An Imperishable Inheritance | March 26, 2020

An Imperishable Inheritance 

 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:4-5

One of the most painful experiences during trying times is that of loss. As Peter writes to exiles, he recognizes that his readers no longer have things that they once relied on and even tressured. Some have lost positions in society, familial relationships, and valuable possessions. 

Loss is a word we hear a lot about right now. Some of us are experiencing it quite painfully. All have lost a sense of normalcy in life, some have lost life savings or jobs through economic trouble, others have even lost family and loved ones. 

To people who have lost much Peter shows us that God has given us something that can never ever be taken away. All those who have been born into God’s family have been given an inheritance that is entirely immune to the painful experience of loss. It is an eternal salvation that is waiting for you in heaven. Consider some of the ways Peter describes this eternal inheritance. 

Imperishable

Our inheritance has an inherent quality of permanence. It does not go bad. It does not spoil or ruin. In fact, this description of imperishable is sometimes used by Paul to describe the eternal nature of God himself. God does not change, diminish, or age. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So it is with our inheritance. 

Incorruptible

Our inheritance being imperishable means that it cannot change from within; our inheritance being incorruptible means that it cannot change from without. There is no outside force that can come in and alter what God has given us. It remains unstained, untainted, and unalterable from any outside force in the universe. 

Unfading

Even the best things in this world eventually lose their shine. The purchases that once captivated us soon become out of date and boring. Not so with our inheritance. Consider Augustine’s contrast between that which is temporal and that which is eternal. 

Between temporal and eternal things there is this difference: a temporal thing is loved more before we have it, and it begins to grow worthless when we gain it, for it does not satisfy the soul, whose true and certain rest is eternity; but the eternal is more ardently loved when it is acquired than when it is merely desired.

The unfading nature of our eternal salvation means that it will only grow more beautiful over time and will never cease to captivate and amaze us. 

This imperishable, incorruptible, unfading inheritance is now protected behind the impenetrable vault of God’s  power and is, as the NLT puts it, “beyond the reach of change and decay.” 

Have you experienced loss in recent weeks? Are you afraid of more loss that awaits you in the weeks to come? It is right to grieve the things we lose in this world, but while you grieve don't forget about your inheritance! Money, jobs, and even our very lives will one day be gone. Nothing in this world is safe. But in heaven, God has prepared an eternal inheritance that can never be taken away. 

Father, in the experience of losing temporal things, I'm shown how much I hope in them. Forgive me for treasuring and trusting in the passing things of this world. During this virus outbreak, reorient my life towards that which is imperishable, incorruptible, and unfading. I praise you and thank you for adopting me into the wealthiest family in the universe and as such I am an heir to an everlasting inheritance. May this free gift of your grace sustain me even as the things of this passing world are taken away.