The Privilege of Our Salvation (1 Peter 1:10-12)
Due to a malfunction, the sermon on Easter 4 covering 1 Peter 1:10-12, entitled “The Privilege of Our Salvation,” was not recorded. Below is Rev. Wiley’s sermon manuscript.
The Full Scope of Salvation
As we pick up with Peter this afternoon, he will be addressing salvation. Peter’s letter is about our total salvation, all of the aspects of God’s saving work in Jesus Christ. According to Peter, salvation comes by “mercy” and leads to new birth (born again). Thus, there is a moment when we are saved (3). Salvation also comes with “living hope” and a wonderful “inheritance” kept in heaven (3-4); thus, salvation has a particular future. Salvation is by “faith” and trials prove our faith on the road of salvation (6-7); salvation is also lived everyday. Salvation comes from the Savior, Jesus Christ, whom we love, believe in, and seek (8-9). It’s about Jesus. As theologians might say, we have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved. This is what Peter has in mind when he turns at verse 10 to speak “concerning this salvation.” He’s thinking of the unabridged version of salvation or Jesus’s consummate work in the Christian’s life—the past work of justification by the cross of Jesus, the current work of sanctification by the Spirit calling us to Jesus, and the final goal of glorification in the wake of His return.
The Prophets and the Promise of Grace
Well, as verse 10 says, Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully…
Prophets, as I am sure many are aware, were men called and commissioned by God during the time of the Old Covenant to deliver God’s message to God’s people—to tell God’s people what God wanted them to know.
Here, Peter says “prophets” of the Old Covenant, before the birth of Christ, under the Law of God, received messages and then shared those messages “about the grace that was to be yours.” Grace is “undeserved favor,” as every theological dictionary would say. It’s getting favor you do not deserve, and it’s getting favor when you did not earn it. While we can readily find definitions for grace, we should be honest about our human limitations, which make it difficult to truly comprehend grace. We live in a world that is the antithesis of grace. You get what you deserve; you reap what you sow; what goes around comes around; no pain, no gain. These axioms know nothing of grace; you get what you didn’t earn; you sow what you didn’t reap; you gain without pain.
Jews, like these prophets, living under the Old Covenant understood grace, but not totally, the way we do in light of the cross. Yes, it was by grace that God chose Israel. They did not choose God, and God did not choose them because they were lovely or even lovable. Their righteousness did not merit His attention. This is what Deuteronomy 7:7-8 teaches us. However, under the burden of the Law, this future grace of the prophets remained a mystery. See, under the Law, Israel learned that disobedience led to a curse and obedience led to blessing. The Law demanded an earned reward.
The prophets, though, overheard some heavenly conversations about this thing called grace. They heard something about people getting blessings when they deserve curses. The message they were receiving was a message of unmerited favor, favor by grace, not by self-achievement. Favor apart from the Law.
And Peter says, “This grace that they were hearing about was grace for you.” The Old Testament story and the Old Testament promises made to Israel reached forward and included Peter’s audience. The message back then was about a moment right now.
Recall that Peter is addressing suffering Christians, burdened by various trials because of their allegiance to Jesus Christ. Recall that Rome evicted them from their homes and forced them to move to Asia Minor. They are exiles who quite possibly have lost a sense of place and belonging, and some have most assuredly lost their physical inheritances. What Peter explains here is quite encouraging, then. The world might disown you, disassociate with you, and dislike you, but God has never abandoned you, ignored you, and He loves you. You’ve been in His heart or in His mind, as it were, since the beginning. He’s been thinking about you and planning to rescue you since the prophets prophesied. You do have an inheritance, and you do have a place, and both with God.
The same is true for us, brothers and sisters. The New Testament teaches the redeemed that God planned our redemption “before the foundations of the world” (Eph. 1:4). That’s when God thought about you; that’s when God loved you, all the way back then. Though the world might distance itself from us because of our loyalty to Jesus, God will never abandon us. We might feel that we do not have a place on this earth when ethics get sideways and truth is censored, or when family members refuse to talk with us because we stand in the light, but we have a place with God Almighty. We have His attention and His love and His favor.
Why? Because the grace prophesied in the Old Covenant was the grace for us in the New Covenant. The grace promised then was for us today, and the prophets searched and inquired carefully about it; they wanted to know as much information as they could about the grace that was to come. It was the central driving force of their prophetic ministry. “Tell us more, God, about this grace, about this gift of undeserved favor.”
