The Sovereign Demonstration of God's Grace and Human Humbleness:
Christians are Elected for the Setting Apart Work of the Spirit to Obey Jesus Christ
1 Peter 1:1-2
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon)
Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Please turn to 1 Peter 1:1-2. As you are turning there I want to mention that we are coming into a passage where Peter covers important details concerning God's election. In approaching this, I am reminded of a quote from the venerable English preacher of generations ago, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He is purported to have said something to the effect
"I'm so glad that God elected me before the foundation of the world, because he never would have elected me after I was born." CH Spurgeon
Spurgeon, who was a Baptist, was known for his humorous quips. It is amazing how much Spurgeon could say in one little comment. Underneath this one, Spurgeon meant that the orchestration of God, which involves His electing purpose, is not an experience that anyone has earned a right to have. It is not like electing a politician. God's election is not based upon being a good candidate. Nobody can do anything to be electable, like for example, "by being humble," or making themselves "fear God"--both things that God requires from the elect. All the human race inherits the sin nature of Adam and Eve. This fact, alone, is the class distinction that keeps anyone from being good enough to be electable. Left to ourselves, we can not, and do not, humble ourselves before our God for His election; we can not, and do not, fear Him for His election. The biblically consistent fact is that God elects all the elect before they were conceived in sin, and before they did anything good or bad. So, we look at it this way:
God elected people He foreknew, and He elected them so that He would make them good enough, humble enough, and fearful of Him enough in His rescuing work.
God wants us to recognize this. It keeps us appreciating that our relationship with God, in our salvation, is a completely humbling experience of awe and reverence concerning our total reliance upon Him and His real grace. It is according to authentic grace in every sense of the word. Election is not contingent upon grace with a little bit of something from, or about, us added in. Election is truly God's favor on those who do not deserve it. God takes the full credit for what He does in His mercy. As we proceed, we must recognize that God's revelation to us is limited to the details that God wants us to understand. Also, we must recognize that though we can embrace the details that God reveals in humble agreement with Him, we may not be able to comprehend all the nuances of how, or why, God does what He does. The whole doctrine of Biblical Election (BE) falls under this category. We are further humbled to recognize,
"My ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts; but just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9
@1 God's ways are _________________ than our ways. Isaiah 55:8-9
The fact of the matter is that we only know what God has revealed about His ways and thoughts; and we only understand the scriptural revelations to a certain degree because ultimately God's thoughts are higher than ours. We need to keep these things in mind as we approach our passage. We need to be humble in our approach, reception, and the measure of what we think we understand. Read 1 Peter 1 with me,
"1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are elected 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the setting apart work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure." 1 Peter 1:1-2
Prepare your heart to learn, along with me, from the preaching of God's word, in this sermon titled,
The Sovereign Demonstration of God's Grace and Human Humbleness:
Christians are Elected for the Setting Apart Work of the Spirit to Obey Jesus Christ
[Pray]
I want us to glean some important principles from our text concerning the fact that all Christians are elected for the setting apart work of the Spirit as a prime manifestation of God's grace, and human humbleness, to experience the fullness of Christ.
/1/
The first principle I want us to glean is that the elect people of God are not all people everywhere. God's election is not open to everyone to have. God's election is an actual preference that He determines for some out of the whole group of humanity. This principle is that it is limited to specific people who are truly elected,
"1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are elected" 1 Peter 1:1
The Greek term that Peter uses to describe those who are elected, is eklektois. This word is derived from the preposition, "ek," and the verb, "lego." These two words combine to mean "picked out." Peter is addressing this letter to people who have specifically been "picked out" of humanity by God in His sovereign determination. "Those" who have been elected are those who are saved by being set apart by the Spirit. We also notice that Peter is addressing this to the "aliens" or "pilgrims." They are scattered throughout the five areas that would be associated with their churches in Asia minor. They are elected sojourners, living in a land that is not their home. This leads us to ask:
Who are these elect people?
Why are they scattered?
Why are they aliens in a foreign land?
