GOING DEEPER — 1 PETER 1:3–5
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
— 1 Peter 1:3–5, KJVPeter has told his readers who they are.
Now he tells them what God has done for them.
And notice where Peter begins.
He does not begin with what Christians have done for God.
He begins with what God has done for them.
“BLESSED BE THE GOD AND FATHER”
Peter begins with praise:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!”
This sounds very much like the language of Jewish worship.
The Psalms repeatedly bless God:
“Blessed be the LORD…”
Paul begins 2 Corinthians and Ephesians with remarkably similar language:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…”
For a Jewish man like Peter, praising God in this way would have been familiar.
But something enormous has happened.
God is now identified as:
“the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Jesus stands at the center of Peter's praise.
“OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST”
We can pass over those words too quickly because Christians have heard them so often.
But each word matters.
Jesus identifies the historical man Peter knew.
Christ means the Messiah—the Anointed One.
Lord speaks of His authority.
Peter is writing about the man he walked beside in Galilee, watched die in Jerusalem, and then saw alive again.
This is not an abstract theology for Peter.
When Peter says:
“the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”
he is talking about something he believed he had personally witnessed.
“ACCORDING TO HIS GREAT MERCY”
Why did God save them?
Peter says:
“according to his great mercy.”
Not because they had earned it.
Not because they were morally superior to everyone around them.
Not because God owed them something.
The starting point is God's mercy.
Mercy recognizes human need and acts compassionately toward it.
And Peter does not merely say:
“according to his mercy.”
He says:
“according to his GREAT mercy.”
Their salvation tells us something about them.
They needed mercy.
But it tells us even more about God.
He is rich in mercy toward people who could not rescue themselves.
“HE HAS CAUSED US TO BE BORN AGAIN”
Here Peter introduces one of the great images of salvation:
new birth.
The Greek verb is anagennaō.
It means to beget again, give new birth, or cause to be born anew.
Peter uses this word only twice in the letter.
Here:
“he has caused us to be born again…”
And in verse 23:
“since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable…”
That means we should read the two passages together.
In verse 3, new birth is connected with:
the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In verse 23, it is connected with:
the living and abiding word of God.
Peter is describing salvation as the beginning of an entirely new life.
JESUS ALSO SPOKE ABOUT NEW BIRTH
Peter's language naturally reminds us of Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus:
“Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
— John 3:3
The Greek expression in John can mean born again or born from above.
Peter uses a different construction here, so we should not pretend he is simply quoting John 3.
But the underlying picture is similar.
Christianity is not merely:
learning some new doctrines,
adopting some new habits,
or joining a religious organization.
Something more fundamental has happened.
Peter describes it as:
being born again.
WHO CAUSED THE NEW BIRTH?
Look carefully at Peter's grammar:
“HE has caused US to be born again.”
God is the actor.
We are the recipients.
That fits the movement of the opening paragraph:
God foreknows.
The Spirit sanctifies.
Christ's blood cleanses.
God causes new birth.
Peter's emphasis is overwhelmingly upon God's saving initiative.
That does not eliminate the human response of faith and obedience—Peter has already mentioned obedience and will mention faith in verse 5.
But salvation begins with God's mercy, not human achievement.
BORN AGAIN “TO A LIVING HOPE”
New birth has a destination:
“to a living hope.”
Biblical hope is not merely wishful thinking.
We sometimes say:
“I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow.”
We mean:
“I would like this to happen, but I don't know whether it will.”
Peter's hope is different.
It rests upon something God has already done.
Jesus has been raised from the dead.
Therefore Christian hope is:
living hope.
Why “living”?
Because its foundation is a living Christ.
HOPE HAS AN EMPTY TOMB BEHIND IT
This may be one of the most important ideas in the entire letter.
Peter's readers are going to suffer.
Some will be insulted.
Some will be falsely accused.
Some may lose relationships or social standing because they follow Christ.
Peter does not answer their suffering with:
“Try to think positively.”
He points them to an event:
“the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Christian hope is anchored in what God did when Jesus died and rose again.
The resurrection says that suffering does not have the final word.
Death does not have the final word.
Rome does not have the final word.
God does.
PETER KNEW WHAT HOPELESSNESS FELT LIKE
Think again about Peter's own story.
When Jesus was arrested, Peter fled.
When questioned, he denied Him.
When Jesus died, the Messiah Peter had confessed appeared to have been defeated.
But then Peter saw the empty tomb.
And he saw the risen Jesus.
The resurrection changed Peter's understanding of everything.
So when Peter writes:
“a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”
these are not merely theological words.
Peter's own hope had once seemed to die.
Then Jesus walked out of the grave.
CHRISTIAN HOPE DEPENDS ON THE RESURRECTION
Take away the resurrection and Peter's argument collapses.
Paul says essentially the same thing in 1 Corinthians 15:
“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile…”
Christianity does not merely teach that the soul survives death.
Its hope is centered upon what God did with the crucified body of Jesus.
He raised Him from the dead.
And because Christ lives, Peter says Christians have a living hope.
“TO AN INHERITANCE”
Peter changes the picture.
