Praise God for the Living Hope
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1Peter 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade— kept in heaven for you,
who through faith are shielded by God’s power
until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
This living hope, this anticipation of going to heaven, receiving our inheritance, should be so evident in our lives that it would invoke others to ask us about it. Thus Peter writes, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." 1Peter 3:15b Furthermore inherent in saving faith is the sense of eternal security. For God shields the elect by His power such that their inheritance is guaranteed. In fact those who don't have this security characteristically doubt whether in fact they will be ultimately saved, and thus don't generally have the kind of hope expressed here.
Granted that only those who endure to the end will be saved, but enduring to the end, the perseverance of the saints, is part of the whole salvation package one receives, having been born again. Endurance in faith is part of the new nature. Thus verses which correlate behavior and salvation are not about losing salvation but rather about diagnosing whether one has it to begin with. "For everyone born of God overcomes the world" 1John 5:4