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1 Peter 1:1–2
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.”
Peter’s first epistle begins as most of the other New Testament Epistles do—with a greeting to its original recipients. Importantly, this greeting includes foundational teaching on the identity of God’s people and the Holy Trinity.
First, Peter addresses his audience as “elect exiles of the Dispersion,” a reference that has much theological significance when applied to his gentile Christian readers. For a Jew such as Peter, only God’s chosen people Israel could be described as “elect,” for the Lord chose only Israel to be His people, to be the objects of His special favor and recipients of salvation (Deut. 14:2). In calling gentile Christians “elect,” Peter identifies them as part of the true Israel of God and heirs to all the blessings promised to Israel. Peter’s designation of his audience as “exiles of the Dispersion” confirms this. “The Dispersion” refers to the scattering of the Jews throughout the nations that occurred when Assyria and Babylon conquered Israel and Judah and took the Jews out of their homeland into exile (2 Kings 17; 25). In the first century when Peter was writing, many Jews remained outside the promised land, living throughout the Roman Empire. By calling his gentile Christian audience “exiles of the Dispersion,” Peter indicates that they stand in continuity with the old covenant people of God and are in fact the Lord’s chosen.
Second, Peter describes the work of salvation in Trinitarian terms. Gentile (and Jewish) believers in Christ belong to God because of God the Father’s foreknowledge as well as God the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work through the sprinkling of God the Son’s blood that produces obedience to the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:2). We see the triune order of salvation here: Salvation is from the Father (foreknowing His people by foreloving and choosing them) through the Son (atonement by Christ’s blood) by the Holy Spirit (sanctifying us by granting us faith and setting us apart). Peter, of course, does not mean that only the Father elects, only the Son secures atonement, and only the Spirit sanctifies. Instead, foreknowledge shows us the Father in an especially clear way because foreknowledge is the first step in salvation and the Father is first in order in the Godhead; atonement shows us the Son with particular clarity because the Son’s blood covers our sins; and sanctification shows us the Spirit plainly because He is the Holy Spirit and sanctification is the process of making us holy.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Today’s passage helps us understand that election, sanctification, and faith all go together. Thus, to know whether we are elect is not impossible. Rather, our trust in Christ and its fruits of repentance and endeavoring to obey Him are the signs that God has chosen us for salvation. John Calvin comments, “Election is not to be separated from calling, nor the gratuitous righteousness of faith from newness of life.”
For further study
- Psalm 33:12
- Lamentations 1:3
- Ephesians 1:3–14
- James 1:1
The bible in a year
- Judges 8–10
- Luke 9:1–27