Dear Christian friends:

I'm sure that all of you agree with me when I say that we are living in very fearful times. The news we see on TV and read in our newspapers is mostly bad news. We have many reasons to live in fear.

In spite of all the bad news which makes us fear, we Christians can live with confidence and hope. We have good news from God. In our text Peter reminds us about this.

Peter wrote this letter to Jewish Christians who had to leave their homes in Jerusalem because of their faith in Jesus. The Jews who did not believe in Jesus persecuted them, so they escaped and went to live in Asia Minor. (1 Peter 1:1) Peter calls them "strangers". They were strangers in the new countries of Asia Minor. Today we call such people "refugees." These Jewish Christians had many reasons to feel depressed and fearful. But Peter reminds them about the Good News from God in Jesus Christ and urges them to live with confidence and hope. Peter writes, "Through Jesus you believe in God. God made Jesus arise from death and gave Him glory. Therefore you hope and trust in God." (verse 21)


We Christians can live with confidence and not fear because we trust in God's mercy and God's justice in Jesus.

The Jews, who refused to believe in Jesus and persecuted the Christians, trusted in their own justice, not God's. They believed that if they obeyed God's laws and did right, God would be pleased and bless them, and if they disobeyed God's laws and did wrong, God would punish them.

Many people today believe like these Jews. They trust their own law works, not Jesus' law works. This is the natural religion. We are all born with this faith. We all think: “If I do good and right, God will bless me, but if I do bad and wrong, God will punish me." Also, the law-breaker who faces the hangman believes this. He knows that he has killed someone and must now pay for his crime. We are all born with this idea and our government rules in this way.

But this is not the Christian faith. In our text Peter reminds us that we must not trust in our own justice, our good deeds of the law, but trust in God "who made Jesus arise from death and gave Him glory." (verse 21) And we should trust in Jesus' blood, which He shed on the cross for our sins. (verses 18-19) Jesus Christ has obeyed all God's laws for us. (Galatians 4:4-5) And Jesus paid, suffered God's anger and punishment, for all people when He suffered on the cross. (Galatians 3:13) We can't obey God's laws perfectly. We are sinners. We are born with sin and daily sin much. All our own righteousness are as dirty rags before God. (Isaiah 64:6) We must with shame confess our sins and then trust in God's mercy and justice, which He has shown to us in our Savior Jesus Christ.

But our natural pride doesn't want to do this. We always want to justify ourselves by the law. Even when we do wrong, we try to excuse ourselves and blame others. If we cheat on our income tax, we excuse it and think, "Everyone else is cheating, why not me?" Or we think and perhaps even say, "The government wastes too much money anyway." Because of our natural pride we either deny our sin or excuse our wrongs or blame others.

You can trust in your own justice and have confidence in the law, but I warn you: You will go to hell if you do, because God knows we are sinners and He will not accept our "beautiful" excuses.

Confess your sins and trust in God's mercy and justice which He has showed in Jesus the Savior of the world! Then you can go to heaven and here on our troubled earth you can live with real confidence.

When we trust God's mercy and justice as shown in Jesus, confidence in God begins, and love for God is born in our hearts! We know that God loves us although we are sinners, and so we love Him and have confidence in Him. And we want to honor Him and please Him. In our text Peter says that when we pray we call God "Father" (verse 17) We love Him and trust Him as children love and trust their dear father. He is better than any earthly father! He is "Our Father in heaven!" We love Him now in Jesus and want to serve Him and obey Him. We do not feel forced. We are inspired by His great love in Jesus.

Two men met on a street in the city. They before were friends but not anymore. One became a Christian and joined the church; the other remained an unbeliever and continued in his sinful life. They greeted each other and talked a little about the weather. Then the unbeliever said to the Christian, "Since you joined the church you can't have any fun with me like before. You have to go to church. You have to be good. You have to give money to support your church. You have to do work for the church." The Christian answered, "You are wrong: I don't have to! I want to! I want to go to church. I want to be good. I want to give money to support my church. I want to volunteer and serve and work for my church. I want to because I love Jesus who first loved me."

When we trust God's mercy and justice in Jesus, then we really love God and want to honor Him with a good, holy life. We really live with confidence in God. Even in bad times and in trouble we live with confidence because we know that what we suffer is not because of God's anger or punishment. We see it as His way of testing our faith and making our faith more pure. Peter says that in this letter. (1 Peter 1:3-9)

Yes, we are living in bad times and we Christians must suffer many things, but we do not despair. We have confidence in God that He loves us in Jesus. In a short time He will take us out of this world of trouble and bring us to glory.

We can trust God who raised Jesus from death!

Amen.