2  The Believer’s Eternal Inheritance  (1 Peter 1:3–5)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1:3–5)

The apostle Peter follows the introduction of his first letter with a sweeping doxology regarding the wonder of salvation. He considered it essential to begin the body of the letter with this joyous paean of praise inasmuch as the believers he addressed faced severe persecution from Rome. The passage is a hymn of worship designed to encourage Christians living in a hostile world to look past their temporal troubles and rejoice in their eternal inheritance.

Peter’s doxology has components that help all believers praise God more intelligently. To help the church grasp its eternal inheritance and bless and worship God more fully, Peter sets forth five relevant features: the source, motive, appropriation, nature, and security of the believer’s inheritance.

THE SOURCE OF THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, (1:3a)

Peter assumes it is necessary for believers to bless God. The intention is so implicit that the Greek text omits the word be, which the translators added. (In the original, the sentence literally begins, “Blessed the God, ” which conveys Peter’s expectation that his audience “bless God” as the source of all spiritual inheritance.) The apostle adores God and implores others to do the same.

Peter further calls Him the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, a phrase that identified God in a distinctly Christian way. Historically the Jews had blessed God as their creator and redeemer from Egypt. His creation emphasized His sovereign power at work and His redemption of Israel from Egypt His saving power at work. But those who became Christians were to bless God as the Father of their Lord Jesus Christ.

With one exception (when the Father forsook Him on the cross, Matthew 27:46), every time the Gospels record that Jesus addressed God, He called Him “Father” or “My Father.” In so doing, Jesus was breaking with the Jewish tradition that seldom called God Father, and always in a collective rather than personal sense (e.g., Deut. 32:6; Isa. 63:16; 64:8; Jer. 3:19; 31:9; Mal. 1:6; 2:10). Furthermore, in calling God His Father, Jesus was claiming to share His nature. While speaking with the Jews at an observance of the Feast of the Dedication, Christ declared, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Later, in response to Philip’s request that He reveal the Father, Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9; cf. vv. 8, 10–13). Jesus affirmed that He and the Father possess the same divine nature—that He is fully God (cf. John 17:1, 5). The Father and the Son mutually share the same life—one is intimately and eternally equal to the other—and no one can truly know one without truly knowing the other (cf. Matt. 11:27; Luke 10:22). No person can claim to know God unless he knows Him as the One revealed in Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus Himself said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him” (John 14:6–7).

In his writings, the apostle Paul also declared the Father and the Son to be of the same essence: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 1:3; cf. Eph. 1:3, 17). Likewise, John wrote in his second epistle: “Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love” (2 John 3). Whenever the New Testament calls God Father, it primarily denotes that He is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 7:21; 10:32; 11:25–27; 16:27; 25:34; 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke 10:21–22; 22:29; 23:34; John 3:35; 5:17–23; 6:32, 37, 44; 8:54; 10:36; 12:28; 15:9; 17:1; Rom. 15:6; 2 Cor. 11:31; cf. John 14:23; 15:16; 16:23; 1 John 4:14; Rev. 1:6). God is also the Father of all believers (Matt. 5:16, 45, 48; 6:1, 9; 10:20; 13:43; 23:9; Mark 11:25; Luke 12:30, 32; John 20:17; Rom. 1:7; 8:15; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 2:18; 4:6; Phil. 4:20; Heb. 12:9; James 1:27; 1 John 2:13; 3:1).

One commentator calls Peter’s use in verse 3 of Christ’s full redemptive name “a concentrated confession.” All that the Bible reveals about the Savior appears in that title: Lord identifies Him as sovereign Ruler; Jesus as incarnate Son; and Christ as anointed Messiah-King. The apostle personalizes that magnificent title with the simple inclusion of the pronoun our. The divine Lord of the universe belongs to all believers, as does the Jesus who lived, died, and rose again for them, and as does the Christ, the Messiah whom God anointed to be their eternal King who will grant them their glorious inheritance.

THE MOTIVE FOR THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE

who according to His great mercy (1:3b)

His great mercy was the motive behind God’s granting believers eternal life—sharing the very life of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Ephesians 2:4–5 also expresses this divine generosity, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (cf. Titus 3:5). Both here and in Ephesians, the apostolic writer added an enlarging adjective (great and “rich”).

