1 Peter 1:3–5

It is not as Jehovah for Israel, nor as Almighty God for the fathers. For us Christians God worked more deeply for His glory and for those who believe... But now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ worked in a more triumphant way in Him. As sin-bearer He entered the dark gates of the grave which closed on all others. He glorified God so fully that God had to raise Him from among the dead. So God, as revealed here, begot us again through Christ's resurrection out of the dead. No one could speak of this or know it until that mighty witness of redemption. It was not true, and could not be, until Christ was raised in this way.

Every other spiritual blessing would have been useless if God's mercy did not beget us again. That is what our letter declares. No blessing is more necessary for a sinner who is lost and ruined. His old life is corrupted by inborn evil, habitual self-will, and incurable alienation from God.

Israel had been begotten first as a nation. Now people had been born again. Mercy met them where they were, and there awakened a living hope in their souls, because the Lord Jesus had been raised from the dead.

Should not "begotten again" have shown you that life — new life — was received, not hoped for? So, using this same word, he tells us Christ is a living stone. And we have become living stones built up on that great foundation. That is, the apostle's teaching is the exact opposite of what you make him say. He says they are living stones, as Christ is a living stone; you tell us they only have a hope of life.

They had believed in Jesus as their promised, national Messiah. Their hope was in Him... They hoped He would be King and take the throne of His father David. Then He who was their hope died on the shameful cross, and hope died. But the third day came and Christ rose from among the dead. Hope revived — yes, they were begotten again to a living hope. His resurrection was a begetting again to a living hope, no longer the hope of the earthly kingdom.

His resurrection brings in a whole new hope for the believer. The shadow of death can never fall on it. Risen from the dead, He dies no more; death has no more dominion over Him.

Had His body remained in the tomb, what assurance could we have had that He had redeemed us? More than that, had He been held by death, we would have had no Saviour and no salvation. The resurrection of Christ is, therefore, the foundational truth of the gospel. To take away the truth of the Lord's resurrection is to remove all hope — to leave the soul without hope.

He could hardly have thought that within a few weeks he would be able to say, "you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows!"... One thing, as a result, is certain: his despairing soul was begotten again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This he tells us, and for this he blesses God.

Every Israelite knew what it was to have an inheritance. Nationally, their inheritance was the land of Canaan (Num. 26:53). They received this inheritance (Josh. 11:23). But sadly, it was later corrupted, and became only a shadow of what it was meant to be. It was defiled by idolatry. And it was lost — first at the time of the captivity, and then in AD 70, soon after Peter wrote this letter. Their Christian inheritance is just the opposite: "incorruptible and undefiled and unfading".

The land itself was all that a land should be. Still, it could be corrupted. So those who inherited it soon defiled it, because they were left to their own responsibility. Bit by bit they forfeited it, and it faded away.

Earthly things are corruptible; the heavenly inheritance is incorruptible. Earthly things are defiled. Pollution clings to the finest and the best. The coming inheritance is undefiled. Sin and its curse can never stain it. It is pure forever. Here on earth everything fades. Every beautiful flower has its roots in a grave. All is passing away. But the inheritance we will receive never fades. It is always fresh and beautiful.

Adam was driven out of Eden. Israel was about to be driven out of their inheritance. But the inheritance of the children of God was secure. It was in heaven, not in Eden or in Canaan. Israel had corrupted and defiled their inheritance with their idols. The Christian's portion is in a land Satan cannot enter, as he entered Eden. It is a land where man, left to his own responsibility, cannot fail and defile it.

It is preserved by God… "Reserved… for you who are kept." The inheritance is kept for you in heaven. You are kept on earth waiting for it. He will keep you for the inheritance and the inheritance for you. It is then not a question of my perseverance, but of God's faithfulness.

This treasure is in heaven. I have nothing to fear, it is in perfect safety. But this is what I fear about myself: temptations, all sorts of difficulties, for I am not in heaven. This is true. But our full security is not that we escape trial or temptation. It is that we are kept in the trial here below, just as the inheritance is kept in heaven for us.

The hope of the Jew was earthly and, for the time, was closed by the death of Christ… Every hope of the believer rests upon Christ risen. Our hope is a sure and certain hope because He is risen. It is a living hope because Christ is living. This heavenly inheritance, unlike the earthly one, is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, and it is reserved for the believer.

There are two ways of looking at the inheritance. In Peter and Hebrews, I am a man walking in this world in trials and difficulties, looking out for an inheritance reserved in heaven. Then in Ephesians I have entered the inheritance. There I am seen as seated in heavenly places, and as going to inherit all that Christ has.

How blessed it is to consider our security, our eternal security — "kept by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time!" In the original, "kept" is a very strong word. It clearly shows the church as garrisoned, enclosed, guarded, protected by the power of God against all the powers of darkness.

But they kept proving their own weakness, men's hostility, and Satan's active malice. So difficulties, trials, afflictions and dangers met them all the time. They needed a guard the whole way through. And so they are — garrisoned by God's power. And if God is for us, who can be against us?

The inheritance is reserved for us in heaven, and we are preserved on earth for it by the power of God operating through faith.

Still God has His means; and this the apostle goes on to tell us. It is "through faith." No means for a saint on earth can compare with faith. More than any other means, faith honours God and the word of His grace. It calls for dependence on the good Shepherd by the Holy Spirit. So it is "by God's power," but "through faith." Faith gives God His due place. It keeps us in our place of confidence in Him, according to His word.

God's power keeps us, but it does so by keeping our faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed.

In Peter's letters you can hardly find a verse without a quiet and touching reference to his own path. He had not been kept, because of his own self-confidence; but God will keep you, he says, by His power through faith. I believe that when he wrote that, his heart was turning back. Back to the moment when the Lord told him He had prayed for him, that his faith might not fail. Back to the moment when, full of self-confidence, he had thought he could keep himself.

Here we are taught that salvation is ready to be revealed at this moment, for we are, as John tells us, in "the last times." Note that salvation as used here is not limited to the soul's deliverance from hell and ruin. It refers rather to the deliverance of the believer's body from the power of death and corruption. In short, it covers everything linked in any way with the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We already possess the salvation of our souls, as the passage around our verse tells us.

This word "ready" is important... Christ Himself is glorified. He has conquered all His enemies and accomplished redemption. He waits for one thing only — that God should make His enemies His footstool... Once God has brought in all who are to share it, nothing is left to wait for. That salvation is the glory in which the redeemed will appear.