The Big Reveal
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Do
you ever watch makeover shows? You know, the ones like Extreme Makeover
that changed the person’s appearance and made them beautiful. Or maybe you
enjoy programs that transform houses or apartments. Still, it’s possible you
don’t care about those at all. But I’ll bet you’ve seen Instagram or Facebook
videos with a pregnant couple discovering their baby’s gender. And with any of
these, what do we breathlessly wait for at the end?
Right!
The Big Reveal.
A
few weeks ago, I was writing a lesson for our Sunday School Class, and my study
led me to First Peter. I can’t remember how I got there, other than one
Scripture must have cross-referenced 1 Peter 1:5: “who are KEPT by
the power of God through faith for salvation
ready to be revealed in the last
time.”
“…Revealed
in the last time…”
made me think of all those “revealing” shows. But this verse started in the
middle of Peter’s sentence. So, I had to back up to find out who or what was
being kept by the power of God for REVEALING.
Verse
three indicated the “who” of verse five were the ones “…the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ…[had] begotten…again to a living hope through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Wait! Let me get this
straight. Because Jesus died for our sins and resurrected, and we believed by
faith, God, in His gracious love, caused our rebirth? And He did this to give
us a living hope?
“Yes,”
the LORD answered. “While you remain on earth, believers can live each day with
the hope of heaven, and My Spirit dwelling within provides assurance of this
fact.”[1]
In
verse four, Peter gave further details. Besides a living hope, we reborn
believers also possessed an undefiled and non-fading inheritance reserved
for us in heaven.
“LORD,”
I asked, “is the salvation of verse 5 the inheritance that will
be ‘revealed in the last time’ or something else?”
Quickly,
He brought me to Romans 8:18-19: “For I consider that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which
shall be revealed in us.
For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of
the sons of God.”
My
hand went to my forehead. “Father,” I said, “true believers are Your sons and
daughters. Is creation eagerly waiting for our revealing?”
His
Holy Spirit soon reminded me of our physical body, which God calls an earthen
vessel. As we are born again, Jesus, through His Spirit, indwells and gives us
“…the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
This, or rather He, is our treasure, the transforming and renewing factor of
our inward man. But our treasure is hidden—housed in weak, mortal bodies. Why? Well,
Paul said this was so any power we exhibit in this life “…may
be of God and not of us.”[2]
You
see, God must get the glory. It was He who created our bodies to live forever
as long as we could eat of the Tree of Life. But because of sin, God, in
His mercy, removed our access to it, and we became temporary.[3] Still, this earthen vessel is only our outward appearance.
The real us dwells within. It’s unseen, eternal, and if reborn, it’s renewed
daily by Jesus, no matter how old our body gets.[4]
Paul
continued, “…if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens…[and He]…has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”[5]
Think
of it. God’s indwelling Holy Spirit is our guarantee or down payment of the
glory to come. Amazing! And now I believe our eternal building or house is what
will be “…revealed in the last
time.” This is the ultimate salvation believers anticipate,
and the “revealing” all
creation anxiously awaits—the resurrection of the sons of God—the moment our
unseen inward man meets our eternal outward man at the rapture.[6]
However,
in this life, we have an enemy who does not want the sons of God to be
revealed, and he fights against us. This, my friends, is why true,
born-again believers must be KEPT by the power
of God.[7] If we weren’t, Satan would devour, and we could miss our
own Big Reveal!
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