1 Peter 1_1-12

1 PETER 1:1-12

One of the things you could easily miss in reading this epistle is that it represents a revolution. The writer was born and bred an orthodox Jew. He resented Gentiles and held them in deep suspicion. He regarded them as unclean atheists who should be avoided at all costs. They were to be regarded as belonging to similar categories as pigs - unclean for Jews to touch. Salvation and spirituality were entirely wrapped up in the Jewish Scriptures, the Jewish customs, the Jewish community, the Jewish land and the Jewish most other things. But in this letter almost everything precious to do with the Jews and their Scriptures Peter attributes as belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ which was increasingly being populated by uncircumcised Gentiles. There's a blinding passage at the beginning of chapter two which demonstrates that magnificently - but we'll see some of it here in verses 1-12 of chapter 1.

Peter uses a number of terms here which come from an Old Testament background.

The Jews had been scattered throughout the known world in the centuries before the coming of the Lord Jesus. They'd been exiled in Babylon and had been scattered throughout the Persian Empire. Just have a look at Ezra 3:8. These scattered Jewish families and communities were known as the Diaspora. It was the hope, developed in the prophets, that one day Messiah would come and the scattered ones would return and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy would be upon their heads. Now these Gentile Christians who've been scattered throughout parts of the Roman Empire are the diaspora of God. They're pilgrims, aliens temporarily away from their home city - the eternal city.

It means "called out from". They were specially chosen, just like the Jews of old, to belong to God's family. But how and when did this choosing happen? Answer - in the foreknowledge of God. It's the same word used of the Lord Jesus in verse 20. You don't become a Christian by accident, but by the foreordination of God. Just as God chose Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jacob's 12 sons, he chose these poor scattered Christians. The Roman Empire might be selecting them out for harm, but God chose them for his own.

The Lord made a covenant with the Jews; they were set apart for His service and sprinkled with blood as a sign of their place in God's covenant. All that symbolism is made truly real in the Christian's place in the new covenant. You become a Christian when the Holy Spirit enters your heart and sets you apart for God. You are cleansed from your sin by the application of Jesus' sacrifice to you, and God's covenant love is settled on you.

Can you see why it's impossible to be a casual Christian? If you're a true Christian you've been chosen by God not to make you feel proud, but for a purpose. The purpose is this - to be sanctified by the Spirit for obedience and a cleansed life. If you drink like the unconverted, and use their language, and have sex like them, and show little regard for godliness like them, and neglect prayer and Scripture like them, it's very difficult to argue that you are a Christian at all. If your life shows no indication of the holy purpose of God in it then on what grounds do you claim to be a child of the covenant? Don't say - "Because I believe" - the Devil believes more of the Bible than you do, but it doesn't make him godly.

I'm not speaking about perfection, I'm not even speaking about being a mature Christian, but I am saying, that if God Almighty is at work in your life then it should begin to make you a person set apart from an ungodly life, and towards a godly life.

See chapter 1:14-15.

You may remember the story of King Ahab who coveted the vineyard of Naboth which was close to the palace. He wanted to buy it, but back came the spirited reply, "GOD forbid that I should sell you the inheritance of my father's". That was a spiritual reply. Naboth's land was the inheritance God gave to the Jews. It was apportioned out by the casting of lots during the time of Joshua. There were very strict laws in God's covenant which regulated the land and its ownership. The law bends over backwards to ensure that as far as possible no Jewish family should lose the inheritance of God.

See Leviticus 20:24

As the Emperor Nero comes against these Christians to take from them their possessions, their freedom, and sometimes their lives, Peter notes that he can't take from them their Land, their inheritance. Why?

I take it that this is a reference to the future state which Peter describes in the third chapter of his second letter - this present cosmos will be dismantled, de-created as God allows every atom to break apart and melt with blazing heat. But out of that a new creation will be formed, a new cosmos which will be eternally pure and perfect - the home of righteousness. That will be heaven. And the chosen people have a right to that eternal inheritance. Caesar can't rob you of that, neither can anything else.

The Jew received his right to inherit his father's property by being the first born Son - he was in possession of the birthright. All he had to do was receive natural birth. Well, because Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose from death he has become the "first born from the dead" (Colossians 1:18). He is the heir of the kingdom; the birthright is His. And you Christians have been made "joint-heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17). So, when you are born again by the inward work of the Spirit of God, you become adopted children of God and receive inheritance rights along with your elder brother, Jesus Christ.

