In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:6-9
What do you do when you’re an alien? What do you do when you’re in a hostile world that is set against you? What do you do? When you’re suffering persecution, what do you do? When everything in the world around you is coming at you and there is great suffering what do you do? when you are subject to various trials and the distress that they bring, what do you do? Peter’s answer is focus on your salvation, praise God for your salvation, this is the most glorious theme in scripture, this is the most glorious theme that exists in the world, and this is that to which we must constantly look in the disappointments and the issues of life.
Life is full of trouble, all of us experience it, not only just trouble that comes to all people, but trouble that comes particularly to Christians from an increasingly hostile persecuting world around us. What do we do? We look to the salvation of our souls, this is Peter’s wonderful theme here, by the time you get down to verse 9, that’s where that phrase appears the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls always keeping your eyes on that glorious future salvation, when we are fully finally rescued from human failure, sin, Satan, death and hell, and ushered into the glories of heaven’s bliss and everlasting joy.
We all understand that, as sinners we need to be rescued, we need salvation from God, from God’s wrath, God’s vengeance, God’s judgment, God’s execution, and God’s everlasting punishment in hell. We need salvation, we can’t save ourselves by the deeds of the law. No one will be justified before God. It’s not by work, it can’t happen that way. We need God to save us, we also know that God made the work of Christ the means by which he saves sinners. There’s no salvation in any other name than the name of Christ, and then God ordained that anyone who believes in Christ can be saved.
God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. So that’s what you need to know. We need a savior, God is a savior, he loves sinners, he’s able to save sinners, he’s willing to save sinners, he’s planned to save sinners, he has the means to save sinners through the person and work of Christ, and he saves sinners by faith.
So Peter calls his readers and us to worship, to wonder, to praise to thanksgiving for the reality of being saved eternally, to receive an eternal imperishable heavenly inheritance that can never ever be taken away, and to receive a faith that holds on to that endures every trial, so that no matter how severe the trial, it becomes the proof of our faith, not the destruction of it. We should celebrate our salvation daily, we should be saying as the old testament says, salvation belongs to God. And we should proclaim the good news of his salvation day to day.
Related Message: Praising God for Your Salvation