Peter is talking about the initial Christians of the first generation of the church; but the term applies to anyone who is, and will be, saved in any generation. In a similar way as the Old Covenant nation of Israel had been scattered abroad among the nations, God's New Covenant people are scattered abroad among the nations too. With this in mind, Peter is recognizing that the world is not our true home. You, me, and all Christians, are aliens who are scattered among the world. We are aliens here because we are a set apart spiritual race of people. Christ is the first born of our race, and we are born again in Him. His country is our country. Our citizenship is in heaven. Peter makes this clearer in chapter 2. He quotes the Old Testament in respect to the elect,
"9 But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a set apart nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers ..." 1 Peter 2:9-11
@2 All whom God has elected have received God's ________________ in salvation. 1 Peter 2:9-11
The sense is that God's people, in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, are aliens in a foreign land while in this life time. The foreign land is the lost world and its culture. It is the domain of darkness. The citizenship of those who have been elected is in heaven,
"For our citizenship is in heaven, ..." Philippians 3:20
The point is that when it comes to God and his electing determination of people, those people are pre-known. When they are saved, they are manifested (shown, revealed) as those who are the ones who are called out of the lost world and gathered in Christ as the church at their proper time. What this means, is that if you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior in trusting Him by His grace, through faith, then you are saved. Therefor you can be assured that you have been elected. I want us to think about this a moment. God's election should not be meant to be an opportunity for us to wonder, and fret over, if we have really been elected. This wonderful truth of God is meant to make you secure in the security that you really have in eternal spiritual salvation. The question I am wanting us to consider is not so much whether we have been elected. The question is more like:
How do we demonstrate whether we have been elected?
It is easy. Your election is demonstrated in your faith in Christ in His finished work on the cross and resurrection for you personally as your Lord and Savior. If you do not love Christ, believe in Christ, and worship Christ, then you can not assert that you are one of the elect. But if you do love Christ, believe in Christ, and worship Christ, which are all acts of obedience wrought by the Spirit in concurrence with His word, then you know that you have been elected. Your eyes have been miraculously opened to recognize, through the Spirit and word, that you actually reside as an alien in this world. You were elected to ultimately be somewhere else. Your citizenship there (that you have now) will be experienced in the more perfect way in the after life. Then you will live forever in the glorified country of your heavenly citizenship in a glorified spiritual body that is made for that kind of place.
/2/
This leads to the second principle that we need to embrace: The specific people that God the Father elects are people elected according to His foreknowledge,
"1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those ... who are elected 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father," 1 Peter 1:2
There are three main interpretations of this passage. Each one focuses upon the Greek term "foreknowledge" here (prognosis). Pro indicates beforehand, or prior, and gnosis indicates knowledge, or knowing: Think of pior-knowing. Because differing interpretations are given for what prognosis actually is defining in its contextual usage, getting at what Peter means by using the term can be confusing, and difficult. Because of this, three avenues of interpretation are typically applied to what Peter is saying. We need to be familiar with the three explanations of this foreknowledge, and how they have affected the three interpretations of the passage.
(A)
The first explanation of this foreknowledge, that we must be aware of, starts out with something like this as its first part:
God knows the future in such a way that He knows beforehand the sequence of events that have not yet happened, that will happen ....
All of us should recognize that this statement about God is a fact. People who believe in the false philosophy of "Open Theism" believe that God is ignorant of the sequence, and events, of the future. But we know that God knows what will happen before it happens as is demonstrated in the Scriptures, like when Jesus told Peter that Peter would definitely deny Jesus exactly three times before morning, Matthew 26:34, 75; and like when the angel Gabriel told Mary that she had been elected to be impregnated, and that she would definitely be impregnated with the Messiah, Luke 1:30-35. There are many examples of this. But, at this point I want you to pay special attention, because I have only given one half of the first view's explanation. There is a nuance to it that makes it unique in its completed presentation. Listen to it again with the rest of the details (the last six words):
God knows the future in such a way that He sees beforehand the sequence of events that have not yet happened, that will happen, though He has not determined them.
According to this view, God did not ordain every detail of the future as part of His creative work in decree. Instead, God spoke everything into existence, and then it is said that future events just play out while being out of God's control, decree, and work, in His creative predetermination. There are some apparent problems with this view. One is that the future has not yet happened for it to be seen or "foreknown" in that kind of way of discovery. For example, Christ died at the proper time. He did not die before the future event when He died. Consequently, people who hold to this view can not explain how God knows beforehand (or sees) a sequence that must happen in the future that does not exist yet because it has not happened. They know this is a problem for the theory, so they philosophically try to save the theory by saying something like,
God knows, or sees, everything at once. Though everything hasn't happened yet, he still knows, or sees, now what will happen later.
