*[[1Pe 1:2 KJV]]*
2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
Does God give me a choice?
When one speaks of election,predestination, choice, and freewill you can be sure to find Christians who have decided on one or the other ready for hours of debate.
These debates consist of those on one side giving verses that say we must choice by our free will and the others giving verses that say it is not of our will.
It seems to escape both sides that their opponents are quoting scriptures that are as clear as their own. So how can this be?
Two factors must play into our understanding. The first is the difference between choice and will. A choice is in a moment the will is the desire of the heart. Peter denied the Lord in a moment of choice...but it was his will to live for the Lord. The second is Gods foreknowing.
Foreknowledge works in this way. Say that all men where born unable to recognize the color blue...
it would not be any ones favorite color nor would any man long to see a blue sky or a blue ocean...
In the same way no man of himself desires God.
Going further with our blindness to blue...if God made everyone to see blue some would hate it...some fear it...some would have no concern...but some few would love it and seek after it.
Rejection of God takes one further into death. As such God does not reveal himself to those he foreknows will reject him; except when necessary to bring his purpose to pass i.e. Pharaoh and Judas.
However those he foreknows will desire him and his life he draws to himself...they are elect not because they possessed anything that was good but because they would not reject the good he decided to give them.
So God would that everyman be saved...but only the elect shall be saved...next time we will look at sanctification of the Spirit.
Are we sanctified?
[[1Pe 1:2]] KJV Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
We have in, the church as a whole, taken words such as righteousness, salvation, and sanctification and turned them into, as Jude says, clouds without water. We have made them into honorary titles given to us at our acceptance of Christ; or simply tokens of credit to be cashed in when Christ returns.
The grace we have been given is a living way, not a past or future event, but a now life.
These living words where planted in you and they will be harvested but they are being formed now.
The word for Spirit means breath...so when you accepted Christ and the Father sent his Spirit into your heart you have recieved his life within you.
His life in you is like a consuming fire; unless you try to generate your own life by your own might, will, and ability. Yet if you trust and rely upon him to live his life in you and through you; he will sanctify you, tangibly revealing the righteousness of Christ as Jesus loves through you, consuming your old motives thoughts and actions ,purging you of their death as you surrender your life for his...after all he surrendered his life for yours.
So we see sanctification is not a concept of reason to be understood, but a action of Gods Spirit in you to be lived by faith.
Are you dedicated to God?
[[Heb 9:19-21/KJV]]
19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
[[1Pe 1:2]] KJV Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
"and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" to the Jewish believers whom Peter was adressing such a statement would have caused a humbled reflection of the holiness of Messiah.
To we gentile believers who did not grow up constantly hearing the writings of Moses or participating in temple worship the statement becomes more mental than living.
Yet for Peter this statement was distinct to his life as a witness of our Lord in the flesh. It had been shortly before Jesus would manifest in his Crucifixion what John the baptist had spoken " behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"
Peter was there when Jesus had said if you destroy this temple in three days I will raise it up and shortly after he said do not look on these buildings for a day comes when one stone will not be left on another. It would be some time later that Peter would understand the true temple of God was not the building he looked at but the man speaking to him.
The building was a shadow, a teaching of the true seat of Gods glory. In order for Christians to understand who they are they must understand who Jesus is; for God has made us one with him.
The death of the sacrifice served as a substitution for the death in the one who presented the offering before God. So it is as we trust in what Jesus has done for us and present it before God we are crucified in Christ and his death is accepted in substitution for the death in us.
Yet it is not the death that makes us his living temple....the life is in the blood...the blood(life) is cast(sprinkled)as a dedication or consecration upon the alter. As it was also by the blood (life) that the items of the temple where dedicated...table of incense(prayer) by his life...table of show bread(the word) by his life...the candlestick(illumination of Spirit)...all these are a lesson of him and as such they teach us of the Father and in sharing his life in us it teaches us what he has made us( and is revealing in us).
So we see it is not by our will or might that we are dedicated or consecrated to God; but it his his life in us. We must trust his death to be our death to have his life...but we must leave our life on the alter to be consumed and trust in his life in us if we desire the glory of God to abide in us.
We can see that Peter had learned to say much with few words; continuing to the end of his salutation he announces a blessing on those who would read his words(including us).
May the gift of Jesus life in you by the Spirit and the peace with God he has purchased you be multiplied in you.
