They were a people whose lives had been turned upside down. Peter called them “exiles of the dispersion.” The fires of persecution were increasing . . . their world was getting somewhat chaotic . . . uprooted . . . on the run . . . no longer focused on “building for their retirement” . . . instead trying to avoid “being retired early.” To say that life was getting harder for them would probably be an understatement. And Peter’s counsel to them? . . . his words of advice on how to keep on keepin’ on? I think maybe it could be summarized like this, “Live in light of the full gospel.”

I think too often I live as a “partial gospel” person. Ask me for a reader’s digest version of the gospel and I might respond, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of who I am chief” (1Tim. 1:15) . . . or, “Jesus suffered, died, and rose again on the third day just as the Scriptures said” (1Cor. 15:3-4) . . . or, “On the day I believed in Jesus I became a new creation in Christ, sealed with the Holy Spirit” (2Cor. 5:17, Eph. 1:13). Now, don’t get me wrong . . . all of that, praise God, is true. I believe all that it is at the heart of the good news of Jesus Christ. But notice something . . . it’s all about the past and the present. But when Peter writes to a group of suffering saints, his “lead story” is about being “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1Peter 1:3b-4). He talks about a “salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1:5). He talks about the “good news” of tomorrow. And, in my reading this morning, Peter says this . . .

“Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1Peter 1:10-11, 13 ESV)

“The subsequent glories” . . . that’s what caught my eye this morning. “The glories that would follow” is how other translations put it. It’s a reminder that my salvation isn’t just about the results of Christ’s first visit to this world . . . but what is going to happen when He returns. That it’s not just about the sufferings of the precious Lamb of God . . . but about “the subsequent glories” when He returns in power and majesty. That it’s not only defined by the grace received but by the grace that will be revealed at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The term I learned for it years ago was “living in the light of the imminent return of Christ.”

It’s a reminder that we were not just saved for the “here and now” but that our salvation is completed in the “there and then.” As such, we deal with the trials and struggles of a world turned upside down by casting an eye toward “the subsequent glories.” I look around . . . I look down . . . and it is way too easy to be overwhelmed . . . consumed . . . sucked into the mire. But look up . . . look way up . . . in anticipation of the subsequent glories . . . in expectation of seeing the King of kings face to face . . . in contemplation of what that day and place will be like . . . and, so says the hymn writer, “the things of earth will go strangely dim.”

Oh, to be reminded of the subsequent glories . . . of the grace that will be revealed when we see Jesus. It has a way of setting an upside down world back on it’s feet . . . has a way of putting the “various trials” (1:6) of today in the context of an eternal tomorrow . . . has a way of re-energizing the inner man so that he can, by God’s grace, work through his outside world.

A lapel pin I saw years ago comes to mind . . . just a trumpet with the word “perhaps” above it and the word “today” below it . . . “perhaps today” . . . perhaps today we’ll hear the trumpet sound (1Thess. 4:16-17). Really? It could be today? I’m thinkin’!