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Sanctify

God has given me an assignment. Jesus personally has a mission for me. I must focus on knowing what it is and doing it.

God never forgets about us. Never, ever. I am not off God’s radar screen. God is in a good mood and keeping up with me.

  • God has given me the Holy Spirit to help me be obedient.
  • I cannot do it on my own.
  • When I try, I do not realize God’s goal for me.
  • Jesus sacrificed his life to keep me obedient.

God has amazing things in store for us. Every good thing is intended to be ours. Rumors to the contrary are from our enemy.

  • God is on our side.
  • God has his eye on us.
  • God is God and will make it happen.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus the Messiah, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus the Messiah and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you. [1]

Source: 1 Peter 1:1-2

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After indicating his audience’s exilic address, Peter describes them as “selected,” that is, as chosen out from the rest of the human race.

  • The Christians’ selection comfortingly counterbalances the non-Christians’ rejection of them.
  • “In accordance with the foreknowledge of God” doesn’t mean that he selected the Christians because he knew ahead of time, they were going to believe the gospel.
  • Rather, that he selected them in accordance with his predetermined plan, just as in Acts 2:23 Peter puts God’s foreknowledge right after, and in parallel with, “God’s ordained plan”.

Addition of “the Father” to “God” prepares for “God, even the Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah” and for God’s “father[ing] us anew” in 1:3. Consecration by the Spirit means his setting Christians apart from non-Christians to be sacred to God, as non-Christians are not. This consecration is how the Spirit carries out God the Fathers selection. The purpose and result of the consecration, and of the selection, are obedience to the call of the gospel and, in consequence of that obedience, “the sprinkling of Jesus Christ’s blood,” that is, the application of his blood so as to purchase the redemption of believers.

Notably, those who later came to be called the Trinity cooperate in this selection for redemption:

  • God the Father’s foreknowledge supplies its basis.
  • The Spirit’s consecration supplies the means of its being carried out.
  • Jesus’ shed blood supplies the purchase price.[2]

Bonus Content: Check out this supplemental content about Sanctification. It adds context to this article. If you like it, please consider subscribing to the channel on YouTube.

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Pe 1:1–2.

[2] Robert H. Gundry, Commentary on the New Testament: Verse-by-Verse Explanations with a Literal Translation (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2010), 936.