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Read Introduction to 1 Peter
 

“Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

 

Now we come to God’s layaway plan. God lays our inheritance of heaven away with his guarantee that we will receive it. 1 Peter 1:5 is one of the most significant verses in the Bible on the full assurance of faith.

Who are kept

The word “guard” is a military term meaning to keep by guarding, to guard with a garrison.

Plutarch, in his Plutarch Lives, tells the story of an insurrection of gladiators. These gladiators devastated Italy in the War of Spartacus. Lentulus Batiatus had a school of gladiators at Capua (most were Gauls and Thracians). He kept them in confinement reserved for gladiatorial combat. Seventy-eight gladiators escaped. On the road, they seized a wagon carrying gladiators’ weapons to another city. They elected three leaders, one of whom was Spartacus.

In the beginning, the gladiators repelled the soldiers and took their weapons. Then the Roman government sent General Clodius against them with 3000 soldiers. He laid siege to them on a hill which had but one descent, and that a narrow and difficult one. Plutarch says Clodius closely “watched” the descent. This is our term in this verse. It means to throw a military garrison around. God throws the military garrison of his power around our salvation.

The tense indicates that God continuously guards the Christian’s salvation. We can never lose our salvation because God keeps it under guard. God throws the garrison of his person around the believer. God guards us throughout our earthly pilgrimage. There is never a moment when God does not defend our inheritance. God always keeps those he saves. We can never lose our salvation. If we are a Christian, we are eternally secure:

PRINCIPLE:

The onus for keeping our salvation is upon God.

APPLICATION:

To many Christians, the Christian life has no solid foundation. It is like a man sitting at his desk on the 70th floor of a recently constructed building. After moving into the building for a short time, a light falls upon his desk. He does not call the architect to examine the foundation of the building. He examines the fixture to find if there is a flaw. Unfortunately, many Christians do not investigate the immediate cause when they sin. They examine the foundation of their faith. “Am I saved? Has God forsaken me?”

The issue is not the foundation (salvation) but the immediate cause (our sin). If we have violated God’s holiness, then God expects confession of that sin (1 John 1:9).

What about the foundation? How can a person know he is eternally secure with God? The subsequent studies on this verse will answer those questions.

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