Whether God see all the sequences of events in the future at once is of little consequence because it still sounds like what is being said is that there are events that are somehow already there in the future that can be seen now, or at once. But since future events do not exist yet, because they have not happened, then it sounds like people, who hold to this view, are really saying that God sees things that are not really there to see, and He sees things that are not there to be seeable all at once. This appears to be problematic, and so to explain this apparent paradox, it is generally asserted that,
God is different than we are--really much different--and so because He is really, really much different than we are, He is able to know, or see, a future event, or thing, even though the future event has not yet happened for it to really exist to see.
This is still a statement that appears to be asserting that God sees events that don't really exist as if they do exist as something called "that future event, or thing." To explain how God who is really, really different, can see something that does not exist, people who hold to this first view, will sometimes say something like,
God is mysteriously able to do things like that because He is higher than we are. It is just that He has not revealed how He can do it in His state of higherness.
Often they will make a statement in quoting elements of the Isaiah 55:8-9 passage I quoted at the beginning of the sermon, by explaining,
I am not quite sure how, but God sees everything that has happened, and will happen. His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts than our thoughts.
In other words, people who believe that everything plays out randomly after God's original creation, also think that it can somehow be already played out in God's knowledge of it before it has really played out, and God is able to do this in some mysteriously powerful way that is aside from actually decreeing it to come to pass. After all, it is a higher way to see something that does not exist and an event that has not happened yet. This leads to another definition, and interpretation, of what it means to know something beforehand in the sense of our passage.
(B)
The second view recognizes something similar to the first explanation I just shared. It is stated something like this:
God foreknows the future in such a way that He knows beforehand the sequence of events that have not yet happened, that will happen; but with an important nuanced detail of recognizing that God is never able to be out of control of His creation, is sovereign, and has a specific reason for everything He plans, decrees, knows, and does.
Further, the view states that God knows the sequence of everything that has not yet happened that will happen. God also knows it all. In this belief, God knows the future beforehand because He is able to know something beforehand that is actually knowable. The question for people who hold to this view is like the question for those who hold to the last view:
How can God do this if the future has not yet happened?
Generally, they will answer with something like,
God knows the future because He has decreed everything that will come to pass, to come to pass. He knows His decree.
Or they will state plainly,
The future is God's decree. It is His predetermination.
Right here is the point that makes this view so radically different from the first one. But there is something else that gives this view a uniquely radical departure from the first one. Those who hold to this view base it wholly upon Scripture instead of philosophical theorizing. They explain that this second definition makes sense in every Biblical text that deals with God's knowledge of the future, and is clearly explained as the reason in a number of those passages. I will state it this way to make it even easier:
God has declared every single detail of His creation, including what will come about in the future, and God, in His omnipotent, omniscient, power, and sovereign purpose, makes sure His decree comes about in the control of the counsel of His determination.
A fundamental biblical revelation for coming to this view finds its roots in such passages as Isaiah 46,
"9 ... I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,' calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it." Isaiah 46:9-11
@3 God declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that have not yet been __________________. Isaiah 46:9-11
The same sense can be seen in Paul's assertion concerning God's predestination according to his purpose that He works after the counsel of His will,
"11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His determination," Ephesians 1:11
@4 God _______________ all things after the counsel of His determination. Ephesians 1:11
There are other Bible passages (some lengthy) that express the essential foundation of this second view. The point is that the second view also believes that God knows beforehand all events and people He has ordained to come about as future. Some who hold to this view would even say that God sees all sequences, in the omniscient sense, at once; but this view gives a biblical explanation for how God does this--He does so after the counsel of His sovereign determination. He is the one who declares the end from the beginning because His counsel shall stand, and He will accomplish all His purpose. It is in His ordination, (His determination) of His creative decree, that God knows beforehand (pro-gnosis) what must come about in the future.
