According to His Great Mercy

Christsfreeservant · Jan 6, 2026

“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 Peter 1:3-5 NASB1995)

It is good if you can read the whole of 1 Peter, or at least the whole of 1 Peter 1 to get the larger picture here. But this morning we will be covering just a few verses, although I may refer to some other verses, too.

We who believe in Jesus Christ with God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in the Lord Jesus are the chosen of God “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood” (1 Peter 1:2). So those who are telling you that God does not require you to obey him, they are lying to you. And the sanctifying work of the Spirit within us is in making us holy unto God, different from the world, because we are being made to be like Jesus.

For, we are not saved from our sins and guaranteed eternal life with God on the basis of lip service only. For by genuine faith in Jesus Christ we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but as servants of God and of his righteousness in holy living. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

And that is our inheritance, not that we “get saved” so we are forgiven all our sins so that when we die we get to go to heaven. That is certainly part of it, but that is not assured us on the basis of a one-time profession of faith in Jesus Christ, done deal. For our salvation from sin is progressive, and we are saved out of bondage to sin so that we can walk in obedience to our Lord, in his power at work within us. For “born again” has to do with a changed life, not like the old life, now living holy lives, pleasing to God, obeying our Lord.

Therefore, the inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled which will not fade away, and which is reserved in heaven for us, is not guaranteed us on the basis of a one-time profession of faith in Jesus Christ, but rather on the basis of a walk of faith in obedience to our Lord in holy living from now to eternity. And this is not demanding sinless perfection (1 John 2:1-2), but we learn in the Scriptures that if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, that we do not have salvation from sin and the hope of eternal life with God. For biblical faith results in us dying to sin and in obeying our Lord.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

So, please take this to heart, for far too many people are teaching this passage of Scripture in 1 Peter 1:3-5 out of context, and they are assuring all who claim to believe in Jesus Christ that all their sins are forgiven, and that heaven is secured for them when they die, and that there is nothing that they can do to make that not become a reality in their lives. But the Scriptures make it quite clear that if sin continues to be our practice, and not obedience to God and to his commandments, that we will not inherit eternal life with God, even if we did once profess to believe in him.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

For Our Nation

An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Recording Via Gerry Peters, music producer and arranger

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.

According to His Great Mercy
An Original Work / January 6, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

tdidymas · Jan 6, 2026

Christsfreeservant said:
“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 Peter 1:3-5 NASB 199 5)

"So, please take this to heart, for far too many people are teaching this passage of Scripture in 1 Peter 1:3-5 out of context, and they are assuring all who claim to believe in Jesus Christ that all their sins are forgiven, and that heaven is secured for them when they die, and that there is nothing that they can do to make that not become a reality in their lives."

I'd like to address this statement from your teaching. There is a right faith and a wrong faith, according to James and by implication, according to the other apostles, especially Paul. The faith of the NT by which we are justified is the faith that is described by Jesus and the apostles in the NT, and is the same faith as described in Heb. 11, which is all based on the saving work of Christ. It is the same faith by which Paul wrote in Phil 2:13, "for God is at work in you, to will and do His good pleasure."

Therefore, if a person actually believes that Christ has made them a new creation as is declared in Rom. 6, 1 Cor. and elsewhere, believing gospel statements such as 1 Pet. 2:24 "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed," it means they are among those John is talking about when he wrote (1 Jn. 5:1), "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."

If this is true (which it is), then it renders your statement in bold type above ineffective. It is for this reason that we can be confident that all our sins, past, present, and future, are forgiven, and that heaven is really secured for us when we die, because the Holy Spirit given to us guarantees our inheritance, and there really is nothing we can do to make that not a reality. IOW, we can't lose, and the reason for that is that the power of the Holy Spirit restrains us from practicing sin leading to death.

So then, those who think that someone can "go back into a sinful life" and lose salvation is assuming that everyone claiming to be a Christian has not really been saved from their sins, and thereby have to make efforts to hold on to their precarious salvation that they could lose at any time. It is an assumption that any Christian is the same person they were before, and are not a new creation as the basis of their identity in Christ.

Being a believer is not merely parroting the words, "Jesus is Lord," as in 1 Cor. 12:3. Paul there assumes that one is making that statement sincerely from the heart, with an attitude of repentance from sin. 1 Jn. 3:8 is saying essentially the same thing by saying, "No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." So John is essentially saying that if we are a true believer, the Holy Spirit will restrain us from committing sin leading to eternal death.

We know that there are false believers, because Jesus said, "Not everyone who calls Me 'Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven." Therefore, we must conclude that eternal security is not about our works, but about God's work in us. Our works prove whether we are a true believer or not, it does not determine whether we are true believers or not. So we continue to teach eternal security and unconditional forgiveness, because that is where every Christian must begin relationship with God.

Let the chips fall where they may. Let God determine those who are His. There will always be tares, poor ground, apostates, antinomians, false believers and such among the churches until Jesus comes again. Anyone who sincerely believes in the gospel will take heed of all the warnings in scripture, and seek the Lord until they are certain they are His, as also the apostles exhort people to do. Determining one's own election to salvation is never about what one does to obtain it (or "keep" it), but rather about what one does to become assured of what God has already done.

So then, it is my conclusion that God's mercy is unconditional, grace is unconditional, forgiveness is unconditional, and eternal life is unconditional. If the gift of God is not unconditional, it is not a gift, and therefore must be merited somehow. Paul says "if it is by works, then grace is no longer grace." Grace must be unconditional, or else it is not a gift (or "free gift" as some translations render it).

I am subtly taking your statement out of context, because I think something is missing in it. Certainly there are fools who will take verses of scripture like that out of the context of the whole NT, professing to know God but living like He doesn't exist. There will always be people like that, and only God can deal with it. Such people should be treated like unbelievers, because they are in reality. But believers should be reminded repeatedly that God's love for them is unconditional, and according to the Bible I read, that idea will motivate true believers to loving God, in which John wrote, "this is love for God, to obey His commands, and His commands are not burdensome." It means that the Holy Spirit drives us to desire to please God, and makes it possible for us to resist temptations to commit sin. Isa. 40:4 "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain."

What do you think of that?

Search

Search

We hope the site problems here are now solved, however, if you still have any issues, please start a ticket in Contact Us

According to His Great Mercy

Christsfreeservant

Senior Veteran

More options

tdidymas

Newbie

More options

Similar threads