1 Peter 1:10-12 | Concerning This Salvation
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
Introduction
We are broken people living in a broken world, and there is no path without suffering for people like us in a world like that. Ever since Adam sinned so long ago in the Garden of Eden, we’ve been looking for salvation. Only a second Adam can undo what that first Adam did. And he has come and done it. Jesus saved us. But we’re not physically with him yet. We’re still here in this world and we’re still us—tired, inadequate, limited, more sinful than we wish we were. And we still suffer here—the pains of a broken world, the pains of our own sin, the pains of persecution—but we’re trusting Christ and looking to him alone for salvation. We know he will bring us to himself. The Bible says so.
The message of the gospel, that Jesus Christ came to live and die and rise again to save us from all that’s broken us is the story of the Bible from front to back. It was foretold in the Garden after Adam and Eve sinned, and it was prophesied by the prophets so long ago in the Old Testament. We stand today as recipients of the story in a privileged place. That’s what Peter wants us to see. We are privileged to live in this time of redemptive history. We see a more complete picture than even God’s prophets of old saw. This is the same thing Jesus wanted Peter to see. Jesus said to his disciples, “Blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it" (Matthew 13:16-17).
So we today, just as Peter and his original audience, live in a time of great privilege. We see the substance of what the prophets saw in shadows. We live in the time of the New Testament. We have seen the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah where the prophets could only imagine it. In our day, with all our suffering, we have something more than so many who lived before us. We have the complete revelation of God in Christ in the Bible, preserved and given to us by his Holy Spirit.
Yes, we live in hard days. We endure suffering. But we also rejoice in our suffering because we know that God has saved us, is saving us, and will save us on that great and final day. This isn’t a vague prediction; it’s a signed, sealed, and delivered promise guaranteed by the blood of Jesus and his resurrection.
The link between our passage today and what we saw last week is the word salvation. In verses 8-9 Peter said, “Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” Salvation is a result of the new birth and is our living hope. Peter now wants to add an exclamation point before moving on. You see in verse 10, “Concerning this salvation.” He’s saying to us now, “Let’s talk about that salvation a minute because it’s been the plan all along and now you, dear readers, have unprecedented insight into it.”
So let’s think about what this salvation is, and we can do that by seeing three big truths.
Salvation is about Grace
Salvation is from Christ
Salvation is for Us
Salvation is about Grace
Look at verse 10. “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully…”
Now that Peter has re-emphasized the subject of salvation, the next keyword we see is the word grace. This salvation is about grace.
What is grace? The classic definition is “unmerited favor.” So, we start with what it is not. Grace is not something we deserve. Positively, though, it is something given freely. It is forgiveness for our sin. It is God’s help for our life. It is salvation for the undeserving.
Grace is the mega-theme of the Bible. The Bible is a big book, and lots of people have lots of thoughts about it. Maybe you have an idea of what the Bible is about. Maybe you say it’s about God and his laws. Maybe you say it’s about how to live a good life. Maybe you say it’s a historical book of interest because it shows us where we came from. All of those things are true. But the Bible is first and foremost a book about the grace of God.
Yes, the Bible shows us how to avoid sin and live a holy life, but it’s not what it’s about. The Bible is not for avoiding sin but for gaining Christ. It’s not a big law book but a massive love story. It is God coming to us and revealing his deepest heart for us. It’s the story of salvation for sinners. It is God’s love pouring over us though we don’t deserve it. It’s grace.
Understanding the Bible is about grace changes not only how we understand it but also gives new motivation to read it and study it. I mean, who wants to read a law-book? I love history, but at some point, it’s a memorization game. So-and-so was born in this year and lived this long. That people group warred against that people group. And so on. If the Bible is only a law book or historical narrative, it has limits. It influences our life, but it can’t sit on top of our life. But if the Bible is the story of God’s grace coming to sinners like us, if it’s the story of how the all-Holy God above redeemed our souls, if it’s about the most glorious person in existence bringing dead people to life in him, if it’s about the Lover of our souls not letting the romance die, then it matters more than any other book. It’s endlessly fascinating because it is the place where we see most clearly the kind of heart God has for us.
