Through a Glass Darkly

In Peter's first epistle he spoke to his readers about "the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:7). On this he wrote, "Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you 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" (1 Peter 1:8-9). We like that. We like that "salvation of your souls" especially. Of course, we talk and sing a lot about loving Him and all that, too, but, I wonder ... is that "rejoice with joy inexpressible and filled with glory" your experience?

According to Peter, loving Christ is joy inexpressible and filled with glory. Why is that? It is partly out of gratitude for that "salvation of your souls." Jesus said, "He who is forgiven little, loves little" (Luke 7:47), so we who are forgiven much love much. It is partly the magnificence of our salvation that includes being "more than conquerors" even in the worst times (Rom 8:32-39). Paul wrote, "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?" (Rom 8:32). Because Christ died for us, we have the absolute certainty that God will provide all that we need. In Ephesians we read, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Eph 1:3) and then goes on to provide a partial list (Eph 1:4-14). There is the forgiveness of sin (1 John 1:9), the conferred righteousness of Christ (2 Cor 5:21), the provision for all we need (Php 2:13; Php 4:19), the certainty of eternity (John 3:16), and more. The list goes on.

I asked why we don't always experience joy inexpressible. The real question is how can we not? It is only our blindness that gets in the way. Our shortsightedness. Like Peter on the water, instead of walking to Christ in the storm, we look at the storm (Matt 14:27-31). We see through a glass darkly. The world swirls around us and we look away from the glory of Christ that is ours. So let's look to Him, be thankful for His vast blessings -- past, present, and future -- and believe when we can't see. Because rejoicing with joy inexpressible and filled with glory sounds like a really good way to live.