Saturday, November 5, 2005
1 Peter 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
GOD'S CHOSEN ONES
Notice the name that Peter gives his readers. We are the "elect" -- God's chosen ones. If we are Christians, that is, believers in Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin, then God wants us also to consider ourselves His elect, His chosen ones. Jesus once said to His disciples: "You did not choose Me, but I chose you." Here we are told that God's choosing us -- our election -- was "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." If you believe in Jesus Christ, God has called you to be a member of His family. He has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. And if God thus called you to be His own, this means that God has determined to do this for you from eternity. You are "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father."
God has carried out His purpose for you "in sanctification of the Spirit." It is the Holy Spirit's special task to carry out God's purpose from eternity in time, that is, here on earth at a certain time and place as God wills. The Holy Spirit's work is sanctification, and He does His work through the means of grace -- the Gospel in Word Sacrament. It is written: "We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our Gospel."
Finally, Peter tells us the purpose of the Father's election and the Spirit's work of sanctification. He says: "for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Once when God made a covenant with His people in the Old Testament, animals were slaughtered, and their blood was sprinkled on the people. We today as believers in Christ are sprinkled with better blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, our Savior. God brings us to faith in Jesus' blood poured out on the cross for our sins, and that is how we are sprinkled with this blood. This is the goal of the Father's foreknowledge. This is the goal of the Spirit's sanctification: that we believe in the saving blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Grace to you and peace be multiplied." Amen!
