… 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
Last week we saw that God has elected us and this calling has been purposeful from God's part. He calls his beloved to himself. Amen! We also saw that being Elect meant that we are given a new land, a new nationality, a new identity. This means that there is enmity between us and the world. The world does not want Jesus, we want Him. The world replaces Jesus for their desires, our desires for Jesus only increases further. This is the calling my dear brothers and sisters. We are continuing our reading through the 1st chapter of the first letter of Peter. Today we are going to look at the reason and the promise in the calling.
Let's turn to Deuteronomy 7:7, what do we see there? God loves Israel because He loves them. What is the answer why God loves you? Is it because of you answering the call, is it because you have given your tithe? Is it because you prayed today? No, God loves you because he loves you. Can we apply it to the entire world? No we cannot, Jesus said "my sheep hear my voice and they follow me". If you are not his sheep, you will not follow. Remember, your desire to hear the Gospel is indeed a mercy and grace of God.
Having said that we begin the reason why God has called us for. See the verse above.
God Triune is responsible for your Salvation
- through the foreknowledge of God
This is an important statement. This is not forsight, but foreknowledge. God knew you. He knows you. Out of a billion stars and plantes and people , God knows you. He loves you because he has set his heart on you. Brothers this is not a fairy tale or something we should take lightly. Your calling is precious. The blood of Jesus on the cross is the price for your calling. This is precious brothers. Let's be serious about it. Let us not go saying "once saved, always saved" and wilfully sin. Hebrews 10:26 says that there is no one who loves God who will wilfully Sin. Let us be aware of our steps in with the Lord. So the first part is that God knew us and he loved us.
- in the sanctification of the Spirit
God's love was there on us that He makes us Holy. Not that he wants us to be Holy, but he makes us Holy. Those of you who know the scripture, let me ask you, how will you fight darkness? Ephesians 6:10 says wear the armour of God. Brothers it is God's armour. Not from a factory that says "God's armour Inc" .. but from God. It is his clothing. Have you forgotten that God chooses to dress you to His standard. This is what Peter means here. God chooses to cloth you with the Holy Spirit. To set you holy with the Holy Spirit. It is Him,. HIM, and Him alone. That is the purpose He has. No wonder we can say "no eye has seen no ears have heart, no heart can think about" why? God is in act. Can you think like God? No, can you see things as they are like God? No. This is the good news. God's love is demonstrated in God being active in our lives. He being in charge of our sanctification. How? by the Holy Spirit. The word sanctification means separation, God's call begins with separation. Brothers do you get this. God wants you for himself. Read Exodus 34:14 - Why should our heart be double minded (James 1:8)? Because God is a jealous God. He is purposeful that he wants to dwell among you. This makes us exiles! See 1 Peter 1:14-15. Holiness is not compactable with the world. See (Rom. 8:15–16), Ephesians 1:13, 2 Thessalonians 2:13
- for obedience to Jesus Christ & sprinkling of the blood
Hebrews 9:19 and Hebrews 12:24 - This is the third point. For what does He do it? That we may obey Christ? Why? Why should we obey Him? That my dear brothers is the only way God has made possible for every being to receive Salvation. Peter wants us to remember the promise he gave Jesus. "Feed my Sheep" This is how he feeds us. By telling us to obey Jesus. He set out his lesson for us here. God loves us, He keeps us for himself and makes us his though our obedience to Jesus. God does this to help us obey him. The blood of Jesus enables us to be obedient to Jesus. This was done at the cross. Remember last week we saw how being favourite get a robe? let me refresh you. Who got a nice coat in the Bible. Joseph. He got it because He was Jacob's favourite. Brothers, this is a image of Christ. But instead of Christ getting the robe, we get His robe of righteousness. Isaiah 61:10. Brothers this is our joy. Jesus has done it all. We are the gift keepers! this causes us to obey him. See how this worked out in the old testament. Exodus 24:2-8 --- the people were told that the covenant is made that they obey. God knows ur heart. He knows you will not obey him if you have a better option that will please you. So he gives you a better reason. This is your calling. This is for your joy.
Now, we don’t obey as we ought to obey fully, but we are, nonetheless, redeemed unto obedience, separated unto obedience. It becomes a pattern in our new life. We become submissive to the law of God, Romans 7. We become submissive to God as our Master, Romans 6, no longer the slaves of sin but now the servants of God. Righteousness characterizes our behavior. Virtue is a pattern of our life. We become faithful, and fruitful, and serving, and loving Christ. True salvation produces obedience - not perfect obedience, but obedience. (J MacAuther)
When we come and accept the sacrifice of Christ for us, we are not just accepting the benefit of his death on our behalf, we are covenanting with him in obedience. And that is consecrated by blood by the death of Christ.
What happens here? We know fgrom our Christian theology that we have freedom in God. How is it? The blood is poured on us for obedience. But the blood is also pouured on the alter? for what? For us to know that God is faithful to forgive us. This is why we obey. We obey because He made it possible. We obey because He desires us to. We obey because this is the only way possible and He made it - he build the bridge, he has done it!
When you come to God through Christ you say, “O God, I give my life to you. I want to obey you. I promise to live for you, to love you, to serve you as best I can.” And you’re sprinkled with the blood of Christ symbolically and your sins are washed. You become his child. The blood sprinkled on the altar on his part is his bond to you that when you fail to keep that covenant he is eager and gracious to forgive your sin
- God loves you and knows you inside and out
- He loves you and calls you because he wants you
- He keeps you for himself. He wants to dwell with you. He is serious
- He keeps obeying Him and turning our hearts to Him because he pours his blood on us.
This is why Peter says
May grace and peace be multiplied to you
Grace so that you may be free from sinning, Peace that you may boldly approach God and His Holy throne. Grace and peace are experienced. But Peter says that grace and peace are “multiplied” to us. They are not static. They are not only a status. Peter is offering to us, and praying for us, that we experience an increase of grace and peace. Hour by hour, and day by day, our enjoyment of grace and peace changes. It ebbs and flows. (Piper) ... Peter is saying that because of these truth let your heart realise that Grace and Peace is multiplied.
“May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Peter 1:2).
Isnt that amazing. The more you know about Christ, the more the peace increases.
Practical tipps:
How do we know more?
Thorough Prayer
Through Bible
Through communion with Saints
Through the Holy Spirit
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