I had lunch a few weeks ago with a very close friend whom I’ve known for over 50 years. In the course of our conversation he told me about the trouble he faced when he and his wife decided to sell their home and purchase a new one. When they applied for a mortgage loan, they were denied funding because his credit rating came back at a horribly low level. After a bit of investigation, he discovered that his identity had been stolen. One credit agency had him living in Arizona, although he was living in Oklahoma and had all his life. Another had him listed as dead! It took him nearly two years to set the record straight and restore his credit rating!
I suspect that more than a few of you have had your identity stolen and have experienced the massive inconvenience that it entails.
I want you to think with me this morning in terms of identity theft, but not the sort that my friend endured. I’m talking about your identity as a Christian, one who has been created in the image of God and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. I’m also talking about the corporate identity of the people of God, the church.
Many Christians, perhaps most, have suffered the loss of their identity or at minimum are very confused about it. They simply don’t know who they are. And the results are devastating. It’s no less true when it comes to our corporate identity as the church. Who are we? How do we think of ourselves? What image comes to mind when you think of Bridgeway Church? What gives shape to our self-understanding? Is it the culture that defines who we are? Or perhaps it’s the secular media or the government in some capacity.
Who are you? Whose are we? Perhaps at no time in the history of the church has this been so urgent a question and so crucial an issue.
Asking that sort of question typically generates all sorts of answers. You are what you eat. You are what you drive. You are what you wear. You are what other people perceive you to be. You are whatever you want yourself to be.
For the Christian, our identity is defined by God and our relationship to him. Who you are is not in the power of anyone else to determine. You are not what your parents called you or did to you. You are not what you earn in terms of annual income. You are not how people have treated you. You are not what you look like. You are not how you feel. You are, instead, always and ever who God says you are. You are what he is in the process of making you to be.
One of Satan's primary weapons is the lie. He is committed to deceiving you into believing you are not what, in fact, you are, and that you cannot do what, in fact, you can. Why is this important to know? Because as Neil Anderson has said, “No person can consistently behave in a way that is inconsistent with the way he perceives himself” (43). If you perceive yourself to be a failure and a fool, of no use to God or other Christians, you’ll end up living that way. If your core identity is that you are worthless and an embarrassment to the Lord Jesus, that will shape and govern what you do or don’t do. That is why Satan will try to persuade you that you are:
- wasting your time to confess your sins (God won't listen),
- inferior to other believers,
- destined always to fall short of their successes,
- a hopeless victim of your past,
- helpless to change your future,
- a pathetic excuse for a Christian,
- owned by Satan,
- now what you will always be (no hope for improvement),
- stupid,
- beyond the reach of prayer, etc.
This is why we need to listen carefully to what the apostle Peter says in his opening greetings here in 1 Peter 1:1-2.
Let me say just a few words about this epistle and then move on quickly to the heart of what the Spirit of God is saying to us through Peter’s words. That Peter is the author of this epistle is evident from 1:1 – “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” In 5:1 he identifies himself as “a witness of the sufferings of Christ” and in 2 Peter 3:1 the author says that “this is now the second letter that I am writing to you.” Only the more liberal critics of Scripture contest that Peter wrote this epistle.
He probably wrote it in the early 60’s of the first century, just before the outbreak of persecution of Christians under Nero. Although the people he describes were being persecuted and slandered, there’s no indication that any of them had suffered martyrdom to this point in time. The Christians to whom he addressed the letter are explicitly identified as living in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, which together constitute what we know as modern day Turkey. The land encompassed by these provinces is massive: upwards of 135,000 square miles, roughly the equivalent of the states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio combined!
His purpose for writing is one that we will see repeatedly throughout our study: to encourage Christians who are suffering persecution, calling on them to persevere and to live upright and godly lives in the presence of their Christ-rejecting enemies.
Most of those to whom he wrote were Gentile converts to Christianity. They are further identified in v. 1 as “exiles” and again in 1:17 as being in “exile” and again in 2:11 as “sojourners and exiles.”