Mercy focuses on the sinner’s miserable, pitiful condition. The gospel is prompted by God’s compassion toward those who were dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1–3). All believers were once in that wretched, helpless condition, compounded by a deceitful heart (Gen. 6:5; 8:21; Eccl. 9:3; Jer. 17:9; Mark 7:21–23), corrupt mind (Rom. 8:7–8; 1 Cor. 2:14), and wicked desires (Eph. 4:17–19; 5:8; Titus 1:15) that made them slaves to sin, headed for just punishment in hell. Therefore they needed God, in mercy, to show compassion toward their desperate, lost condition and remedy it (cf. Isa. 63:9; Hab. 3:2; Matt. 9:27; Mark 5:19; Luke 1:78; Rom. 9:15–16, 18; 11:30–32; 1 Tim. 1:13; 1 Peter 2:10).

Mercy is not the same as grace. Mercy concerns an individual’s miserable condition, whereas grace concerns his guilt, which caused that condition. Divine mercy takes the sinner from misery to glory (a change of condition), and divine grace takes him from guilt to acquittal (a change of position; see Rom. 3:24; Eph. 1:7). The Lord grieves over the unredeemed sinner’s condition of gloom and despair (Ezek. 18:23, 32; Matt. 23:37–39). That is manifest clearly during His incarnation as Jesus healed people’s diseases (Matt. 4:23–24; 14:14; 15:30; Mark 1:34; Luke 6:17–19). He could have demonstrated His deity in many other ways, but He chose healings because they best illustrated the compassionate, merciful heart of God toward sinners suffering the temporal misery of their fallen condition (cf. Matt. 9:5–13; Mark 2:3–12). Jesus’ healing miracles, which nearly banished illness from Israel, were proof that what the Old Testament said about God the Father being merciful (Ex. 34:6; Ps. 108:4; Lam. 3:22; Mic. 7:18) was true.

Apart from even the possibility of any merit or worthiness on the sinner’s part, God grants mercy to whomever He will: “For He [God] says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Rom. 9:15–16). Out of His infinite compassion and free, abundant, and limitless mercy, He chose to grant eternal life—it was not because of anything sinners could do or deserve (Ex. 33:19; Rom. 9:11–13; 10:20; 2 Tim. 1:9). It is completely understandable that Paul called God “the Father of mercies” (2 Cor. 1:3).

THE APPROPRIATION OF THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE

has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (1:3c)

The prophet Jeremiah once asked the rhetorical question, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?” (Jer. 13:23). His graphic analogy implied a negative answer to the question of whether or not sinners could change their natures (cf. 17:9). Humanity’s sinful nature needs changing (Mark 1:14–15; John 3:7, 17–21, 36; cf. Gen. 6:5; Jer. 2:22; 17:9–10; Rom. 1:18–2:2; 3:10–18), but only God, working through His Holy Spirit, can transform the sinful human heart (Jer. 31:31–34; John 3:5–6, 8; Acts 2:38–39; cf. Ezek. 37:14; Acts 15:8; Rom. 8:11; 1 John 5:4). In order for sinners to receive an eternal inheritance from God, they must experience His means of spiritual transformation, the new birth. Peter affirms that truth in this last portion of verse 3, when he says God has caused believers to be born again (see discussion on 1:23–25 in chapter 7 of this volume; cf. 2 Cor. 5:17).

Jesus effectively explained the necessity of regeneration—the new birth—to Nicodemus, a prominent Jewish teacher.

To illustrate the means of the new birth, Jesus referred to the episode of the bronze serpent (Num. 21:4–9), an Old Testament narrative Nicodemus would have known well. When the snake-bitten Israelites in the wilderness acknowledged their sin and God’s judgment on them for it and looked to the means He provided to deliver them (a bronze snake on a pole), they received physical healing from their poisonous bites. By analogy, if sinners would experience spiritual deliverance, they must recognize their spiritual condition as poisoned by their sin and experience salvation from spiritual and eternal death by looking to the Son of God and trusting in Him as their Savior. Jesus cut to the core of Nicodemus’s self-righteousness and told him what all sinners need to hear, that they are spiritually regenerated only by faith in Jesus Christ (cf. John 1:12–13; Titus 3:5; James 1:18).

Peter goes on to declare that regeneration results in believers receiving a living hope. The unbelieving world knows only dying hopes (Job 8:13; Prov. 10:28; Eph. 2:12), but believers have a living, undying hope (Pss. 33:18; 39:7; Rom. 5:5; Eph. 4:4; Titus 2:13; Heb. 6:19) that will come to a complete, final, and glorious fulfillment (Rom. 5:2; Col. 1:27). It is a hope that Peter later described when he wrote, “according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). This hope is what prompted Paul to tell the Philippians, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). At death believers’ hope becomes reality as they enter the glorious presence of God and the full, unhindered, joyous fellowship with the Trinity, the angels, and other saints (Rom. 5:1–2; Gal. 5:5).

