Call to Commitment

                Chosen and born again, with               resurrection life from Christ

       1.      Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,  

       2.      elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. 

3.      Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 

4.      to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 

5.      who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 

 After an introduction of the apostle Peter and the people, to whom he is writing, I want to refer to the first verse again, simply to look at the word pilgrims.  When Jacob met the Egyptian Pharaoh, he referred to his life as a pilgrimage… he was one, who had not settled down, but was on a continual journey: “Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years.” (Gen.47:9). He had learned that lifestyle from his father, Isaac, and his grandfather, Abraham.

 In Psalms 39:12, David identified with his forefathers as a foreign sojourner: “I am a stranger with You, A sojourner, as all my fathers were.”  The writer of Hebrews referred to the Old Testament saints, using the same Greek word, translated pilgrims in Hebrews 11:13, as in Peter’s first verse: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Peter is writing to pilgrims and I can see no other position for a Christian in this world, than that of a pilgrim (1).

 The apostle goes to great lengths to express to these people, with temporal residency on earth, that they have a history that was initiated by God the Father in eternity. He had chosen them, from the time that He had knowledge of them. Now, of course, we must consider the fact that, due to His omniscience, there is no beginning to His foreknowledge. In the timeless eons of eternity, He knew these pilgrims and chose them for His own. The place that they occupy in Peter’s day, was the result of God’s special attention given them from before the beginning of time. 

 It involved a sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit in their personal history, sanctification meaning a separation from all else, in order to be devoted solely to obedience to God. God’s Spirit was the Agent, Who separated them from all the circumstances that might allow them ever to set down roots on this earth. Each individual was sprinkled with the blood of infinite value, shed by Christ on the cross, to personally purify from sin. By saying ‘no’ to the world’s rhythm and mentality, the Christian becomes a recipient of the most important work in human history. God works to apply this salvation individually, seeking each one as a shepherd, searching for a lost sheep. A 19^th Century writer, Elizabeth Clephane said it so beautifully…

“But none of the ransomed ever knew,

How deep were the waters crossed;

Or how dark was the night that the Lord passed through,

Ere He found His sheep that was lost;

Far up on the mountain, He heard its cry,

Sick and helpless and ready to die.”

“Grace to you and peace be multiplied.” As Peter writes, he pronounces upon all these, heavenly blessings of grace and peace. I heard an old Swedish preacher from my childhood, John Nelson, say, “Five plus five is ten; but five times five is twenty-five. God uses multiplication, not addition!” I have never forgotten that simple statement. Multiple divine grace and peace is poured out upon the reader by the apostle. It is time to make two conclusions: 1) This is the word of God, applicable to all, who believe. 2) It is more than a greeting… it is a living, active blessing upon the reader (2).   

 It is an awesome God, Who is worthy of all the glory for designing, with infinite wisdom, a 3-fold gospel of life… expressed in this verse by 1) a new birth (begotten us again), 2) a living hope and 3) a resurrection. Under Holy Spirit-inspiration, Peter tells how the Lord takes a ruined, condemned soul, dead in trespasses and sin, and breathes new, heavenly life into him. It is the life that comes through the resurrection of Christ, Who conquered death and the grave, to guarantee an unfailing, pulsating hope, anchoring it in the Holy of Holies (He.6:19). Motivating God’s gift is a boundless pity towards a perishing sinner, for whom He spared no expense to rescue from eternal doom (3).

 Attached to the gift of life is a heavenly inheritance, which, because it is unearthly, is not subject to this world’s impurities or temporality. It is incorruptible… meaning that it does not cede to decay or disintegration. It is undefiled… signifying that it is pure, not weakened or tarnished by any additive or compromising lack of quality. It is unfading… time does not diminish its value. It is infinite, timeless perfection and is reserved in a spotless eternity (4).

 The born-again individual, endowed with unending hope, gained by the resurrection of the Son of God, is not left in this world to rise or fall, according to his own strength. He is not left to the worldly care of powerful bodyguards or sustained by the elite and wealthy, who might watch over his wellbeing. “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life” (1 Jn.5:11-12) The powerful Christ, Who lives within the believer, will have him under His own boundless care. The believer lives, trusting Him and banking on His word. Omnipotence keeps that person’s salvation and future until, in the end, he sees it with his eyes (5). 

 

The longing of prophets and angels

      6.      In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved                            by various trials, 

7.      that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 

8.      whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 

9.      receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. 

10.  Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 

11.  searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 

12.  To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into. 

 Peter recognizes that there is no motive for joy that compares to that of the personal, keeping power of God over the life of the individual believer. We have been pleased to deposit our soul into His care and depend totally upon Him to carry it to its final destination.  I have never been able to fathom how a preacher can be stoic and unmoved, as he expounds on divinely-assured, eternal life. However, some can deliver it to their listeners with a perfectly controlled, well-modulated voice, as if their only experience with it came from a library, where they accumulated the information from some theological textbook. There is no passion and I have to conclude that it has not touched their heartstrings.