I mean think about it. If I told you that God wrote a book about how he felt about you, about what he was going to do for you, about how his love was going to overcome your dead heart and bring life to your dead body and restore all that your sin took from you and give you the deepest possible joy and satisfaction, wouldn’t that be worth reading? What if God were to say to us each morning that his massive love will overcome all of today’s failures and undo all of yesterday’s pain? What if God were to say to us each evening that all the sorrow of today will be swallowed up by his mercy? What if God were to say to us each day that his joy is our strength, that his mercy is ours forever, that underneath every second of our lives are his everlasting arms? Wouldn’t we want to read that book? Well, that’s what the Bible is. It’s a story of grace for all our life. That changes everything—even our suffering, especially our suffering. Our entire life is one of grace, even the hard parts.
Grace is what the prophets saw. As they looked at the Bible, all they could see was grace. Even in those hard-to-read books like Leviticus, all they saw was grace. After all, why did God tell his people how to live before him? Why all the cleanliness laws and ceremonial laws and all the rest? Because God is creating a holy people so that he himself can live among them. But we’re not holy, are we? So he has to tell us what we must become. Even more, though, Leviticus isn’t just a rule book of what we should be, it’s a promise book of what we will, in Christ, become. God will live among his people and they will be holy just as he is because Christ will sacrificially take our uncleanness and freely give us his righteousness. It’s a promise. It’s grace.
No wonder the prophets searched and inquired carefully. When they started to see this, by God’s grace, they couldn’t believe it. God showed them what he was going to do—how he was going to save the world, how he was going to redeem his people. What is this salvation? What is this grace? How far does it go? How will the Savior come to restore what’s broken? Will he come and rule as king? Will he lead us to the Promised Land as it was meant to be? Will he redeem what is destroyed? When will he come? What will he be like? What will it mean for us?
They searched and inquired carefully because they knew that of all things demanding attention in this world, the grace of God and his salvation demands the most. It is the answer to all our problems. It is the vaccine to all our illnesses. It is the home we’re all looking for. God is breaking into this broken world to undo all our sin and to bring us back to himself. He’s not asking us to accomplish it, he’s telling us he will. He’s not requiring our perfect obedience; he’s doing it himself. Our salvation is about grace—God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
What else in all this world should draw our attention more than the grace of God in salvation?
Salvation is about grace, and it comes from Christ. That’s where we go next.
Salvation is from Christ
Look at verse 11. “Inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.”
God began giving clarity as the prophets searched out the plan of God. They saw a Savior would come. So they asked more questions. Who was he? When would he come? What would he be like? What would he do?
Those questions were not just questions that came from their reading of the Bible, but were given, Peter says, by the Spirit of Christ. Jesus himself, through the Holy Spirit, helped them. He indicated certain things to them. He gave insight into God’s word. He led them to the right questions, to the right connections, to the right passages. Their search was not a dead-end job. It was a divinely inspired calling.
So what did they find? Well, they found predictions of the coming Christ. The word Christ means Anointed One. They saw in the Bible an anointed one coming that would bear not simply the name of Christ but the mantle of Christ, the Anointed One to fulfill God’s promises.
But what they saw was probably surprising to them. They expected a Christ of glory, but the Spirit showed them the Christ would first suffer. A suffering Messiah? A suffering Christ? Unthinkable! Even when Jesus lived, the popular view was that God’s Christ would be the king that would lead the nation of Israel to what it was designed to be all along. He would conquer kingdoms and establish his rule on the earth. And, of course, Jesus did do just that and will do it fully at the end of this age. But the Spirit revealed to the prophets the Christ would not only have his glory, but he would also first suffer.
Now, that probably really helped them. Here’s why. The prophets’ lives weren’t easy. They were persecuted. They faced the wrath of an unbelieving society. They couldn’t have fully understood everything they wrote, but as they heard of the suffering Christ and then looked at their own suffering, they must have smiled. He was going to be like them. Their suffering wasn’t an irregularity, it was a model of his suffering, a foreshadowing of his suffering. And if their suffering was that, then what would his glory be if not a promise of their own in him?
