Search
In this message we will begin to consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ revealed in 1 Peter. Although 1 Peter is a short book, it reveals many rich aspects of Christ for our experience and enjoyment.
First Peter 1 presents Christ as the element of Christian experience in its totality.
First Peter 1:2 tells us that we were “chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” In eternity past God the Father chose us (Eph. 1:4), exercising His foreknowledge, and the sanctification of the Spirit followed unto the obedience of faith in Christ. Our believing in Christ results from the Spirit’s sanctifying work. We were sanctified, separated, by the Spirit unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ; sanctification brought us to the sprinkling of the blood shed by the Savior on the cross and separates us unto this divine provision. As a result, we are now the redeemed ones. The sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ is the basic element for us to experience Christ.
In verse 2 Peter does not use the word redemption. He purposely uses the expression, the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. It would have been too simple merely to use the word redemption. But to speak of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ is to expound, define, and apply the matter of redemption.
According to the teaching of the New Testament, God’s salvation is first composed of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. After a person repents and believes, the first thing God applies to him is the “sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” God applies the sprinkling of the blood to us because we are sinners. We have no ground to receive anything from God; we have no merit in ourselves. The only ground that we have is the blood shed by the Lord Jesus for us. In order to receive or claim anything, we need the proper ground. The redeeming blood, which is applied to us, is the ground for all the items of God’s salvation. It is the only ground on which we can stand to claim all that God intends to give us.
The application of the blood of the Lord Jesus is its sprinkling upon us. We were evil, filthy, and full of transgressions. God’s condemnation was upon us, and there was no way for the record of our sins to be annulled. But when the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus was sprinkled upon us, it solved all these problems. The blood not only covered our sins; it also purged them away. The sprinkling of the blood upon us enables God to continue with many works of grace within us.
In typology the sprinkling of the expiating blood ushered the sprinkled people into the old covenant (Exo. 24:6-8). Likewise, the sprinkling of Christ’s redeeming blood brings the sprinkled believers into the blessing of the new covenant, that is, into the full enjoyment of the Triune God (Heb. 9:13-14). This is a striking mark that separates the sprinkled people from the common people, who are without God.
First Peter 1:3-4 goes on to say, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you.” This reveals Christ’s all-inclusive resurrection. Through His unique and all-inclusive resurrection, both Christ Himself and all His believers were resurrected. In His resurrection not only was Jesus, the Son of Man, begotten to be the firstborn Son of God, but also all His believers were regenerated to be the many sons of God unto a living hope, that is, unto an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, kept in the heavens for us.
When Christ was resurrected, we, His believers, were all included in Him. Hence, we were resurrected with Him (Eph. 2:6). In His resurrection He imparted the divine life into us and made us the same as He is (John 20:17). This is the basic factor of our regeneration. In keeping with this, the Lord Jesus said in John 12:24 that if a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it bears much fruit. This is a matter of germination through resurrection.
God has regenerated all His chosen people through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We were not regenerated separately. According to 1 Peter 1:3, we all were regenerated at the time that the Lord Jesus was resurrected. In this light, all the countless believers are as one man in the sight of God. This universal man is the new man (Eph. 2:15). The Head of this new man is Christ, and the Body of this new man is the church. The church as the Body of Christ is not the individual Christ but the corporate Christ, the enlarged Christ.
Regeneration, like redemption and justification, is an aspect of God’s full salvation. Redemption and justification solve our problem with God and reconcile us to God; regeneration enlivens us with God’s life, bringing us into a relationship of life, an organic union, with God. Hence, regeneration issues and results in a living hope. Such regeneration is accomplished through the resurrection of Christ from the dead. “The resurrection of Christ, bringing in life and the gift of the life-giving Spirit, is that which potentiates the new birth unto a living hope” (Alford).
A living hope unto which we have been regenerated is a hope for the future in our sojourning today. This is not a hope of objective things but a hope of life, even eternal life, with all the endless divine blessings. Such a hope should cause us to set our hope perfectly on the coming grace (1 Pet. 1:13).
