In Christ

Were you ever given a nickname? When I was a junior in high school some kids on the school bus called me green bean. I’m guessing because I was tall and skinny. They called my brother frog. I have no idea why and it drove him crazy.

We see some nicknames in the Bible. In Mark 15:40 there is a reference to James the younger. The word for “younger is μικρός (mikrós) and is more often translated as little. Some believe this man named James was short and received this nickname because of his height. Jesus gave nicknames to some of the disciples. He called James and John the “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17) and he gave Simon the name Peter which means rock or stone.

Often, people give nicknames because of some ability or characteristic, whether it’s good or bad. I heard a preacher say he’d given nicknames to all of his grandchildren that said something about who they are. Maybe you were given a nickname that described something about you. Hopefully, it was positive, but we know how people can be. Often they are cruel and the nicknames they give can be hurtful. However, it doesn’t matter what people say about us, the only thing that matters is what God says about us, and God calls a chosen race and a royal priesthood. God says we are redeemed, chosen, adopted, and created in his image. That’s who God says we are.

Turn with me to the first chapter of 1 Peter. In the opening verses of this letter, Peter gives us six descriptions of who we are in Christ.

1 Peter 1:1-9 1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, 2 who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The first word Peter uses to describe believers is “selected.” Peter addresses his letter to God’s elect. In this context, to be elected means that we have been picked, chosen, or selected.

Even if you were never given a nickname when you were in school I’m sure you’ve had the experience of being chosen for a team. I can still picture standing on the playground of my elementary school. Two guys — usually the two best athletes — would be selected to be captains and then they would take turns choosing who they wanted to be on their team. I never went first but I didn’t want to be last. For many, this choosing of teams was an anxious experience of wondering when or even if they would be chosen. God said that he has chosen us. God knows everything about us — our good and bad, our strengths and weaknesses — and still he chose us.

Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

We have been chosen by God to be his holy and loved people. And according to verse 2 in our passage, God made this decision to choose us through his foreknowledge.

1 Peter 1:2 Who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. . . .

That means that long before we knew God that he knew us, loved us, and he chose us. God says in Isaiah:

Isaiah 46:9-10 9 Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. 10 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”

God says he knows the future before it happens. He could see how things would turn out even before they began. God’s vision is perfect. As someone said:

We can’t see around corners, but God can.

Someone else said:

We can count the seeds in an apple. But God can count the apples in a seed.

God knows past, present, and future. He knows those who will respond to his message and those who will accept Jesus. Therefore, when we choose to believe in the truth about Jesus, when we choose to receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord, at some point we will look back and see that really it was God who chose us. Before the beginning of time, God looked into the future and saw you, and chose you. As believers, we are selected people.

The second word Peter uses to describe believers is “strangers.” The word Peter used here can be translated as strangers, foreigners, or exiles. It refers to those who live for an extended time in a country that is not their own. They will be there long enough to need a house to live in but not long enough to become a legal citizen of that country. That is the case for the child of God. We live in this world but our real home is in heaven. We are simply pilgrims passing through this world. In other words, we don’t belong here because this world is not our home. Or at least it is not our permanent home. We are only passing through. We have been REborn to live somewhere else. That makes us strangers in this world and exiles us from our home in heaven. Jesus told his disciples:

John 14:1-4 1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.

Jesus is preparing a permanent place for us and this isn’t it. Paul told the Philippians:

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are only here temporarily. If you sometimes find yourself uncomfortable in this world you are not alone. C. S Lewis once said:

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

The third word Peter uses to describe believers is “sanctified.” God the Father, who knew us and choose us long ago, has sanctified us or made us holy by the work of his Spirit. The word holy means to set apart. Paul told the Thessalonians:

2 Thessalonians 2:13 But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.

The idea of sanctification is that we are being set free from and separated from the power of sin. We are called to holiness. The other idea is that God has chosen us and separated us from the world and for himself.

When I was growing up my brother and I would go out to play with the neighbors. During the summer if we could, we’d stay out till after it got dark. We could stay out playing until our mother called our names. Once she called our names, and she didn’t call them twice, we’d better start heading inside.

This may sound profound but you know it’s true, those who don’t know you don’t call your name. Only those who know you, who are important to you, call your name. That God, the creator of the universe would call our names is significant. It shows us that we are known by him and that we are loved by him. No one should say their life doesn’t matter. It does matter. The Lord of creation has called their name. God has called us to himself so that we might be set apart for him. As Peter writes in the next chapter of his letter:

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

The fourth word Peter uses to describe believers is “sprinkled.” Peter says that we have been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus. Peter is pointing us back to the Old Testament sacrifices. As a part of those sacrifices, the blood of the animal was sprinkled on the altar and it would be sprinkled on the one making the sacrifice. Of course, those sacrifices were a picture of what Jesus would do for us on the cross. Peter says that we have been sprinkled by the blood of the Lamb of God who died on the cross for our sins.