The means of Christians’ appropriating this living hope and eternal inheritance is spiritual birth, and the power for that appropriation was demonstrated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Jesus told Martha, just prior to the raising of her brother Lazarus from the grave, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die” (John 11:25–26; cf. 14:19). Paul instructed the Corinthians concerning the vital ramifications of the resurrection, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:17). Even if one hoped in Christ in this life, but not beyond it, he would be lost (v. 19). However, Christ rose from the dead, forever securing the believer’s living hope in heaven by finally conquering death (vv. 20–28, 47–49, 54–57).

THE NATURE OF THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE

to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, (1:4a)

The key word of this entire passage is inheritance, which is wealth passed down, or a legacy one receives as a member of a family. The concept had roots in the Old Testament, which the Jewish Christians in Peter’s audience would have easily identified with. In fact, the same Greek root (klēronomid), rendered inheritance here, is used in the Septuagint to speak of the portions of Canaan allotted by God to each tribe in Israel except Levi (cf. Num. 18:20–24; Josh. 13:32–33). See Numbers 26:54, 56 (the verb form appears in vv. 53, 55); 34:2 (where it is used of the entire Promised Land as Israel’s collective inheritance; cf. Deut. 12:9); Joshua 11:23; Deuteronomy 3:20 (of the Transjordan tribes’ portion of land). The word is also used numerous times of other kinds of inheritance (e.g., the individual inheritance of the daughters of Zelophehad [Num. 27:7–11]). Klēronomia is often translated “possession” in English translations of the Old Testament.

The Old Testament repeatedly affirms that under the old covenant the people of God, the nation of Israel, received an inheritance (Num. 26:53–56; 34:2, 29; Deut. 3:28; 26:1; 31:7; Josh. 11:23; 14:1; 1 Kings 8:36; 1 Chron. 16:18; Ps. 105:11; cf. Ps. 78:55). Peter told his readers that just as Israel received an earthly inheritance, the land of Canaan, so the church receives a spiritual inheritance in heaven (Acts 20:32; 26:18; Eph. 1:11, 18; Col. 1:12; 3:24; Heb. 9:15). The apostle reminded them that in the midst of their persecution they ought to praise God and patiently wait for His promised eternal inheritance (4:13; Matt. 24:13; Heb. 12:2–3; cf. Rom. 6:18; 8:18; 12:12). Therefore he wanted to increase their knowledge (and that of all believers) of the eternal blessing that is already theirs by promise in Christ (cf. Rom. 8:16–17; 1 John 3:2–3). Until then, God is in the process of maturing His children and conforming their behavior so that it is increasingly consistent with their spiritual inheritance (cf. 4:12–13, 19; 5:10; Heb. 12:5–12; James 1:2–4; 5:11). Peter’s words remind of Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians to focus on that inheritance: “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Col. 3:1–2; cf. Matt. 6:33; 1 John 2:15–17).

Peter adds three descriptive terms to further define the kind of inheritance believers obtain: it is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away. Imperishable (aphtharton) refers to what is not corruptible, not liable to death, or not subject to destruction. Unlike the Israelites’ earthly inheritance that came and went because of their sins, believers’ spiritual inheritance will never be subject to destruction. Believers’ inheritance in heaven, yet to be revealed in the future, is a glorious treasure that will never be lost.

Undefiled (amianton) describes things that are unstained or unpolluted. Everything in the fallen creation is stained and polluted by sin (Rom. 8:20–22; 1 John 5:19), and therefore it is all flawed. That is what the apostle Paul referred to when he wrote, “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now” (Rom. 8:22). All earthly inheritance is defiled, but not the undefiled inheritance believers have in Jesus Christ (cf. Phil. 3:7–9; Col. 1:12). It is flawless and perfect.

Finally, the believer’s inheritance will not fade away. That phrase translates the word amaranton, which was used in secular Greek to describe a flower that did not wither or die. The term in this context suggests that believers have an inheritance that will never lose its magnificence. None of the decaying elements of the world can affect the kingdom of heaven (Luke 12:33; cf. Rev. 21:27; 22:15). None of the ravages of time or the evils of sin can touch the believer’s inheritance because it is in a timeless, sinless realm (cf. Deut. 26:15; Ps. 89:29; 2 Cor. 5:1). Later in this letter, Peter reiterates the unfading nature of the church’s inheritance: “And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory” (5:4).

