October 26
“Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. Yes, I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me. Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease,” 2 Peter 1:10-15.
The apostle Peter is concerned about the certainty of the salvation of those to whom he is writing. He wants the readers of his Epistle to be sure of their salvation. He says, “Brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure.” God has called us by His grace into His family, and through the Holy Spirit He has called us to faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior. Our calling and election are sure on God’s part, and we have His promise to keep us in the faith. In his First Epistle, Peter wrote, “(You) are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation,” 1 Peter 1:5.
Now we should be certain of our salvation at all times, and look forward to the day when we will enter into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. We should be able to speak with the same certainty as the apostle Paul, “I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day,” 2 Timothy 1:12. We have committed the care of our souls into God’s hands. In his Epistle to the Romans, Paul wrote, “I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Romans 8:38-30. Paul was not speaking only for himself. What he said, every child of God can say. Nothing “shall be able to separate US from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Peter’s concern for the certainty of their salvation was not a one-time thing of the past or the present. He also was concerned about the future. Therefore, he said that as long as he was “in this tent” – that is, living in his body until he died – he would keep on reminding them of the truths about the way of salvation. It reminds us of what Jesus said: “If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free,” John 8:31-32. You and I also need the constant reminders of the truths about salvation, summarized so beautifully in the words of Paul to the Ephesians: “By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast,” Ephesians 2:8-9. By grace through faith in Jesus as God’s Son and our Savior, we have the assurance of the forgiveness of sins gained for us by Christ on the cross.
Finally, Peter said, “I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.” So that there would always be a reminder after his death for his hearers then and also for us now, Peter was moved by the Holy Spirit to write his Epistle. By the grace of God we have it in our Bibles, which God will preserve for us.
“Preserve Thy Word, O Savior,
To us this latter day,
And let Thy kingdom flourish;
Enlarge Thy Church, we pray.
Oh, keep our faith from failing,
Keep hope’s bright star aglow;
Let naught from Thy Word turn us
While wand’ring here below.” Amen.