In our recent studies of 1 Peter, we have been examining 1 Peter 1:3-12; a rather long, run-on sentence in the original Greek–but what a sentence! Peter has been describing the richness and grandeur of Christian salvation.
Our studies bring us to two questions to consider. We’ll ask the first question today and the second tomorrow. First, if you are a Christian:
Do You Treasure Your Salvation?
In verse 10, Peter refers to our salvation with the phrase “the grace that would come to you.” Literally, it is a grace that comes “unto” us or “toward” us. It is a grace that we do not go after, but rather it comes to us.
You might say that it is a grace that invades us.
This is the sense of the word that drove John Newton to write the much-loved words:
Amazing Grace
how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me;
I once was lost
but now am found
was blind, but now I see.
Put another way: “I once was without the grace that brought about salvation. I was a wretch; lost, and blind. But grace sought me out! Grace invaded me! Grace found me! So I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.”
Grace has invaded us. In other words, we did nothing on our own to merit this salvation. We did not deserve it. We could not earn it, we could not be good enough for it; we were simply blind, lost wretches. And grace invaded us and saved us through faith in Jesus Christ.
If we truly believe that grace disturbed us, awakened us, re-birthed us, and invaded us, then we will sing in agreement with John Newton, joyfully singing of an amazing kind of grace–and we will forever treasure our salvation!
Peter writes in the last part of verse 12 that the things of our salvation are “things which angels desire to look into.” The word “desire” in verse 12 connotes passion, if not obsession. You could say that the angels are obsessed with our salvation.
Angels scratch their heads in wonder at the salvation of mankind. Angels, of course, are not human so they do not sin. They do not, therefore, know what it is like to experience redemption. They don’t know what it’s like to be “lost and found” or “to be blind and then see.”
Incidentally, this is a reminder to us that salvation is more than intellectually understanding biblical information. These angels were able to understand the gospel in an intellectual sense. In fact, angels are probably much smarter than human beings. They can grasp the gospel in an intellectual sense, yet they do not know salvation. Salvation is not just grasping intellectual information, it is receiving, experiencing, owning salvation with one’s entire being.
Angels “desire to look into” this salvation. The verb is in the present tense. So it is not as though the angels were only back then with the Old Testament prophets long ago desiring to look into this salvation. They are right now, at this moment, desiring to look into this salvation.
So what’s the application here?
Well, if this is the way the angels regard human salvation–and are at this very moment scratching their heads in wonder; obsessed as it were about our being redeemed of sin–how much more should we ourselves be thoroughly obsessed with treasuring the splendor and wonder, and joy of our salvation?!
Do you really treasure your salvation?
The Message paraphrase of verse 12 is helpful:
“Do you realize how fortunate you are?
Angels would have given anything to be in on this!”
Think of how little some of us marvel at our salvation. We can go entire days not even thinking about it; just taking it for granted.
The way to treasure our salvation is to remember that grace has invaded us.
A popular definition of grace is “God’s unmerited favor.” This is helpful, but insufficient in my estimation. I think a more helpful definition of grace is:
“God’s unmerited favor upon people who deserve only His wrath.”
That’s grace! Remembering we deserve only God’s wrath humbles us and makes us all the more grateful for the gospel.
It makes us treasure our salvation and gives us a greater appreciation for what it really means to “be a Christian.”
In Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus (Crossway: 2011), author Elyse Fitzpatrick writes:
“The primary reason the majority of kids from Christian homes stray from the faith is that they never really heard it or had it to begin with.” She adds, “Scratch the surface of the faith of the young people around you and you’ll find a disturbing deficiency of understanding of even the most basic tenets of Christianity.”
Fitzpatrick illustrates her point with a conversation she had with a young woman in her early 20s who had been raised in a Christian home and attended church for most of her life. Here’s how Fitzpatrick recalled the conversation:
After assuring me that she was, indeed, saved, I asked her,
“What does it mean to be a Christian?”
She replied, “It means that you ask Jesus into your heart.”
“Yes, all right, but what does that mean?”
“It means that you ask Jesus to forgive you.”
“Okay, but what do you ask him to forgive you for?”
“Bad things? I guess you ask him to forgive you for bad things, the sins you do.”
“Like what?”
A deer in the headlights stared back at me. I thought I’d try a different tack:
“Why would Jesus forgive you?”
She fidgeted:
“Um, because you ask him?”
“What do you think God wants you to know?”
She beamed: “He wants me to know that I should love myself and that there’s nothing I can’t do if I think I can.”
“And what does God want from you?” I asked.
“He wants me to do good stuff …. You know, be nice to others and don’t hang around with bad people.”
Fitzpatrick concludes with these sobering words:
We’ve transformed the holy, terrifying, magnificent, and loving God of the Bible into Santa and his elves. And instead of transmitting the gloriously liberating and life-changing truths of the gospel, we have taught our children that what God wants from them is morality. We have told them that being good (at least outwardly) is the be-all and end-all of their faith. This isn’t the gospel; we’re not handing down Christianity.
Elyse Fitzpatrick, Give Them Grace
Grace is not God’s giving to us because He owes us. Grace is His giving to us when we deserve the absolute opposite.
It’s like the difference between your giving money to someone who is in need and giving money to someone who has hurt you. Anyone can give money to someone in need. That’s not really grace. But when you give money to someone who has kicked you, hurt you, spit in your face–well that’s grace.
We are by nature sinners rebelling against the King. By our sin we have hurt God, kicked God, and spit in God’s face and yet–and yet!–He comes to us. His grace invades us. He saves us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
“Do you realize how fortunate you are?
Angels would have given anything to be in on this!”
What About You?
- Do you know what it means to be saved? If not, read here about following Christ.
- What steps will you take to maintain the joy and wonder of your salvation?
- Who do you know who might benefit from reading this post?
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