To whom did Peter address this letter? We know their geographical information but
what is their spiritual identity? The
answer: they are elect pilgrims (v2).
For a fisherman, ridiculed in his day as uneducated and untrained (Ac. 4:13), this second verse of the salutation of Peter’s letter is
amazingly packed with deep theology. It
is sufficiently packed that we will need to take more than one day thinking
about it.
Pilgrims have problems. By definition they are in a country that is
not their own. So with problems, being
out of place in a world that demands conformity, with they make it to the City
they long for? And further, will they
make it looking like God’s people? The
fact that they are ELECT pilgrims
tells me the answer is YES.
·
What is election? It simply means choice, in this case, God’s choice.
·
When did this occur, this choosing by God? It happened before the foundation of the world (Ep. 1:4; 1 Pt. 1:20). It did not happen in our lifetime but before creation.
·
Why did God do this?
o What
was there in God that caused Him to do this?
He did it to glorify Himself (1 Cor. 1:26-31). He chose the weak to confound the strong, and
so forth, so that no one would have any cause for boasting except in God. In line with this, He did this so that He
might show mercy on vessels of mercy (Rom. 9:22-25). All are depraved and, like Adam, would reject
the Creator. So in order to show mercy
God made a choice before time.
o What
was there in God’s plan for man that caused Him to do this? He chose people to be conformed to the image
of His Son (Rom. 8:29). In a related
passage (Eph. 1:4f) He chose us to be holy
and blameless and sought to accomplish this by predestining us to the adoption of sons. Our conformity to THE Son of God is
accomplished by our adoption as sons by God.
·
On what basis did God make this choice?
o Rom.
11:5 calls God’s choice the election of
grace. We want to note this before
answering the question from 1 Peter.
God’s choice is a gift, undeserved favor; that is what grace means. His choice was not based in something
valuable he saw in us; it was not something we deserved.
o Having
said that, Peter’s answer to this question is that it was according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Foreknowledge
is simply defined as knowing before;
forethought. But some have defined
this knowledge as having a determinative aspect to it. That is, because God knows something about
the future means it must happen.
This
question concerning the relationship between election and foreknowledge
is, I believe, quite difficult. On the
question of what God knew or might
have seen as He looked through future history, Albert Barnes asks if He might
have seen …
·
What He would do to move men to faith?
·
Or what He would do to secure their salvation
(the sending of His Son)?
·
Or that He knew how they could and would serve
Him?
As
Barnes points out, nothing of this is said; it is all conjecture on the part of
anyone who wants to say God chose on the basis of something He saw. We are not told what it is! It does seem certain, he goes on to note,
that He did not foresee that some would be more disposed to receive Christ than
others. If God saw anything it was that there is none righteous … no on seeks after
God (Rom. 3:10f).
However we see this difficult question we
agree with Barnes that no true believer has the attitude that that persons
decision to trust Christ is of their own doing.
This does not come naturally to fallen man. Nothing in my path to trusting Christ gives
me cause to congratulate myself; it only gives me cause to glorify the God who
made us elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father!
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