Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 1:2-4
First Peter 1:2 says, “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” This verse contains matters that are deep both in doctrine and in experience. One of these deep matters is the sanctification of the Spirit; a second is the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. According to this verse, the blood of Jesus Christ is the object both of obedience and of sprinkling. Hence, the obedience is of the blood, and the sprinkling also is of the blood. It is not easy for us to understand how obedience can be of the blood. Furthermore, it is not easy to have a proper understanding of the sprinkling of the blood.
Recently I have spent much time to study the writings of Peter again. In years past I did not realize that Peter, a Galilean fisherman and an evangelist, as indicated by the book of Acts, could be so deep in doctrine and experience. The Epistles of Peter are a composition of doctrines confirmed by experience. Peter’s writings are mainly on experience, yet the experience is based on doctrines.
Humanly speaking, Peter did not have a high education. He was not nearly as learned as Paul was. Nevertheless, the vocabulary used by Peter in his writings indicates that he was deep both in doctrine and in experience.
Paul in his Epistles indicates clearly that the sanctification of the Spirit is of two aspects. The first aspect is positional sanctification, and the second is dispositional sanctification. But Paul does not tell us that the sanctification of the Spirit positionally and dispositionally is of two periods of time, the first period before we were justified and regenerated, and the second period afterward. Peter, however, does refer to the two periods of time related to the sanctification of the Spirit.
According to the general understanding of the sanctification of the Spirit held by Christians today, first God the Father selected us, then Christ redeemed us, and then the Spirit sanctifies us positionally and dispositionally. I have had this understanding of sanctification for many years. The messages I have given concerning sanctification also have pointed out that after the Father selected us and the Son redeemed us, the Spirit comes to sanctify us. But in 1:2 Peter says that sanctification comes after the Father’s selection and before Christ’s redemption. According to this verse, the sanctification of the Spirit is unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Christ. Surely, this indicates that the sanctification of the Spirit precedes the redemption of Christ. As I prayed over this verse and studied it, I was enlightened to see that not only Christ’s redemption needs to be applied by the Spirit, but the Father’s selection also needs to be applied by the Spirit. Without the application through the Holy Spirit, how could God’s selection have anything to do with us in a practical, experiential way? God’s selection has reached us through the Spirit’s application. This application is what Peter means by the sanctification of the Spirit.
In eternity past God selected us. But how could this selection be applied to us? In order for it to be applied, there is the need of the Spirit’s application. We all can testify of this from our experience. We were wandering on earth, perhaps as those who never had a thought concerning God. But one day the “wind” of the Spirit “blew” us to a place where we heard the preaching of the gospel. While we were listening to the preaching of the gospel, faith was infused into us. In this way God’s selection was applied to us. The next thing to be applied was the redemption of Christ. In this sense the sanctification of the Spirit preceded our experience of Christ’s redemption.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Paul says, “But we ought to thank God always concerning you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.” As far as sanctification is concerned, this verse is all-inclusive. Paul says here that God’s salvation is in the sanctification of the Spirit. This means that the part played in salvation by the Father and the Son are in the sanctification of the Spirit. Therefore, without the sanctification of the Spirit, there would be no way to apply what the Father and the Son have done for us. What the Father and the Son have done for us is applied to us by the Spirit. Paul refers to this application as sanctification of the Spirit. The salvation of the Triune God, therefore, is carried out in the sanctification of the Spirit.
Now we come to the obedience and sprinkling of the blood. The obedience of the blood and the sprinkling of the blood are Jewish, Old Testament, dispensational matters. The use of these terms in 1:2 implies and indicates that in Peter’s writings the dispensation has changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament. In the Old Testament God gave Moses commandments concerning the law and concerning the blood of animals, a type of the blood of Christ shed for our redemption. Thus, all the Jews, according to the Old Testament economy of God, believed in the law and in the sprinkling of the blood of the animals used for sacrifices. On the day of Atonement in particular, the Israelites put their trust in this blood. In other words, they obeyed the law and the blood. The law and the blood were basic elements of their religion. Judaism is composed mainly of the law and the blood of atonement.
With the coming of Christ, the New Testament economy began. The Lord Jesus came to replace the law, and His blood fulfills the type of the animal blood and replaces it. The components of the New Testament economy, therefore, are the Person of Christ and the blood of Christ. For this reason, the Lord sent the apostles to proclaim that the dispensation of law is over and that we need to believe in Christ. They were also to declare that no longer was there the need for the sprinkling of the blood of animals, for the prevailing blood is the blood of Jesus Christ. Now we need to obey the faith in Christ and also obey Jesus’ blood.
First Peter 1:2 indicates a change in dispensation. The old dispensation had the blood of animals; the new dispensation has the blood of Jesus Christ. Thus, we must obey this blood. In verse 2 Peter seems to be saying, “Formerly you accepted the blood of animals and obeyed it. Now God commands you to accept the blood of Christ.” This is what Peter means by the expression “the obedience of the blood.”
Whereas Peter speaks of the obedience of the blood, Paul refers to the obedience of faith. In Romans 1:5 he says, “We received grace and apostleship unto obedience of faith among all the nations on behalf of His name.” He speaks of the obedience of faith again in the last chapter of Romans: “But now has been manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the command of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations unto obedience of faith” (Rom. 16:26).
Peter realized that it was by the working of the Holy Spirit that the Jews who believed in animal blood could turn their belief to the blood of Christ. In this way they received the blood of Christ and obeyed it. This is what Peter means by the obedience of the blood.