The prophets saw that God’s salvation wasn’t coming like some magic spell—a few words and all is set right. It was coming through suffering. It was coming at a great cost. Why? Because to undo our sin is not a costless task. Our sin created a gulf not so easily rejoined. Our sin isn’t a misstep; it’s an over-step. It’s transgression. Our sin isn’t a collection of mistakes, it’s a rebellion against God. Sin doesn’t just harm our relationship with God; it separates us from him. Sin isn’t just a blemish on our skin; it’s death in our hearts. Sin is costly and can only be overcome through costly measures. We see this play out in the Old Testament sacrifices. How is man forgiven? By the shedding of blood. An animal is slain, and its blood sprinkled on the altar and over the people. We come back to God under sacrificial blood.
Well, what the prophets saw was that the blood sacrifice was to be perfected in the coming Savior. For example, the prophet Isaiah saw this. In chapter 53 of his book is the breathtaking prophecy of God’s Suffering Servant. He would bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. He would be smitten by God and afflicted. He would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. Upon him would be lain the iniquity of us all. By his wounds, we would be healed.
Fast forward to the cross of Christ. We look at Jesus’s cross and we look at Isaiah 53 and we know Isaiah wasn’t making this up. Jesus is the Suffering Servant. Isaiah saw beforehand what would come to pass. He saw Jesus before Jesus came. He saw that salvation is about the grace of God and salvation is from Christ. It is through Jesus that God causes it to come to pass.
But that wasn’t all he saw. Yes, he saw the suffering of Christ, but he also saw the subsequent glories. In verse 10 he said, “When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” Not only suffering but also subsequent glories. Jesus will see his offspring. God will prolong his days. Resurrection is coming.
Our salvation is not coming from out of something within us. We are not pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We are not earning our salvation; we are receiving our salvation from Christ. He did the work. He accomplished it. He secured it. It’s from him. He who knew no sin became sin for us. The Christ came and suffered. Not only did that help the suffering prophets but think of the impact this would have on Peter’s suffering audience. Their life mirrored the life of Christ, full of suffering, on the way to glory. And you, dear suffering Christian, have the same hope. This is your story, wrapped up in His story.
We don’t just have salvation; we have a Savior, Jesus. He saved us. He lived the life we should have lived but didn’t and died the death we should die but now won’t, and he rose to new life to give us this living hope, this great salvation. Salvation is from Jesus. Suffering and the subsequent glory. The cross and then the crown. Death then life. That’s the grace of God from Christ.
So salvation is about grace, and it’s from Christ, but Peter wants us to make sure we don’t miss that—our third point—salvation is for us.
Salvation is for Us
Look at verse 12. “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”
As the prophets poured over the scriptures, discerning the salvation of God and the Christ who was to come, they realized they weren’t doing all this work for themselves. They were doing it for future generations—for you and me. “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you.” I find this absolutely stunning. Do you hear that? The prophets knew they wouldn’t see what we now see. As they searched the scriptures, they had us in mind because Jesus himself had us in mind, and he put us on their mind as part of their motivation to keep going. Isn’t that stunning?
Remember back in verse 10, Peter said, “the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours.” The grace they prophesied about was our grace. It was our inheritance. We are heirs of all the Old Testament hopes and dreams, all their promises. This salvation is for you.
And not only the prophets knew this, but so also did the evangelists—those who shared the gospel with you. We all have someone in our life who shared the gospel with us. Well, how did they get to you? Peter has an answer. Do you know why those people shared the gospel with you? Look at the middle of verse 12. “In the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.” Those people shared the gospel with you not only because they wanted to but because God wanted to. God himself came to you. The Spirit of God was sent from heaven to bring the gospel to you, to bring grace to you, to save you!
And God wants you to share that message of grace with others as well. If you’re in Christ, you’re part of the grand Story now. Your little life isn’t so little anymore. As Eugene Peterson once said, “The Christian faith matures only when it is comprehended in the longer perspectives.” Here’s the longer perspective—God told long ago about this salvation, and Christ fulfilled it, and you’re wrapped in it. It’s what the prophets saw. It’s what the evangelists knew. It’s what God wants you to take hold of. Salvation has come by grace, in Christ, for you!
Now, in case we don’t get it, there’s something more Peter wants us to see. Look at the end of verse 12. This salvation is so big, the angels long to look into it.