And notice that you receive this new birth, not by human decency or effort, but according to God's mercy (v 3); it's a free and merciful gift, because we deserve destruction in hell, but are gifted a heavenly inheritance. That's why is described here as a "living" hope. You're born into possession by the Lord who ever lives, having risen from death.

If you look at the three words here - "imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away". These words are in contrast to everything else in your life. Everything you are, and everything you possess and every relationship you enjoy falls under the impact of these three words. They will perish, they will become corrupted, they will fade away. That car will one day be crushed and melted down. That fine athletic body will die and return to the nitrogen cycle - then worms will come and eat thee up. Caesar might come and take it from you.

But your heavenly inheritance is not capable of decay; it's eternally viable and bright. Caesar nor anything nor anyone can make it diminish.

It must be daunting when the great political powers of your day are out to do you great harm because of your faith in Jesus. C.f. the Kham tribal group in Nepal who paid for their 1,000 page New Testament with 6 days in prison for each page. The state had decreed that it was illegal to convert from your Nepali religion to Christianity. Christians look so vulnerable in the face of state hostility. They don't use bullet and bomb to protect themselves, if they can't escape, or argue their way out of trouble, they take it on the chin.

Our consolation and confidence is that GOD is "keeping" us by his power for that salvation inheritance which will come to us in the last time. You have the same theme spelled out in more detail at the end of Romans 8. God is not only keeping your inheritance for you, he's keeping you for your inheritance. And what's the chief evidence that his power is at work in you? Faith. The presence of trust in His person and purposes in your heart. Kept by his power THROUGH faith.

You'll see how this power of God and your faith work together in verses 6-9. Your faith is being tested by the hard things that surround you in the Christian life. And that kind of tested faith is more precious than gold; because even though gold is severely tested by fire, and purified by fire, it perishes. But your faith when it's tested by fire and purified of some of the rubbish that gets into your attitudes, is still alive and well at the coming of the Lord Jesus. And your faith in His promises and person brings glory to the Lord Jesus when he comes.

You see how faith works (verse 8,9). You don't see him but you love him. You don't see the inheritance of glory that's yours but you rejoice in it already with a joy that's hard to express. It's as though you can rejoice in this heavenly inheritance as though you had received it already, because surely you have. Heaven belongs to you right now, and faith believes and accepts God's promise on that score, and lives now in full confidence that that is my future.

I was talking to a dear friend the other day about his longing for heaven, he said, "I can't wait".

Maybe it all sounds too good to be true. Pie in the sky when you die. Give these pathetic Christians a heaven to look forward to and they'll lie down while you role right over them. They're too heavenly minded to be of any earthly use.

Well, what Peter does at this point is to make sure we appreciate that all this talk about inheritance and glory to come, and receiving it simply by faith, isn't a rubbishy novelty he's just made up off the top of his head.

The Holy Spirit gave promises to the OT prophets about the new heavens and new earth, about the sufferings and death of the Messiah, about the glory to come and so on. But they didn't properly understand the things they were writing. They were prophesying about things that would happen in the future. They thought long and hard about their own prophecies, they didn't fully understand what they meant. They got these things from God, they didn't make them up like science fiction authors. Read through 1 Peter sometime and see the OT passages he uses to illustrate NT realities.

This thing you've got by faith was looked for by some of the greatest people ever to have lived; Moses, David, Isaiah, and so on, they didn't see it - but have it in full possession. Christ would suffer and enter his glory. And that's the way Christians go - we suffer with him and then enter the glory.

Inspired prophets look forward to it. Inspired apostles declare it.

You have something immensely precious. OK, so the Christian life is hard at times. Sometimes it's a great struggle. Sometimes other people make you suffer for it. Sometimes you have to give things up and deny yourself certain things because you're a Christian. But you're not a loser. You have something utterly and eternally wonderful. Something that great people looked forward to for centuries. Something that inspired apostles preach and angels admire.

It's yours. Let Caesar do his worst, he can't take this from you. Even in suffering you can rejoice in hope of the glory of God.