The Infinite Product of Christ’s Death and Resurrection XI
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
1 Peter 3:15-16
Beloved,
I want to start us off with a story about a dear member of our church. This lady knew only sorrow, abuse, pain, and neglect growing up. Life was so overwhelming for her that she decided to commit suicide at the age 14. She drank a big cup of bleach, thinking it would cleanse her of all of her pain once and for all. But, the bleach she drank was no match for the cleansing, purifying, unconditional and everlasting love of He who loved her before the foundation of the world- Jesus Christ. The fact that the bleach she drank didn’t have any effect on her was enough to move her to surrender. She decided her life was not her own. Rather than taking it, she gave her life to Christ and things began to take a new turn.
Now she has a family of her own and is doing great things for God in the kingdom and telling everyone about this great gift she is enjoying as a child of God. She is still enjoying the joy of her salvation to this very day. The Bible says this:
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Colossians 1:27
This glorious gift from God is not a “one and done” type of situation. It is not limited to our initial salvation experience, alone. He remains at work within us to will and to do His pleasure forever and to give us an unmatched hope that we could never find elsewhere.
Beloved, your own story might not be like that of my church member; but perhaps, there was a dark time in your life too. Maybe there was a time when you suffered a major loss or you were grieved for one reason or the other. Maybe you feel bound by a certain struggle or situation. It can even be that you are suffering at the hands of men, or some affliction, addiction, or even your own emotions. All of the aforementioned can best be expressed as encumbering darkness.
Have you ever experienced being in total darkness in a place that is unfamiliar to you? It seems like there is no way out and it’s almost enough to drive a person to insanity. But, God did not give us the spirit of fear or that of insanity. He gave us the Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). In a world ridden with anxiety, hate, and the wrong responses to life generally, we who have chosen Christ are privileged to enjoy power, love, and our sanity. And these and more are just by-products of the gift of salvation we obtain through Christ Jesus.
All these and more are benefits of surrendering our lives to the only One who is qualified to save it. This is the hope we have! And this hope- it is the kind that you will want to run and tell everyone about just as Peter implores in our opening scripture. But we will talk about it more in our final episode of this series tomorrow.
I commend you to God and to the word of His grace.
I call you blessed. I call you NATIONS.
