Click Here to Read 1 Peter 1:1-12

Peter identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ.  Apostle means special messenger or personally chosen representative.  No doubt Peter carried that name very proudly given all of his failed attempts to be important in his past.  That just goes to show us that when we submit to God, nothing in our past can hinder His plans for us or the work of His power through us.  Peter is writing this letter to some specific churches and some who have been scattered due to persecution.  He is also writing to us, the elect, the chosen.

I had to take some time and think about that word “chosen”.  Ephesians 1:4 says that God has chosen us before the foundation of the world.  But I don’t think that means that some of us are chosen and others are not.  2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God is patient and longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish.  Psalm 139:13-16 tells us that God formed our inward parts and covered us in our mother’s womb.  We were skillfully created, fearfully and wonderfully made.  His eyes saw our unformed substance and all of our days were written out in His book before we were ever here.  That is true of every person who has ever been or ever will be on this earth.  I believe that He has chosen all of us to be set apart for Him, to be adopted into His family, and to walk the path that He has prepared for us.  Romans 8:29 NKJV says “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”  Being predestined to be conformed into the image of Christ is not a guarantee that we will be.  He gave us free will with which we will need to make a choice to be His chosen or not.

For those of us that do choose Him we get to be called His chosen ones and partake in the sanctifying work of the Holy spirit so that we can live in obedience to Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.  The sprinkling of blood is seen throughout scripture to represent both life and covenant (see Exodus 13:21-23 and 24:4-8).  Hebrews 9:11-15 and 18-28 tell us that Jesus came as our High Priest of a greater Tabernacle not made with human hands.  By His own blood He entered into the Most Holy Place (the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle of Moses was only a copy of the Most Holy place in heaven) to obtain our eternal redemption, with His own blood to offer on the Mercy Seat.  Whereas the blood of animals provided purification of the flesh from sin for a year, the blood of Jesus provides purification for our conscience from sin once and for all!  The sin, the guilt, the shame, and the consequences of it, all disintegrated by the blood of Jesus, the Mediator of our New Covenant, so that we could receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.  Under the law of Moses all things were purified with blood, without blood there is no remission of sin.  The purification of the blood of Jesus has saved and sanctified us; it continuously saves and sanctifies us; and when Jesus returns, our salvation and sanctification will be complete.  The effects of this one sacrifice transcends time because it was offered through the eternal Spirit.  “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14 NKJV).

We have now been reborn into a living hope.  The Greek word for hope used here is Elpis and means to anticipate with pleasure, having expectation or confidence.  Hope is usually joined to faith and love and opposed to seeing or possessing.  In other words, it is expectancy for something we don’t have yet.  Christ, of course, is the object of our hope because it is in His second coming that our hope of glory will be fulfilled.  Our living hope is a hope that is not frail or perishable but that which has enduring life.  It is actually the resurrection of Jesus Christ that gives us hope in the power of God.  Our new birth also gives us an eternal inheritance that is incorruptible.  It can never perish, spoil, or fade.  It is available to us now by faith and preserved for us in heaven.  It is both material and spiritual and from a heavenly reality. 

I like the Passion Translation of verse 5, “Through our faith, the mighty power of God constantly guards us until our full salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time.”  It is in this that Peter tells us we have cause to rejoice, even in the face of trials.   In fact, he says trials reveal the genuineness of our faith, “being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire” (1 Peter 1:6 NKJV).  We are not kept away from trials, but we are kept in Him when we are in them.  We will dig deeper into this in later chapters, but our faith is tested and strengthened through trials, and authentic faith results in praise, honor, and glory to God at the unveiling of Jesus.  It is by our faith in Him whom we have not seen that we even obtain salvation in the first place.  And through our faith in that salvation, we are kept by the power of God until the fulfillment of our salvation is revealed (at the second coming of Christ).

Peter is also reinforcing the security and reliability of scripture by reminding us that the Prophets of the Old Testament prophesied about the coming of Christ, and the sufferings and glories that would follow long before He was ever born.  None of them even got to witness His time on the earth.  They searched for who and when but only spoke of what Holy Spirit showed them.  And now we have the fulfillment of the promise that came to pass.  And the same Spirit that bore witness of what was to come now dwells in us and continues to bear witness to the gospel as we immerse ourselves in the Word of His truth.  We can be assured then that our faith is built on a secure foundation and even when things around us are unstable, we will not be shaken.

Let’s pray.

Father it is according to Your abundant mercy that You have begotten us again to a living hope.  You have sanctified us by Your Holy Spirit and given Your own Son’s life as a sacrifice for our purification from dead works that we may serve You, the living God.  It is by the resurrection of Jesus that we have hope in Your power and through our faith in salvation You will keep us until the day of Christ’s return.  We will rejoice in this even when our faith is being tested because we know that it is through testing that strong and enduring faith is produced.  And our enduring faith is the victory that overcomes the world.  We thank You for the firm foundation of Your Word that will never be shaken.  We will stand on it and build our faith on the truth that is revealed to us in it by Your Holy Spirit.  We thank You for our eternal inheritance that will never fade, and we claim our access to all that belongs to us through that inheritance now in Jesus’ Name!  Amen