If salvation were unconditional, an eternal amnesty, then numerous passages of the New Testament would make no sense at all.

How can we deny the verse above? By claiming that the Book of Second Peter is not part of the sacred canon, the fully inspired Word of God? And after we have eliminated this passage, what about the multitude of others that warn us to turn away from our lusts and to walk in the Spirit of God?

What does Peter mean when he claims the righteous are saved with difficulty?

And if the righteous scarcely be saved [is saved with difficulty], where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (I Peter 4:18)

A careful study of the entire fourth chapter of First Peter will reveal that it is speaking of the need to judge and remove sin from the Christian personality. This is in keeping with the concept of the new covenant as the Divine provision for removing our sin, for making the worshiper righteous and holy in behavior.

The theme of I Peter, Chapter Four is that Divine judgment has begun in the household of God. The judgment includes fiery trials that test and purify the believers. We are not to be amazed at the suffering that comes upon us but are to rejoice, realizing that the Divine chastening has as its purpose our redemption.

So great is the wrath of God against sin that the believers must be dealt with very severely. It is difficult to save from destruction even the most righteous individual.

The Jewish race has had its holocaust, and now the Spirit of God is beginning to gather the Jews from all nations where they have been dispersed and to install them in their own land.

But the Gentile holocaust has not taken place as yet. It is coming soon. It will be far more terrible than that which happened to the Jews.

Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; (Romans 2:9)

The Jewish nation has been chastised first because it is God's family. We cannot imagine what will transpire when God begins to chastise the Gentiles!

To redeem an individual requires the mortgage payment made on the cross, and then much fiery chastening as the sin is burned away. Zion always is redeemed with the spirit of judgment and of burning, with the baptism of fire.

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; (I Peter 4:1)

Let us approach God with fear and trembling, being appreciative of all the fiery tests that come our way, in the confidence that God is dealing with us as sons.

It is difficult for God to save even the righteous individual because the personalities of all people—righteous and unrighteous alike—are filled with lust, deceit, and rebellion against God. We are desperately wicked, and it is no easy task to save us from the moral pit in which we were born and in which we live.

To be continued.