(C)
But there is a third explanation of this kind of foreknowledge. It is said to also be biblically what is meant in Peter's introduction. The third view agrees with the second view in many ways. It is also based upon Scripture concerning how God knows the future. It agrees that God has predetermined the future already, and so God knows this. But, the third view has another detail to it. It has to do with a definition concerning God's knowledge (gnosis in Greek; yada in Hebrew) and foreknowledge (pro-gnosis) that is said to be applied in a special usage, and unique sense of the word. First, it is said that the idiom is always meant to apply exclusively to people and not to things in general in every Bible passage it is used. So, as a word used in respect to humans, it is consistently used in knowing them in a certain relationship manner. This particular nuance may not seem like it is important, but there are a couple of reasons that it is said to be very important. One is that, if valid, it can help us to keep from trying to make the term apply in such a manner that the Bible writers were not meaning. Further, it can help us to recognize that this intentional term does not mean that God merely knows "about" everyone everywhere. Though God knows about everyone, and everything, all the time, this expression would intentionally mean that God knows certain specific, limited, and identifiable people intimately as a particular and unique relationship focus. The biblical foundation of which this view is built is found, to some degree, when we read,
"Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived ..." Genesis 4:1
The Hebrew word for "knew" here is yada. Adam already knew who Eve was, right? In other words, at Genesis 4:1, Adam did not suddenly have a revelation of Eve, and then presto--she gets pregnant. The term means that Adam went on to know her in the sense of a special relationship. This is why the NASB translates it this way,
"Now the man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived ..." Genesis 4:1
It is even more clear in Genesis 18:19, concerning what God decreed about Abraham in respect to his election,
"19 For I have elected him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of Yahweh by doing righteousness and justice, so that Yahweh may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him." Genesis 18:19
The word "elected" here is from yada. This is why the NKJV translates the same word expression here, yada, as,
"19 For I have known him [Abraham], ..." Genesis 18:19
The point is that when God says that he has known Abraham, God means that this act of knowing is synonymous with electing Abraham to enter into a special relationship with Him. We find the same thing in Amos 3, where we read of God's special covenant relationship with Israel,
"2 You only have I elected among all the families of the earth;" Amos 3:2
"Elected" here is yada. This is why the ESV translates it as,
"2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth;" Amos 3:2
Now think about this: Certainly God has known "about" all the families of the earth, but in this sense, we are seeing that when God prior-knows, has known, or knows, someone. It does not mean that He looks into some kind of philosophical time dimension called "the future" to see who they are. It means that God sovereignly determined to have a special relationship with them out of His own good pleasure. This is why we read the language used this way in respect to God's electing relationship with Jeremiah,
"Before I formed you in the womb I elected you [yada], before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5
We notice that in God's electing determination, before God even made Jeremiah, God knew Jeremiah according to decree. God knew Jeremiah according to ordaining that Jeremiah be set apart. Further, God pre-appointed Jeremiah in knowing Jeremiah before Jeremiah actually existed. God is not saying that He looked down a concept called a "corridor of time" and then discovered that Jeremiah would come into being. It also does not mean that God looked a little further down a concept called the corridor of time and discovered that He was going to make Jeremiah to be a prophet; and then based upon such a discovery, God decided that Jeremiah would be a prophet before Jeremiah was formed. God knew Jeremiah in the special relationship where Jeremiah must necessarily become the prophet that God creatively determined in decree to make him to be beforehand. Jesus, who understood His own usage of this meaning of the term, all the way back to the beginning of His creation, used it again when He spoke concerning not knowing false prophets. In the day of judgment, Jesus says concerning false prophets (cf. Matthew 7:15);
"22 Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' 23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you;'" Matthew 7:22-23
Jesus, the God-man knows everyone. He is not ignorant of the names that will have been pre-written in the books of deeds at judgment, Revelation 20:12. He is not ignorant of the people whom He pre-wrote in His Lamb's Book of life before the foundation of the world, Revelation 13:8, 20:12, 21:27. Also, Jesus isn't going to have memory problem. Jesus means that He never knew the false prophets in the sense of the special relationship of salvation, election, and anointing, as being His elect people. Those who hold to this view point out that the Spirit inspired Peter and Paul to use the same language; like when Paul said,
"29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers;" Romans 8:29
It is pointed out that Paul says God foreknew certain people--not events, nor what people will do. Exegeted according to this third view, God wanted to create many brothers of Jesus Christ, and wanted them to be conformed into the image of Christ. So, God foreknew certain people in a special way according to His sovereign determination. Before any of it was actuated, He predestined it to be actuated. This view can easily be applied to our 1 Peter 1:1 passage, and also in a few verses in the same chapter concerning Jesus in relationship to the Father,
"20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you 21 who through Him are believers in God," 1 Peter 1:20-21
According to this interpretive principle, Peter is not considered to be saying that God merely saw, or knew, the future and observed Christ, or looked into the future and saw what Christ would accomplish. Rather, God already had a special relationship, plan, and decree, concerning the Son before the world began based entirely upon God's own good pleasure. Acts 2:23 is pointed out as Peter expressing the same consistent sense concerning the same points that he wrote in 1 Peter 1. Peter preached,
"23 this Man, [Christ] delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24 But God raised Him up again," Acts 2:23-24
@5 When Christ was crucified He was delivered up by the predetermined ____________________ and foreknowledge of God. Acts 2:23-24
In this sense, then, the predetermined plan of God is according to the prior-knowing of this man Christ who was nailed to the cross and raised up again in the special relationship that was determined in God's eternal plan. Let me recap this last (C) view again very quickly. The consistent way that foreknow, foreknown, foreknowing, and foreknowledge, is said to be used in the Bible is:
1) always with people.
