The First Letter of Peter- 2

Subtitle: The Joy of Our Salvation- part 1

1 Peter 1:5-7.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, November 23, 2025.

Last week, we walked through Peter’s introduction of the letter and, beginning in verse three, several verses that began to praise God for the salvation that He has made available to us.

Today, we will continue looking at this praising of God.

Let’s look at our passage.

Praise to God for His salvation

Verse four celebrated the inheritance “reserved in heaven for you.”  It is this “you” that verse five describes further.  You are those who are being protected by the power of God.

The preposition “by” can also be translated as “in.”  In this case, I think both are instructive.  We are not only protected by the power of God, but we are also protected in the power of God.  It is connected to Paul’s penchant to describe believers as being “in Christ.”  In Christ, we are surrounded by the power of God protecting us, like strong walls that none can break.

This is an important point because we can be discouraged by an inheritance reserved in the heavens, but no help to get there on earth. In our flesh, we can come to feel that way.  Peter is not pointing to “pie in the sky when you die.”  The same power of God that reserves it for us is also working in and around us to bring us to the day of inheriting.  God is always working in the heavens and on the earth.

This power is both external and internal because our threats are internal and external.  Thus, we can think about the way that the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us.  We can think about how the Holy Spirit fills us and empowers us to stand against the thoughts and desires of our flesh that are contrary to God’s will for us.  He protects us from those things that seek to invade our lives and separate us from Christ.  He protects us from those things that seek to disqualify us from our inheritance.

Yet, this protection is not in such a way where nothing touches us and tests us.  It is not a protection where we are unable to fall back into unbelief.  It is a protection guaranteeing that we will not be tested beyond our ability to belief God and persevere.  Our flesh may not like this kind of protection, but it is the problem not the solution.  The power of God is more than able to bring us through this world and all the tests and trials that we will face.  If we trust Him, we can know that no power on earth or in the heavens can keep us from this inheritance that He has for us and the completion of our salvation!

Peter then emphasizes that all of this is “through faith.”  We must persevere by trusting His good intentions for us.  We must also persevere by staying true to His commands and instructions to us, the Word.  Our enemy’s only successful line of attack is to weaken our faith in Christ and the Word of God.

Our flesh is quick to complain.  “God, you can’t expect me to go through this and trust You!”  However, one of the signatures of God is that He puts things in front of us that seem to be too big for us.  Yet, if we trust Him, He brings us through and makes us stronger.  A young man starting a family or a job may feel that it is too hard for him, but this is generally immaturity.  If he hangs in there and learns, he will find that he expands in ways that he didn’t know possible to do it.  The same is true of a young woman facing childbirth for the first time.  It is intimidating and fearful.  Yet, God made you for this.  Trust Him.

We often go through things that don’t feel like God is protecting us.  However, He is there working to protect your mind and heart.  He does this through the Word and by giving us insight when we pray.  He does this through the help of mature believers around us.  God is faithful even to ensure that the external attacks are not more than we can handle with Him.

He then speaks of a “salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  The word for “time” here is not a word that focuses on chronology, numbers of days.  It is a word that can be translated as “seasons.”  Though there is chronology to seasons, the emphasis is on what happens in that time period, rather than on the time itself.  Of course, we are talking about spiritual seasons in this case.  What spiritual season are we in right now?  We are in a season of grace.  God is sending out emissaries to all the world, inviting them to join the Messiah and participate in His great salvation.

It is true that a person can speak of being saved in the present, and this is rightly done.  Our salvation can be contemplated in several ways.  First, we can speak of a person who has become a citizen of the Kingdom of God’s Son.  They are part of those who are saved in the sense that they are on the side of Messiah.  They have salvation and nothing or no one can take it away from them, as long as they continue with faith in Jesus.  Sometimes this is called legal salvation, or positional salvation.  You are in a saved state though you haven’t received it all.

Yet, we can also talk about salvation in a second sense.  Throughout this life, the Holy Spirit works within us in order to practically save us from the inroads of sin in our life.  By faith, we fight with the Holy Spirit against those things in our life that are contrary to Christ.  We also battle to replace those things with the character and righteousness of Christ.  Over time, we become more and more like Him.  This does not mean we become any more saved in a legal or positional sense.  No, we are always just as much today His child as we were when we first believed.  Yet, our life is more like Jesus.

At the Second Coming of Jesus, we will step into the fullness of this salvation as we receive our resurrected body, a heavenly, imperishable body.  All that went wrong with humanity in Genesis three will be overturned completely in the lives of those who are resurrected in Christ.  This past, present, and future sense of salvation is always true whether it is being referenced in the moment.

Peter is clearly looking ahead to that aspect of our salvation that is going to be revealed at the end of this season of grace.  He is looking ahead to the completion of our salvation of which we only have a foretaste now.  This fullness of salvation awaits us, is even now ready to be revealed.  The readiness is referring to the fact that nothing more in relation to salvation needs to happen.  It is ready for the moment that the Father sends the Son to take up the kingdoms of this world, which will occur at the closing of the Age of Grace.

Though Peter doesn’t specifically mention the Second Coming of Jesus in this verse, he foreshadows it with the mention of this salvation being revealed.  Verse seven, however, makes it explicit that this is what he is pointing us to look at.

This salvation from God should cause us to rejoice greatly as Peter mentions in verse six.  Of course, most people rejoice in their salvation on day one, but what about day 1,000? If we are not still rejoicing, then it is because we have our eyes on something other than Jesus and the salvation that he is giving to us and shall finish in us.

When a person realizes that their true inheritance is kept by God for them, it brings great joy even in the midst of hardship.  Our inheritance is not at the mercy of the things that we experience on this earth, at least not if we keep our trust in Jesus.  Peter knows that they were experiencing difficulties, just as we do.  The trials of this life are trifles in comparison to the reward ahead.  Whether circumstances, events, or people, we can trust that God is bringing us to Himself for the reward that He has reserved for us.

