from Jesus’ illustration from the incident in , if we look to Jesus and place our trust in Him as our Lord and Savior, we will no longer be dead spiritually, but truly born again. We will shout out to the world, I’m rich. The reason is that we are certain of our inheritance of eternal life.

How, you say? We have a living hope. I don’t have to fear death. I don’t have to fear the grave. I don’t have to fear if I did enough, since Jesus did it all. I don’t have to fear paying for the guilt of all my sin, since Jesus took care of that on the cross. When a believer dies, we receive our inheritance in totality as we are in the presence of God.

How can I be so sure? It’s all possible and proven by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Listen to Jesus’ words to his dear friend, Martha:

John 11:25–26 NASB95

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Am I really promised this? Absolutely! As we look at the first part of verse 4, we see that we obtain an inheritance. An inheritance is something of great value which is passed down to family members. Our inheritance is a spiritual one which Peter states later is in heaven. So when we, like Peter’s readers, are feeling that everything and everyone is set against us, even to the point where we lose our freedoms, our possessions, our jobs, even our lives, because of our following Jesus Christ, we must remember that our focus needs to be on the reality that we cannot lose our eternal inheritance.

What exactly do we know about the value of this eternal inheritance? Peter tells us that it is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away. In other words, it cannot be destroyed by anyone or anything. It is not tainted or messed up by sin in any way. Anything you or I might inherit from earthly family, will have potential problems. It will also not last forever. I love flowers and especially since my wife loves flowers. I used to get them for her every couple of weeks or so. However, I had to keep replacing them because they faded away. Our inheritance won’t fade away. So whatever happens to us on this planet matters not when we think about our future inheritance which is guaranteed for us.

The Reliability - 1:4b - 5

This inheritance that is ours through Christ almost sounds too good to be true. But what if I or someone else does something that causes this inheritance to be lost? Peter goes on to show the absolutely reliability of these promises, and the impossibility of losing our inheritance. In theology circles, we like the words security or assurance.

reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Just as our salvation is secure because of what God has done in Christ and through His Holy Spirit, our inheritance is locked in stone, if you will. It is reserved in heaven. I know that most of you don’t get excited by the Greek language as much as I do, but there’s something amazing I have to share about the word reserved. It’s a perfect passive participle which shows that our inheritance already exists and it is being guarded for the follower of Christ. That thought is affirmed by Jesus when He instructed us about treasures.

Matthew 6:19–21 NASB95

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

We think of Fort Knox, where gold is stored, as quite secure. I’d suggest that you will never find any other place as secure and safe as heaven. In addition, all who are believers are protected by the power of God. The Bible often speaks of the fact that the believer is protected by God’s power against anyone or anything taking away our salvation or our faith. It’s not a matter of me working harder to have more faith. It’s a matter that the believer is protected by the power of God through faith. God does this amazing work. This is some of the strongest New Testament language which Peter uses to show the security of our inheritance. The commentary by Schreiner states: God’s power protects us because his power is the means by which our faith is sustained.

God’s power protects us because his power is the means by which our faith is sustained.

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Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 65.

Our salvation is our inheritance, according to:

Hebrews 1:14 NASB95

Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?

The word for salvation means rescue or deliverance. There are 3 wonderful theology words that describes our salvation. The first is justification. This takes place the moment an individual believes in Christ and has experienced forgiveness for sins and being delivered from the death penalty. The second word is sanctification. This refers to our current condition. Daily we are given the blessing of being rescued from the power of sin. So, what has been already done has continuing results for the here and now. Finally, the last word is glorification. That is that glorious day, when we are no longer able to be tempted by sin, because we will have died and will be in His presence.

Reflections

So, upon reflection, the believer in Jesus Christ can rejoice because we are indeed rich, with an eternal inheritance.

So, when we are discouraged, especially when suffering because of our faith in Christ, we ought to be ready to praise God. After all, we’ve been born again simply because God chose us in His great mercy.

We also have an absolute certainty of our inheritance because Jesus is alive, having been raised from the dead. Thus, in spite of the opposition we may face, we know that we will be given brand new bodies and a complete freedom from sin.

Even though we may lose everything on this earth to those who despise us, we are guaranteed an inheritance that cannot be lost, stolen, or destroyed. It is reserved or being guaranteed for us.

Plus, in the most difficult and trying of times, we can remain steadfast and firm for Christ because we are being guarded and kept safe. We cannot be snatched away by anyone nor can we sneak away. Remember we are chosen. Remember there is none greater than God.

This final aspect or fulfillment of our salvation will be revealed at the time of the final judgment. By the way, that is another way of God showing the assurance and security of the believer. This guarantee of our eternal inheritance is from before time began through eternity. We ought to praise and bless God for the salvation which He has chosen to freely give us.

When feeling as though things and people are against you, the Christian can rejoice in the certainty of our eternal inheritance.