and
2) always used in God's sovereign non-contingent decree based upon His own good pleasure.
This view seems to have merit. The question is:
What does Pastor Kerry think?
I think the last two are the most plausible. At one time I used to agree with the first view. It was after years of exegetical study, that I found that I no longer could agree with it. In close scrutiny, the first view is both tradition, and philosophy, driven, though some Bible verses are referred to in an attempt to support it as being a mystery. I think those Bible passages are explained from the other views in a clearer, and more consistent, manner with the rest of the Bible, and that is what ultimately changed my mind.
With all this in mind, the God glorifying truth that Peter is conveying is that God elected those whom He elected based solely upon His determination, and God actuates what the people are elected for at the proper time.
/3/
This leads to the third principle: The specific people that God elects are elected according to His foreknowledge by the setting apart work that comes through the effort of the Holy Spirit,
"1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those ... who are elected 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the setting apart work of the Spirit," 1 Peter 1:1-2
The Greek word for "setting apart" that is used here is hagios. It is sometimes translated as sanctifying, separating, consecrating, and making holy. It all means the same thing, "the act of setting apart." Saint comes from the same word. It literally means:
"Someone who is set apart."
More specifically, this setting apart work of the Spirit is to be set apart in Christ. We get the sense, in a strong way, in the amplified reading of Paul's introduction to Corinth,
"2 To the called out assembly of God that is in Corinth, to those set apart in Christ Jesus, called to be set apart ones together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, ..." 1 Corinthians 1:2
Now, the important details that we have seen so far are:
There are certain people who are elect. God is the one who elects certain people. The order is not changed in the Bible, where people are described as electing Him. We saw that God has prior-known all who He elected. Now here, we continue with Peter's theme of spotlighting God's work. In the flow, the elect do not set themselves apart in Peter's point. Notice that fact. The Holy Spirit does this setting apart work in respect to the Father's foreknowing those He has elected. The question is,
"How does the Spirit do this?"
The Spirit does this through effectually calling those, the Father has elected, in a miracle action of intervention and inner transformation. It can be said numerous ways, but what the Spirit does is the comprehensive process in the whole "setting apart work" that He manipulates and accomplishes. It is all a miracle. For example, the Spirit miraculously opens locked hearts to heed the gospel according to Acts 16:14. The reasons is because the Spirit recognizes that
"a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." 1 Corinthians 2:14
@6 Natural people do not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to them; and they cannot _____________________ them, because they are spiritually appraised. 1 Corinthians 2:14
Because the Spirit understands what he inspired Paul to write in 1 Corinthians 2:14, the Spirit comes in and gives spiritual appraisal to His elect so that they can accept the things of Himself as the Spirit of God. The Spirit enables the elect to believe through bestowing grace to do so according to Acts 18:27. The belief is a grant that is received from God as a grace gift. Faith is the beautiful gift given to the elect from the miraculous work of the Spirit, as is clearly seen in Philippians 1:29, 2 Peter 1:1, Romans 12:3, Hebrews 12:2, and Ephesians 2:8 see footnote (1). It is all the work of God, John 6:29. In this work the Spirit changes us spiritually and sets us apart from the lost where we are made into new creations in the miracle of salvation. The old things are made to pass away for the elect. Behold new things have come, 2 Corinthians 5:17. All who are saved are set apart as part of the great rescue of being transported out of the domain of darkness over into the kingdom of God's Son, Colossians 1:13. Paul the apostle makes the same essential proclamation at the beginning of Ephesians, where he says that God
"... elected us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world that we would be set apart, and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His determination, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved [Christ]. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace ... 11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his determination, ... 13 In him
you also, ... [meaning everything Paul is saying is for all Christians]
2:13 ... in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ... 18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the set apart ones, and are of God's household," Ephesians 1:4-7, 2:13, 18
All of this is the beautiful work of the Spirit of God. The point is that it is the Spirit Who sets us apart to be strangers and aliens passing through the lost world culture we were delivered out of. Once, all of us were outside the kingdom of God, but now we are set apart to be in it; in God's household, in a work that was accomplished in us by the Spirit.
