you life in Jesus is forever

God’s “choosing” of believers has generated fierce doctrinal differences among Christians; most of these differences come from theological and philosophical points of view about what the Bible means. God alone originates and accomplishes our salvation because of his grace. We do nothing to earn it. Being “chosen” does not remove the necessity for people to choose to follow him. The fact that God knows all events and decisions beforehand, even ordains them beforehand, does not mean that he forces the actions of his creatures, leaving them no choice. God took the initiative and chose people before they had done anything to deserve it. He had intimate knowledge of these future believers; he knew who would believe, and he knew them personally. These chosen ones were known by God the Father as a father knows his children, except that God knew about them from eternity past. God is not trapped in time—what he knows is from eternity past into eternity future.

God makes his choice effective by the presence of the Holy Spirit in those who believe, resulting in obedience. Only the Spirit can draw people to a saving relationship with God. The Spirit comes to the chosen people to make them holy, meaning that God sees his children as holy because they have been cleaned by his Son’s shed blood. But believers also are becoming holy as they learn to live for God. This is called “sanctification”—the process of Christian growth through which the Holy Spirit makes us like Christ. The obvious result is that the believers obeyed. The constant cleansing from sin available to us because of Christ’s sacrifice enables us to obey God faithfully.

God’s special favor refers to his grace—given to undeserving people. Peace refers to the peace that Christ made between sinners and God through his Son’s death on the cross. Peter wanted these believers, scattered as they were across the empire’s provinces, to be united in their experience of God’s favor and peace in their daily lives.¹

1:4 The word translated inheritance is also used in the Old Testament to describe the inheritance to which the Jews had looked forward in the Promised Land of Canaan (Numbers 32:19; Deuteronomy 2:12; 19:8–10). Christians look forward to another inheritance—eternal life with God. Jesus Christ is God’s only Son; thus he is sole heir (Mark 12:7). However, as children of God, believers also become heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17) of this priceless inheritance.

Peter used three Greek words, each beginning with the same letter and ending with the same syllable in Greek, to describe this inheritance (aphthartos, amiantos, amarantos). This inheritance is pure—it won’t lose its glory or freshness. It is undefiled—it will never become unfit for us or polluted by sin. It is beyond the reach of change and decay—meaning it will never pass away, disappear, or come to ruin as the result of hostile forces. These words contrast this inheritance with all earthly, human possessions. Nothing in the natural order—catastrophe, sin, age, evil—can affect it. God has made it indestructible, existing for all eternity.

Believers have noncancelable and nontransferable reservations in heaven. The inheritance is kept in heaven for us. The word kept is in the perfect tense in Greek, expressing a past activity with results that continue in the present; God has been keeping and still keeps the inheritance there—prepared, reserved, certain, and waiting. No matter what harm might come to believers on earth, the inheritance awaits, for it is kept safe with God.²

1 Barton, B., Comfort, P., Osborne, G., Taylor, L. K., & Veerman, D. (2001). Life Application New Testament Commentary (p. 1103). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.

2 Barton, B., Comfort, P., Osborne, G., Taylor, L. K., & Veerman, D. (2001). Life Application New Testament Commentary (p. 1104). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.