Some argue that this terminology refers literally to their political and social status. In other words, the people were literally foreigners in the land where they lived. They lacked citizenship and the rights that come with it. They probably lived on the fringes of society, disenfranchised, suffering both economic and political oppression. Whereas that’s possible, I don’t think that is what Peter had in mind in using this language.
My sense is that Peter is describing not so much their social standing but their spiritual condition. Christians, whether in Pontus in the first century or Ponca City in the 21st, are God’s pilgrim people, sojourners on the earth. Followers of Jesus, whether in Galatia or Germany, Bithynia or Bosnia, are aliens in this world, displaced from their true home, which is the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city that God has prepared for those who love him. We are but resident aliens on this earth.
Referring to Abraham and the other patriarchs of Israel, the author of Hebrews describes them in these terms:
“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (Heb. 11:13-16).
Peter’s way of describing the recipients of his epistle brings us directly back to this issue of our core identity as the people of God. So let’s unpack his language and see what we can learn about who we are and whose we are!
N.B. 1 Peter, like every other book of the Bible, is not written to us, but it is written for us. Explain . . . Therefore, although we have to keep in mind that Peter is addressing Christians in the first century, what he wrote is for our benefit and encouragement no less than it was for theirs.
The first and most important thing Peter says about them (and us, all who are believers in Jesus) is that they are elect, they are chosen.
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 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.”
All Christians who believe in the authority of the Bible believe in election. They differ greatly over what election means and the basis on which God chooses sinners to inherit eternal life. But if you believe in the Bible you believe in election.
(1) The verb to “choose” or to “elect” (eklego) is found twenty-two times in the New Testament, seven of which refer to men and women as the objects of election to eternal life (Mark 13:20; Acts 13:17; 1 Cor. 1:27 (twice),28; Eph. 1:4; James 2:5).
(2) The noun “elect” (eklektos) is also used twenty-two times in the New Testament, seventeen of which remaining refer to men and women as God’s “elect,” those chosen to eternal life (Matt. 22:14; 24:22,24,31; Mark 13:20,22,27; Luke 18:7; Rom. 8:33; Col. 3:12; 2 Tim. 2:10; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1; 2:9; 2 John 1,13; Rev. 17:14).
(3) The word which means “election” (ekloge) is used seven times, all of which refer to salvation (Acts 9:15; Rom. 9:11; 11:5,7,28; 1 Thess. 1:4; 2 Peter 1:10).
(4) The word frequently translated “to predestine” or “to predestinate” (proorizo) is found six times in the New Testament, four of which refer to the predestination of people to salvation (Rom. 8:29,30; Eph. 1:5,11).
There are other Greek words that are used to describe this act of God’s sovereign, saving choice of sinners, but that’s enough for now!
Note carefully how Peter describes them and us: elect exiles! At first glance, that seems like a contradiction in terms. To be an exile is to be rejected. To be elect is to be selected! But there’s no contradiction here. We are rejected by this world precisely because we’ve been elected by God. God has made us exiles in the earth, resident aliens, when he chose us out of the world for himself and destined us for an eternal and heavenly inheritance.
Although they are scattered and dispersed to the far fringes of the Roman Empire, they are central to God’s purposes, held with great affection in his heart, chosen and called to an extremely privileged position.
Although they are currently in exile, socially marginalized, on the fringes of society, exposed to hostile powers, they are God’s chosen ones and destined for eternal and heavenly glory.
Their social standing and disenfranchised status may have led to a feeling of being forgotten and cast aside, but the Father has drawn them near and close to his heart. Though excluded, powerless, homeless, ill-at-ease in a foreign land, they are on their way to that eternal inheritance kept for us in heaven (v. 3).
As God’s elect and chosen children we are always “at home” in our relationship with God although we are “exiles” when it comes to this earth.
It’s important for us to see that the first thing Peter wants his readers to understand about themselves, the first thing I want you to understand about yourself, is that we are God’s elect, his chosen children. Our identity isn’t fundamentally that this world has rejected us but that God has selected us. Our rejection is the result of his election!