/4/
The fourth principle is that the specific people that God elects are elected, according to his foreknowledge, for being set apart by the person of the Holy Spirit, for a purpose. The "purpose" is to obey Jesus Christ, and be sprinkled with His blood.
"... for obedience to Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood:" 1 Peter 1:1
The comprehensive setting apart work of the Spirit brings the elect into the kingdom relationship of experiencing Christ as Savior and Lord. The problem is that nobody will obey Jesus Christ by their own power. Nobody will be sprinkled with His blood without the work of the Spirit either. Let's think about obeying unto salvation: When Peter says, "for obedience to Jesus Christ," he means that God's elect are set apart for, and given the power to, obey Christ in believing in Him unto salvation through the blood of His covenant. Paul explains the same obedience unto salvation, as
"the obedience of faith" Romans 1:5, 16:26,
and the necessity to,
"obey the gospel," Romans 10:16, 15:18
People all over the world have faith in something. They may have faith in atheism. They have a belief that there is no God. They may have faith in agnosticism, where they say that they are not sure whether there is a God or not, or they say that they believe that there is a god but they say that they are not sure what that means. You say,
"That sure doesn't sound like faith to me?"
But it is. They have faith that they are not sure whether there is a God or not, or they have faith that there is a god even when they say that they are not sure who God is. People may have faith in a god called Allah. They may have faith in a god called Ganesh, or Kalli. They may have faith in mother nature, or mother earth, or a mother goddess. They may even claim that they have faith in Yahweh, the God of the Bible, but they do not have faith in Christ Jesus. The problem with all these people is that something is missing. They are not obeying unto salvation by believing in Christ Jesus as the sole mediator between God and man in His sacrifice for sins, and in His resurrection as King of kings and Lord of lords. They are dead in their sins, and so their faith is a dead kind of faith in dead gods that they want to believe are real. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand is the living life giver Who is the great helper who changes hearts to embrace the illumination of the gospel. Jesus recognized that this would be the work of the Spirit in the ministry of the New Covenant. This is why Jesus said to His students in His pre-cross ministry just before delivering Himself over to be the ultimate sacrifice,
"7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; 10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; 11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged." John 16:7-11
The only way that anyone in the world is convicted of sin to believe in Christ concerning righteousness because Christ went to the Father, and concerning judgment because the ruler of the world has been judged, is by being miraculously helped by the Spirit. Then there is also obeying the Lord in the rest of our actions. The elect are set apart for, and are given, the indwelling Spirit, to obey Christ in actions that follow salvation. This is what Peter means in a few more verses when he goes on to say,
"14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance," 1 Peter 1:14
The obedience is to the Lord concerning what He commands us to do in the New Covenant so that we will not live like we are in "ignorance." Now, when we think about this, we must consider that a lot of effort is given by rebellious people to obey lists of things to do, and lists of things to avoid doing. Some are trying to please God to be accepted by Him. Some are trying to do the wrong things which are things that God never said He wanted us to do. Some people could care less about what the actual commandments of the Lord really are. They say they believe in Jesus but they show no interest in following Him in seeking to live by what He says to do in the New Testament. All these people demonstrate that they are lacking something. They are lacking the indwelling Spirit to be convinced according to His word, to be empowered, and to obey Him, throughout their daily lives. Now think about this--
Since we are not perfect, even after salvation, then we will sin.
All Christians sin, but it is the Holy Spirit who convicts us of our sin and compels us to hate it. Why? Because this is what Peter says we were set apart by Him for. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts us and empowers us to repent. Without the Spirit, then we would simply be religious people who try to follow our lists. But the Spirit gives us more. The Spirit gives us the mind of Christ so that we will want to learn God's word to renew our mind and nurture our new mind to grow in relationship with Him. All of these things are manifestations of the Spirit, in respect to God's will, through the New Covenant in Christ.
