Kept
“Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” — i Peter i. 5.
W^ipl O have been told, as in the preceding verse, thai our :;rv.l inheritance was “reserved in heaven” could have yielded us little comfort, unless that assurance had been followed and capped by this, that the heirs also are being kept for its full enjoyment. The sailor’s most pressing question is not so much as to the welcome which awaits him in his home, but whether he can ride out the storm, and safely pass the jagged edges of the rocks, on which the waves are dashing angrily. You must assure him of safety for himself, as well as of welcome to his home, if you would put him perfectly at rest. So it were vain for the Apostle to talk of that “long eternity which shall greet our bliss with an individual kiss,” unless he could also assure us that we shall be kept from making shipwreck, and becoming castaways. What comfort there is in that word “kept”!
The Greek word translated “kept” is borrowed from the camp. It is used in 2 Cor. xi. 32; Gal. iii. 23; Phil. iv. 7; and, in each case, conveys the conception of an armed force, employed in sentry or escort duty, surrounding their ward, and interposing a wall of enclosure and defence. Thus does the Divine power surround the saints as a body-guard during their sojourn in this perilous work! God is not only our exceeding great reward, but our shield. The purged eye sees the mountains round about us filled with horses and chariots of protection. We are hidden in the secret of his presence from the pride of man, kept secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. God hath sent out his light and truth to lead us, and bring us to his holy hill, and to his tabernacles. “Ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward.”
It may be that many readers of these lines have come almost to despair. They know and approve the better, but do the worse. Notwithstanding bitter tears, and cries, and soul-anguish, they are constantly being brought into captivity to some besetting sin. How often have their tears been their meat day and night, as they have poured out their soul in the words of the fifty-first Psalm, or cried with the Apostle, “Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?” For all such there is infinite comfort in the announcement that those who have been begotten again, and are therefore sons, may claim to be “kept” by their Father’s power unto full and consummated salvation. Oh that from this moment all such may realize to the full the keeping power of God!
I. What this keeping involves. — It does not mean that we shall lose our sinful nature; which consists in a perpetual tendency and liability to sin. Nor does it mean that we shall become sinless beings, who need not the daily cry for forgiveness; because in the best of us there must ever be much which is grievous in the sight of a holy God. Nor does it mean that we shall cease to be tempted; that alas! cannot be our lot, as long as we are passing through an enemy’s land to our inheritance. But it does mean that — though within us there is a strong predisposition toward sin, partly inherited and partly built up by long indulgence in evil habit, and though without us there is a hell full of wicked spirits, each of which is pledged to do his worst to make us fall — yet we may be kept from yielding to known and presumptuous sins, and conducted safely through the “proud waters,” so as to stand at last with the OVERCOMERS on the shore of the sea of glass, having the harps of God. Not taken out of the world, but kept from the evil (Rev. xv. 2; John xvii. 15).
Many are the images which suggest themselves to set forth the keepitig power of God. What the framework of bone and the eyelid veil are to the delicate organism of the eye; what the shepherd’s watchful care is to the flock, which dwells safely in the wilderness, and sleeps in the woods, though young lions are roaring around for their prey; what the lofty walls are to the tender grapes, guarding them from rifling hands and little foxes; what the wing of the mother-bird is to the brood menaced by the hovering kestrel; what the valiant of Israel were to Solomon’s bed; what the iron safe is to its valuable contents, defying the robber’s hand and the forked tongue of flame — all that is the environing presence of God to his saints. Though dogs compass us, and the assembly of the wicked inclose us, yet there is an inner circle of defence through which they dare not and cannot penetrate.
That there will be strife and war and temptation without, and cowering weakness within, seems implied in every one of these images, and specially in the metaphor we are considering. Of what need were keeping, unless there were danger without and frailty within? But amid all, it is evidently possible that we should be kept from stumbling; and spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.” This KEEPING extends to the issues of life, and to the steps or goings of the saints; but it touches these, because it deals so completely with the inner man. There the power of God is exerted on the soul, on the heart, and on the mind: unseen, but all-pervasive; and strong enough to quell the uprising of the wildest passion that ever swept down on the inner nature (Prov. iv. 23; i Sam. ii. 9; Phil. iv. 7; I Pet. iv. 19).
II. Why this keeping may be confidently expected. — // is demanded by the purpose of God. — We are “elect unto obedience,” as the first verses of this chapter tell us; but surely He who has called us with so high a calling will not fail to deal effectually with all that would prevent it from being realized.
It is demanded by the sacrifice of Christ. — The expenditure of Calvary was gladly borne by our Saviour — not to deliver us from hell so much as “to purify unto Himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works.” But is it possible to suppose that the whole scheme of redemption is to be rendered abortive because, though He was able to purchase, He is not able to keep that which He has acquired? During his earthly Ufe He kept those whom the Father had given Him, and none of them was lost, save the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled; surely, then, since all power is now his. He is equally able to keep those who bear his name!
// IS dema7ided by the indwelling of the Spirit. — He is most certainly in the heart of each believer; curtained, as of old was the Shekinah by the heavy veil, but still burning as a spark of fire in the most holy place. Above all things, He desires that the entire being, which is his temple, should be kept clean and holy. And if He only is permitted to have his way. He will most certainly reduce the inward chaos to order, and keep the inner empire undisturbed. Would it not be in the highest degree at variance with his loving holy nature to excite desires after holiness in the breast which He would not, or could not, meet? The ver>’ intensity of the passion for holiness which He instils is a pledge and harbinger of perfect satisfaction.
