Where Judgment Begins

Biblically speaking, salvation in its broadest sense describes the entire process from regeneration through conversion, justification, sanctification, and glorification. We were saved in our conversion and justification, are being saved in our sanctification, and will be saved in our glorification (Matt. 10:22; 1 Cor. 15:1–2; Eph. 2:8–9). Our final salvation, though guaranteed in our regeneration and justification, does not happen until we are resurrected and Jesus brings the new heavens and earth. Thus, Peter says that we obtain salvation at the revelation of Jesus Christ—His second coming (1 Peter 1:3–9). He speaks of our need to do good works so that God will be glorified on that last day, the day of His visitation (2:11–12). The reality of final judgment motivates us to persevere in faith through suffering, for all people will give an account to God of their lives on judgment day (4:1–6).

Continuing his exhortation to persevere in faith through suffering, the Apostle in today’s passage highlights final judgment and the salvation we receive on the last day. Judgment, he notes, begins at the “household of God” (v. 17). In the Old Testament, the household or house of God is the tabernacle or temple, where the Lord dwelled in a special way with Israel. More specifically, Peter has in mind Malachi 3:1–4, a prophecy of God’s purifying the temple in the last days. Peter has said that the new covenant church fulfills the house of God such that His true house consists of believers, who are living stones in the Lord’s temple (1 Peter 2:4–7). The judgment, then, that begins at the house of God is the last-day judgment that was inaugurated in Christ’s first advent (see John 3:18). Its purpose for believers is purification, not destruction, as we await the return of Jesus. This passage clearly refutes the Roman Catholic idea of purgatory. Believers’ suffering any temporal consequences of sin occurs before death, not afterward in purgatory before we enter heaven.

The judgment that began in the first advent of Christ reaches its consummation at His return. Peter notes that if believers are “scarcely” saved through this judgment, the outcome for nonbelievers will be far worse (1 Peter 4:17–18). The idea is not that Christians escape hell by the skin of their teeth. Peter’s point is that if the fiery trials of this life are part of the believer’s salvation in the broad sense through sanctification, the fire of the last day will be everlasting suffering for the impenitent who never trust in Jesus.