Chosen Pilgrims
Northwest Bible Church - March 21, 2021 - 1 Peter - Alan Conner
1 Pet. 1:1-2
Chosen Pilgrims
Intro
A. ELECT ALIENS.
1. “Chosen” is first description of the readers (1 Pet. 1).
2. Used of Israel in the O.T. - Deut. 7:6
3. Used of N.T. believers.
a- individual and unconditional - Rom. 9:11
b- eternal - Eph. 1:4
c- unto salvation - 2Th. 2:13
4. Peter teaches faith is a gift of God. 2 Pet. 1:1; Acts 5:31; 11:18
B. THE SOURCE OF ELECTION: GOD’S FOREKNOWLEDGE (1 Pet. 2).
1. Two views: Arminian view - conditional election.
Reformed view - unconditional election.
2. Two kinds of divine knowledge -
a- Omniscience - God’s knowledge of all things
b- God’s special knowledge of certain people He has chosen - Jer. 1:5; Amos 3:2; Mt. 7:23
3. The meaning of divine “foreknowledge” in the N.T.
1 Pet. 1:20
Acts 2:23
Rom. 8:29; 11:2
4. The view of leading Greek dictionaries.
5. Other Bible translations.
Applications
1Pet. 1:20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you. NIV “chosen”; NKJV and KJV “foreordained”.
This verse refers to Jesus Christ who was foreknown by God before the foundation of the world. The Arminian view would be that the Father didn’t know about the coming and mission of His Son Jesus Christ until He looked down through the corridors of time to see and learn about it. This is contrary to the clear Scripture that the Trinity pre-planned all of redemption before the foundation of the world. There is no looking down through history for God to learn when Christ would appear or what was going to happen. God foreknew that Christ would come because He foreordained that Christ would come. Christ was “sent” by the Father. It hardly depends on man’s choices foreseen by God.
Acts 2:23 this Man, 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.
Acts 4:27 “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
Acts 4:28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.
If foreknowledge is the Arminian view that God had to first look down through the halls of history to learn that Jesus was going to be delivered over by sinful men and nailed to the cross then it blatantly contradicts the fact that it is the PREDETERMINED PLAN. This occurs first so that you we must conclude that God foreknew that Christ would be delivered over to the cross because He foreordained that Jesus would be delivered over to the cross. So in this verse His foreknowledge of omniscience is based on His foreordination (or predestination).
So again, the Arminian view does not make sense at all.
Here in 1 Peter. 1:1 the “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God” includes the idea of foreordination/predestination but not of Christ but of His chosen ones. The idea of God choosing based on looking down through history to see who first
chooses Him does not fit the meaning of this word in Peter’s writings.
Paul would agree.
Rom. 8:29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,
Rom. 11:2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.
Here of His special knowledge of people chosen by His covenant love. Notice “For those whom He foreknew” not facts that He knew about them but that HE KNEW THEM, PEOPLE WHOM HE PREDESTINED.
The leading Greek lexicons agree:
BAG, p. 710 translates 1 Pet. 1:2 chosen “according to the predestination of God the Father”
TDNT, 1:715, says of the word “foreknown” in Rom. 8:29; 11:2; 1 Pet. 1:20 God’s foreknowledge is an election or foreordination of His people or Christ.
1 Pet. 1:1-2 “foreknowledge” of the chosen
Moffatt - “whom God the Father has predestined and chosen”
Goodspeed - “whom God the Father has chosen and predestined.”
Wuest - “chosen-out ones, this choice having been determined by the foreordination of God the Father”
Williams - “who was foreordained”
New English Bible - “chosen of old in the purpose of God the Father”
1 Pet. 1:20 “foreknown” of Christ
KJV - “who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world”
NIV - “He was chosen before the creation of the world”
Moffatt, Goodspeed, Wuest, Phillips, Williams, NEB - translates “foreknown” with “predestined, foreordained, chosen.”
