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How Great is Your Salvation

How Great is Your Salvation!
July 31, 2016

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-12

I. Your salvation is great because it gives you future hope.

A. The first time the word salvation is used in this passage is in vs. 5. By God’s power we in the church are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Our salvation then is something that we will not fully enjoy until the end of time after God’s judgment of all people (Rev. 20). One thing that Peter mentions that we are saved from is death. How long am I going to live in heaven? Verse 4 says that our salvation, our inheritance gift from God our Father (vs. 3) is imperishable, undefiled and unfading. Salvation is forever!
B. How do I know this salvation of eternal life is not just a wish or a dream? Peter calls our hope a living hope (vs. 3). Our hope is not a dead hope. It is not based on something empty. Our hope for the future is based on the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Our hope is always alive because Jesus is always alive. That is our certain future hope of salvation.

II. Your salvation is great because it gives you present joy.

A. Although we will not fully enjoy our salvation until the future, the Bible says that we Christians are already saved and have present joy in our salvation. Our joy, however, is mixed with sorrow. Peter doesn’t want us to live in denial about our sufferings in this world. So he writes in vs. 6 about how our joy in salvation is experienced in the midst of trials in this life.
B. How do we rejoice in a season of trial? We rejoice by remembering that God has a purpose in our trials. Verse 7 says that we have been given trials “so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The trials in your life are tests. And the tests are meant to prove that your faith is real. The tests are meant to refine and purify your faith. That faith is very precious to God. How precious? It is more precious to God than gold.

III. Your salvation is great because it gives you faith based on past prophecies.

A. In verse 10 Peter writes about the Old Testament prophets and their role in helping us understand the salvation God has given to us in His church. The prophets helped us know that the Messiah would suffer (vs. 11). Jesus taught this truth in Matthew 16:21-22: “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” A suffering Messiah was also taught in Isaiah 53:3-5: “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

Application:
Rejoice in your great salvation! Allow your trials to make you more homesick for heaven.

Sources:
The letter of 1 Peter
Commentaries on 1 Peter by Karen Jobes, I.H. Marshall, Wayne Grudem and David Helm.