Scarcely Saved

1 Peter 4:18 KJV

And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Barnes Notes has some worthy thoughts on this passage:

“…[Peter] admits that the righteous are saved with difficulty, or that there are perils which jeopard their salvation, and which are of such a kind as to make it very near not to happen. They would indeed be saved, but it would be in such a manner as to show that the circumstances were such as to render it, to human appearances, doubtful and problematical. This peril may have arisen from many circumstances:

(a) The difficulty of forming a plan of salvation, involving a degree of wisdom wholly beyond that of man, and of such a character that beforehand it would have been problematical and doubtful whether it could be. …

(b) The difficulty of bringing those who are saved to a willingness to accept of salvation. …

(c) The difficulty of keeping them from falling away amidst the temptations and allurements of the world. …

(d) The difficulty of rescuing them from the power of the great enemy of souls.”

I am happy for the simple plan of salvation; that it is no difficult thing to be born again but that "…whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." But I am also aware that a good number of souls never come to realize the blessing of such salvation.

Countless numbers are trapped in a religion which blinds them to the way of the gospel

Still others are deceived that they have the gospel

But theirs is not the gospel of grace but another gospel which is accursed.

Many others are caught up in humanistic reasoning

They have embraced a doctrine that insists there is no salvation available nor necessary.

The salvation God offers is free to all and easily obtained. But it was hard won by Christ and only accepted by the few. It may then be said that we are scarcely saved. From the viewpoint of the man, that gospel was more likely to have been rejected than accepted.

We therefore, who are saved, have all the more reason to rejoice that we did in fact receive it.