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Your Secure Inheritance

A devotional by Drawing Near - GTY for reading on July 26th

"To obtain an inheritance which is . . . 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 Pet. 1:4-5).

Your eternal inheritance is doubly secure: it is reserved for you, and you are reserved for it.

When Peter wrote his first epistle, attitudes toward Christians in the Roman Empire were not at all favorable. Because they would not worship the emperor as a god, or enter into other sinful pagan practices, Christians were looked upon with suspicion and disdain. In addition, Nero had blamed them for burning Rome (an act he himself perpetrated), so anger and hatred toward them was at its peak.

Peter wrote to encourage them—and all believers—to live out their faith amid persecution, just as Jesus had done when He suffered unjustly (cf. 1 Pet. 2:21-23). He reminded them that despite the sufferings they might endure in this life, God will reward them with an inheritance that is eternally secure because it is reserved in heaven for them.

"Reserved" in 1 Peter 1:4 4 unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, indicates an inheritance that already exists, is presently protected, and will continually be protected. The place of its protection is heaven, where "neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal" (Matt. 6:20), and where "nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever [enter], but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Rev. 21:27). There is no safer place!

Not only is your inheritance protected for you, but also you are protected for it! That's what Peter meant when he said that it is "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 Pet. 1:4-5). The omnipotent, sovereign power of God will continually protect you until His work is fully accomplished in your life. Then He will grant you glorification: the fullness of the salvation for which He redeemed you.

You needn't fear the loss of your inheritance. Instead, rejoice in the protection of our gracious God.

Suggestions for Prayer

Thank God for His protection and for the assurance of your inheritance.

For Further Study

What do these verses teach about the security of your salvation: Romans 8:31-39 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God `is' for us, who `is' against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? 33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; 34 who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. , Philippians 1:6 6 being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ: , and Jude 24?

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