Observations on 1st Peter, chapter 1

[Omegaman 3.0]

1 Peter 1

1Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2according 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. 3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. 13Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. 22Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24for:

"All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flowers of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

What am I emphasizing?

• Verse 3 We are not born again because we chose to be, we are born again because God caused it.

• Verse 4 Our inheritance is not perishable, it is unfading, so it is not going away, and it is “kept”.

• Verse 7 Genuine faith is not perishable like Gold, and so it persists even when tested by fire.

• Verse 9 The outcome of faith is the salvation of souls, not “may be” salvation.

• Verse 10 Emphasizes that salvation is the result of grace.

• Verses 18,19 Indicates that Christians were ransomed by the enduring effect of Jesus blood, not perishable things like gold. If Jesus blood is enough to overcome sin, then our sin is not going to overcome the effect of His blood – we cannot sin away our salvation and God's grace.

• Verse 20 Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world, indicates that foreknowledge is not about just knowing the future, it is not omniscience as some people suppose in verse 2 as though God elected the exiles conditioned on what He understood they would do. Foreknowledge in v.20, is not about what God understood about Jesus, because Jesus is eternal, was with God and was God (John 1), it speaks to the intimacy that knowledge is.

• Verse 23 informs us that we were born again through the abiding word of God, again, not something temporary and perishable.

• Verses 24,25 Re-emphasizes that the word of God is permanent, and that this word, is the good news, the gospel.

All Verses are The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway,

[MissTury]

Are you saying that Peter was a Calvinist? Interesting passage, touches on lots of things!

[Omegaman 3.0]

Yes it does touch on a lot of things, but I am not saying that Peter was a Calvinist, but it would not surprise me to learn that John Calvin was a Peterist, a Johnist, a Paulist, and a Jesusist. His Institutes of the Christian Religion is widely regarded as one of the most important books on Christian theology, and especially on Protestanism. I have it, but I have never read it, so I do not know on what things I would differ from him, but I don't regard myself as a Calvinist, even if others do.

[Michael37]

On 5/6/2022 at 5:32 AM, Omegaman 3.0 said:

Verse 3 We are not born again because we chose to be, we are born again because God caused it.

• Yes, God's Foreknowledge gives Him cause to Predestine those whom He conforms to the image of Christ.

1Peter 1:2-5  elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,

Rom 8:27-30  Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.  (28)  And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  (29)  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  (30)  Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

• All those accepted in the Beloved have not only been suffered for by Christ, but have heard the Word of Truth, and trusted in Him, being sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise upon believing in Him.

Eph 1:3-14  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,  (4)  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,  (5)  having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,  (6)  to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.  (7)  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace  (8)  which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,  (9)  having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,  (10)  that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.  (11)  In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,  (12)  that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.  (13)  In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,  (14)  who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
 

Just some points to ponder when considering Foreknowledge & Predestination.

[Omegaman 3.0]

2 hours ago, Michael37 said:

1Peter 1:2-5  elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,

That is a bit of an interpretation, and perhaps simple minded or short sighted. This is how some people view it looking through their particular lenses of bias that we all have, or maybe they have just not considered other ways of understanding which have not occurred to them yet.. There are a few issues, which prevent that understanding from being a slam dunk. One is, that knowledge does not necessarily mean intellectual awareness of fact, knowledge can also mean intimacy or relationship. In other words it is possible to understand that God knew the person, had a pre-relationship and intimacy before the person was born.

The second problem is with "according to". That likely mean in accord with, in other words, the elect are predestined in agreement with Gods' foreknowledge, what ever foreknowledge means. "According to" does not imply cause. Do a search on "according to" sometime, and you will see lot of instances of this.

Your 1 Pet 1:2-5 as an example, the word in Greek for according to is kata, and it means any number of things.

The same word is used in 1 Cor 15:3, look how that is translated in the ESV:

1 Cor 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 

Surely there, it is not meaning that the scriptures caused these things to happen, are that the scriptures are the reason that they happened, it is just saying, that these things happened, just as the scriptures foretold.

I am not exactly sure what the second point was, but in it, as a coincidence, you used and another "according to".

having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 

There the predestination, is no according to foreknowledge, but according to the pleasure of His will. This is one of those cases, where it might be best to accept an understanding, were verses do not seem to be at odds with each other. According to foreknowledge, if that is causative in some sense, makes these sort of "clashy", just sayin'. If there were more to go on than "according to foreknowledge", then the Arminian folk should offer that instead of something being shoehorned in to fit a doctrine they like. According to foreknoweldge is very weak, but it does seem to be at the core of Arminian thinking about election/predestination.

Thanks for adding some substance to this thread! It needed it!

[Alive]

Perhaps this is a good place to add a thought I had the other day in the Arminian thread, but did not post as I was waiting to see if Arms responded in that OP.

Anyway, just a couple of thoughts that may be a different way of looking at what is referred to as 'strict determinism'--which is said by some that champion 'free will' as an agent of man for a cause of salvation, to be doctrinal error. In other words, that God does not strictly determine an individual's salvation--via 'election'--that salvation is determined by the choice and will of an individual.

I want to go back to a beginning and look at this.

