The Apostle Peter in his first epistle writes to early persecuted Christians who have been driven from their homeland into other parts of the world. Even there they are in hostile territory. Peter writes to remind them that they have a great hope in the living Christ in such testing.  Let me give you a helpful outline for the first 9 verses of chapter  one of 1st Peter.

I. We live in the hope of earthly placement & purpose. (1:1)

II We live in the hope of everlasting love. (1:2)

III. We live in the hope of eternal security. (1:3)

IV. We live in the hope of incredible riches. (1:4-5)

V. We live in the hope of purposeful testing. (1:6-7)

VI. We live in the hope of expectant joy. (1:8-9)

In these verses are so much practical truths to help believers to remember that the Lord is working all things out in his salvation work for us and others. God is at work and He offers all we need to remain faithful to him even when the world is not friendly to us, our way of life and our leader Jesus Christ. 

These verses are so packed with doctrinal truth but for today i want us to take a brief look at the third point found in 1st Peter 1:3.  We LIVE in HOPE of ETERNAL SECURITY!  We are secure even in hostile territory. And our security comes from the nature of salvation. Salvation begins with God and ends with God. Man can not provide it in any part. The word salvation means to be delivered. Delivered from the payment of sin (physical, spiritual & eternal death)., the power of sin, and after this earthly life the presence of sin.  In verse 1 we find God the Father planned salvation, God the Spirit performs salvation and God the Son purchased salvation. In verse 3 we find some of the nature of salvation which is the very nature of God. 

God's Mercy - begins the work of God's salvation.  You may ask what is mercy? Let me give you a simple description. The mercy of God is He does not give what we deserve. What do we deserve as sinners? Eternal Death in Hell.  The grace of God is different, the grace of God is He gives what we don't deserve. He gives salvation to repentant sinners who recieve his great gift.  To live in God's security we must understand that salvation is not on our own merit, salvation is by God's mercy alone. God mercifully sent his Son, to live, die and arise for sins payment. Mercy in it's very desciption is mercy.  It is a gift and will never be withdrawn because of a lack of merit because it was never given on behalf of our merit. How do we recieve mercy and how do we keep mercy?  It is a gift of God so mercy saves and keeps us.  

Begotten Us Again- In verse 3 the Holy Spirit wants us to know salvation is all of mercy which  "Borns Again". We read much about this in John's gospel. Jesus said to Nicodemus " Ye must be born again". Meaning born of the spirit. Born from above. Spiritually quickened and brought to spiritual and eternal life. Here in 1st Peter 1:3 the word begotten in the original  language is in the tense which means when you were born again, it was a once and for all event. It has happened, it will continue to happen and it will always happen. God has rebirthed his believers and forever makes us " Lively Hopes " How many times can a human be born physically?  The answer is ONCE. How may times can a person be born? The answer is the same, ONCE! You will not find a person born more than once physically and in the scripture you will not find one person born twice again spiritually. 

When we are saved and God begins His work of salvation in us we are saved by ABUNDANT MERCY and BIRTHED from ABOVE by the LIVING LORD unto a LIVELY HOPE by the .........

RESURRECTION of JESUS- Salvation is sealed by the great power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ who arose from the dead. We are safe and secure in Christ's  almighty power.  Hebrews 7:25 says " Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him seeing He EVER LIVETH to make intercession for them".  In John 17 we find the high priestly prayer of Jesus and we find Him praying for his present disciiples and for his future disciples (us) as well. He prays for our saftey, security and salvation to come to completion. Jesus always gets His prayers answered! From this we learn that the only way a genuine repentant sinner who by faith has recieved God's merciful and gracious salvation could lose their salvation is if the resurrected Jesus dies.  And that is not going to happen. HE EVER LIVES so we will ever live. 

Now that give us security found in truth which is our constant hope in this life.  Let us rejoice in such and live in surrender to the ONE who provides our complete salvation.