In 1:2 Peter also speaks of the sprinkling of the blood. The Old Testament was established through the sprinkling of animal blood (Exo. 24:8). Concerning this, Hebrews 9:18-20 says, “Wherefore neither was the first covenant dedicated without blood. For when every commandment according to the law had been spoken by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded to you.” Furthermore, according to the book of Hebrews, the blood of Christ with which we are sprinkled has been brought into the heavens to purify the things in the heavens. Hebrews 9:12 says, “Nor through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having found an eternal redemption.” In Hebrews 9:23 we see that the blood of Christ purified the heavenly things: “It was necessary therefore for the examples of the things in the heavens to be purified by these, but the heavenly things themselves by better sacrifices than these.” I mention this to point out that the expression “the sprinkling of the blood” is a dispensational term, an Old Testament practice referred to by Peter and also by Paul. Peter’s word in 1:2 indicates that today is no longer the dispensation of the sprinkling of animal blood. That was the Old Testament dispensation. Today is the dispensation of the sprinkling of the blood of a living Person, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Hence, Peter’s word regarding the sprinkling of the blood in 1:2 is an indication that the dispensation has been changed from that of animal blood to that of the blood of a living Person.
In 1:3 and 4 Peter 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 among the dead, unto an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, kept in the heavens for you.” For many years, I have been trying to understand the words “living hope.” I could not understand how this living hope could be the inheritance, as indicated by the fact that, according to grammar, the inheritance in verse 4 is in apposition to the living hope in verse 3. This indicates that the living hope is the inheritance and that the inheritance is the living hope.
A living hope is a hope of life. In particular it is a hope of eternal life. Life is the source of hope. For example, a little child has human life. Because he has life, his parents are full of hope that he will grow. At birth he weighed several pounds, but his mother is expecting him to grow to maturity as a man. Her hope is the hope of life.
We could not have such a hope in relation to something that is not living. For example, we would not have hope in relation to a chair. No one would look at a chair and say, “This chair is small and ugly, but I am full of hope that one day this chair will become larger and beautiful.” That kind of hope is altogether vain. But it is not vain for parents to hope that their child will grow. By this illustration we can see that hope depends on life. The living hope is a hope of life.
We may also use a carnation seed to illustrate what Peter means by a living hope, a hope of life. If you were to sow a carnation seed in your yard, you would sow it with hope. You would have the expectation that the seed would eventually sprout. After a period of time, you would expect to have a full-grown carnation plant with blossoms on it. This is an illustration of the hope of life.
A dead person has no hope. However, if life could be imparted into a dead person, he would have the hope that every member of his physical body would be enlivened. In principle, the same applies to our regeneration. Before we were regenerated, we were dead and without hope. But the eternal life that has been sown into us is full of hope, full of the hope of life.
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. But when I was young, I was taught that the living hope in 1:4 was only for the future. I was taught that, sometime in the future, I would have a mansion in heaven. It was explained to me that believers have such a wonderful hope. This hope seems to be good, but it is for something far removed from us. We cannot participate in it today.
From the time I began to know eternal life, I also began to enjoy the living hope. To enjoy this living hope is to enjoy eternal life. This eternal life enables us’ to change. Furthermore, the enjoyment of eternal life is the fulfillment of the hope of life. Of course, the full enjoyment of eternal life will be in the future. But today we may have a foretaste. Then in the future we shall enjoy the full taste. But both the foretaste and the full taste are the fulfillment of the hope of this life. Therefore, this hope is actually the enjoyment of eternal life.
Now we need to ask how this living hope can also be our inheritance. When a child is born, he receives human life. In the future this child will enjoy many things. All the things which he will enjoy in the future are counted as an inheritance. Every human being receives as an inheritance many things related to human life. Birth gives the right to this inheritance.
When I was young, I was told that the inheritance described in 1:4 will be ours to enjoy in the future. I was taught that we must wait until the Lord Jesus comes back to experience this inheritance. Eventually I learned that the salvation in 1:5, the full salvation, is ready to be revealed at the last time. But we are not told that we must wait for the future to enjoy our inheritance. Peter does not say that the inheritance is kept in the heavens until the unveiling of the Lord Jesus. Rather, he says only that the inheritance is kept for us in the heavens. The heavens can be compared to a bank, and in this bank we have a deposit — the inheritance. We can make withdrawals from this heavenly deposit today; we need not wait for the future. At any time we can write a “check” to make a withdrawal from our heavenly checking account.
Eternal life is our enjoyment and also our inheritance. All the riches of God’s being are involved in His life. These riches have become our inheritance in the heavenly bank. Our daily experience of eternal life is also an experience and enjoyment of the inheritance kept for us in the heavens. This means that the living hope and the inheritance are one.
In 1:4 Peter gives a threefold description of our inheritance. He says that this inheritance is incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. I believe that this threefold description points to the Trinity. The word “incorruptible” refers to the nature of this inheritance. This is God’s nature, signified by gold. “Undefiled” describes the condition of the inheritance. This condition is related to the sanctifying Spirit. “Unfading” refers to the expression of this inheritance. This inheritance has unfading glory. In chapter five Peter speaks of an unfading crown of glory. The everlasting expression indicated by the word “unfading” is the Son as the expression of the Father’s glory. Therefore, here we have the Father’s incorruptible nature, the Spirit’s sanctifying power to maintain the inheritance in an undefiled condition, to keep it holy, clean, and pure, and also the Son as the expression of the unfading glory. Therefore, the description of our inheritance is also a description of the Triune God.
