Hope in Our Election

Introduction

RC Sproul and 3 others were traveling from Hungary into Romania right after the breakup of the Soviet Union, in Dec. 1991. They were warned about the great dangers of going across the border, as the border guards tended to be overtly hostile toward Americans.

They were riding in an old train and when they came to the border between Hungary and Romania two big border guards got on the train where the four of them were sitting. In gruff and broken English, the guard told them to empty their suitcases.

Just as they were about to follow his command, their leader looked at one of RC’s friends, who happened to have her Bible in a brown paper bag on her lap. The guard grabbed the Bible from the bag and said in broken English, “You no Americans.” Their passports identified them as Americans, but the leader still questioned them about their citizenship. He pointed his finger at the Bible text and said, “Look what it say.” We are pilgrims and citizens of heaven.

He was a Christian. He turned to the other guards and said, “These people okay. Leave them alone.” RC and his companions made it through the checkpoint. But through this experience, they learnt what it means to be pilgrims in a foreign land yet members of the kingdom of God and citizens of heaven.

Peter, in his first letter, gives us great assurance of our guaranteed salvation. Just as Peter comforted the churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, helping them understand where their home really is, so too this same reassurance is given for us 2000 years later.

In these first two verses Peter declares several truths that give us hope through thick and thin, and encourage us along our pilgrimage to our real home, the New Creation.

Pilgrims/ Sojourners

Peter says that Christians are temporary residents of earth. Pilgrims travelling through this life, with our destination as God’s kingdom, the New Creation of revelation 21-22. If you could open your Bibles to 1 Peter 1. In v1 we read, “To the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia...”

These pilgrims, Peter is writing to, are exiles. People who don’t fit in to the world’s economy and philosophy of life, and as such are rejected by the world. The word dispersion usually speaks only of Jewish people who are scattered throughout the known world.

But I think that Peter is writing this letter to believers generally; Jews and Greeks who are living in the wider world. These believers are Christians that are scattered, displaced, or exiles from their true home.

A couple of verses convince me of this.

The first is in 1:17. Peter says, “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here, [sojourning] in fear.”

Peter is telling Christians to remember that earth is not our real home, we are only temporary residents. Instead our home is in heaven. v4 explains it as “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” This letter is written to believers, in general, who are strangers and exiles in this world.

chapter 2, verse 11, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” The ‘sojourners and pilgrims’ are all those who are living in an environment that is foreign to them. This world is pounding against us. Satan and his kingdom want to take away our joy, the joy we have knowing we are foreknown, sanctified, and sprinkled with the blood of Christ.

We belong to the Heavenly kingdom. The ‘pilgrims of the dispersion’ in 1:1 is a general description, speaking to all those who are spiritual outsiders on earth. This letter, then, encompasses a wider audience of both Jew and Gentile believers. And all true Christians are sojourners in this hostile world.

Elect

We are chosen pilgrims, V2, “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” This word ‘elect’ means to select, or choose out.

In the Biblical sense it refers to God choosing to redeem some people out of all of humanity. We call this Sovereign election, and we see God’s sovereign election throughout Scripture.

For example, in Genesis 1-11 we see God continually choosing one person over and against another as the story of creation, the fall and this plays out right the way through redemptive history; from Abel and his righteous sacrifice, to the line of Seth spoken as the sons of God, to Noah and his family, being the only people chosen to be saved from the worldwide flood.

God chooses whomever He pleases, to bring to salvation. Ephesians 2:1-5 reminds us that our election is by God’s grace alone, it says:

Ephesians 2:1–5 NKJV

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) …”

Fallen humanity is unable and willing to choose God. We were at one time dead in our trespasses and sins. Rather God chose us, not based on any goodness within us. But upon on His good and eternal will.

This can be seen in God’s sovereign election of Abraham in:

Genesis 12:1 NKJV

“Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.”

God chose Abram and his family to be His chosen people.

More than 500 years pass by and we have another example: After Israel completed their wilderness wanderings, while camping on the eastern side of the Jordan. And just prior to them taking possession of Canaan, God says to Israel:

Deuteronomy 7:6 and repeated in Deut. 14:2

“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.”

