Here is a sneak preview of our latest release, Saving the Saved from Dr. Dave Anderson. This will be released soon, and will be available in Amazon.

INTRODUCTION
By: Dr. Dave Anderson

Most of us would like to have a life with some meaning, some significance. But how can you measure the significance of one’s time on earth? What is the best way to measure the value of a human life? Some people would have us believe it is our physical stats that really count. Well, USA Today once published the vital statistics of Miss America contestants and came up with an average for each category. Let’s see how you girls measure up.

  1. The average Miss America is 23 years old.
  2. All the contestants are single.
  3. The majority of contestants have brown hair.
  4. Most contestants also have brown eyes.
  5. The average height for Miss America is 5’6”.
  6. Her average weight is 114 lbs.
  7. The average dress size is 6.
  8. The average waist size of a Miss America is 24 inches.
  9. Her average shoe size is 7 1/2.
  10. Miss America doesn’t smoke.

Interestingly enough, when these contestants were asked to rate their beauty on a scale of 1-10, they gave themselves an average of 8.62. So, even 23-year-old beauties with the 24-inch waists and size 6 dresses don’t see themselves as 10s. If ever there were measurable vital statistics you would think might mean something, it would have to be those of the Miss America or Miss Universe contestants. But most of us don’t measure the value of our human life by physical statistics. There must be a better way with an equal opportunity for everyone.

Not surprisingly, the One who created us also made a way for us to measure the meaning of our lives. Peter learned this lesson the hard way. It was a lesson he learned by flunking. And he never forgot his embarrassment at flunking this test. I’m the same way. I don’t remember the questions I get right on a test. It’s the ones I miss. I’m thinking right now about a question I missed from a test I took decades ago. I won’t miss it again. We can learn from our mistakes. That’s what Peter did. And he wrote a whole book about it.

What test did Peter flunk? Our minds immediately rush to his denial of Christ. No doubt that was his greatest recorded failure. But he didn’t write a book about that. No, he wrote a book of the Bible about his failure at Caesarea Philippi recorded for us in Matthew 16. He had just moved to the top of the class. He has just confessed that he believed Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (16:16). Jesus patted him on the back and said, “You got it. You are blessed. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” With each word, Peter’s head grew a size larger. Talk about puffed up. He struts around, polishing his fingernails on his robe.

Then, Jesus suddenly lets the wind out of Peter’s sails. He tells the disciples that He is going to suffer and die. “Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him” (16:22). Can you imagine rebuking Jesus? But wait a minute. Don’t we do that every time we tell God we are not happy with how things are going in our lives: that rebellious child, that spouse who left me and the children, that investment where a friend took all my money, that inflamed cell that turned into cancer and is eating away at my body, and so on? My preferred future for my life just isn’t working out. Neither was Peter’s. He was planning on sitting at the right hand of Jesus when He set up His kingdom. But now Jesus tells Peter and the others he is going to be killed in Jerusalem. Peter isn’t having any of this. How can a dead king set up a kingdom?

 Now Jesus does the rebuking. “Get behind me, Satan!” Sterner words have never been spoken. Jesus actually reveals that the devil is speaking through Peter. Jesus goes on to say Peter is only concerned with his own kingdom and his own glory, “the things of men.” So, he corrects Peter in 16:24-27. In these verses, Jesus tells His disciples how to save their lives or how to lose them, how to have meaningful and significant lives or how to waste the very purpose for which they were created. He even told them how God will measure the significance of our lives. Peter never forgot the lesson. He wrote a whole book about it: 1 Peter, a book about “Saving the Saved.” It is a book about how people who are already guaranteed of a place with God forever by the death of Christ (they are saved) can actually save their time on earth (their lives) forever.

In my years of disciple-making, I know of no other truth outside the gospel itself that has transformed more lives than Jesus’ lesson to his disciples on “Saving the Saved.” He wants people to know that having our sins forgiven through Christ’s death on the cross and receiving the free gift of eternal life is the most important truth we will ever believe, but that is only the starting block of an exciting race; it is not the goal line. When we trust Christ as our Savior, we’ve only just begun, as Karen Carpenter used to sing. Now we are in a race. The starting gun has gone off. How we run that race will determine how much of our time on earth is either saved with an eternal significance or lost forever, never to be retrieved. To see how Peter developed this idea, read on.

Serving Him with you until He comes for us,
Fred Chay, PhD
Managing Editor, Grace Theology Press