Peter compared faith to gold in the verses just preceding this week’s passage, and now goes into just how incredible this faith really is.
You can see this passage for yourself in 1 Peter 1:12.
When the prophets of the Old Testament were proclaiming the Word of God, they were not always speaking of things pertaining to themselves, or even their contemporaries. They were speaking of things to come, to “you,” Peter says to his readers.
Peter’s readers were among those whom the prophets were serving. What I find to be especially amazing is that this includes you and me, reading this letter today. The prophets wrote things that were meant for us to understand that they longed to understand themselves.
Of course, what they longed to know were things that pertained to the Gospel. They foretold things such as the sufferings of the Christ, his crucifixion, his resurrection, his glories. But they didn’t, couldn’t, know what these things meant when they spoke or wrote them. These things were yet to come, and they longed to know.
What they did know was revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. This is the same Holy Spirit that filled the believers in Acts 2. This is the same Holy Spirit that was promised as “Comforter” by Christ himself. This is the same Holy Spirit that lives in us. He comes from Heaven, and thereby underscores the divine importance of the message he brought to the prophets.
The divine origin of the message is underscored by the divine origin of the messenger.
This grace, this salvation, is so great that the prophets longed to know more about it. And even more astounding, the angels themselves long to know about it. Another creation of God, these beings do not have the freedom of will that humanity has. And they long to know what is so amazing about this grace that we have access to.
How truly fortunate we are to be able to see these things from the perfection of hindsight, not seeing vaguely into the future as the prophets did, nor on the outside looking in, as the angels are. We have the ability to know that Jesus was the Christ, and he brought about our salvation through this majestic, mysterious grace of God.
Question: What is so amazing about this grace? What do you find stunning about it? You can leave a comment by clicking here.