Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)
Peter begins his doxology praising the one who should be praised. God is the author and source of our salvation. He is the God who gives eternal life. God is not off in outer space someplace, far removed from us, a god with little or no interest in our welfare. God is near at hand, all about us, living within the spiritual world and dimension, longing to relate to us and to look after and care for us, and to give us eternal life.
Note who our Jesus Christ is: He is our Lord, the One to whom we have surrendered and subjected our lives; the one who sits in the spiritual and heavenly world at the right hand of God the Father. He is Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth, the man who claimed to be the Son of God and who was sent into the world as the Savior of men. He is Christ the Messiah who was promised by God to save men. The truth of our position is that if we follow the Lord Jesus Christ, then the God and Father of Jesus Christ becomes our God and Father.
Jesus shows us this through His life. This was the way His Father took care of Him; and if we follow Christ, it is the way God, even our Father, takes care of us. He gives us the most wonderful of gifts: eternal life—the living hope of living forever with Him even as Christ our Lord is now living with Him in heaven.
Eternal life can be found nowhere else for it exists nowhere else; it in the Father Himself. Only the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ possesses eternal life. Therefore, if a person wants to know God and to receive eternal life, he has to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot have eternal life apart from God.
Now, how does God go about giving us the living hope of eternal life?
We live in a fallen world. The thinking and honest person knows that he and everything else including the world itself are dying. The evidences of death and dying are all around us. How then does God stop this process of corruption and death? How does God go about giving us the living hope of eternal life? The point is clearly seen. Our only hope is the mercy of God. Man is just so sinful he has only one hope: the hope that God will have mercy upon him.
The word "mercy" means feelings of pity, compassion, affection, and kindness. It is a desire to succor; to tenderly draw unto oneself and to care for. Two things are essential in order to have mercy: seeing a need and being able to meet that need. God sees our need and feels for us (Ephesians. 2:1-3). Therefore, He acts; He has mercy upon us. How? By doing two things:
- God withholds His judgment.
- God provides a way for us to be saved.
The scripture says God has great (abundant, overflowing, endless, boundless) mercy. His mercy just flows on and on; it is ever covering us and creating the living hope and presence of eternal life within our hearts.
Scripture to Claim:
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