This is why Peter ties their rejoicing to the reality that they are facing trials and tests.  He uses the term “for a little while.”  The word doesn’t actually have time in it.  It simply is “for a little.”  The context is to supply what the little is here.  I think little time works because our reward is not only in the future, but it is an eternal reward.  This life is short in comparison.  However, it also could be a reference to the fact that the trials themselves are little in comparison to the joys ahead.

This earth can seem long when we are undergoing trials and difficulties.  Martyrdom in such cases may come as sweet release.  Still, these are hard things to face.  Often trials and difficulties are short-lived in comparison to our whole life.  How many things that were so big in your life twenty years ago no longer bother you or weigh down your mind?  Of course, this is not to minimize how these things feel.  Yes, they feel big and heavy.  Faith teaches us to see them in light of God’s eternal purpose for us, and it is good.

It is amazing how God takes our tests and trials and uses them to make something good in our life when we put our faith in Him.  Like Paul in prison writing a letter of rejoicing to the Philippians, we can become a strong bulwark of faith helping others because we have been tried and tested.

Peter uses the phrase “if necessary.”  This recognizes that not all people suffer trials at the same intensity and duration.  God even determines to relieve us of some trials that we may face if we will ask Him in prayer.  It is this unknown aspect of our trials that can be particularly testing.

Have you ever thought about how comfort itself tests us?  It cannot be referred to as suffering.  However, it begs the question of whether or not you will keep your eyes and faith upon Jesus and his salvation.

There are things that God has determined we must go through them.  Whether He actively causes them or simply allows them to be (permits them) because of the choices of others, we can know that He has a good purpose in so doing.  On top of this good purpose, His Spirit within you is working to give you all that you need to be preserved through the test and to pass it with flying colors.

I have been referring to these things as trials and tests.  It is actually one word in the passage.  This word can be translated several ways depending on the context.  What makes the difference is the intention of the one doing it.  When the devil tests us, he is attempting to disqualify us, to make us fail.  Thus, it would more appropriately be called a temptation.  Yet, God does not tempt anyone.  He does not allow these things to disqualify us.  Rather, He ensures that we who are already qualified will be strengthened and made stronger, refined and made purer through them.  Thus, we would not use the word temptation but rather test or trial.  Do you not know that the devil cannot take you out of the hands of Jesus?  Do you not know that the devil’s pounding upon you is being used by the Lord to make you more like Him?  Even now, the Lord Jesus is interceding on your behalf.  Will not the Father answer His prayer?  May the Lord strengthen our faith as we go through times in which we are tested.

In verse seven, Peter uses a phrase of our faith, “the proof of your faith.”  Some versions say proving or simply interpret it as genuine.  What he is talking about is the testing process by which something is determined to be genuine.  The process is a proving or testing of our faith.  Yet, when the process is done, the process itself becomes the proof of our faith.  Regardless of how it is translated, Peter is looking ahead to the day in which we are no longer being tested.  Our faith will have been proven, and our life on this earth will be the evidence of our faith.  Is my faith genuine or a ruse?  Is my faith only good in fair weather or is it durable through trial?

Peter is referring to a process of refining and even mentions being tried by fire.  This brings up the comparison to gold.  Your faith is more precious to God than gold.  In fact, the gold of this world is typically thought of as enduring a long time.  Yet, compared to God’s plan of an eternal inheritance for you, it is perishable.  This heaven and this earth will melt away as God creates a new heaven and a new earth. God wants your faith more than all the works that you can do for Him, and yet, He has works in mind for you to do by faith in Him.

Our faith should also be more precious to us than gold.  No amount of gold, money, etc., can purchase salvation for us.  Also, it is our faith which keeps us in Christ where the power of God is promised to preserve us.  These tests may seem to destroy and ruin, but in the end, they are only refining us for Christ.

When our faith is proven by this life and its tests to be genuine, then it will result in praise, glory, and honor.  Yes, it will result in us praising Jesus, giving him glory, and honoring him.  However, Peter is speaking of the praise, glory, and honor that we will receive in participation with him.  In this life, we give all the glory to Jesus, but the amazing thing is that, when he returns, we will have been made to be like him.  We will come with him as a host of immortals in his wake, like a bride coming with her husband.

This world will not praise your faith and give you glory.  This world often dishonors those who have faith in Christ.  Yet, God will overturn all the ridicule, shame, and dishonor heaped upon those who put their faith in His Messiah.  This is part of our inheritance.

In case there is any question, Peter adds that this will be at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  This event is mentioned again in verse thirteen.  It is also called the apocalypse of Jesus.  It simply means to unveil something that had previously been hidden.

On one hand, Jesus has already been revealed, unveiled, on this earth, and we have believed in him!  Yet, we did not see the powerful works that Jesus did, nor did we see his post-resurrection appearances.  Yet, we have put our faith in him.  Thus, Jesus himself said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29).  The world even now operates in disbelief of this.  Even parts of the world that give lip service to the Lordship of Jesus do not truly follow his commands as if he truly was lord.  Jesus is not ruling on this planet.  He is hidden in the heavens awaiting the day of judgment.

At the Second Coming, Jesus will be revealed in all his glory, shining like the sun, coming on the clouds of heaven, pouring out judgment on the rebellious powers of this world and of the heavens.  There will be no doubt to believer and unbeliever alike that Jesus is the glorified Lord, the Son of God’s love, the Son of Man to whom all the kingdoms of the earth belong.  And, amazingly enough, we will be at his side!

Well, we will stop here and pick this up again next week as we continue marveling at the joyous salvation that our God has reserved for us in the heavens!

Joy of Salvation audio