1 Peter 1:1- 12 (ESV)
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”
Today is week one of our new series on 1 & 2 Peter. Over the next few months, we will be digging into these two letters that Peter wrote. As with most things written in the Bible, these letters are not without some controversy. Scholars have debated, and still continue to debate, about whether either or both letters were written by Peter. There is also debate about if he was writing to former Jews who had become Christians, to Gentiles, or to a mix of both. After reading a synopsis by N.T. Wright about those controversies, I believe Peter did indeed write both letters, and that the believers he was writing to includes both groups of people. Let’s walk through this passage and see what we discover.
1 Peter begins with Peter identifying himself. Because I do not think the Bible lies, this is my greatest piece of evidence of why I believe it was written by Peter. He calls himself an “apostle of Jesus Christ.” Unlike Paul, who often gives justification for writing authoritatively, by stating that he was called by the Lord to do so, Peter does not include any such statement. He knows that the people he’s writing to know his history as one of the twelve disciples. It’s worth noting, too, that he has dropped his former name of Simon, and has adopted solely the name given to him by Jesus: the name of Peter, which means rock. I think this is significant, for it shows us that Peter has fully embraced his identity as an Apostle of Jesus.
If you know the Bible well, then you know Peter’s rocky history with following the Lord. (I couldn’t resist that pun!) This is the Peter who would exhibit extreme faith, and then fall flat. He wanted to walk on the water with Jesus, then after taking a couple of steps, he sank. He told Jesus he would never deny Him, and then he denied him three times in one night. He was told by the Lord to welcome Gentiles, then got corrected by Paul when he caved to pressure by people who wanted Gentiles to remain separate from believing Jews. All that is in the past, though, by the time he writes these letters. He’s not the same man. He’s persevered, accepted correction, faced persecution and been put in jail. He’s grown and matured in his faith. He’s fully come into the calling the Lord placed on his life. So I think that’s why his address to these readers is simple and to the point. There is no arrogance or insecurity in this opening line.
Then he tells us whom he’s writing to. It says, “To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia”. We don’t know the exact date of when this was written, but given that he addresses the “exiles” it must be after the Jewish diaspora. Emperor Claudius (AD 41-54) had expelled Jewish Christians from Rome in AD 49. So, most scholars say it was written sometime between A.D. 62–64 during Nero’s reign.
In N.T. Wright’s book, The New Testament In Its World, he quotes from a Biblical scholar who wrote, “This [greeting] should not be construed as evidence for a later form of Christianity that was distanced both chronologically and theologically from its Jewish beginnings. Rather, it reveals what was inherent in early Christianity from the start: God was forming a new people through Christ and all those who believe- both Jew and Gentile- are God’s ‘chosen’.” [1]
I think that is an important point to make: all those who believe are God’s chosen. In the Greek, according to Strong’s Concordance, this word which is often translated as chosen, is eklektos, and it means, “select, by implication favorite.” In HELPS Word-studies, it says, “Typically, 1588 /eklektós (‘select, chosen’) describes people who choose to follow the Lord, i.e. become God’s choice by freely receiving faith (4102 /pístis) from Him.”
Whether this word is translated as ‘chosen’ or ‘elect,’ it is often a misaligned word. But I don’t think it needs to be. As Jesus said, “many are called, but few are chosen,” because God has given the invitation of new life to all people, but He has chosen only those who have faith in Jesus Christ. Faith that is evidenced by changed hearts and actions. Which is what Peter is saying when he explains that they are the elect “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.”
That last sentence is a little complicated, but these believers are the elect, or chosen, according to this new covenant that God had planned long ago. All of us believers are part of this elect people, for God has elected to choose to be His children all those who are sanctified, or made holy, by the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus and for sprinkling with His blood. That is another way of saying what Hebrews 10:14 (NIV) says: “For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” It’s the blood of Jesus which brings all of us believers into His covenant, making us part of His chosen people.
Expanding on this, then he writes in verses 3-5, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
God caused or brought about the way for us to be born again. It was God’s great mercy to us that Jesus went to the cross for us. It was His death that purchased our salvation. We are saved by the faith we have in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And now, for those of us who are born again by faith, we have a living hope. Our hope is, just as Christ was raised from the dead, so too will we be raised from the dead. As born again members of God’s family, we look forward in hope to our inheritance. And unlike earthy inheritances, the inheritance that waits for us until we die is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, because it is being kept in heaven for us.
That next statement at the end is also important to look closely at. He says, we, “who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We are being guarded or kept, much like our inheritance is being kept for us. But, as Ellicott’s Commentary notes, it is guarded through our faith. He says, “The Apostle is fearful lest the last words should give a false assurance. God can guard none of us, in spite of His ‘power,’ unless there be a corresponding exertion upon our part—which is here called ‘faith’—combining the notions of staunch fidelity and of trustfulness in spite of appearances. It is through such trustful fidelity that we are guarded.”