The living hope, the hope of life, brought to the regenerated believers through regeneration, can be likened to the various expectations for the future brought to parents through the birth of a baby; all such expectations hinge on the life of the newborn child. Likewise, the life that we, the believers, have received through regeneration enables us to have a hope, with numerous aspects, for this age, for the coming age, and for eternity. In this age we have the hope of growing in life, of maturing, of manifesting our gifts, of exercising our functions, of being transformed, of overcoming, of being redeemed in our body, and of entering into glory. In the coming age we have the hope of entering into the kingdom, of reigning with the Lord, and of enjoying the blessings of the eternal life in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. In eternity we have the hope of being in the New Jerusalem, where we will participate fully in the consummated blessings of the eternal life in its ultimate manifestation in eternity. This living hope, the hope of life, hinges on the eternal life, which we received through regeneration. Only the divine life can enable us to grow in the divine life until we grow into the reality of the hope that is brought to us by that life. This is the hope that the life within us will develop until it reaches maturity and consummates in the New Jerusalem.
The hope of life is the enjoyment of eternal life. This enjoyment is not only for the future; it is for us to experience today. The enjoyment of eternal life is the fulfillment of the hope of life. The full enjoyment of eternal life will be in the future, but today we may have a foretaste. Then in the future we will enjoy the full taste. Both the foretaste and the full taste are the fulfillment of the hope of this life.
The expression unto an inheritance in verse 4 is in apposition to unto a living hope in verse 3. The living hope, resulting from regeneration, is our expectation of the coming blessing; the inheritance is the fulfillment of our hope in the coming age and in eternity.
The inheritance in verse 4 comprises the coming salvation of our souls (vv. 5, 9), the grace to be received at the revelation of the Lord (v. 13), the glory to be revealed (5:1), the unfading crown of glory (v. 4), and the eternal glory (v. 10). All these items of our eternal inheritance are related to the divine life, which we received through regeneration and which we are experiencing and enjoying throughout our entire Christian life. “This inheritance is the full possession of that, which was promised to Abraham and all believers (Gen. 12:3 see Gal. 3:6 ff.), an inheritance, as much higher than that which fell to the children of Israel in the possession of Canaan, as the sonship of the regenerate, who have already received the promise of the Spirit through faith as a pledge of their inheritance, is higher than the sonship of Israel: compare Gal. 3:18, 29; 1 Cor. 6:9; Eph. 5:5; Heb. 9:15” (Wiesinger, quoted by Alford).
In 1 Peter 1:4, Peter uses three words to describe our inheritance: incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. Our inheritance is incorruptible in substance, indestructible, not decaying; undefiled in purity, unstained; and unfading in beauty and glory, not withering. These are the excelling qualities of our eternal inheritance in life. These qualities should be related to the Divine Trinity: incorruptible relates to the nature of the Father, which is like gold; undefiled, to the condition preserved by the Spirit’s sanctifying work; and unfading, to the glorious expression of the Son.
We should not regard the inheritance in verse 4 as only for the future. This inheritance is for us today, tomorrow, and for eternity. From the day that we were regenerated, this inheritance has been our portion. An inheritance is a proper and legal possession. It is not gained by our energy, ability, or deeds. On the contrary, it is granted to us in a way that is legitimate. We do not work for an inheritance; rather, we receive it. On the day that we were regenerated, we were given the right to share an inheritance. This inheritance includes all the blessings related to eternal life.
Our first birth gave us an inheritance. When we were born of our parents, we inherited God’s creation. Because creation is our inheritance through birth, we can enjoy the earth, the sunshine, the air, the atmosphere, the rain, and the wind. All these aspects of our earthly inheritance serve to keep us alive. Without such an inheritance, no one could live. In the same principle, through our second birth, regeneration, we have been born into a new inheritance. This inheritance is not on earth; rather, it is kept in the heavens. Although the new inheritance is kept for us in the heavens, we can enjoy it now on earth. Just as electricity is stored in the power plant far away yet is transmitted from the power plant to our homes for our consumption, so also our heavenly, divine, spiritual inheritance is kept in the heavens yet is continually being transmitted into our spirit for our enjoyment.