In order for this to work, a starting condition must have existed and that is that Adam and Eve in the garden before the fall did indeed have a free will. A will free Godward and not bound or encumbered by 'sin'. Adam was not made 'corrupt', but he was made 'corruptible'. I have said a bunch there in order to make two simple points.

1. What 'determined' Adam's future was his choice to break God's commandment to refrain from eating of that tree. The bad one. Secondarily to that choice that 'determined strictly' his future is that that future included 'death' rather than 'eternal Life' represented by the other tree, which is Christ.

2. God 'determined' to 'SAVE' a portion of Adam's fallen race for Himself through the Slain Lamb before any of this started.

In this scenario, we have two instances of a 'strict determinism'.

God did not strictly determine that Adam would choose as he did--Adam's choice did that. Adam lost that 'free will' which had become fully sinful--dead in sin. Dead Godward. A thing that is dead cannot be partially dead and partially alive. This is where we need God's help to understand just how sinful sin is. How utterly dark sin is and cannot mix with the Light--with God.

Knowing this, we can look at how it was necessary that God, now--had to 'strictly determine'  by His will to rescue some from that awful state--by the Redeeming work of Jesus Christ--who paid in full the wages of that sin--so that its result which is death does no longer determine fate. Rather Christ's Righteousness and Life is, by God's determination, imputed to His elect.

edit to add:

There is a whole lot in between the lines of the above related to the OP, but I thought it might be helpful to actually think about 'determination' and how it must relate in some form to the doctrinal positions we hold.

Whether as a noun or verb.

Edited July 16, 2022 by Alive
to add

[Michael37]

18 hours ago, Omegaman 3.0 said:

There are a few issues, which prevent that understanding from being a slam dunk. One is, that knowledge does not necessarily mean intellectual awareness of fact, knowledge can also mean intimacy or relationship. In other words it is possible to understand that God knew the person, had a pre-relationship and intimacy before the person was born.

Well Yes, and it is precisely because God's Foreknowledge of His elect is an intimate, Fatherly, Good Shepherdly, sacrificial Saviourly knowledge that I steer clear of the false doctrine and deep heresy of Predetermined Reprobation implicit in extreme Calvinism.

The idea that whomever commits evil and sin does so because God has created them to do so, eg. Satan and his cohort, Adam & Eve in Eden, Cain, Esau, Pharoah, Judas, Ananais & Saphira etc, and any unregenerate person who never comes to Christ, is contrary to Scripture.

Jas 1:12-15  Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.  (13)  Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.  (14)  But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.  (15)  Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

The Bible is full of teaching about the criteria God uses in His dealings with His Creation.

[Omegaman 3.0]

18 minutes ago, Michael37 said:

Well Yes, and it is precisely because God's Foreknowledge of His elect is an intimate, Fatherly, Good Shepherdly, sacrificial Saviourly knowledge that I steer clear of the false doctrine and deep heresy of Predetermined Reprobation implicit in extreme Calvinism.

I am not sure I have ever run into a person who fits that description, and as usual, I object to the term Calvinism in the first place, but even granting the term, I would suggest that if it is extreme, then it is not what Calvin taught, and in such a case really does not deserve that label, but I acknowledge that there are those who DO call themslves Calvinists, and who acknowledge the existence of "hyper-Calvinists".

[Omegaman 3.0]

26 minutes ago, Michael37 said:

The idea that whomever commits evil and sin does so because God has created them to do so, eg. Satan and his cohort, Adam & Eve in Eden, Cain, Esau, Pharoah, Judas, Ananais & Saphira etc, and any unregenerate person who never comes to Christ, is contrary to Scripture.

The Pharoah one is interesting to ponder since God said:

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

Howevrer, even there God does not say that he created him to sin, but only that he was (I am reading into this a little) elevated to a position of power, so that He could demonstrate His power. God does not make people sin, but He sure does allow it, at at times use it!

[Michael37]

On 7/17/2022 at 3:19 PM, Omegaman 3.0 said:

I am not sure I have ever run into a person who fits that description, and as usual, I object to the term Calvinism in the first place, but even granting the term, I would suggest that if it is extreme, then it is not what Calvin taught, and in such a case really does not deserve that label, but I acknowledge that there are those who DO call themslves Calvinists, and who acknowledge the existence of "hyper-Calvinists".

Yes, like it or not we rely on convention and tradition a lot to communicate, but conventions and traditions do change when pushed against. 

Many share my disapproval of the extreme doctrine I discovered while researching Calvinism many years ago, namely that if a person is one of the predetermined elect of God they can speak blasphemies, rob banks, murder their enemies, and jump to their death off a cliff cursing Him as they go, and they will still be saved.    

Hopefully a reading of these verses dissuades anyone from such a falsehood:

Col 1:21-23  And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled  (22)  in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—  (23)  if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

On 7/17/2022 at 3:27 PM, Omegaman 3.0 said:

The Pharoah one is interesting to ponder since God said:

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

Howevrer, even there God does not say that he created him to sin, but only that he was (I am reading into this a little) elevated to a position of power, so that He could demonstrate His power. God does not make people sin, but He sure does allow it, at at times use it!

Agreed, the whole Bible narrative of God's dealing with His Creation builds on the premise that God is Sovereign and works all things for His Purpose.

Was God unfair to harden Pharaoh?

No, fair to say Pharaoh had it coming.