TJte credit of God demands it. — If sin must always master us, so long as we remain in this world, it would seem as if the remedy were not equal to the emergency. Here were indeed a subject for hellish merriment, if God were not able to counterwork the baleful influences which devils exert over human spirits. “Aha,” methinks they would cry: “Thou canst make thy saints obedient only by taking them beyond the range of our power; but leave them here within our reach, and Thou canst not keep them from yielding to the temptations which we present.”
Take heart, O tempted child of God; thou hast abundant reason to reckon confidently on being “kept” from known transgression.
HI. How THIS KEEPING IS EFFECTED. — “By the power of God.”
Consider that power in creation. — Stand with the exiles in Babylon, and lift up your eyes on high to the starry hosts, spread out like a flock resting in the midnight sky: “He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might; for that He is strong in power: not one faileth.” And if He can keep the heavenly bodies, revolving through orbits of measureless immensity, so exact to their hours that astronomers can calculate their return with unerring precision, surely He can keep one poor soul in its appointed orbit, especially when it is so eager to be kept (Isa. xl. 26).
Consider that power i?i history. — Notwithstanding the free action of human wills, warped and rebellious, He has been able to carry out his plans, and secure results on which He had set his mind from all eternity. And as a standing marvel the Israelite race remains to-day scattered among all peoples, but absorbed by none; isolated and alone, almost in spite of itself. But surely it must be as easy to preserve his Church, consisting as it does of those who are exceedingly desirous of knowing and doing his will (Jer. xxxiii. 25, 26).
Consider that power in the resurrection of our Lord. — It raised Him from the dead, past all created excellence, above principalities and powers, until the glorified but human body of Christ passed to the very throne of the Eternal, where no created thing had ever come before. Nay, but more — in raising Him, the Father also raised us in Him. And the Apostle tells us that the very same power which bore Christ from the grave to the throne is extended towards the weakest believer, to lift him also to a similar level of resurrection-being. Surely such a power as this is adequate to our direst necessity (Eph. i. 19, 20).
Consider this power in the human life of Jesus. — He met the devil in the wilderness and in Gethsemane. The prince of this world measured himself in mortal conflict with the Son of God, not once only, but many times. But he was always defeated. His legions were driven forth from haunted lives. He himself fell as lightning from heaven. His head was bruised. His chief allurement and bait, the world, was overcome. His attempt to hold the Saviour in the tomb was defeated, as when a man brushes through the cobweb that stretches across his path. And what Jesus did for Himself, He waits to do on the “^ctorbmg to gour Jaitfj.” 29
behalf of each of his own, and to repeat in each of us the conquests and triumphs of his own life on earth.
It is hardly necessary to say that the power of God is put forth by the Holy Spirit. — He lives in our inner man, and exerts there his marvellous energy. He keeps Himself unseen, and focusses all our thought on the Lord Jesus, as light is sometimes made to fall on some beautiful face which attracts the observer’s entire attention. Thus it happens that though the brunt of the inner war is borne by the Spirit (Gal. v. 17), yet the believer is occupied with Jesus, appealing to Him in the conflict, and softly breathing his name as a talisman of victory. Yet why do we need to distinguish thus, when They are One?
The power of the Holy Ghost works through our faith. — God will do all that we can trust Him to do; but He does not pledge Himself to work independently of our faith. When faith is in strong and blessed exercise, there is no limit to its possibilities, because it taps the reservoirs of Omnipotence, and opens the sluice-gates, so that all God’s power begins to flow into the soul. Our faith is the means of our receptivity; the straits through which the ocean of Divine fulness pours its tides.
But if our faith be meagre and struggling, we cannot expect mighty deliverances. Smite but thrice upon the ground, and Syria will still defy you (2 Kings xiii. 19). If you do not expect that God is able to keep you, do not be surprised if you are not kept. According to your faith, or unbelief, so will it be done to you.
Would you realize God’s keeping grace? Give yourself entirely up to Him, renouncing all trust in yourself, and all connection with evil. Choose definitely and for ever the lot of the cross of Jesus. And then trust Jesus to keep you. Whenever temptation approaches, look up, and say, “Jesus, I trust thy keeping power.” Ask the Holy Spirit to keep you so constantly in this attitude that it may become the habit of your soul to look to Jesus when temptation assails. Trust Him to keep you trusting. Nourish your faith by devout meditation on the promises of God. Do not look at your weakness or your foes, but at the mighty bulwarks of God’s salvation, which He has appointed. “The Lord is thy Keeper.” Hear his gracious
3° “Icpt.”
words, and hide them in your heart: “I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” Surely it were the height of blasphemy to affirm that the Almighty is not able, or willing, to keep the soul that trusts Him. Only man would shake the fugitive dove out of his bosom to the hawk!
Thus will you await the consummation of your salvation, which shall be yours at the coming of the Lord. Already it is finished and prepared; but it waits to be revealed. And when, amid the breaking light and exuberant gladness of perfect deliverance, you review the pathway by which you have come, you will better realize your indebtedness to his wondrous grace, in keeping that which you committed to Him against that dsiy.