Wednesday, August 16, 2023

          Memory and anticipation are powerful realities.  Memories, while good or bad, give us a sense of where we have been.  They help us to process what life has been like and how events, experiences and people have helped to form and shape us.  Anticipation is a look forward. Often, anticipation comes with a sense of hope and optimism about what life can be like or the expectation of something that might be on the way.  In his own words, Peter struck a balance between memory and anticipation.  He called his readers to remember what they had once been while looking forward in anticipation to what is and what can be.  He wrote, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10).  The dividing line between past and present is the gospel.  That line lies between what Christ accomplished at the cross and our response to His sacrifice.  As believers, we can easily divide life into two categories—before Christ and after Christ.  Likewise, we could call those categories life with Christ and life without Christ.
            Peter wrote that there was a time when we were part of God’s people.  We are not born into the family of God at the time of our biological birth.  We are not automatically in the family of God when we take the first breath of life.  We may be citizens of the United States or some other country based on the place of our birth but geography does not determine the family of God.  We need a second birth.  When we are born again, we are part of God’s family.  We become His people.  This rebirth is not a physical one (as Nicodemus pondered and mused about in John 3).  Rather, we are born again through our singular faith and trust in what the Lord Jesus accomplished for us at the cross and applied to us.  The cross is redemption accomplished and applied.
            We may often hear people speak of “always loving God” or “always being a follower of Christ.”  Not true.  Peter plainly wrote that “once you were not a people.”  There was most certainly a time where enmity and division reigned between God and us.  Pride, sin, rebellion, stubbornness and resistance marked and characterized our lives much more than humility, trust, faith and surrender.  No, you have not always loved God.  And I have not always loved Him either. We have dismissed and disobeyed Him more times than we can count.  Our natural tendency or inclination is to turn away from God.  Turning away is our default setting.    
            Peter delivered even worse news.  True news but worse news.  At one time, we “had not received mercy.”  There was a time when judgment loomed for us.  We were under the spell of sin and the sentence of death loomed on the horizon (see Romans 3:23 and Romans 6:23).  Had we died at that time, we would have been eternally separated from the Lord.  But thanks be to Christ and our faith in Him, we now “have received mercy” and the future looks strikingly different.  God has changed the plot and written a new story line.  Mercy is God withholding from us what we have deserved or earned based on how we have lived.  God assigned our punishment and death to Christ at the cross so that through His sacrifice we can enjoy forgiveness, a new life and a new destiny.  As Paul put it in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  The death of Christ changed our trajectory.  Through our faith in the finished work of Christ we are redeemed and remade and fully reconciled to the Father through the Son.  We are now “the people of God.”
            Peter knew life before Christ and life after Christ.  He could testify to what Christ had done for him ever since he answered that life-changing call to “come, follow me.”  Perhaps today, you can remember life before Christ and life apart from Christ.  Maybe you remember what you once were.  But with Christ, you can now live in anticipation of what awaits.  Our greatest anticipation is looking forward to the moment when we gaze upon the face of Christ in fullness and glory.  Imagine a glory that outshines the sun in brilliance and radiance as you see Christ for the first time after life on this earth has ended for you.  Imagine hearing the sounds of triumph and victory when Christ says, “well done good and faithful servant.  Enter now into the joy of the Lord.”  May we always long to see His face more than we long for sin or the things of this world.
            May our memories of what we used to be lead us to be thankful for God’s intervention through Christ and His cross.  May the joys of new life keep us focused in faith on Christ and His presence with us.  And may the anticipation of eternity keep us devoted and yielded to Him in all things and ways.  In his own words, Peter declared what life is like for those who are in Christ, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”  Chosen, royal, holy and God’s special possession are the ways we are seen through heaven’s lens.  As Peter would say, “praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Peter 1:3).  Have a great Wednesday!  Remember you can worship any time at YouTube.com/FirstBaptistKannapolis.  Join us tonight at 6:30pm for our prayer and praise time.  We hope to see you!