As reborn ones, we can daily experience a divine transmission. When we call on the Lord Jesus, we may sense that something within us is connected to the heavens. Before we were regenerated, we never had this kind of realization. This transmission is the application and enjoyment of the inheritance kept in the heavens for us.
Once a person has been born again by God with His Spirit, that person is born unto a living hope, and this living hope is the inheritance of all the spiritual and heavenly blessings related to eternal life. Daily we need to take possession of this inheritance and enjoy it. This inheritance is legal, proper, and legitimate, for Christ died to purchase it for us. He paid the price of His precious blood, and we have been sprinkled with this blood. Therefore, every day we may enjoy the riches of the divine life. Daily we may participate in the inheritance that is ours today and for eternity.
First Peter 1:7-9 says, “At the revelation of Jesus Christ; whom having not seen, you love; into whom though not seeing Him at present, yet believing, you exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” The Lord is with us today (Matt. 28:20) but in a hidden, veiled way. His coming back will be His revelation, when He will be seen openly by all.
Although we have never seen the Lord Jesus, we love Him. At present we cannot see Him, yet we believe in Him. It is a wonder and a mystery that the believers love One whom they have not seen. We love Him whom we have not seen because of believing, that is, because of the faith that has been infused into us through our hearing of the living word (Gal. 3:2).
According to 1 Peter 1:8, the believers “exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.” Joy full of glory is joy immersed in glory. We exult with a joy that is immersed in glory. This joy is immersed in the Lord as glory; thus, it is full of the expression of the Lord. This joy is also unspeakable; it is a joy that is beyond our ability to utter. Things that are wonderful are also unspeakable. By believing into the Lord and loving Him, we obtain great joy. The normal condition of a Christian is to “exult with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.”
The salvation in verse 9 is full salvation, the salvation which is in three stages — the initial stage, the progressing stage, and the completing stage. We are of three parts: spirit, soul, and body (1 Thes. 5:23; Heb. 4:12). Our spirit was saved through regeneration (John 3:5-6). Our body will be saved, redeemed, through the coming transfiguration (Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:23). Our soul will be saved from sufferings into the full enjoyment of the Lord at His revelation, His coming back. For this we must deny our soul, our soulish life, with all its pleasures in this age, that we may gain it in the enjoyment of the Lord in the coming age (Matt. 10:37-39; 16:24-27; Luke 17:30-33; John 12:25). At the Lord’s revelation, through His judgment seat, some believers will enter into the joy of the Lord (Matt. 25:21, 23; 24:45-46) and some will suffer in weeping and gnashing of teeth (25:30; 24:51). To enter into the Lord’s joy is the salvation of our souls (Heb. 10:39).
In 1 Peter 1:9 the salvation of our soul is the end of our faith. Although in our spirit we have been saved, in our soul we are being saved day by day. Our salvation has not yet reached its completion, that is, the end of our faith, the salvation of our soul. This means that at the second coming of Christ, our soul will be saved to the uttermost and will be brought into a higher enjoyment of Christ. According to Matthew 25, Christ at His coming back will say to the believers who are faithful slaves, “Enter into the joy of your master” (vv. 21, 23). To partake of the Lord’s joy with Him in the coming millennial kingdom is the salvation of our soul. Although the unbelievers freely enjoy all the pleasures of the world, we believers cannot. In this sense, our soul is suffering. But when the Lord comes back, our soul will be saved into His joy to enjoy Him to the uttermost in His kingdom. That will be the end of our faith, the consummation of the process of our faith.
