Studies in First Peter Part 2
“Chosen 2according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure” (I Peter 1:2).
When you were “chosen”, when you believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ, you joined God’s family “by the sanctifying work of the Spirit” (vs 2). Sanctified means “set apart.” You were “set apart” by the work of the Spirit by being “set in.” You were “set in” Christ, and Christ was “set in” you. You were placed in Christ (Colossians 3:3), and Christ came to live in you (Colossians 1:27) the minute you believed the gospel.
We have been taught that we have some role in our sanctification with non-biblical phrases like “progressive sanctification.” We have been taught that our sanctification is a life-long process of ups and downs, fits and starts, as we get closer or further from our heavenly Father. But the Spirit already did the sanctifying when you believed the gospel. “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all … For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10,14).
Your sanctification has already happened. You are now as clean and close to the Father as you can ever be. And this vine and branches connection is unbreakable, unshakable, secure, and rock-solid. It never fluctuates. Not because of how well you are doing, but by Christ and His Spirit’s doing, making you clean and close forever.
“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7).
Your sanctification has been sealed and secured by the Holy Spirit that now lives in you. And one of the beautiful outcomes of being sanctified is that you now have what it takes “to obey Jesus Christ” (vs 2). Yes, obedience is our journey in this Christian life. But it is an obedience born of our new identity. We now have Jesus living though us and the power of His resurrection life indwelling us. This fuels our obedience. It is not a begrudging, striving, going against all of our inclinations obedience. No, it is quite the opposite. It is living into the power of all that Christ made new in you. He did it. He made you new.
Obedience is our new disposition, our new “how we look on the inside.” Please, please, please hear this. It is not an obedience to the Law or any other rule-keeping system. Christ gave us a new commandment for a new covenant, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). And this “love one another” is fleshed out as we practice the “one anothers” of the New Testament. This is not a Law-keeping kind of obedience. It is a freedom kind of obedience. We are now free and empowered to love, encourage, lift up, and serve our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Finally, this life of obedience through His power will be overflowing with His grace and His peace. I and a thousand of others in this group will assure you that this is true.