“Whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory”
Though now you do not see Him
We find the same words “though now” in verse six. The word “now” speaks of the present tense. This is the time in which we live. Yesterday is gone; tomorrow we do not possess yet. We have the present right now.
The people of Asia Minor to whom Peter is writing, unlike Peter, had never seen Jesus face to face. They were disciples of the apostles. We have not seen Jesus but we will see him one day (Rev 22:4; 1 Cor. 13:12).
yet believing
The Lord Jesus is worthy of our trust. “Believing” is an issue of the trustworthiness of Christ. Nothing spreads peace over our hearts like putting our trust in one so worthy. The Greek indicates that this is an active reliance upon him. We put our repose upon a person.
“Believing” is how a Christian sees. The non-Christian world says, “Show me. I am from Missouri. Seeing is believing.” We cannot come to Christ that way. The biblical idea is “believing in Jesus is to see.”
“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living” (Ps 27:13).
PRINCIPLE:
Believing in Jesus is to open our lives to transcend truth.
APPLICATION:
We cannot see until we believe in something specific. If you do not believe you cannot see, thus you are blind spiritually. When people come to Christ, God removes the scales from their eyes. They see spiritually for the first time. Their reaction is “Why did I not see this before? Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).
Have you come to believe in Jesus Christ? This is the single requirement to become a Christian:
John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
John 3:15-18, “That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
John 5:24, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”
John 6:35, “And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”
John 20:31, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
