1 Peter 1:6

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls... (1 Peter 1:6–16)

Every politician promises a better future—but Jesus promises something harder now and far greater later.

The Universal Promise of a Better Future

We are now fully engaged in the 2016 campaign season. As election ads replace prescription drug commercials and signs cover every corner, you'll notice that every candidate presents what marketers call a value-added proposition: choose me, and I'll do this for you.

Hillary Clinton says Obama did wonderfully—elect me and I'll continue his agenda. Marco Rubio says Obama did terribly—elect me and I'll undo it. Bernie Sanders says Obama didn't go far enough—elect me and I'll take Wall Street's money and pay off your student loans. Donald Trump says they'll all raise your taxes—elect me and I'll cut them. At the end of the day, they all boil it down to the same thing: you will have a better future.

Candidates do this because every human being has an innate drive for a better future. The 19th-century British author Samuel Butler said, "Self-preservation is the first law of nature." We may articulate that better future differently, and we may disagree on the path, but the vision is the same. In 2008, President Obama summed it up in one word: hope. Apparently each politician believes his agenda can satisfy that hope. I'm not entirely convinced.

A Revolutionary With a Very Different Pitch

But what if a revolutionary leader came along and, instead of a stump speech like that, said: Join my revolution and follow me—but if you do, it may mean suffering, pain, and difficulty. You will not experience the health, welfare, security, and safety every heart desires. You may be hated for my name's sake, even persecuted, and you may watch those you love suffer because you follow me.

I'm not talking about a fictional character. An individual 2,000 years ago actually lived and spoke these things. Consider some of His most often-repeated words:

He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 10:38)

If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24)

Remember, a cross was not jewelry in the first century—it was an instrument of pain and death. Jesus repeated this teaching in Mark 8, Luke 9, and Luke 14. And right after Luke 14:27 He told His hearers to count the cost: following Him is costly.

From 120 Followers to Two Billion

Why would anyone follow that? The amazing thing is that within 40 years of Jesus saying those words, tens, even hundreds of thousands were following Him. Two millennia later, more than 2 billion people identify as His followers. How do you go from the 120 followers mentioned in the early chapters of Acts to 2 billion, when the pitch is "follow me, and people will hate you for my name's sake"?

The only answer is that the One who promised potential persecution, suffering, and pain in this life also promised something better afterward. He did: "I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly." But that reward comes in the next life—which seems far away and hard to grasp.

All of Jesus's earlier followers came to Him hoping for an immediate gain. That's why they ran away when things got hard—they wanted something tangible now, and He kept telling them the reward comes after this life. So what changed? The same One who promised possible persecution and martyrdom with salvation in the end Himself suffered crucifixion, was martyred, and three days later rose from the dead. Over 500 witnesses saw His death, burial, and resurrection, and they were so convinced that they walked toward suffering and martyrdom, trusting He would keep His promise of resurrection in the future.

Peter Writes to a Suffering Church

About 40 years later, one of His early followers, Peter, wrote to Christians in what is modern-day Turkey to remind them that there is suffering in this life but a great salvation to come. He wrote around AD 64, when a nationally sponsored persecution under Caesar Nero was beginning to focus its aggression on the followers of Jesus. Peter knew things were about to get hard, so he wrote: it's going to be painful, but remember—there is a great salvation.

You are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:5)

God will guard you by His power in the midst of trials, for a salvation that will come in the end. Then he continues: "In this you greatly rejoice." Where does joy come from in the midst of trial? Not in suffering—nobody rejoices in pain, and those who say they do are sadistic. Our joy is not in the suffering; it's in the salvation that comes after it.

The Hope of Heaven Makes Joy in Trials Possible

Notice the nature of these trials. Peter is not talking about physical illness, foreclosure, a failed marriage, or the loss of a loved one—the normal suffering of a fallen world. The trials Peter and Jesus foretold are suffering for the name of Christ, intentional hardship imposed on people because they follow Jesus. We rejoice in the midst of that—not because we like to suffer, but because we know joy comes from a salvation ready to be revealed at the last day. Your reward is not here. Your reward is heaven.

So point one: the hope of heaven makes joy in trials possible. Joy in suffering seems absurd—let's call it what it is. Yet nearly all the early Christian writers—Peter, James, John, Paul—wrote of joy in the midst of trials. That joy doesn't come from the trial; it comes from seeing through the suffering to the salvation.

Is this only theoretical? No. The apostles actually experienced it. In Acts 5, after the religious leaders beat them and commanded them not to speak in Jesus's name, verse 41 says: "They departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name." Why rejoice after a beating? It's foolishness—unless they trusted Jesus for something.

Jesus said it plainly: "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven... Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven" (Matthew 5:10–12). Luke records it too: "Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you... Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for indeed your reward is great in heaven" (Luke 6:22–23).

Reward Is Not Carnal

Jesus always follows this teaching with "great is your reward in heaven." He appeals to our desire for reward, and He does not call it carnal. That's important. It is not carnal to serve Christ for the reward He promises in eternity—He tells us to do exactly that. Many biblical ethicists would disagree, but Jesus says yes.

The cynic asks, how is this different from the radical Muslim who takes his own life to gain heavenly reward? The answer is simple. This appeal is for you to die to yourself and endure suffering at the hands of others for the glory of Christ, loving other people for their sake and their salvation. The other appeal is to take your life and the lives of others out of hatred. One is self-denial and love; the other is murder. Don't let anyone hang you up with that red herring.

As Paul said, "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).

God Allows Trials to Prove Our Faith

If God is all-powerful, why doesn't He simply guard us from trials rather than guarding us in them? On the night He was betrayed, Jesus prayed, "I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but that you preserve them" (John 17). Why?