Peter isn’t afraid of the doctrine of election: he trumpets it aloud as foundational to our understanding of who we are. Our existence finds its meaning in our being chosen by God.
Many today are afraid of doctrine and of theology. They regard it as stifling, divisive, and lacking practical value. I think Peter would greatly disagree. Understanding God’s sovereign initiative in our salvation, understanding how and why and to what end he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world is absolutely essential to successfully navigating our way through this alien world as exiles; it is absolutely essential to our living holy and righteous lives in a lost and morally corrupt world.
In fact, Peter goes so far as to teach us three things about election here in the very first sentence of his letter.
(1) We are elect, says Peter, “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.”
The first thing this tells us is that divine election was an eternal, pre-temporal act of God before the foundation of the world. According to Paul in Ephesians 1:4, God “chose us” in Christ “before the foundation of the world”; he “predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ”. In 2 Timothy 1 Paul says that God “saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (v. 9).
If that weren’t enough, in Revelation 13 and 17 John speaks of God’s elect as those whose names were written in the Lamb’s book of life “before the foundation of the world.”
“Foreknowledge” does not mean that God merely observes the elect or sees them or is aware of them or has knowledge of who they are or has information concerning their lives. Nor does it mean that God simply predicts our conversion or knows about it in advance.
Many times in Scripture know has a pregnant meaning which goes beyond that of mere cognition. It is used in a sense practically synonymous with “love,” “to set regard upon,” “to know with peculiar interest, delight, affection, and action” (cf. Gen. 18:19; Exod. 2:25; Psalm 1:6; 144:3; Jer. 1:5; Amos 3:2; Hosea 13:5; Matt. 7:23; 1 Cor. 8:3; Gal. 4:9; II Tim. 2:19; 1 John 3:1
See, for example, Matthew 7:23 where Jesus reveals his future response to false disciples at the last judgment: “I never knew you, depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Clearly, mere intellectual cognition is ruled out as the meaning of 'know' here, since it is precisely Jesus' knowledge of their real motives and covenantal status and commitments that leads to their condemnation. Rather, he says that these people never had covenantal relations with him; the Good Shepherd did not know them as his sheep, and they did not know him (John 10:14).
Thus, to foreknow is to forelove. That God foreknew us is but another way of saying that He set his gracious and merciful regard upon us, that He knew us from eternity past with a sovereign and distinguishing delight. God's foreknowledge is an active, creative work of divine love. It is not bare pre-vision which merely recognizes a difference between men who believe and men who do not believe. God's foreknowledge creates that difference! Foreknowledge is destiny shaping! Speaking about God's foreknowledge is a way of expressing his eternal commitment to individuals as part of his determination to bring them to faith and to all the glories and benefits of Christ's work.
God’s divine initiative in pursuing you has been operative from eternity past, long before you had any awareness of God or even thought about pursuing him. Said Spurgeon:
"In the very beginning, when this great universe lay in the mind of God, like unborn forests in the acorn cup; long before the echoes awoke the solitudes; before the mountains were brought forth; and long before the light flashed through the sky, God loved His chosen creatures. Before there was any created being --- when the ether was not fanned by an angel's wing, when space itself had not an existence, where there was nothing save God alone --- even then, in that loneliness of Deity, and in that deep quiet and profundity, His heart moved with love for His chosen. Their names were written on His heart, and then were they dear to His soul. Jesus loved His people before the foundation of the world --- even from eternity! and when He called me by His grace, He said to me, 'I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee’” (Autobiography, I:167).
(2) We are elect, says Peter, “in the sanctification of the Spirit.”
“Sanctification” is a fluid word in the NT and can refer to any one of three things: (1) the initial act of God the Spirit by which we are set apart unto the Father as his own, consecrated and claimed to be holy; that inaugural separation from all others and everything so that we might be exclusively his, owned by the one who chose us (Acts 20:32; 26:18; 1 Cor. 1:2; 1:30; 6:11; 2 Thess. 2:13); (2) can also refer to on-going, progressive work of the Spirit by which we are changed and conformed to the moral image of Christ (Rom. 8:13; 2 Cor. 3:18; 7:1; 1 Thess. 5:23; Heb. 12:10,14); (3) and can refer to the final act of God when he makes his people wholly holy (Eph. 5:25-27). Here I believe it is the first usage Peter has in mind.
