“…who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 1 Peter 1:5
Life can be hard, at times even down right scary. We live in a broken world. A scary world. A world where bad things happen to “good” people. A world where the innocent are so often treated worse then the guilty and the guilty seemingly go unpunished. We can all think of someone that has gone unpunished despite the fact that they have hurt us or someone we care about. Life is simply enough rather unfair.
But then something greater flashes, we catch a glimpse of a beautiful reality, something that stands in contrast to everything we see in the world around us. It is hope. Not just some sort of ambiguous hope in generic love or goodness, no hope is specific. It has a name, it is Jesus. An upside down sin cursed world is turned right side up by the Son of God, He offers us a new way. Restoration. To receive it we must forsake our old way, repent of our sins, our offenses against Him and trust in Him as our only hope of forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to the Father. So by faith we believe, we put our faith in Christ. For us with genuine faith salvation means a whole new life, forgiveness of sins, the guilt of the past life is gone, our rebellion against heaven is ended, God becomes our loving Father who we desire to fellowship with regularly.
However we quickly realize that around us the world has not changed. It is still scary, it is still dark. We are not quickly wisked away into heaven after believing, we don’t start seeing angels and hearing from God audibly. How do we know that we will receive all that God has promised us? An inheritance? Will it really be there for us? Will we really make it through this broken world with our faith intact? It can at times seem like an impossible journey, hopeless.
God tells us in verse 4 of 1 Peter that we have a sure inheritance, “to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,”. You see all we experience in salvation here on earth is only a small taste of all the blessings that salvation brings, God has glorious things awaiting us that will be revealed in the last times. To the nation of Israel “inheritance” always meant the promised land. They were awaiting to inherit physical land, God’s promised inheritance to us certainly includes the new heavens and the new earth but also undoubtedly much more then that. So it sounds great, some day in the future we will receive the full inheritance of our salvation, but will we make it to then? Can our faith really survive this dark world?
In a scary broken world it can be easy to lose focus on our future inheritance and begin to doubt our perseverance to make it to the end. But thats the beauty of God, He has not only initiated our salvation but He has promised to complete it. Peter tells us that God is guarding us by His power. He is shielding us, He is keeping us. Its a word that in ancient times was used when an army would guard a city, protecting it from the enemy. We may have to face this dark world, we may have to go through the day to day warfare against sin and the enemy but God is encamped around us. He is guarding us with His power. He has not only guaranteed that we someday will receive a glorious inheritance He has also guaranteed our safe passage through this world to the next so that we can receive our inheritance. There is nothing on this earth, nothing in heaven, nothing in the depths of hell that has the power to keep us from what He has promised us. What has the power to separate us from the love of God? Nothing. God has enlisted the fullness of His power and strength to guard us and He is unconquerable. Safety through this world doesn’t mean that we won’t ever face trials or difficulties it means that our faith will endure. God won’t let the enemy take us down, genuine faith is always eternal. If your a believer God is guarding you, He hasn’t left you on your own.