THE SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER’S INHERITANCE

reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1:4b–5)

Having pledged that the believer’s spiritual inheritance was permanent in nature, Peter adds to his readers’ security by declaring that the believer’s inheritance is reserved in heaven. Its nature is fixed and unalterable and so is its place. Reserved (tetērēmenēri) means “guarded” or “watched over.” The perfect passive participle conveys the idea of the already existing inheritance being carefully guarded in heaven for all those who trust in Christ. Not only will that inheritance not change, but no one will plunder it. The reality of a guarded and imperishable eternal inheritance is precisely what Jesus referred to when He said,

Heaven is the securest place in all the universe. The apostle John characterizes it as a place where “nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27; cf. 22:14–15).

Not only is the inheritance divinely guarded, those who possess it are also protected by the power of God from doing anything to forfeit it or be severed from it. God’s power is His sovereign omnipotence that continuously protects His elect. If God is for believers, no one can successfully oppose them (Rom. 8:31–39; Jude 24). All the details of this promise are to provide the believer with an undying hope of heaven, so as to provide joy and endurance.

The Christian’s continued faith in God is evidence of His keeping and protecting work (John 8:31; Col. 1:21–23; Heb. 3:6, 14; James 2:17, 20–26; 1 John 5:4, 11–13). At conversion, God energizes faith in believers’ hearts, and as He keeps them He continues to energize their faith (Ps. 37:24; John 10:28; Phil. 1:6). By His grace, God’s omnipotent, protecting power and the believer’s perseverance of faith always work hand in hand (cf. Dan. 6:1–23).

This security for the believer and his inheritance both look beyond this life and human history for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Salvation (sōtēriari) means “rescue” or “deliverance, ” and here it denotes the full, final, eternal life God has not yet consummated. The New Testament implicitly reveals a threefold chronology for salvation. The past aspect of salvation is justification; it comes when one believes in Christ (Rom. 10:9–10, 14–17) and is delivered from the penalty of sin. The present aspect of salvation is sanctification. Believers are continually being delivered from the power of sin (1 John 1:9). Ephesians 2:8 declares, “For by grace you have been saved.” The Greek literally says, “you are having been saved.” Salvation thus is a past occurrence with continuing results in the present. Third, salvation also has a future aspect, glorification (cf. Rom. 13:11). Whenever a believer dies, God completely and finally delivers him from the presence of sin (cf. Heb. 9:28) and instantly brings him into his eternal inheritance in His heavenly presence. Paul eloquently expressed to Timothy his personal confidence in the certainty of his future inheritance: “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (2 Tim. 4:18; cf. Acts 26:18; Eph. 1:11, 14, 18; Col. 1:12).

The book of Hebrews has much to say about the believer’s future inheritance. In reference to angels, the writer rhetorically asks, “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?” (1:14). Later on the writer says this concerning Christ and the new covenant: “For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance” (9:15; cf. v. 28).

The future aspect of salvation is particularly said to be ready, that is, complete and already awaiting the believer’s arrival. But future salvation is also connected to the end of human history. Peter says it is to be revealed in the last time. God will not make believers’ inheritance fully complete until the last episode of redemptive history, namely the return of Jesus Christ (cf. Matt. 25:34). After the rapture, all believers receive rewards at the judgment seat of Christ:

And the fullness of the Christian’s eternal inheritance will be realized at the end of the millennial kingdom when God creates the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 21:1–27):

Just as originally the Lord Himself was the inheritance of the Levites (Josh. 13:33), the priestly tribe of Israel, so He also is the inheritance of the royal priesthood of Christ (1 Peter 2:9). The psalmist knew with certainty that he would inherit God: “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me” (Ps. 16:5–6; cf. 73:23–26). The prophet Jeremiah, even in the midst of the most difficult times, firmly grasped the same concept: “‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I have hope in Him’” (Lam. 3:24). Christians are also heirs of God with Christ: “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:16–17).

Christians possess some of the benefits of salvation in this life, but the great fullness of redemption is yet to come. God has promised unfathomable glories in the eternal perfection of heaven that will one day be the conscious experience of every believer. He is the source of the believer’s inheritance; it came because of His mercy and by the gracious means of the new birth; and it remains perfect and eternally secure, a reality all believers can fix their hope on.