 The joy we experience is based on God’s total trustworthiness, knowing that our eternity is secure in Him and that, which we have experienced on this earth, will reach incomparable heights, when we see Christ face-to-face. When that day arrives, every tear will be dried “and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" (Rev. 21:4). However, on this earth, a time, which Peter terms, a little while, and Paul regards its suffering as light affliction (2 Co.4:17), there are multiple trials, which do cause pain (6).

 We need to rid our minds of the thought that God allows suffering to see how much pressure we can take or how long we can endure it, until we break. No, the Lord already knows our capacity for pain, before He begins the trial. Trials are not necessarily punishment or even fatherly discipline, because of an act of sin. Please notice that Peter compares Christian testing to the refining of gold, placed above an intensely hot fire. It is done to remove its impurities.

 I remember how a high school art teacher showed his class the way silver is refined. He put it into a test tube and then applied a Bunsen Burner under the tube. The tube was held carefully over the flame in order to produce an intense heat. The silver turned to liquid and reached a certain high temperature. Then, the teacher said, “A little black speck formed in the test tube and little by little passed through the liquid silver. When it reached the surface, it disappeared.” The silver was refined and Peter said that gold is “tested by fire”, similarly.

 The value of imperishable, godly faith, is far beyond that of gold, but all human impurities must be removed. The apostle wants the Christian reader to understand this principle, when he is subjected to tests and trials. When Jesus Christ appears, then faith will be perfectly refined to be “found to praise, honor and glory” (7).

 The faith that Peter speaks of is genuinely godly and so is the love, he mentions in verse 8. Human love works and grows through natural experience, highly subjective to the five senses. God’s love is supernatural, not dependent on sight or hearing.  "Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love."

Jake DeShazer said that God’s love is miraculous… it comes from God and you either have it or you do not. DeShazer was an atheistic staff sergeant in the U. S. Air Force during World War II. He volunteered into a special unit, formed to bomb Japan, and became a bombardier in a B25. He had a hatred for the Japanese and when He was captured by them and put in a POW camp, the hatred grew. He was beaten, malnourished and spent 34 months in solitary confinement. By unusual circumstances, he was given a Bible and through God’s word, he bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ and was transformed. Hatred for the Japanese turned to love and after the war, be became a missionary to Japan.

 Joy from God is also supernatural, “inexpressible (beyond expression) and full of glory.”  Faith, trusting God, introduces these mysterious, heavenly qualities into a human life. In the end, it brings the Christian to his destiny… I will not call it his goal, because a goal is something strived for, without full certainty that it will be attained. A Christian has a sure destiny, at the end of his journey, and that is where he will arrive (9).

 The entire Scripture contains the gospel, the good news of salvation. It begins in Genesis and reaches to Revelation. In Old Testament times, the prophets’ eyes were opened to it and gave their lives to inquiry and launched a search, from which nothing could distract them. The vision, which they received, was too wonderful to ignore or abandon. They knew the grace of God and walked in it, not trusting in their works, but leaning entirely upon the Lord. They also knew the Person of Jesus Christ and by faith, rested their salvation in Him.

 However, they also knew that a better era was coming. The Word would be made flesh and tabernacle among human beings. They looked ahead to the saving work of the cross and trusted in it for salvation. That was the meaning behind every animal sacrifice that they made. The God/Man would give His life for their sins and then would rise from the dead. They prophesied of these events long before they took place, for the benefit of a blessed, future people, belonging to a New Creation, in which they could walk in a new and living way (10).

  It was all future to them and they gave every fiber of their being to search out the Person, Who was to come, to discern the riches of the gospel, which He would bring, and what would be the timing, when all this was to take place. It was so wonderful that, even though it was future, it deserved their total devotion. Working in them was the very Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of prophecy (Rev.19:10), giving them more than 300 details of the future life of the Messiah. He showed them so much, but they knew, after all, that these immeasurable blessings were reserved for another people. Above all, He showed the prophets His sufferings and the untold glories that would result, which were beyond compare! (11)

 Peter tells the believers, who are to study his letter, that the things that the prophets gave their lives to see, were the very things, which were reported to them through the preaching of the gospel. Jesus also said to His disciples, “I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it" (Lk.10:24). 

 The word has spread and reached beyond the Middle East to Europe, then America, (North, Central and South), Africa, Australia, and the Far East, and you and I have received the same unfathomable word! Think about the providence that brought this word to you, Christian brother and sister, and know that you are the recipient of the most glorious message that this world has ever known. It was not only the effort of human messengers, but God sent from heaven, His Omnipotent Holy Spirit for supernatural impression and penetration into the human heart. There is no other way to preach or to receive the gospel. He was at work in everyone, who has heard and believed. Heavenly New Creation was conceived in each soul. 

 

There is one thing to add: Heavenly beings, who look on the face of the Father, who know the riches that are beyond our wildest imagination, are held in awe, by what we have received. These things stir the hearts of angels with righteous envy. We are walking in things that they have no power to experience. Forgiveness of sins, new birth, baptism in the Holy Spirit, gifts and fruits of the Spirit, and direct, daily guidance in His ways, is ours! 

“Holy, holy is what the angels sing,

And I expect to help them make the courts of heaven ring;

But when I tell redemptions story, they will fold their wings,

For the angels never felt the joy that our salvation brings!”