In the 16th century, the Italian artist Tintoretto painted Last Supper. It’s not as famous as da Vinci’s but it’s remarkable in its own way. It’s a very natural and human-looking painting with a lot going on. Da Vinci’s Last Supper is very bright. Tintoretto’s is darker but light appears in two primary places. It’s brightest in the halo around Jesus’s head. And then we notice light again in the top left, where angels are emanating from a lantern. Why are the angels there? To look into this amazing event—Jesus feeding his disciples the last supper, his body and blood that we remember each week in the taking of communion. The angels are looking down at what’s happening. That’s what Peter is saying they do. They long to look into this salvation. Why? Well, the angels are not recipients of the gospel. It’s not for them. The angels in Tintoretto’s painting don’t have halos. The disciples do—all but Judas. It is the disciples who are becoming holy by the hand of Christ. The angels are there to see sinners become saints.
The angels are fascinated by the gospel. Here’s why. We know that some angels long ago sinned and fell from heaven. Satan is chief among them. But he’s not alone. There is a countless number of fallen angels. Now, angels are real beings, with real emotions. We can see that in the good angels in their praise to God and from verses like this. Those angels who remain in heaven with God look at their fellow fallen angels and then look at what God has done for us in the gospel and they realize the same hope of salvation is not extended to their fallen counterparts. They can’t stop looking at the gospel because it is a message of grace that is reserved only for us, and to them it’s beautiful. It’s not for them. It’s for us alone. Wow.
Let’s be sure not to miss this massive point. This salvation is for us. It’s for us. Peter wants that to sink in, because it makes a real difference in our lives, especially as we face suffering. We will be able to endure to the degree to which we understand that God loves us and saves us by grace in Christ. When we deeply receive that, we find it not only possible to suffer but also glorious to do so for him.
We find it that way because we start to understand that we don’t deserve this privilege. We don’t deserve to be so close to God. We don’t deserve to be saved from our suffering. In fact, we deserve the suffering. But what God does for us in our suffering now as Christians is transform it into glory. That’s what happened to Jesus. It was suffering and the subsequent glory. That story of the gospel is playing out in every life of every Christian. Our suffering is not an aberration, it’s not a problem, it’s not an interruption, it’s a proclamation of the gospel itself. Your life as you suffer in this world under the grace of God is a living example of the grace of God. Your life speaks to the watching world, it retells the gospel story of God’s grace and salvation. As you suffer with Christ, you bear witness to his grace and others see it and they start asking questions. And who knows? Maybe God wants to use your suffering to bring others into the kingdom. Would it not be worth it all if one day 10 trillion years from now in the New Earth you walked into a room and suddenly realized that everyone there was there because they saw the way you suffered and looked to Christ and they looked to him as a result?
Conclusion
When we heard the gospel and gave our life to Christ, that was our entrance into this great story that God’s been telling since the world began. In fact, it began before the world began. The Bible says the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). So that means before God even spoke the first creative word, his plan was to save you by grace in Christ. If that doesn’t astound you, I don’t know what will. God saved you before you knew you needed saving. He sent Christ to die for you before your sin even killed you. God did what you cannot do on your behalf without your request for your good and for his glory. You are saved right now because God decided before the foundation of the world that he wanted you in his family, and all history proves it out.
As you and I read the Bible, we are reading not only a great historical narrative but our historical narrative. That doesn’t mean the Bible is about me and you—it’s about Jesus. But it does mean that we ought to receive it as from him to us. He is holy and worthy of worship, and he has saved us unto himself.
The salvation of God has come by grace in Christ to us, and God wants us to have it all. He’s not leaving anything out. We have a whole salvation in a complete Savior. No sin is left unforgiven. No pain is left uncomforted. No tear is left unwiped by his loving hand. This salvation is as whole as anything will ever be. Receive it. Accept it. It changes everything. What can you not endure if your salvation is that secure?
Let me close with this thought experiment from my friend Dane Ortlund.
Let's say (1) all your past, present, and future sins are forgiven and thrown into the sea; (2) you are guaranteed to reach an unending [paradise in] heaven; (3) a Father who loves you more than you love yourself is tending to and overseeing every detail of your life; and (4) every pain big or little that washes into your life can only contribute to your final radiance and glory.
How would you live differently today?
That’s Peter’s point.
Let’s pray.