/5/
This leads us to the fifth and final principle. It is to recognize that this election is a work that expresses the One true God in His existence as three eternally existing Persons.
"1 ...to those ... who are elected according to the foreknowledge of
[A] God the Father,
[B] by the setting apart work of the Spirit,
[C] for obedience to Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood:" 1 Peter 1:1
The main thing I am getting at in bringing out this last point is that the work of God in His fullness of His triune being is seen in His special foreknowledge of those whom He saves in Christ. Notice that the Father is the One who is referred to as the person in the One Godhead who elects according to His special foreknowledge. The Spirit is the worker Who accomplishes the miracle actions of setting apart the elect for obedience, and is the mediator who sprinkles with the blood of Jesus. Jesus Christ is the Son Who is to be obeyed as both Lord and Savior. This is a picture of the operation of the mystery of the Trinity. There are not three gods. There is One God in three eternal persons, and they always exist all the time. Everything we have covered this morning is important for recognizing the work of God in the fullness of the expression of the triune essence of the Godhead.
Looking once again at what we have studied, I urge all of us to be mindful of the sovereignty of God, and the humble position, and total reliance upon God's grace that we are privileged to experience. Especially be thinking of the first principle. The elect people of God are not all people everywhere. God is not a universalist. This means that God's election is not of everyone. God's election is real, which means it is actual. It is closed to specific people that He has truly elected in grace. To be elected is to be selected unto something. Let us always be mindful of the second principle. The specific people that God the Father elects, are people elected according to His foreknowledge. There are many differing definitions of what foreknowledge actually means, or how it is accomplished. Some are Biblical in respect to their exegetical identification. The other view finds its foundation in philosophy. Keep this in mind as you remember the third principle. The specific people that God elects are elected according to his foreknowledge, by being set apart through the effort of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is more than a power. The Holy Spirit is a Person. The Holy Spirit does have power though. In His power, He separates wheat out from the field of tares. He does this by effectually drawing the elect tares to God with the gift of faith, and transforms the tare into a wheat, where their spiritual DNA, so to speak, is changed completely. The wheat exists on planet earth as a stranger and alien passing through until it is promoted to a much better field of existence in the after life. Be thinking about your own thoughts, action, and will, as you consider that the Holy Spirit sets people apart for a purpose. The purpose is for obedience to Jesus Christ, and the sprinkling with His blood. Finally, worship God knowing that all of this is accomplished in such a way that the Triune essence of God is made manifest. Amen.
FOOTNOTES:
(1) Concerning Ephesians 2:8, Greek scholar Dr. E. Campbell words this very well in his commentary on Ephesians,
"With reference to the statement, 'For by grace you have been saved through faith,' Paul says, 'And this is not of you.' Both of the Greek words rendered 'grace' (cariti) and 'faith' (pistews) are in the feminine gender, but the Greek pronoun translated 'this' (touto) is in the neuter gender. If this pronoun refers back to the words 'grace' and 'faith,' as we have suggested, why isn't it in the feminine gender? The answer is in the latter part of this verse, where Paul considers both the grace and faith as a 'gift' (dwron), a Greek noun which is in the neuter gender, and as such, is the antecedent of the pronoun 'this' (touto). In other words, looking at the two essential ingredients involved in God's saving of sinners, Paul refers to the same as a gift which is 'not out of you' (ouk ex umwn). This verse clearly teaches that neither the grace not the faith are of human origin, they are not out of nor from those being saved (cf. v. 5; 2 Timothy 1:9, Titus 3:5) but are from an outside Divine source." pp. 70-71
@1 God's ways are _________________ than our ways. Isaiah 55:8-9
@2 All whom God has elected have received God's ________________ in salvation. 1 Peter 2:9-11
@3 God declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that have not yet been __________________. Isaiah 46:9-11
@4 God _______________ all things after the counsel of His determination. Ephesians 1:11
@5 When Christ was crucified He was delivered up by the predetermined ____________________ and foreknowledge of God. Acts 2:23-24
@6 Natural people do not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to them; and they cannot _____________________ them, because they are spiritually appraised. 1 Corinthians 2:14