In 1 Peter 1:18-19, Peter says, “Knowing that it was not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, that you were redeemed from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ.” According to these verses, the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, redeemed us from our vain manner of life. This is the redeeming aspect of the blood of Christ. The first aspect of Christ, as the element of Christian experience revealed in 1 Peter 1, is His sprinkling blood, which brings the believers into the blessing of the new covenant. The blood of Christ is also the redeeming blood that redeemed us from our vain manner of life, bringing us out of the vanity of human life.
The vain manner of life is in contrast to the holy manner of life in verse 15. Our old manner of life, a life in lusts (v. 14), had no meaning and no goal; hence, it was vain. But now our goal is to live a holy life that we may express God in His holiness (vv. 15-16). As a general principle, the blood of Christ has redeemed us from sins, transgressions, lawlessness, and all sinful things (Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:15; Titus 2:14). Here is an exception: Christ’s blood has redeemed us from our old, vain manner of life, because the emphasis here is not on sinfulness but on the manner of life. First Peter 1 emphasizes the holy manner of life which God’s chosen people should have in their sojourn. Not only is the Spirit’s sanctification for this; even Christ’s redemption is for this — to separate us from our vain manner of life handed down from our fathers. Knowing that this was accomplished with the highest price, the precious blood of Christ, we should pass the days of our sojourning in fear (v. 17).
In order to pass the time of our sojourning in fear, we need a deep realization concerning the redemption of Christ. Today many Christians are living in a loose way because their understanding of Christ’s redemption is shallow. The blood that redeemed us is an extraordinary kind of blood — the blood of the God-man, Jesus Christ, the man whose life reached the highest standard. The Lord Jesus is a man mingled with God. Therefore, when this man died on the cross, God also passed through death. No human words are adequate to explain this. Only the blood of Christ was qualified and sufficient to redeem us, to purchase us.
In verse 18 Peter says that we were redeemed “not with corruptible things.” The blood of Christ is a material substance, yet its effectiveness, function, worth, power, and authority are eternal and incorruptible. The blood of Christ, by which we are sprinkled and thus marked out from common people, is more precious than silver and gold. The highest price has been paid for our redemption that we might be redeemed from a vain manner of life to a holy life (vv. 18, 15). For this we should have a holy fear, a healthy, serious caution before God that, as God’s elect, redeemed with such a high price, we would not miss the purpose of this most high redemption of Christ. In verses 18 and 19 we have a comparison between gold or silver and the Lamb. Gold and silver are valuable, but they are lifeless and inorganic. A lamb, however, is living and organic. Through this comparison, Peter indicates that the price paid for us by Christ was related to something of life and to something organic.
Christ is both divine and human. Christ’s divine nature is mingled with His human nature. When He died on the cross, He died as a man. Nevertheless, God was involved with this death. Because Christ is both God and man, His person is unique, and His blood also is unique. No other blood can redeem us. Only the blood of Christ is sufficient for this. His blood is unique because His person is unique. Because He is precious, His blood is precious. The Bible even tells us that today the blood of Christ still speaks for us in the heavens (Heb. 12:24).
First Peter 1:19 says, “With precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ.” It is important to understand what Peter means by blemish and spot and to know the difference between them. Blemish is a term often used for impurities, foreign bodies, or elements of mixture found in precious stones and gems. A spot is a scar that comes from a wound. If we have a wound on our hand, eventually that wound may develop into a scar. Such a scar is a spot on our body. God created us pure, but the fall has brought many foreign bodies, blemishes, into us. All these foreign bodies are of the devil, Satan. Furthermore, in our natural life we have been wounded.
We can see from the typology in the Old Testament that the animal sacrifices were to be without blemish and without spot. For instance, suppose a sheep was to be offered as a sin offering. That sheep had to be without blemish, without mixture; it also had to be without spot, without any wound. The sheep offered as a sin offering had to be pure and perfect.
