THE SALVATION OF YOUR SOULS
1 Peter 1:3-13
… for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Firstly, a new birth. This is not just new circumstances, or a new lease of life having been justified—it is a fundamental change in your being. Here Peter does not speak of forgiveness and justification because his focus is not on what is past but what is ahead. He is going to call us to holy living and here he wants us to know the basis of that call.
When we put our faith in Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, a fundamental change happens in us, making it possible for us to live holy lives. This is that living hope that the power of the Risen Christ bestows upon us. As God raises Christ from the dead, so too he enables us who are dead in our sinfulness, to live again.
And so just as he says in v22, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart”—you receive Jesus’s sacrifice for you so that you have, and now that you have, exercise it wholeheartedly. In the same way, becoming a Christian results in a new birth, you are a new creation so you can live holy lives, now embrace holy living deeply, from the heart!
Secondly, a new destiny, that cannot be diminished by whatever happens, awaits us in heaven. We are assured that whatever grief or trials we may go through in this life, that destiny will be there. What is the inheritance? Peter does not elaborate but he leaves us in no doubt that it is glorious.
Thirdly, God’s protection in this life. The protection does not shield us from painful experiences because those are necessary to grow and strengthen our faith. Once again Peter does not elaborate but likely, as we are taught to pray “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”, God journeys with us in our own path of faith, and he will ensure that we will get to the end to receive our inheritance. The road is not easy but the destination is assured.
It is in the context of all that God gives us through the Risen Christ that Peter calls us to holy living. Otherwise it will again be rules and regulations that as Paul explains, we are powerless to satisfy.
This is our privilege to experience and enjoy because we are receiving the end result of our faith, that glorious plan of salvation that God put into action when Christ was chosen to be the agent to accomplish that plan, the salvation of our souls.