So What's the Big Deal About Easter? {Part Four}

Today we have our final mini-series post from the Whitfield's.  Haven't you loved hearing from them each Wednesday?! Thank you so much Keith & Amy for sharing with us this month!  To check out their past post's click here.  

Let's Hear From Keith:

An artist several years ago painted a picture that illustrates the way our lives are generally, and the hope we have as Christians specifically. In the painting, a lone man rowed his small frail boat across a lake through the night. Adding to the ominous feel of loneliness and darkness, the artist portrays threatening conditions on the water.  The wind was high and stormy, and the rippling waves were cresting and crashing across the lake. There was no sign of hope in sight except for one lone star. Continuing to row, the man fixed his eyes on that star.

Beneath the picture, the words "If I lose that, I'm lost!" were written.

Not only does this picture illustrate our lives, it illustrates the lives of the Christians Peter wrote to in his first epistle. Socially and politically, they faced the waves of suffering and the threat of persecution. 

Peter knew he had to capture their minds from the fears and concerns of their present circumstances to remember their living hope in “a salvation to be revealed” to them when Jesus returns. 

(1 Peter 1:3-5) ³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.  

Peter directed their minds away from their situation by pointing them to the abundantly rich and securely purchased salvation that they had in Christ. Peter says this salvation should replace fear and concerns with joy. In 1 Peter 1:8-9, he says, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you have do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

What are the aspects of salvation that should give us joy?

Peter lists a number of them in these verses: “great mercy,” “born again,” “living hope,” and “inheritance that is imperishable,”  

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But, when you read the verse, they are given in a standard list. Peter runs them all together. They can’t really be analyzed in isolation from each other. Let’s look. 

Great Mercy. What a wonderful way to describe God’s kindness towards us! Someone once said, "Grace is getting what we don't deserve. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve." Oh, how much we have fallen short of God perfect holiness! But, God shows us mercy. His mercy does not just do something for us and produces something in us, for it was according to his mercy that we were Born Again.  

By God’s mercy, we gain spiritual rebirth. In this, everything changes. We are born again “into” something. We gained something by the new birth. The thing that we gained is a Living Hope. We have something to anticipate for the future. The living hope is a sure hope, because it is hope in an Inheritance that is Imperishable.  

Finally, note that Peter bases all of this on Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
The resurrection is not just an historical event, but an astounding, paradigm-shattering miracle that (1) identifies Jesus as victorious over death, whose words can be believed and relied upon, (2) confirms our hope in him and (3) inspires in us a hope for life beyond mortal life.

Let's Hear From Amy:

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Let’s just be honest. Life can be so hard some times. For some of us it’s more difficult than others due to specific challenges that we face, but I don’t think there is anyone who would say that it’s easy all the time.

In the age of Instagram, we can quickly look at others and assume that everyone around us is deliriously happy, and everything is going their way. We are the only ones who are having a bad day. We see a snapshot of someone’s life (with a filter), and we begin to feel like we are the only ones who are fighting this battle of discouragement.

Work, ministry, responsibilities at home, assignments piling up, the humbling responsibility of raising children—these are all things that can overwhelm and wear us down. Truthfully, I fight this every day. And as I get older and realize that I am no spring chicken anymore, I have been able to add tiredness and aches and pains to the list. ;-)

So what happens? I look for escape. I wish I could just make the world go away. For one day. Stay in bed, read, eat, sleep, watch movies—all that good stuff. It probably isn’t true that it would fix things, but it just feels like it might.

But that can’t happen. I have little faces looking at me, asking to be fed and loved and driven to school. I have supervisors who are waiting for me to finish tasks. I have a to-do list that needs to be addressed.

So what do I do? I go to work. I take the kids to school. I do the things on my list. But I also realize that many of the pressures of life come from me. And I take my stress and my sadness and my worry to the place where I find hope.

Frankly, that’s not easy. I so quickly turn to dissatisfaction with current circumstances and regret over past ones. I look to either side and assume the grass is greener somewhere else.

So the past, the present, and the “anywhere but here” occupy my mind, but the future isn’t as quick to show up. But that’s the one thing I have going for me—my future. I was born again to a living hope.

If this week and the anticipation of Easter remind me of anything, it’s that something is waiting for me—“an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.” And because of what Jesus did, it’s all real. The cross says I can count on it. The empty tomb says I can count on it. The story is true, and the promise is what I hold on to when I feel like I am losing my grip.

This reality is more true and real than all the other things that fight to take my thoughts captive. It’s enough to overcome sadness, enough to overcome pain. It’s real. Because of God’s great mercy, I can have a hope that lives.

So yes, life is hard. And every day doesn’t look like an Instagram picture. But I have a hope. My faith can live. And that makes all the difference.

Keith & Amy Whitfield live in Wake Forest, NC, where Keith teaches Systematic Theology at SEBTS.  Keith previously served as pastor of Waverly Baptist Church in Waverly, Virginia, in the years 2005 to 2010, and from 2010 until 2012, they lived in Nashville, TN, where Keith taught at a liberal arts college and helped to train church leaders. Amy loves teaching and writing, and has a passion for women to be transformed by the gospel in their daily lives.  Amy currently serves as Assistant to Charlotte Akin,  and also assists in other areas with research and writing.  Amy and Keith have two children: Mary (age 9) and Drew (age 7).