Elect Exiles

We are aliens to this world. Our unsatisfied yearnings, festering idols, and distraught anxieties embody our alienation. Spiritual depression, and more broadly, sadness due to practical, functional unbelief result. What is the reason for our downcast souls? Where is our hope?

C.S. Lewis famously encapsulated this emptiness through this quote

"Most people, if they have really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love, or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us, are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning, can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would be ordinarily called unsuccessful marriages, or holidays, or learned careers. I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we have grasped at, in that first moment of longing, which just fades away in the reality. I think everyone knows what i mean. The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job: but something has evaded us."

Just as our basic hunger points to the existence of food, so does this spiritual vacancy point to an eternally satisfying occupant.

Our answer is found in 1 Peter. Immediately addressed to the "elect exiles," Peter wastes no time in comprehensively addressing our exile. A few things:

1. Our exile is rooted in and guided by the Holy Trinity - 1:1-2 "To those who are elect exiles, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for the obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood."
2. A continual return to the cross - 1:3-4  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."
3. Sovereign, glorious grace - It is by His sovereignty that we are met with spiritual depression, and for the sake of His glory, the process is sufficiently founded by endless, abundant grace resulting from Christ crucified. 1:13  "set your hope full on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Therefore in the midst of trial, depression, idolatry, unbelief, hopelessness, etc, We have something far greater operating outside our ridiculous hearts and minds, continually redeeming our wayward tendencies. We have an endless reservoir of grace--living hope. Our hope, the eternal satisfaction that our souls truly long for, is provided through the glory and grace of Jesus.