And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.” For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. (17-19)
Jesus, the savior of the world, truly loved the whole world. I keep reading that first verse over and over again, “the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites.” Every time I read that my attention is arrested. No matter who you are, no matter what you have done, and no matter what you believe, Jesus loves you and He died for you. His death paid the ransom for our lives and that price was a precious price to pay. The very lamb of God gave Himself that we might be ransomed from our sin and given a new life instead of an “empty” life.
This ransom for our sins and this gift of His death mean several things for us. It means that we are accountable as Christians for how we live our lives. “He will judge or reward you according to what you do.” We were not ransomed and just left here on this planet on a whim. On the contrary, He has a purpose for us and that purpose is that we would glorify Him and help others to know Him as we do. His death for us means that our lives are not empty and without purpose. Instead, they are full of eternal purpose and every day we must pursue that eternal purpose for Him.
In addition to being accountable for how we live and the knowledge that we have lives of purpose, we must also realize that we are transient. Peter says we are just “temporary residents” and our time is short. Jesus gave everything to redeem us and He merely asks that we, in return, give everything back to Him in this brief moment we exist on the planet. We will one day live in perfect harmony and bliss with Him for all of eternity, but we can’t wait until then to be who He wants us to be. We must “live in reverent fear of Him today” as temporary residents. This isn’t a dress rehearsal for heaven, this is the show, and you need to show up.