The Problem That Made Grace Precious
Why would they be so obsessed with it? Because all of the prophets knew the heavy weight, the irremovable burden, and the unassailable force that is sin, disobedience to God. Though the prophets tried to call God’s people back to righteousness, tried to warn them about the wrath of God to come because of sin, and tried to remind them of God’s glory, sin was so strong in the heart of mankind, in the people of Israel, nothing could turn them around. Isaiah told God’s people in Isaiah 59, “God loves you and will hear you if you turn to Him.” But he went on with the hard truth, saying, “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). Jeremiah knew God’s people had been called to serve God in holiness, but he also knew, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9). Ezekiel saw a valley filled with Israelites, and they were all dried up, dead bones, lost in sin because, as he said, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). The prophets knew that righteousness leads to God and sin leads to death, but they also knew nothing can turn a wicked, sinful heart away from death to righteousness. So when they heard little hints of a day when sinners somehow will find their way into righteousness, by a miracle of grace, they wanted to know more.
The Spirit Reveals the Suffering Savior
Verse 11 tells us what they wanted to know. The prophets were, “inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.”
There is considerable debate about how to translate the very beginning of verse 11 into English. We have one option here: prophets looking for a specific person or a specific time. Another option is from the NIV: Trying to find out the time and/or circumstances. Without getting into all the grammatical details, most scholars favor the second reading. The prophets really wanted to know “when” the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories would occur. This seems to fit the sentence better anyway, since the second part of the sentence tells us they already knew who the person was to be—the Christ.
We learn here that the prophets longed to know when, and we also learn how they heard about the grace to come. “The Spirit of Christ” was speaking to them or showing them. The Spirit of Christ is the same Spirit that Jesus gives all believers, which is the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. In John’s Gospel, Jesus tells His disciples the Spirit will come to “testify about me” (John 15:26). That’s what the Spirit does in our lives as Christians. Yes, He convicts of sin, He gives gifts for the good of the church, but in all that He does the Spirit teaches us about Jesus. In the Old Testament, guess what the Spirit was up to? Telling people about Jesus. In fact, the Spirit so inspired the prophets toward Jesus that Peter calls Him the Spirit of Christ.
The Spirit told the prophets that the message about grace was also somehow about a suffering Messiah, Christ, Savior. How will grace replace merit? How will grace lead sinners to God apart from the Law? A suffering Savior who will become a glorified Savior. That’s how.
The prophets learned by the Spirit of God that grace would find its way into the world when the Sent Rescuer from Heaven—the Christ—would suffer for the sins of the world. Moses, the first prophet, wrote about this in Genesis 3:15, where we read that the snake who introduced sin into the world would also land a bite on the promised “seed of the woman.” Isaiah heard about a servant who would suffer for sinners, bearing our griefs, sorrows, and afflictions in His body so that He could own as His own our transgressions and our punishment for sin (Isa. 53). Zechariah learned that God’s people would be restored when one man was pierced (Zech. 12:10). The prophets, as they listened to the Spirit, heard about a sacrificial lamb—a righteous man in the place of sinners.
But they also heard of a glorious victory over sin and death. In Isaiah 42, the prophet said though the servant will be like a bruised reed, He will not faint, and Jeremiah 33 tells us that the Promised Savior will spring up in victory! You could also look at all of these verses to see promises of a glorious Christ: Pss 2; 16:10; 22:22; 45:7; 110:1, 4; Isa. 9:6; 40:3–5, 9–11; 42:1–4; 61:1–3; Jer. 33:14–15; Ezek. 34:23; Dan. 7:13–14; Mal. 3:1–3. Even Moses, that first prophet, after saying the snake will land a blow on the redeemer, tells us the “seed of the woman” will return with a fatal blow.
The prophets got glimpses, hints, and snippets of a suffering and glorified Savior, and they wrote them down, not knowing when the Savior would come to rescue God’s people.
From Promise to Fulfillment
But, and now verse 12, “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you.” The promise written on the ancient page “served” Peter’s sheep. How? How did the Old Testament prophets “serve” New Covenant Christians, and suffering Christians at that? Well, Peter goes one to say, “in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven…”
The promises of grace are no longer just promises; the prophecies concerning the Savior are no longer just prophecies. The promises have been fulfilled, and the prophecies have been revealed, and all in the “good news” announced “through those who preached…by the Holy Spirit” about salvation in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament story leading to grace.
