Living Hope

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1 Peter, Resurrection

“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…”  (1 Peter 1:3)

The apostle brings such a brilliant interplay of life to life.  God has done a magnificent thing for us in Christ.  He has brought us a living hope–not merely in the sense of a hope that is true and active and valid, but literally a hope of life.  We come to this hope by receiving life, a new birth; and this in turn is brought about by the resurrection unto life of Jesus Christ our Lord.

We see how closely the new life and the living hope of future life for all those who are born again is caught up with the return to life of their living Lord.  His resurrection means our new birth–our first resurrection.  Ours is a birth into a living hope of eternal life.  That eternal life will find its fullest expression in the resurrection to come, our bodily resurrection after the pattern of our risen Lord.

It is too wonderful; it is beyond words.  If somehow we can be given grace to soften our hearts of stone and firm up our feeble minds, then we too would exclaim with the apostle, “Praise be to God!”

But what if love meant telling the truth?

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Love, Transgenderism, Truth

I saw an episode of a tv show hard at work selling the narrative of the new sexual revolution–or, rather, what is fast becoming the new sexual despotism.  A young girl was dealing with gender dysphoria, convinced that she was really a boy.  But her mother would not affirm this desire that she be treated as a boy.  This caused a rupture in their relationship, until eventually her mother had an epiphany and realized that her daughter really was a boy.  The beautiful reunion came, and full of emotion the mother lied to her daughter, and affirmed her as a boy.

That’s one side of the narrative: affirmation of the claim that gender is separable and sometimes different from biology.  This is love.

But the story continued.  The mother could not really handle this change, and reacted by suddenly packing everything up and completely abandoning her daughter.

That’s the other side: people can’t offer this love and acceptance, and reject their child or friend.

Of course, an unbiased logician might look at this narrative and wonder if at least one option for how the situation should play out isn’t being ignored…suspiciously ignored.  And a Christian must insist that this neglected option is, in fact, the only option conducive to human flourishing.

What if we didn’t have to choose between truth and love?

What if the mother had stood firm on the truth, and refused to affirm her daughter’s conviction that she was really a boy?  And-shocking!-what if she had also refused to reject her daughter, but had continued to offer to her love and acceptance as her child?

This is the option that would be crippling to the message of the show for them to admit.  They are selling the story that rejection of transgenderism and hatred go hand-in-hand.  Loving refusal to affirm transgender identity doesn’t fit in their narrative.  And, as I said, it is the only option conducive to human flourishing.  For just as surely as the mother’s rejection of her daughter because of this struggle would be destructive to that daughter’s emotional well-being, likewise affirming the lie that her daughter was a boy would be destructive to that daughters emotional and spiritual well-being.  How could it not?  How could confirming someone in a lie lead to wholeness?

But whatever our struggles, Christ can make us whole if we come to Him and rely on Him to give us identity.  We must model this truth, and the love of Christ by which we come to know the truth.

 

The Fiery Chariots of the Lord

There’s a beautiful story in 2 Kings 6 (there’s also a very ugly story, but we won’t talk about that just now).  In the beautiful story, the city of Dothan is surrounded by the Aramean army.  Elisha, the very man they have come to capture, is unperturbed.

His servant, however, shows the more expected alarm at the situation.  This is only polite; after all, the Arameans have come all this way.  “Oh, my lord, what shall we do?” (v.15)

Interestingly, Elisha doesn’t tell him what they should do.  He tells him what they should don’t.  “Don’t be afraid” (v.16).  Yet there was ample reason to be afraid–humanly speaking.  A hostile army surrounded their city.  But Elisha had calm because he knew the powerful presence of God, and that God’s power is incontestably greater than any army of man.

So, in kindness, he prayed that the eyes of his servant would be opened.  And looking around with new spiritual sight, the servant saw “the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (v.17).

We don’t often recognize the power of God shielding us by His providence, the strength of God when evil seems so strong.  Whatever force is arrayed against the people of God stands no chance against the fiery chariots of the Lord.  May we have the eyes of faith to know this, whatever life brings.