The idea of someone sprinkling blood on us doesn’t sound very inviting. Would you let anyone sprinkle blood on you? No of course not. But we must let Jesus spiritually sprinkle his blood on us in order to be forgiven. As we read in Revelation:

Revelation 1:5b To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood.

Later in the book of Revelation John wrote:

Revelation 7:13-14 13 Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” 14 I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Their robes were made white by the blood of Jesus. We are forgiven and made clean by the shedding of Christ’s blood. As the old hymn goes, we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.

A fifth word that Peter uses to describe believers is “suffer.” Peter writes about their suffering in verse 6, stating that they had endured many trials because of their faith. The persecution of the church had begun in Jerusalem with the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7. Chapter 8 starts by saying:

Acts 8:1b On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.

The believers left Jerusalem to get away from the persecution. The only problem is the persecution followed them. The believers to whom Peter wrote were still suffering because of their faith in Jesus. In this short letter, Peter refers to their suffering more than a dozen times. Peter wanted to encourage those suffering Christians, and prepare them for the trials that were to come. He didn’t want them to abandon their faith because of the difficulties they were experiencing.

Atlanta United played their first professional soccer game in 2017. They finished their first season fourth in their conference. The next year they finished second and won the championship. They again finished second in their third season but failed to make the championship game. Then, they fired their head coach and haven’t done much since. I closely followed their progress those first three seasons but haven’t paid much attention lately. When it comes to Atlanta’s soccer team, I guess you could call me a fair-weathered fan. When they were doing well I was a big fan and now that they’re not doing so well I ignore them.

There are Christians who follow Jesus the same way. They follow as long as things are easy. In his parable of the four soils, the second illustration Jesus used was rocky soil. Jesus said it represented difficulty and persecution. Jesus said that there will be some people who will joyfully receive the gospel but will quickly fall away when things get a little difficult.

Suffering is never pleasant, but Peter noted that it is sometimes necessary. Peter says that our suffering proves the genuineness of our faith. Therefore, don’t allow difficulties or persecutions to drive you from your faith in Jesus.

The final word Peter uses to describe believers is “salvation.” We may not understand why we suffer, but we believe that our heavenly Father always knows best. However, Peter says that the result will be the salvation of our souls.

Peter talked about our salvation in verses 3-5. He talked about our new birth. In Jesus are born again and given a new life in him. Peter talked about our living hope. Our hope is a living one because the One in whom we place our hope is alive. And Peter mentioned the inheritance we have in Jesus that is being kept for us in heaven.

When Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton died in 1992, he left billions to each of his children. That’s nice, but they are not going to be able to keep that inheritance forever. One day they will lose it all. They will not be able to take it with them when they die. But you will never lose the inheritance that belongs to you if you belong to Jesus.

Because we know Jesus as our Savior and Lord, a place has been reserved for us in heaven. It is our inheritance. It belongs to us because Jesus has already died for us. Peter says that our inheritance is both pure and undefiled. That means it’s permanent and perfect in every way.

The story is told of the famous actor Kirk Douglas pulling over to pick up a sailor on leave who was hitchhiking. When the sailor recognized his driver, he excitedly asked, “Hey, do you know who you are?!?”

That's a great question for Christians to ask: “Do you know who you are?” While we may have to suffer for a while, God says we are been selected, strangers, sanctified, sprinkled, and saved.

Robert Morgan told about a lady who was the oldest member of their church. Her name was Agnes Frazier. Robert said she was a godly woman with a strong faith in God. When Agnes was 95 years old, her health failed, and Robert received a call that Mrs. Agnes was asking for him. Robert later told this story:

When I entered her bedroom, she was almost too weak to look up at me. Her words were indistinct at times. But it soon became clear that she had wanted to see me because she was curious about “these men.” “What men?” I asked. “I keep seeing these two men,” she said. “What do they look like?” “Two men, dressed in white from head to foot are standing at the foot of my bed. I don’t know what to tell them. What should I say if they ask me something?”

Robert said he thought about it for a few moments and then said:

“Tell them that you belong to Jesus.” That seemed to satisfy Mrs. Agnes. “Yes,” she said, “I’ll tell them I belong to Jesus.”

Robert said:

Shortly afterward, she fell asleep in Christ and those two angels, I believe, ushered her to heaven. They took her home. And one day they will take us to that wonderful home, saved by grace through faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Do you have that assurance that when you die that you will go to heaven to live eternally in the home Jesus has prepared for you?