SUMMARY - God’s foreknowledge is a synonym for His foreordination/predestination of either EVENTS or of His ELECT, either His Son or redeemed people with whom He has a special, loving and covenant relationship.
Again, the Arminian view fails to explain the verses.
APPLICATION
1. It gives us a clear understanding of HOW we should live based on WHO we are. We have been chosen by God for God. We are “in the world but not of the world”. We are citizens of heaven and our lives should reflect that. We are loved by God and we should live that out:
Col. 3:12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
Col. 3:13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
Undeserved election unto salvation provides the incentive, motivation, gratitude to live a God-honoring life. Our destiny is to become like Christ, the elect are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. “Lord make me more like the Savior.”
2. The doctrine of election is a great comfort to believers in times of trouble, persecution, suffering and afflictions. It anchors the soul in security of knowing that God has set His eternal love upon us and nothing that this world throws at us can take us out of God’s hands. It gives stability to our life.
Safe and secure from all alarms
Leaning on the everlasting arms
Election is a manifestation of God’s sovereignty in salvation. It is God’s sovereign control over all things and God’s promise to work it for GOOD in the life of His chosen ones, that give us such a great comfort.
John Piper, “The sovereignty of God is the strong wood of the tree that keeps our lives from being blown over by the winds of adversity. It is the rock that rises for us out of the flood of uncertainty and confusion. It is the eye of the hurricane where we stand with God and look up into the blue sky of his mastery when everything is being destroyed.”
William Cowper, in his hymn, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way,”
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense
But trust Him for His grace
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face
Spurgeon, “There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all.”
3. Peter in his second letter will exhort his readers,
2Pet. 1:10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you;
Are you trusting Jesus alone to forgive you of all your sins? And do you
see any evidence of grace in their lives. Not perfection but direction. Faith, moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, love. We are not saved by these things but this is the direction that true faith seeks to go. Do you want to grow in these? In your struggles are you asking God to help you increase?
THE MEANS OF SAVING THE ELECT
1. “by the sanctifying work of the Spirit”
There seems to be a progression of thought here. The sanctification is often used for the gradual work of the Spirit to make us more like Jesus Christ throughout our Christian lives. Here the focus is on the initial beginning of that process where the Spirit begins His work of drawing us to Christ. It probably refers then to His preparatory work where He begins His work of bringing us into the kingdom and into a state of holiness in Christ. This would be the Spirit’s work of conviction, drawing and eventually regeneration which gives us a new heart.
This sanctifying work of the Spirit results in saving faith.
2. “to obey Jesus Christ”
The “obedience of faith” since the gospel is a command to “repent.” 1John 3:23 ¶ This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ,
Rom. 1:5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake,
Rom. 16:26 but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;
This is the result of the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.
3. “and be sprinkled with His blood”
The obedience of faith results in the application of the blood of Christ in forgiveness and salvation. Sprinkling of Christ’s blood is a symbol for being purified from our sins.
PRAYER FOR THE ELECT “grace and peace” - In light of their persecution and abuse by the world around them they will need much grace to live godly before them, even before their persecutors.
Edmund Clowney recounts the testimony of Armando Valladares who spent 22 years in Castro’s prisons in Cuba who recalled one of his most profound memories as he was being released:
In the midst of that apocalyptic experience of the most dreadful and horrifying moments of my life, in the midst of the gray, ashy dust and the orgy of beatings and blood, prisoners beaten to the ground, a man emerged, the skeletal figure of a man wasted by hunger, with white hair, blazing blue eyes, and a heart overflowing with love, raising his arms to the invisible heaven above and pleading for mercy for his executioners. “Forgive them, Father for they know not what they do”. And then a burst of machine gun fire ripping open his breast.” (p. 25)
Peter will write of truths that can impart such courage, faith and love to the people of God which is powerful to sustain them even in the fiercest times of persecution and trials. We need this book.
But in light of Peter’s failures in life, he also knew how much he needed daily grace from God to live the Christian life. He stuck his foot in his mouth more than a baby does cooing on their back.