Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
– 1 Peter 1:3–5
Whoa. Is that a mouthful or what? That’s three verses that are just dripping with incredible language and truth and it just keeps going on. I could just keep reading through this first chapter in 1 Peter, but I wanted to read that whole passage. It’s only two sentences in 1 Peter 1:3–5. But I want to camp out on the last phrase in verse five. So everything leading up to that is blessing God for his mercy whose given us new life.
1 Peter 1:3–5 teaches us about the living hope in Christ.
We’re born again to a living hope that the resurrection of Jesus, we have an inheritance that is kept in heaven for us. Then verse five says, For us who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. And I just want to encourage you as a Christian. So for anyone who has put your faith in Jesus as the Savior Lord of your life, right now you are being guarded.
That’s what 1 Peter 1:5 is saying. You’re being guarded by the power of God for a salvation that is not yet complete. Like yes, you are forgiven of your sin. Yes, you are a child of God through faith in Jesus. At the same time you are waiting. We prayed about this in light of James 5. Followers of Jesus are waiting for the fulfillment of all of God’s promises. For the consummation of our salvation. The completion, the day when we are with Jesus, face to face. With no more sin and no more sorrow and no more suffering and no more death.
1 Peter 1:3–5 teaches us about the security of our salvation.
And right now in this world where the adversary is coming at us from all kinds of angles. All kinds of sides trying to distract, discourage, dishearten, destroy us. The power of God is guarding us. And I just want to encourage you with that today. No matter what this world is bringing at you, you are guarded by the power of God himself. And he will keep you.
Just keep your eyes fixed on him, trusting in him, looking to him, leaning on him, and he will guard you. You are protected on all sides by God and not just around you, but in you. You have the Spirit of Christ in you and in words we read later in Scripture, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. So we pray, God, according to your Word, in 1 Peter 1:5, guard us today.
Amidst temptation, guard us from all the temptations we will face today to sin against you, to turn from you. Guard us, we pray. We praise you for your promise to do that. What you tell us specifically in your Word, that you will provide a way out, that sin does not have mastery power over us. You have saved us not just from sins penalty, but sins power in our lives.
This verse points us towards the culmination of our salvation.
And as we walk through suffering and trials and difficulties, you guard us from all the adversaries attempts to bring us down in them, to destroy us, to pull us away from you. We praise you, oh God, as our guard, our protector, our provider in every way we need today as we wait for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time as we wait for the culmination of our salvation and the completion of our salvation.
No more sin, no more suffering, no more sorrow, no more death. We long for that day, oh God, and we pray that you would guard us every single day and every single moment until that day according to your Word. We praise you as our guard. And God we pray that you would help us to lead others to you as their guard. God, you alone can save people from the penalty and power of sin. You alone can save people from ultimately suffering and death. You alone are the heavenly divine guard, Lord Jesus so help us to lead others to you today.
Prayer for the Bawaria People
And we pray for the Bawaria people of India, the Sikh people group who’s never heard the good news of your guarding power and your protecting love and mercy in Jesus. God, we pray that the Bawaria people of India would be reached with the gospel, that you would cause your church in India to rise up and go to them, that you would cause your church from other places outside of India to spread the gospel among the Bawaria people, that they might receive this inheritance, that they might have this living hope that we have, all based on your Word 1 Peter 1:3–5, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