Faith is the key word. How are we born again? It is through faith in our resurrected Savior Jesus Christ that we are saved. And as Peter says in verses 6-7, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
This faith that brings salvation will be tested by trials, but Peter says that though the trials grieve them, they rejoice, for they know the end results in “praise and glory and honor” when Jesus returns. Peter is encouraging these believers, for he states these things with optimism. He doesn’t say, “if you survive the trial” or “if your faith doesn’t burn up” but rather, he wants them to be inspired and have hope. He is assuming the best, but as we go on in the letter, we will see that he has stark warnings for them. At this moment, he wants them to hold on to the hope they are looking forward to. He wants them to be in the right frame of mind, to remember what their trials are for and what they produce in them, and he’s not assuming they will fail the trials but sail through them. But we know that these trials which test our faith must be endured.
Jesus spoke about this. He said, “the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved.” He said this when speaking to His disciples about the end times. In Matthew 24:9-12 (NASB) Jesus says, “Then they will hand you over to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold. But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
As much as we’d prefer to think that all testing by trials produces genuine faith, we know that’s not true. It’s only if we endure the trial that faith is produced. Jesus explains this in His parable of the Sower. In Matthew 13:20-21 (ESV), He says, “As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.”
It would be nice to believe that no one can lose their salvation, but it is sadly not true. It is possible to fall away. Some branches of Christianity, namely the Calvinists, do not think a believer can fall away from faith. They believe in what they call ‘eternal security’ or ‘once saved, always saved.’ The thing is, if we take their words literally, they are correct, for once we die and have entered into eternity with God, then yes, we are eternally secure. But until we die or Jesus comes back, isn’t it more accurate to say that we are, in fact, ‘being saved’ instead of saying we are saved? The Orthodox church makes this distinction in their theology, and while I differ with them on other issues, I appreciate their attention to detail.
I think we have created a problem in modern Christianity with some of the language we commonly use. We say, “I am saved.” But we aren’t saved yet, though. We will be saved when we die. Isn’t it more accurate to say, “I will be saved, for I was born again”? Is this just semantics or does this matter? I think it actually matters a great deal. For when we say, “I am saved,” it speaks of a completed work, and while what Jesus accomplished on the cross is indeed a completed work, we as individuals are still being saved and will be saved after we die.
1 Corinthians 15:1-2 (ESV) explains this when it says, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.”
Also, Romans 5:9 says, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”
When we are born again, we are washed of our sins. Our sins are removed from us and they are not counted against us. Jesus’ work on the cross was completed. His forgiveness is complete. I can say I am born again. I have been brought over to Jesus’ team, therefore I will be saved when I die or Jesus comes back, if I endure and do not leave the faith before one of those two things happen. This is an important distinction to make because we cannot sit back on our heels and think that we do not have to do anything once “we are saved”. While there was nothing we could possibly do to earn our forgiveness, that was a free gift bought at the expense of Jesus’ death on the cross, we do now have to “work out” our salvation. We do, now, have to endure until the end. Following Jesus is not passive. It requires effort and work. 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 also speaks to this and says, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
To reach the prize of eternal life with Jesus, we must endure to the end and keep our faith in Jesus. We will be saved if we endure to the end. The good news is God equips us to keep our faith. Verse 5 of our text says, we “who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” He is helping us, sustaining us, and forgiving us when we fail, so we reach our goal of future salvation.
God has made the way for this to happen. That is why, as verses 8-9 say, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
We should be optimistic for we have reason to be optimistic. We rejoice and are filled with joy, for as long as we want to follow the Lord and we keep our faith in Him, we can be assured of obtaining the outcome of our faith, the salvation of our souls.
Then Peter adds an aside, he says in verse 10-12, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”
This is quite the aside, isn’t it? Why do you think Peter added it here? I think it was for the benefit of his intended recipients. If the believers are made up of former Jewish believers and Gentiles, then he is stressing to them that their faith in Jesus Christ is not in vain. Peter knows what the scriptures say, which contains the writings of the prophets he’s referencing, and he’s telling them it all lines up, proving that Jesus is the Messiah. He says, when the prophets of old prophesied, “they were serving not themselves but you.” For the promised Messiah didn’t come to earth, die, and rise again during the Old Testament prophets’ lifetimes. But He did arrive according to the timeline of prophecy. Finally Jesus arrived, and even though these believers Peter was writing to didn’t meet Jesus in person, they did hear the good news preached to them. And how it all happened, and how God brought it all about is so incredible and amazing that angels “long to look” into it. And now, not just the Jewish people are the elect, chosen people of God, but all of us who have faith in Jesus Christ.
Which is why, back to what he wrote before his aside, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
Yes! Though we have not physically seen Jesus, we love Him. And we believe in Him. And this fills us with inexpressible joy as we are “obtaining the outcome” of our faith, which is the salvation of our souls.
From here, Peter will go on to tell them, and us, how we are to live as we are “obtaining the outcome” of our faith. For now, let us stop here and give thanks and praise to the Lord for all that He has done for us.
Pray: Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You with hearts filled with inexpressible joy. Thank You for making a way for us to be included among the elect. Thank You for giving us Jesus and forgiving us of our sins. Please help us by Your Holy Spirit to love You and follow You wholeheartedly, in thanksgiving for Your great mercy. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
[1] Johnson, Luke Timothy. 2010. The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation. 3rd edn.; Minneapolis: Fortress.
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