First:
new birth
Then:
inheritance
Birth naturally leads to inheritance.
Children receive an inheritance because they belong to a family.
Peter has already called God:
Father.
Now God's newly born children have an inheritance.
Again the Old Testament background is important.
ISRAEL AND THE INHERITANCE
In the Old Testament, Israel's inheritance was closely associated with the land God promised them.
The land was repeatedly called their inheritance.
But Peter is writing to God's scattered people in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.
He does not promise them parcels of land in Palestine.
Instead their inheritance is:
“kept in heaven for you.”
Once again Peter takes language deeply rooted in Israel's story and applies it to the people of God in Christ.
But the inheritance has now been described in a way no earthly territory could satisfy.
THREE WORDS DESCRIBE THE INHERITANCE
Peter piles up three descriptions:
imperishable
undefiled
unfading
Why three?
Perhaps because ordinary human inheritances fail in all three ways.
“IMPERISHABLE”
The Greek word is aphthartos.
It means something not subject to decay, corruption, or destruction.
Everything people inherit on earth can perish.
Money can disappear.
Property can be destroyed.
Governments can fall.
Possessions can be stolen.
Bodies grow old.
Peter's readers may lose things because they follow Christ.
But their ultimate inheritance cannot be destroyed.
It is:
imperishable.
“UNDEFILED”
The inheritance is also:
undefiled.
The Greek word is amiantos.
It means unstained or uncontaminated.
Earthly things can be corrupted morally or spiritually.
God's inheritance cannot.
Nothing sinful can contaminate what God has prepared.
“UNFADING”
Then Peter says:
unfading.
The Greek word is amarantos.
Think of a flower.
It may be beautiful this morning and withered tomorrow.
Much of what human beings admire is like that.
Beauty fades.
Strength fades.
Fame fades.
Wealth fades.
Empires fade.
Peter says the Christian inheritance does not.
IMPERISHABLE, UNDEFILED, UNFADING
Peter could simply have said:
“You have an inheritance.”
Instead he almost seems determined to remove every possibility that it could be lost through ordinary decay.
It cannot:
die,
be polluted,
or fade away.
That is especially meaningful to people whose earthly security may be uncertain.
“KEPT IN HEAVEN FOR YOU”
Where is this inheritance?
Peter says it is:
“kept in heaven for you.”
The Greek verb translated kept or reserved is from tēreō.
It means to keep, preserve, or guard.
The verb is in a form indicating that the inheritance has been kept and remains reserved.
God has not misplaced it.
No persecutor can reach it.
No thief can steal it.
No emperor can confiscate it.
It is secure with God.
DOES “KEPT IN HEAVEN” MEAN CHRISTIANS LIVE FOREVER IN HEAVEN?
We should be careful here.
Peter says the inheritance is kept in heaven.
He does not say in this verse:
“Your eternal destiny is to remain forever as a disembodied soul in heaven.”
Those are different statements.
Something can be kept in heaven for us and later be revealed or received.
In fact, the very next words point forward:
“a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
So we should let Peter say exactly what he says.
The inheritance is presently secure with God.
Its complete realization lies ahead.
SOMETHING ELSE IS BEING GUARDED
Verse 4 says the inheritance is kept.
Verse 5 says something else is being guarded:
you.
This is beautiful.
God is not only guarding the inheritance for the Christian.
God is guarding the Christian for the inheritance.
“WHO BY GOD'S POWER ARE BEING GUARDED”
Peter says believers:
“by God's power are being guarded…”
The Greek verb is phroureō.
It can be used of military guarding—protecting something or someone.
Imagine a city protected by soldiers.
Peter says God's power stands guard over His people.
The Christian's security does not ultimately rest upon personal strength.
Peter knew something about the failure of personal strength.
He had once said:
“Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.”
Within hours he denied Jesus three times.
Peter had learned not to place ultimate confidence in Peter.
Now he points believers toward:
God's power.
DOES THIS MEAN A CHRISTIAN CAN NEVER FALL AWAY?
This verse is sometimes pulled into debates about whether salvation can ever be lost.
But once again we should read Peter's complete sentence.
He says believers are guarded:
“by God's power…”
But then he immediately adds:
“through faith.”
Both expressions are there.
God's power
and
faith.
We should not erase either one.
Peter does not say believers preserve themselves entirely by their own strength.
Neither does he describe people being guarded irrespective of faith.
God guards:
through faith.
Later Peter will tell these same Christians:
“Resist him, firm in your faith.”
— 5:9
And:
“Stand firm in it.”
— 5:12
God's preserving power and the believer's continuing faith are not presented as enemies.
Peter puts them together.
“THROUGH FAITH”
Faith here is not merely acknowledging that God exists.
It is continuing trust in God.
These Christians are facing pressures that could tempt them to abandon Christ.
Peter tells them that God's power is guarding them:
through faith.
That is important.
From God's side there is powerful protection.
From their side there is continuing trust.
Peter will encourage them throughout the letter to keep trusting, keep obeying, keep doing good, and keep standing firm.
“FOR A SALVATION”
This is interesting because Christians often speak about salvation entirely in the past tense:
“I was saved.”
The New Testament certainly can speak that way.