Among all the human beings who have ever lived on earth, there has been only one man — the Lord Jesus Christ — who is without mixture or blemish. Furthermore, He is the only man who has not been wounded morally and ethically. We all have received many wounds to our ethical and moral being; we all must admit that we have not been preserved perfect. Our person and character have been wounded in many ways. As fallen human beings, we have many blemishes and wounds.
Jesus Christ is the only person without mixture and without spot. He does not have any blemishes or wounds. Actually, the expression without blemish and without spot is an Old Testament term used with respect to sacrifices offered to God. Any Jew reading the first Epistle of Peter would realize this. Because Peter was writing to Jewish believers, he used terms that were familiar to them. In other words, this verse indicates that Jesus Christ is the real sacrifice to be our sin offering and trespass offering. Christ is the real Passover lamb.
The lamb sacrificed at the time of the passover had to be without blemish and without spot. Furthermore, this lamb had to be kept for four days in order to be carefully examined. Before the lamb could be sacrificed, it first had to be without spot. This is what the Lord Jesus experienced in Jerusalem during the days before He was crucified. Day by day He was examined by the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, the elders, and the priests. They did their best to find a fault of some kind in Him. However, according to their law, they could not find fault with Him. Then they handed the Lord Jesus over to the Roman rulers, to Pilate and Herod. But neither could these Roman rulers, according to Roman law, find any fault in Him. For this reason, Pilate declared, “I find no fault in Him” (John 18:38). Therefore, according to both divine and secular law, the Lamb of God was examined and found to be without mixture and without spot. Only this unique person is without blemish and without spot.
Peter refers to the Old Testament typology, while simultaneously indicating that Christ is the real passover Lamb. He is our sin offering and our trespass offering, the One offered for the propitiation of the sins of God’s people. As the Lamb without blemish and without spot, He shed His precious blood to redeem us. We all need to know that we were redeemed from our vain manner of life by the precious blood of Christ.
We need to spend a substantial amount of time alone with the Lord to consider the precious blood of Christ shed for us on the cross. This will give us the desire to have a holy manner of life in fear. We will want to become holy in all our manner of life and to pass the remaining time of our sojourn in fear. If we would live in this way, we need to realize that we were redeemed, purchased, with the high price of Christ’s precious blood. This realization will cause us to have a living in a holy manner of life, for we will realize that Christ’s precious blood redeemed us from the vain manner of life. No longer will we want to live in a way that is vain. A vain manner of life is not necessarily sinful. Rather, in certain respects it may be quite moral. Nevertheless, it is still vain — having no goal, aim, or purpose. Anything without a goal or purpose is vanity. Now we should live a life without any vanity. Everything we do and say should have God’s goal in view. This kind of life is weighty and full of content. It is a life with purpose, goal, and aim. Let us all spend time to consider Peter’s writing concerning the precious blood of Christ so that in a practical way we may become holy in all our manner of life and pass the time of our sojourn in fear.
In 1 Peter 1:20, Peter tells us that Christ “was foreknown before the foundation of the world but has been manifested in the last of times for your sake.” Christ was foreordained, prepared, by God to be the redeeming Lamb (John 1:29) for His elect according to His foreknowledge before the foundation of the world. This was done according to God’s eternal purpose and plan; it did not happen accidentally. Hence, in the eternal view of God, from the foundation of the world, that is, since the fall of man as a part of the world, Christ was slain (Rev. 13:8). First Peter 1:2 speaks of the foreknowledge of God the Father, and verse 20 says that Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world as the redeeming Lamb. In the New Testament the root of such words as foreknowledge, foreknow, and foreknown is know. This root is preceded by the Greek prefix pro, which means “before, or beforehand.” In New Testament Greek, words such as foreknow, foreknowledge, and foreknown imply more than what we would understand from the English translations. The Greek root for these words includes the meaning of “appreciation, approval, and possession.” If we approve something, we will appreciate it. Then we will want to take possession of it and own it.
