to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you (ESV)

and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you (NIV)

I’ve been living out of the house for almost a decade. If you ask my family, they’ll probably tell you I don’t know a whole lot about being an adult.

I can’t change a car tire. I don’t separate my laundry. I can barely cook.

One adult thing I do know, however, is that when grocery shopping, buy the item that expires the latest. Reach to the far back of the refrigerator and grab the freshest gallon of milk. 

Buy the jug whose value lasts the longest. Because milk perishes, spoils, and fades—rather quickly, I might add.

The inheritance described by Peter is the gift of salvation. Salvation cannot spoil. Unlike groceries, it cannot go bad. It cannot be wasted. It is eternal in beauty, fullness, and value. 

This eternal salvation is protected. It is assured for those of us in Christ. It is kept behind the mighty vault of heaven above and is protected where sin, shame, and Satan cannot reach it.

If the Lord has said that His inheritance is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4), then our sin cannot corrupt what God Himself guards. We can’t, then, live as though our failures have the power to revoke His promises. Why would we wake each morning questioning whether He still loves us?—when His Word says “nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39)?

For those who know Jesus, the penalty of sin has forever been paid. So, next time you’re tempted to believe that you have the power to sin your way out of salvation, remember that you didn’t work your way into it in the first place. It was a cosmic impossibility to do so.

Those who are truly in Christ are held, not by their strength, but by His. 

Finally, I must remind us that grace was never meant to make peace with sin. As Paul reminds us, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” (Romans 6:1–2). The grace that saves us also transforms us. So when shame whispers you should hide, don’t run from God…run to Him. Let the Living Hope draw you into repentance, worship, and renewed joy in His presence.

Written by Rainer Erani