Journal: Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Volume: JOTGES 38:74 (Spring 2025)
Article: An Overview Of 1 Peter: The Salvation Of The Soul
Author: Bob Bryant

JOTGES 38:74 (Spring 2025) p. 37

An Overview Of 1 Peter: The Salvation Of The Soul

Bob Bryant

Cypress Valley Bible Church
Marshall, TX

Introduction

In this article, I will give an overview of the book of 1 Peter. In 2017, Grace Evangelical Society (GES) published a commentary on 1 Peter by Zane Hodges. The subtitle of the commentary is “The Salvation of the Soul.”1 GES has said that this is the theme of 1 Peter, which reflects what Hodges wrote. After reading through the book of 1 Peter, with the aim of developing an overview of it, I heartily agree with both GES and Hodges.

Whenever you encounter the term salvation or saved in the Bible you should always ask two questions: 1) What is the salvation in view? 2) From what does a person need to be saved? Many people reflexively assume that salvation in the Bible means salvation from hell or the lake of fire. This is especially true when the word is used in the phrase, “the salvation of the soul.”

Some of us have been conditioned to think that way because of our backgrounds. We grew up hearing about evangelistic crusades where, for example, fifteen souls were saved. It was just the way we tended to talk. As a result, it might seem strange to some people if we suggest that the phrase the “salvation of the soul” in 1 Peter does not mean salvation from hell, but something entirely different.

Even though it might sound strange, my view is that in 1 Peter, “the salvation of the soul” means saving your life from damage now and from loss of reward in the future.2

In 1 Pet 1:9, for example, the word soul should be translated by the word life. The Greek can be translated either way, and that is what we find in the NT. Sometimes, the word is translated both ways when it occurs multiple times in the same context.

JOTGES 38:74 (Spring 2025) p. 38

Peter learned about the “salvation of the soul” directly from Jesus. The Lord told him and the other disciples that they should desire the salvation of their souls. This teaching is found in Matt 16:25–27. Jesus said:

²⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will rew...