³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

I was listening to the radio earlier this week and the presenter was leading a discussion about the recent reform of the state pension. As always, there were differing opinions about this issue, but some of the contributors were quite angry because they felt that the new system was unfair and they were being cheated of their hard earned retirement fund. This is a perfectly understandable reaction when faced with a situation that is perceived to be unfair. If you invest in something, whether that be financially or otherwise, it figures that you should get out at least what you put in.

It is sensible to prepare for our retirement and make provision for our old age, but it is very easy to get caught up in storing up earthy treasure for ourselves and neglect our eternal investment. 1 Peter reminds us that we have an eternal inheritance that “can never perish, spoil, or fade”. No amount of government policy changes, financial crises and depletion of the national coffers can affect the glorious prize that awaits us. These eternal riches far exceed the payout that any earthly pension plan could promise – an eternity in the presence of our Lord and Saviour in His holy presence and a new heaven and a new earth where there will be “no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying” (Rev 21:4)

There is nothing that we have done to deserve this promise. There is nothing we can do to improve it. There is nothing we can do to secure our own future apart from accepting the gift and having faith. God has done the work for us by giving the life of his son on the cross to allow us access to this heavenly wealth and eternal life. He has defeated death and given us living hope and the only thing that He requires from us is unreserved faith, an acceptance of his saving grace,  and an acknowledgement of our human imperfection.

My dad used to say that the salary for Christian service was a pittance, but the pension scheme was out of this world! He was absolutely right! Regardless of our employment status, monthly salary, savings accounts or pension plans in this life, nothing can separate us from the treasure we stand to inherit in the next.