Living Hope

A few years ago, the Wall Street Journal published an article that describes the insecurity of inheritance. Whether it is massive or minute, one's inheritance can be notoriously hard to keep. It may be taxed, lost, stolen, broken, squandered, or at best, simply outlived. The Bible's ancient poems and parables warn us of these pitfalls (Ecclesiastes 5:10-13; Luke 15:11-32), and despite skilled attorneys and advisors they plague us still today. Undoubtedly, many of us could share heartbreaking inheritance stories, often resurfacing deep hurt and confusion.

In contrast, the Apostle Peter describes our salvation as, “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading (1 Peter 1:4).” By God’s grace, the security of our inheritance is not dependent on us, but on Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3). And the experience of our inheritance is not imperishable because it is somehow immaterial or ethereal. Rather, it is imperishable because it will in fact be enjoyed in the glorious physicality of a redeemed body in an earth made new (Revelation 21:1-2).

For exiles, nothing seems certain or secure. But for elect exiles, “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Romans 8:18).”

What rush of alleluias fills all the earth and sky!
What ringing of a thousand harps bespeaks the triumph nigh!
O day, for which creation and all its tribes were made;
O joy, for all its former woes a thousandfold repaid!

from “Ten Thousand Time Ten Thousand,” by Henry Alford