Cosmic Currency
"You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish ...Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God. Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart." (1 Peter 1:18-19, 22).
I vaguely remember the day this photo was taken. It was Easter, and I was three or four. Notice what's in the bowl. Eggs... real eggs. Yep, back then, we'd hunt for actual eggs – hardboiled and colored with food dye. Nowadays, of course, the eggs used in egg hunts are plastic and contain chocolate.
I get it. I mean you don't want to eat hardboiled eggs that have been out of the fridge for more than a couple hours. And kids generally like candy better anyways.
But I have to admit, I miss the days of real egg hunts. Why? Likely it's just nostalgia. But I think that wistfulness is connected to a desire for what's real in a much broader sense, especially in a society now where that which is fabricated prevails.
Do you ever have similar longings for realness? Our upcoming epistle reading struck me with the truth of what's ultimately real. In chapter 1, Peter sets up a contrast between the temporary, fabricated notion of worth versus that which is really valuable.
He says that we have been ransomed "not with perishable things like silver or gold." You see, as appealing as these metals are, they only have value because humans agree they do. Not only that, but they are temporary in that they can be corrupted, stolen, or devalued. All physical currencies then only signify something based on a worldly estimation of worth – one that is ultimately fleeting.
But the blood of Jesus, Peter declares, is different. It is the substance that signifies the reality of his sinless, holy, divine life poured out in obedience to God and love for us. And as such, his blood constitutes ultimate currency that paid our ransom. Why? Because it accomplishes what it signifies – it liberates, heals, cleanses, reconciles, redeems.
And if Christ's blood functions as cosmic currency in this way, then his resurrection is the receipt, the proof that redemption is real and that God accepted Jesus' sacrifice as that which secures our salvation.
Peter makes this clear a verse later, saying, "Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God."
Now that is wonderful news. And as such it can inspire us toward something else that is real. Peter mentions it a the end of the reading. He calls it "genuine mutual love," a love that is deep and from the heart. Friends, when the truth of God’s redemptive plan fills our hearts with what is most real—God's love in Jesus—it naturally overflows as genuine love toward others.
So, as we move into the third week of Eastertide, let’s allow the realness of God’s restorative work in Christ to flood our hearts in ways that ripple outward to one another and to a world that needs the life his resurrection unleashes.
Darin+