Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things (1 Peter 1:10-12).
People tarry, waiting for all sorts of things to come to fruition. There are people, now here in a new year, still waiting for things to materialize from last year (or even long before).
American President Franklin D. Roosevelt also comes to mind. He anguished for years to see an end to the cruelties of WWII. His life ended before that became a reality.
For what are you waiting?
The apostle Peter informs us that even though prophets and angels revealed a message of salvation, they never experienced it personally. However, that did not negate its reality.
The apostles longed for the second coming of Christ Jesus. As have all evangelicals. None, for millennia, have ever experienced it personally. However, that does not negate its reality.
We live between two divine realities: the age of salvation and the age of consummation yet to come.
Salvation has come through the finished work of Jesus. And an eschatology has been revealed. Though many have not accepted either as fact – as truth – their unbelief does not negate either reality.
Let’s pray earnestly in the year ahead that the gospel message of God and His Christ, the things of prophets and angels, will be believed. And honored for the sacred treasure it is.
In the year ahead, though we wait, we can wait actively. We can determine to search intently and with greatest care into those things that have been graciously revealed about Father, Son, and Spirit in the Scriptures . . . in service to others (as duly noted in Peter’s passage above). We won’t, like prophets and angels (and even Jesus), know the time or all the circumstances of what is to come. But that doesn’t mean that time will be spent in futility. For God does a present work in us whenever we do—preparing us for the future.
God’s servants spoke of His grace, but not to serve themselves. We too can faithfully do so for those who come after us—until the Lord comes—as did the prophets and angels.