But Peter speaks here of salvation as something still ahead:
“a salvation ready to be revealed…”
That tells us that salvation has more than one dimension.
Christians have already entered God's saving work.
They have been born again.
They presently trust God.
But something remains to be revealed.
SALVATION: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
The New Testament can speak of salvation in different time perspectives.
There is a sense in which believers have been saved.
There is a sense in which God's saving work is occurring in their lives.
And there is a final salvation still to come.
Peter emphasizes that future dimension here.
He will return to it in verse 9:
“obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
And verse 13 speaks of:
“the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Peter's Christianity looks forward.
“READY TO BE REVEALED”
The salvation is:
“ready to be revealed.”
The Greek word behind “revealed” comes from apokalyptō—to uncover or reveal.
The salvation is not being invented at the last moment.
It is already prepared.
But its fullness has not yet been seen.
There is an important New Testament tension here:
already—but not yet.
They already belong to God.
They already have living hope.
They have already been born again.
Yet the full inheritance and salvation remain ahead.
“IN THE LAST TIME”
Peter says this salvation will be revealed:
“in the last time.”
We should not immediately turn that phrase into a timetable.
Peter gives no date.
He gives no mathematical calculation.
He does not tell these Christians to determine how many years remain.
His point is much simpler.
History is going somewhere.
God has acted in Christ.
Christ has risen.
His people are being guarded.
And God's saving purpose will finally be brought completely into view.
WHAT IS THE “LAST TIME”?
Peter will use similar language again.
In verse 20 he says Christ:
“was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.”
That means Peter could speak of his own era as belonging to the last times because God's climactic saving work had arrived in Christ.
But here in verse 5 he also looks forward to something still awaiting revelation.
That is another example of the New Testament's already/not yet pattern.
The last-days work of God has begun.
The final revelation of salvation is still ahead.
NOTICE THE MOVEMENT
Look at what Peter has done in only three verses.
He looks backward:
Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead.
He describes the present:
God is guarding His people through faith.
And he looks forward:
salvation is ready to be revealed.
The Christian stands between:
resurrection behind us
and
final salvation ahead of us.
That is where Peter's readers are living.
That is also where we live.
TWO THINGS ARE SAFE
There is a wonderful symmetry in verses 4–5.
The inheritance is being kept for you.
And:
You are being guarded for the salvation that is coming.
God guards both ends.
That does not make Peter's later warnings meaningless.
It makes his encouragement possible.
These suffering Christians are not trying to reach the finish line completely on their own.
God is at work.
PETER'S HOPE IS NOT ESCAPE FROM TROUBLE
Notice what Peter does not promise.
He does not say:
Because God loves you, you will not suffer.
Because you are elect, nothing painful will happen.
Because God guards you, no one can hurt you physically.
Peter is about to say exactly the opposite.
In verses 6–7 he will talk about:
“various trials.”
God's protection does not mean Christians are insulated from suffering.
It means suffering cannot overthrow God's final purpose for those who continue trusting Him.
That is a very different promise.
THE RESURRECTION CHANGES THE MEANING OF DEATH
This may be the deepest thought in the paragraph.
If Jesus remained dead, Peter's readers had little reason for living hope.
Their persecutors could ultimately take everything from them.
But if Jesus has risen, then even death cannot take their inheritance away.
That is why the resurrection is not merely one Christian doctrine among many.
It changes the answer to the question:
What can the world ultimately take from me?
For Peter's readers, the answer was:
A great deal.
Property.
Reputation.
Friends.
Security.
Perhaps even life.
But not the inheritance God keeps for them.
TEXT BEFORE TRADITION
These verses also warn us against reducing salvation to a single formula.
Peter's description is much larger.
Salvation involves:
God's mercy.
New birth.
Living hope.
Christ's resurrection.
An inheritance.
God's power.
Our faith.
Present preservation.
Future salvation.
Peter does not seem interested in separating these things so that one can cancel another.
He puts them together.
Perhaps we should too.
QUESTIONS WORTH THINKING ABOUT
Why does Peter begin with God's mercy rather than human obedience or achievement?
What does it mean to be born again rather than merely becoming more religious?
If Christian hope rests upon the resurrection, what happens to Christianity if Jesus did not actually rise from the dead?
Why does Peter describe our inheritance with three words—imperishable, undefiled, and unfading?
Does “kept in heaven” necessarily tell us where God's people will spend eternity—or does it tell us where their inheritance is presently secure?
What should we make of Peter putting these two ideas in the same sentence:
“by God's power”
and
“through faith”?
Have we sometimes emphasized one so strongly that we have almost erased the other?
And when Peter speaks of salvation as:
“ready to be revealed”
does our understanding of salvation leave room for the future dimension that Peter clearly expects?
THE HEART OF 1 PETER 1:3–5
If we had to reduce these three verses to one thought, perhaps it would be this:
Because Jesus Christ rose from the dead, God's people have a hope that cannot die, an inheritance that cannot decay, and a salvation that God is bringing to its appointed completion.
And now Peter is ready to address the obvious question:
If all of that is true, why are God's people suffering?
That is where verses 6–9 take us next.
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