Taken out of the realm of the profane and common and sovereignly placed in a holy realm. Not emphasizing that we are moral and others aren’t or that we are pious and they are wicked. It emphasizes that by the Spirit’s operation we have been set apart as a unique community with a singular mission and focus.
More than anything else, this is Peter’s way of describing not simply who we are but WHOSE: we are God’s! We belong to Him. He has set his saving love upon us, set us apart exclusively unto himself.
(3) We are elect, says Peter, “for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood.”
The act of the Father in foreknowing and electing us and the Spirit’s work in setting us apart to himself have as their aim or purpose or goal our obedience to Christ and our sprinkling with his blood.
The background for this statement is found in Exodus 24:3-8 where Moses inaugurates the children of Israel into a covenant with God. When the Israelites promised to obey all that the Lord commanded, Moses sprinkled sacrificial blood on them signifying God’s gracious acceptance of them into the old covenant and their obligation to be faithful and obedient to him. Peter seems to be saying that just as Israel first pledged their obedience (24:3,7) and then are sprinkled with the blood of the sacrifice (24:8) to inaugurate their entrance into the Old Covenant, so also we pledge obedience to God and the blood of Christ is applied to inaugurate our entrance into the New Covenant.
“This consecrating work of the Spirit has a specific goal. He does not bring a person to some generic spirituality, such as is currently popular in much of Western culture, but more specifically into the new covenant founded on the blood of Christ Jesus” (Jobes, 71). It isn’t enough to affirm belief in a supreme Being or God or to speak of the Spirit at work in your life or of your awareness and sensitivity to the transcendent realm of spirit. God has chosen us and the Spirit has consecrated us unto obedience to Christ!
There can be no mistaking that Peter wants us to understand who and whose we are in relation to God, not the culture, nor any other human relationship, but in relation to God. He does this by describing Christians as those who are chosen, the elect of God. Election is rooted in eternity past in the Father’s choice, it accounts for how we came to be God’s unique and peculiar possession through the consecration of the Spirit, and the aim of it all is so that we might live in obedience to Jesus. All three persons of the Trinity are involved: Father, Spirit, and Son.
Amazing: that at the beginning of Peter’s letter to hurting, persecuted, oppressed people facing a myriad of trials he focuses on election! Why? Because God’s eternal purpose for us and in us and through us is the only thing ultimately that will sustain us in hard times. Knowing who we are as God’s elect and whose we are is a truth that the Spirit will repeatedly bring to mind to encourage us in times of affliction and to strengthen our wills when tempted and to sustain hope when everything appears to be falling apart.
Yes, we are aliens and sojourners on this earth. The language and values and customs of this world feel foreign to us. But we are more than exiles. We are elect exiles, the chosen people of God.
Do you see yourself as the world does? Do you embrace an identity forged by the culture? Do you struggle with a sense of personal significance? Do you feel cast aside and ignored by the power brokers of the world? You are God’s chosen children!
Satan may have tried to steal your identity and to convince you that you are a nothing, a useless appendage on the body of Christ. Perhaps sin has blinded you to whose you are. Maybe the world itself has all but crushed any sense of meaning and significance out of your soul. But God wants to remind you here today of who you truly are and to whom you truly belong.
Your core identity is as God’s elect, members of his spiritual family, the church. This truth must be established in our hearts. God wants you to know that none of the hardships or disappointments you face as an exile in the earth are a surprise to him. Your life as an exile is rooted in God and his eternal purpose to make you his own. Dwell on this majestic truth. Let it sink deeply into your soul. God has chosen you. The Spirit has set you apart for his unique and beloved possession. And your life has been designed for obedience to Jesus.