It is God who elects us and chooses us, to be His special possession. This gives us great reason to rejoice in Christ our Lord. It is the hope of salvation. God reigns supreme and whomever God chooses, stays chosen. Nothing is powerful enough to snatch us from His mighty hand.

Foreknown by God

Let’s go back to the text, continuing in verse 2, we are “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” We are elected by God, chosen by Him, from eternity past. This word ‘foreknowledge’ is only found in the New Testament twice. Once here in First Peter and once in the book of Acts. In both instances it refers not just to divine foreknowledge, as if God were simply looking down the tunnel of time. The Biblical meaning of ‘know’ means to be in relationship with someone. It specifies God’s Sovereign electing. His deep and steadfast love or the chosen.

In Romans 8:29-30, we read, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son... Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” It is all God. He predestines, calls, justifies, glorifies. As a side note, Paul speaks all these truths as a simple past event. If you have experienced the new birth, then, in one sense, your glorification is already done. In God’s eyes you are assured your place in His heavenly kingdom.

Paul again gives us great hope. Ephesians 1:4-5, “He [God the Father] chose us in Him [Jesus Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” God chose us in Christ, when? Before the foundation of the world. In a very real sense, as long as God has existed, we have been chosen, foreknown by Him.

Sanctified by the Holy Spirit

Continuing in v2, “in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience.”

The Westminster Shorter Catechism gives a great definition of what sanctification is. Question 35 asks:

What is sanctification?

Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.

Sanctification begins the moment God’s call reaches our hearts and is completed when we either die or the Lord Jesus comes in judgement. Sanctification simply means to set apart. Sanctification has 3 different uses in Holy Scripture. It is a continuing present action of the Holy Spirit as we are gradually freed from the power of sin on our lives, while forming in us Christlike affections, dispositions, and virtues. It can also be used in the sense of future completion, as in Philippians 1:6, “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

In 1 Peter 1:2, though, it is used in the initial setting apart unto holiness and the ongoing work of making us more like Christ. The way we become pilgrims in the dispersion is by the initial separating work of the Holy Spirit as He quickens us. It is the moment of the rebirth. But His work in our lives in only completed when we shed this mortal body.

For Obedience

The whole duty for all Christians is the obedience to the King. When the Holy Spirit initially sanctifies us, the result is obedience. We are separated for the express purpose of obedience to God. Peter agrees with James and Paul, that our election and sanctification is shown in the way we conduct ourselves as people of God.

James 2:26 says it this way, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” If you profess to be a Christian, then it will, by necessity, play out in your life. Paul says in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Obedience to God, firstly, results from the ongoing work of sanctification. And secondly, Obedience is the overflow of God’s work in our hearts.

Purified by the blood of Christ

Before our regeneration, in God’s eyes we were His enemies.

So How can we be obedient when we are lawbreakers?

How can the Holy Spirit set us apart, for good works?

There is only one reason, isn’t there.

Peter gives us the reason in verse 2, by “sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” This is an Old Testament metaphor, drawn from the confirmation of God’s covenant with His people, Israel. In Exodus 20-23 God has given Israel the Ten Commandments and some of the laws to Israel. Following on from that in chapter 24:7, The people pledge obedience to God and to authorize the covenant Moses sprinkles the blood of the sacrifice, upon them. In Christian terms the sprinkling with Christ’s blood means that His death covers our sin, and are therefore are the elect ones: predestined by God the Father and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

In simple terms it means that Jesus Christ died for you. We owe such a great debt to God that we could never pay it, not in a billion years. but Christ payed our debt for us.

Conclusion

Do you see the fullness of salvation, here. The work of redemption is a Trinitarian work. God the Father chose us in eternity past, God the Son shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins, and God the Spirit both set us apart and continues to do so. The three persons of the Godhead, are together fully involved in our salvation.

Christ’s blood, justifies us before God, seals the covenant between God, cleanses us from all sin, and admits us into heaven. God can elect us from before creation, the Holy Spirit can set us apart, but without the sacrificial blood of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, it all comes undone.

This should give us great hope, make us overjoyed, because whoever God elects is saved.

We belong to another Kingdom. We are citizens of Heaven, where Jesus Christ reigns as the true King. And because we live for the future kingdom of God, we find much opposition. But we know that God is for His people. Therefore His people will be delivered safely to the city of God.