Dan Hanselman
I have never personally seen such division, hatred, and grief in my lifetime. It seems like America is intent on tearing itself apart right now, as it becomes increasingly clear that there will be no returning to the “old normal.” As I write this, we are over two months into a global virus pandemic with a government shutdown of the economy and society, and the death toll has surpassed a hundred thousand in this nation alone. Now there are protests, rioting, and looting in most major cities across the nation as people cry out in anger against a system they see as oppressive, unjust, and rigged against them. As I watch the news reports on my phone go from bad to worse, what am I supposed to think, feel, and do? What can I do? What can the church of Christ do?
In times of such uncertainty it’s good to remind ourselves of what is certain. The apostle Peter took exactly this approach in order to encourage believers during the first century to persevere in the midst of great suffering and to not lose hope or faith. He wrote to them, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. (1 Peter 1:3-6)
What is this inheritance and coming salvation that “can never perish, spoil or fade,” and that will “be revealed in the last time?” And how can this inheritance and coming salvation give us a “living hope” and enable us to “greatly rejoice” even as we “suffer grief in all kinds of trials?”
We may not typically think of salvation as something that is yet to come. When we consider the gospel and salvation we tend to focus on Jesus’ death and resurrection two thousand years ago, and we think of individual believers experiencing conversion now so that they can enter into heaven to be with God when they die. And yet, Peter speaks of “the salvation” that is yet to come, that will be revealed in the last time. To understand this we should turn to the final book of the Bible, Revelation, which makes clear what this coming salvation is and what it will look like. We get many glimpses of it in the revelations the apostle John received, which are recorded for us in the book of Revelation, but for the purpose of this entry let us focus on Revelation 5. Here John recounts a vision of God’s glorious throne room in heaven where all the saints and angelic creatures fall down and worship Jesus Christ, who is the “Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” (v.6) and at the same time is the “Lion of the tribe of Judah” (v.5). This is the song that the saints and angelic creatures all sing together to Christ:
You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth. (Rev. 5:9-10)
Here is a glimpse of the glorious future that is promised to all those who have been purchased by the blood of Christ. In this future there will be no death, no sickness, no suffering, no hatred, no division, no racism, no oppression, no violence or enmity. All of God’s people, “from every tribe and language and people and nation,” will together serve God as kings and priests and will reign on the earth with perfect justice and care for all. This coming salvation that Christ set in motion through the cross and empty tomb, and that He will return soon to consummate and complete, reveals a central aspect of the gospel. Jesus did not just come to save sinners from the penalty of their sin; if that were the case then there would be no salvation to come, since it has already been accomplished. Jesus came to invade this sinful and cursed earth, a dominion of darkness, to take the world and its peoples back and establish His own righteous and glorious kingdom of light. In other words, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus came to deal with both the penalty and the power of sin, and to reclaim His Lordship and rule over every aspect of life. The cross and empty tomb of Christ inaugurated His kingdom and established His rule, and His return will consummate it! This is the living hope in which we can always rejoice, regardless of our current circumstances.
And yet, my initial questions remain: What can I do now? What should the Church of Christ be doing now in this cursed world as we wait for this coming inheritance and salvation? Our Lord and Savior is actually quite clear on this throughout the Gospels. We are to be busy doing our Master’s work (Matt. 24:45-51), building and spreading His kingdom now throughout the world, like a seed that starts small and then grows until its branches fill the whole earth (Matt. 13:31-32). We are to proclaim that everyone must repent and accept the good news that Christ has come to bring about forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:14-15). We must also share the good news that Christ has come to “proclaim good news to the poor” and “liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18). It is no accident that Jesus says in the final judgment He will recognize His people as the ones who were engaged in feeding the hungry, hosting the foreigner, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting those in prison (Matt. 25:31-46).
This is the gospel of Jesus Christ in all its fullness; nothing less than redemption of all creation will do! Jesus came not only to redeem sinners, but also and ultimately to remake a world of broken systems, broken governments, broken societies, and broken communities. The Church is His body which remains here on earth to continue building and spreading His kingdom throughout the nations, empowered by the same Spirit of Christ which guided Him through His earthly ministry and raised Him from the dead in triumph over the powers of darkness. Jesus gave us a mission and a clear example to follow, as exemplified in Matthew 9:35-38 (emphasis mine): Jesus “went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” This is what Jesus would do today, and we can and must continue this mission!