God’s Amazing Grace
1Peter 1:1 – 5
If you have a loan or pay rent and miss making a payment on time, most reputable companies or landlords have what is known as a grace period. That is a period of time you don’t legally deserve, but that they give you to make the payment, even after the due date. It could be a pretty big deal if you ever needed it!
Imagine you have a mortgage on your home and the bank suddenly tells you as a special promotion they have marked your loan as paid in full. That would be amazing, wouldn’t it? But there’s something so much more amazing than that, something we must never take for granted, and that is God’s amazing grace!
1Peter 1:1 – 5
God’s grace truly is amazing. Grace has been defined as undeserved merit, meaning that those who receive grace are treated just as if they’ve earned such merit, themselves. We could not earn our way to heaven and eternal life, but the gift of God’s grace that you received the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ justified you and made you just as if you’d never sinned. Because of God’s amazing grace, God treats you as if you are perfect. In fact, you have been sanctified by the Spirit unto obedience and holiness.
I Peter v1
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Peter was an apostle of Jesus Christ. Just like the other apostles, with the exception of Judas’ replacement, he was personally and visibly called by Jesus Christ. His ministry was mainly to areas where there was a high Jewish population, but also included many Gentiles. (Note that is was Paul, not Peter, who was the apostle to the Gentiles.)
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At the end of this letter, the place he wrote it from is identified as Babylon. This is the verse used by the Roman Catholic Church to prove that Peter was in Rome, but that requires forcing the scriptures to mean that the Babylon referred to in 1Peter 5:13 refers to Rome. “The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you…” The Catholic Church, in an amazing feat of mental gymnastics, explain that Babylon was a code word used for Rome, but it really didn’t apply to them, but then it does where it concerns Peter…
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The very obvious, simple and accurate understanding of this verse is that it is referring to Babylon on the Euphrates, which still had a small community in the first century.
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Whenever the apostles referred to the place they were writing from in a letter, they always used the real name, not a nickname, especially not one that would have been very confusing in the first century.
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There were still many Jews from the captivity in that region, making it an obvious place for Peter and others to go with the gospel to their own kin and countrymen.
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This epistle was addressed to “the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.” These were all provinces of Asia Minor, the peninsula now called Anatolia, comprised of most of the Asian part of modern Turkey and the Armenian highland. Once again, it would have been most natural for Peter to have contact with Christians in that area while he was in Babylon.
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The strangers scattered or as the Greek literally reads, strangers of the dispersion, commonly referred to Jews, but as the Gentile believers were grafted into the same root (Romans 11:16), it was natural to so address the churches this way.
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These were churches planted by Paul and his friends. It is most likely that this was written after Paul’s martyrdom, for several reasons.
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There are many passages in Peter’s epistles that parallel Paul’s writings in very great detail.
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Mark was with Peter. Prior to Paul’s death, Mark was in Rome.
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Silvanus, Paul’s companion, became Peter’s and was the one who carried this letter to the churches (1Peter 5:12).
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II Election v2
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The doctrine of election, or choosing, has been the subject of much confusion. Entire hermeneutic systems, or theories of interpretation, have been developed around it. Once again, as in all other places in the scriptures, the simplest, plainest reading of the Word of God is the place to start. Every time we begin to try to squeeze God’s Word into a particular man made system, we run into trouble.
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Elect simply means chosen. It is referring to the strangers or Christians mentioned in the previous verse. Christians are chosen by God in a particular way for a particular purpose. That is a fact we can agree on with most others. In Ephesians 1:4, we read, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:”
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This is often understood, as Calvin did, to mean that God chose from eternity who he would save and who he would pour out his wrath upon. This is a sad misunderstanding of the grace of God!
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If you read all of Ephesians 1, you will discover that the choosing has to do with God’s foreknowledge and plans for all who put their faith in Jesus Christ.
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Here in 1Peter, we see that put in plain language, “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…” God is not bound by space and time, but is the creator of space and time.
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God has elected, or chosen, all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ, for a special purpose.
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The cause of the election is the “sanctification of the Holy Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” Sanctification means being set apart as holy. When you simply accepted God’s marvelous gift of grace by faith in Jesus Christ, your sins were washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ. You were then set apart as holy and given the power to be obedient. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23
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III Grace vv3 – 5
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“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”
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This is God’s amazing grace. We don’t deserve it, but God gives it to us because of his abundant mercy. God has caused us to be born again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
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When Jesus shed his blood and died, he paid the price for all our sins. When Jesus rose from the dead, he won the victory for us over death and gave us everlasting life! “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,’”
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God’s amazing grace has prepared a future for you and I that is incredible! This present world is full of the misery and ugliness of the corruption of sin, but the world that we are about to enter by the grace of God is incorruptible. There is no sin there, nor is there any possibility of it. It is undefiled by anything, does not fade or wear out, and is reserved for us, a sure future. “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” 1Corinthians 2:9
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“Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
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Not only has God by his amazing grace given us an incorruptible inheritance in heaven, but he has made certain that we will receive our inheritance! We can’t lose our salvation! We are kept by the power of God through faith. If it were up to us to generate that faith we might have cause for concern, but God says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” Ephesians 2:8
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If God’s amazing grace that saves us is the gift of God, then faith, the ability to believe, must also be a gift, and indeed, the Bible says it is. “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Romans 12:3
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God has given to each of us that measure of faith, the thing we need to have in order to be saved, the thing that is drawn toward God, and once it is put in Jesus Christ, we are kept by the power of God until the last day. Remember when we talked about the doctrine of election and Ephesians 1. Here is the further proof of election being according to God’s foreknowledge of who would trust in Jesus Christ AND proof that you cannot lose your salvation once saved. “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,” Ephesians 1:13
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Conclusion
By God’s amazing grace, you given the measure of faith and drawn to the cross of Christ. When you responded by faith after you heard the gospel and trusted in Jesus Christ, you were elected or chosen and sealed by the Holy Spirit. “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Ephesians 4:30 That is the day we meet Jesus in the air and our bodies are changed into incorruptible bodies! There is NO PLACE in between where you can lose your salvation! This is God’s amazing grace to you and I.