For Christ to be foreknown means that He was foreordained by God. To foreknow is to foreordain, to ordain beforehand. In his expanded translation of the New Testament, Kenneth S. Wuest uses the words foreordained and foreordination. According to this translation, verse 20 says that Christ “was foreordained before the foundation of the universe was laid,” and verse 2 says that the believers are “chosen-out ones, this choice having been determined by the foreordination of God the Father.” God’s foreknowledge, therefore, means not only that He knew us in eternity past; it also means that He ordained us. We all were ordained by God the Father in eternity past. We were ordained by Him before the foundation of the world. God’s foreknowledge includes foreapproval, foreappreciation, foreacknowledgement, and foreordination. Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world. This means that in eternity past God approved Christ and appreciated Him. Then God ordained Christ to be the anointed One, the One commissioned to fulfill in time all that had been planned by God.
We may say that in eternity past God held a ceremony of ordination. In that ordination ceremony, He first ordained His Son to be the Christ. Then He ordained all of us, the believers in Christ, to be Christians. In an eternal ordination ceremony before the foundation of the world, we all were ordained when Christ was ordained. When He was ordained to be the Christ, we were ordained to be Christ-men. He was ordained to be the Anointed of God, and we were ordained to be the little anointed ones. How marvelous that Christ and we were ordained at the same time in eternity past! Christ was foreknown by God the Father, and we also were foreknown by Him.
It is a marvelous spiritual fact that we and Christ were foreknown and foreordained by God the Father in eternity past. Verse 20 says that Christ was foreknown, foreordained, and verse 2 indicates that we the believers were chosen according to the foreknowledge, the foreordination, of God. Therefore, verse 20 matches verse 2. When Christ was ordained, we were foreknown and chosen. This is possible because there is no time element with God. We should praise God the Father for His selection, approval, and ordination. With God’s foreknowledge and foreordination as the basis, Christ came to the earth to be our Redeemer and to accomplish God’s purpose. Furthermore, the Spirit came to us, worked on us, and brought us to repentance and faith in Christ. Because we were foreordained by God, the Spirit came to us and did whatever was necessary to cause us to believe in Christ.
In verse 20 Peter also says that Christ “has been manifested in the last of times for your sake.” This implies that it was not necessary for Christ to be manifested for the sake of God. Rather, it was for our sake that He was manifested. The incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the constitution of the Spirit of Christ exist eternally in the sight of God, but for our sake it was necessary for Christ to be manifested through incarnation and to pass through human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension so that the Spirit of Christ could be constituted dispensationally (John 7:39). Christ was ordained before the foundation of the world, but “in the last of times” and for our sake He was manifested and passed through human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Actually, in the eternal sight of God, all this had happened already. Christ had already been ordained to be Christ, and we had already been ordained to be Christians in eternity past. However, it was still necessary for this foreordination to be carried out in time. Therefore, we were born, lived our human life, and committed many sins and offenses. One day we heard the preaching of the gospel, repented, believed, called on the Lord, and thanked Him for all He had done for us. God did everything in eternity past. The only thing needed was for Christ to be manifested in the last of times for our sake.
First Peter 1:21 says that God raised Christ from the dead and gave Him glory. This was to glorify Christ with glory (v. 11). It was the Father’s answer to His prayer in John 17:1. This glory actually includes many kinds of glories: the glory of resurrection, the glory of ascension, the glory of the Lord’s coming back, and the glory of His reign over the nations in the coming kingdom. Satan put Jesus to death, but God raised Him up and gave Him glory.
First Peter 1 reveals various aspects of Christ as the element of Christian experience: His sprinkling blood, which ushers us into the full enjoyment of the Triune God; His all-inclusive resurrection, through which we were regenerated unto a living hope; His unveiling for the salvation of our soul; His precious blood, which has redeemed us from our vain manner of life; and His being foreknown before the foundation of the world, manifested in the New Testament age, raised from the dead, and given glory by God. Day by day we should enjoy all these items of Christ as the element of Christian experience as revealed in 1 Peter 1.