Peter answers: "...that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ." Point two: God allows trials to prove our faith.

He doesn't need it proved to Him—God knows all things and knows whether we will stand. The trial proves to you and to naysayers that your trust in Christ is genuine. Throughout church history, faithfulness under persecution is always the outcome that draws unbelievers to faith. People see it and conclude, "These people really believe what they say." When Peter goes to his death refusing to recant, the genuineness of his faith is revealed.

Rewarded With Praise, Glory, and Honor

The New Living Translation puts verse 7 this way: "So when your faith remains strong through trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed." This isn't only saying your faith brings Him glory—though that's true. It says that you, as you remain faithful, will receive praise, honor, and glory when Jesus comes again. On that day you'll hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of the Lord."

Point three: our trust in Jesus will be rewarded with praise, glory, and honor in eternity. That's hard to wrap my mind around—as if going to heaven weren't enough, the King of kings will bestow praise, honor, and glory upon us. The last book of the Bible, the Revelation—the apocalypsis, the unveiling of Jesus in all His glory—tells us He will return revealed in full power, and those who have been faithful will receive honor from Him.

Loving One We Have Not Seen

...whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8–9)

The word "love" here is agape—a complete, committed devotion. These Christians had never seen Jesus, yet they were devoted to Him. And at the finish line of our faith is the salvation of our souls. We normally say a believer "has received salvation," but that salvation is not yet complete. If you follow Jesus, you've been saved from sin's power and penalty—but there's coming a day when you'll be saved from sin's very presence, no longer in a fallen, broken world.

Consider Thomas. When the others said Jesus had risen, he refused to believe unless he saw the nail prints and the spear-pierced side. A week later Jesus appeared, and Thomas fell down crying, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said, "Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20). Peter now speaks of us. You've never seen the risen Lord, yet all the evidence—over 500 eyewitnesses who went to their deaths testifying to it, and 2 billion people today—points to His resurrection. You trust Him, are devoted to Him, and rejoice with inexpressible joy because of the salvation of your soul.

A Salvation So Great Angels Long to See It

Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully... searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow... things which angels desire to look into. (1 Peter 1:10–12)

Point four: Christians are promised a salvation so great that angels and prophets long for it. For a thousand years prophets foretold this great salvation and looked for it with longing. The first two-thirds of the Bible is largely prophetic writing pointing toward it. And now angels in heaven look at us and marvel: Really? You're going to give them an eternal inheritance and bestow glory and praise on them—these failing, sinful people? They look at how much we fail and stand amazed at the grace shown to us.

Peter is straining with words to express how awesome this salvation is, but it breaks the backs of words. No description does it justice.

Therefore—Gird Up Your Mind and Be Holy

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 1:13)

The newer translations say, "with minds that are alert and fully sober." Because you've been promised a great salvation that no one can adequately describe, set your hope completely on Him. Paul wrote of a man—himself, modestly—caught up to heaven who saw and heard things he could not put into words. When prophets tried to describe the glory of God, they gave us strange images of eyes and wings and beasts, and we scratch our heads—but they were simply saying, "I don't know what to tell you, other than it was amazing."

So rest your hope fully on Him—not on a political candidate, an earthly ideology, or some utopia. He continues:

...as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:14–16)

Point five: purified faith produces holiness. Why doesn't God just take me out of the trial? Because faith purified by trial produces holiness—a life completely consecrated to Him. That is what God has called us to. And He is the One who enables it by grace, not by our works. As we sang, "Nothing but the blood of Jesus." His death on the cross made it possible for us to be forgiven and made holy, preserved and protected in the midst of trials for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last days.

Choose Whom You Will Believe

But that salvation is not here in this life. Those who claim to preach the Bible while promising "come to Jesus and you won't suffer—everything will be wonderful" preach against the teaching of Jesus, against Christian experience, and against all church history. You decide whom to believe—Jesus, or those who promise no suffering. I'll align with Jesus.

So the hope of heaven makes joy in trials possible; God allows trials to prove our faith and produce holiness; as we stand steadfast, He preserves us and will reward us with praise, honor, and glory in eternity. And we have a salvation we cannot even describe—one prophets searched for and angels long to look into.

At this moment, February 14, 2016, Christians in America still receive a social benefit for following Jesus, but that's going away. There may come a day when you are reviled and persecuted for following Him. Some of you have already experienced it. Don't think it strange—Jesus said this is what it means to follow Him, and those persecuted for righteousness' sake have a great reward in heaven.

Let not your heart be troubled... In my Father's house are many dwelling places... I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14)

When Thomas said they didn't know the way, Jesus answered, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me."

Closing Prayer

Lord God, I thank You for Your word, and I pray that we would take this into our hearts and minds this week, that You would use it to transform our understanding of any present difficulty we face. Keep us ever mindful that this life is not heaven and that You have a great salvation prepared for us. Help us to follow You faithfully and to rest our hope steadfast in You.

If you find yourself hopeless, without the hope of eternity and salvation with Christ, and you want the salvation He came to give—Jesus came 2,000 years ago, God became a man to lay down His life for us, to take care of the penalty, punishment, and power of sin. He died in your place to give you pardoning grace and a hope greater than any political future.

If you want the pardoning forgiveness of God, pray with me: Dear Jesus, I recognize that I'm a failure, but I know You died for my failures. When You rose from the dead, proving Your power over sin, would You come into my life, give me Your grace and forgiveness, and give me a hope for eternity. Help me to follow You faithfully. In Jesus' name, amen.