Jesus suffered for sinners on a cross. He bore in Himself on that tree the sins that separate us from God, that hide God’s face from us, and that lead to death. There, Law gave way to grace. On the cross, the sinless Savior paid the punishment for all my crimes against God. He bore the wrath of God in place so that God’s justice is satisfied. He got what I deserve, so that when I come to Jesus in faith, trusting in His saving work, I don’t get what I deserve. I met grace when I turned to face the cross. But Jesus is also the glorified Savior who rose from the grave, so that by faith in Him I too, in another home run for grace, receive eternal life when I deserved eternal judgment. This is the good news of grace that the prophets wanted to see, and that they predicted, and the same grace that was foretold by the prophets is not only fulfilled in Christ—it is now made known to us by the very same Spirit who spoke through them.
The Spirit who predicted is the Spirit who now proclaims. The Spirit in the prophets, giving hints of Jesus, is now the Spirit in us, revealing Jesus more and more in our lives. We have the Spirit for the same reason the prophets met with the Spirit: to see Jesus, the suffering Savior for suffering sinners.
A Suffering Savior Proclaimed for Suffering Sinners
Remember Peter’s audience; they are suffering various trials, and all because they follow Jesus. Here, Peter reminds them that suffering does not force them out of step with Jesus. He suffered in His life and ministry. Pharisees mocked Him, family thought He was crazy, rest avoided Him, Satan tempted Him, His own people betrayed Him, and, the greatest of all sufferings, Rome arrested, tried, and crucified Him. Suffering, though, led to glory. Peter wants the sheep to know the same is true for them. The momentary suffering that they face for the name of Jesus prepares them for the glory that is theirs at His return. So it is for us, brothers and sisters. We follow a suffering Savior, a King who suffered for righteousness. We should not be surprised, therefore, when fiery trials come our way for standing up for righteousness, for standing for Christ. And yet, glory in Jesus comes to those who suffer with Jesus. But this connection between suffering and glory didn’t come naturally—not even to those closest to Jesus.
Peter and the rest of the Apostles struggled to wrap their minds around this concept. How could Jesus be a rescuer who dies? How could He be the King and a servant? How could He be a crucified Messiah? But, after the death of Jesus and His glorious resurrection, the dots started to connect, or, we might say, they started remembering their Old Testament Scriptures. John repeatedly tells us in his Gospel that disciples didn’t get it until after the resurrection, then the Scriptures clicked. Jesus Himself, after the resurrection, met with His disciples and, according to Luke 24, “he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, [46] and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, [47] and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Lule 24:45b-47). We cannot make sense of Jesus without the Old Testament. We cannot understand the Old Testament without an eye to Jesus. The one promised, the other fulfilled. The one concealed, the other revealed. Jesus is our hermeneutical key, the way we understand the entire story of God.
A Privilege Greater Than Prophets and Angels
This, this wonderful work of God in Jesus Christ, the suffering and glorified Savior. And it wasn’t just the content of the prophets’ thoughts. Peter concludes, these are the “things into which angels long to look.” This word “long” means a continual gaze at. Angels are looking at the unfolding work of God in Christ. They delight to see how God rescued the world in Jesus, and to see how He continues to rescue the world through Jesus in the Church by the Spirit. This salvation, which we began with, is what angels like to think about. The good news has heaven’s attention.
In these three verses, Peter takes a quick dive into the glories of the gospel. It’s the good news planned before the foundation of the world, predicted in the Old Covenant, realized in the Savior Jesus, and that constantly delights the angels above. It’s the good news we are caught up in, as saved sinners born again to a living hope. Why does Peter’s audience, who suffer various trials, need this reminder of the glories of the gospel? Because Peter wanted them to realize their privileged status. They might suffer, but they are more privileged than even Old Testament prophets. The prophets only got hints and saw at a distance the gospel by the voice of the Spirit. Peter’s sheep know how it went down and are indwelled with the Spirit to comprehend it. They have a privileged status over even the angels. Angels can only gaze at the wonderful work of God; these Asia Minor Christians get to live it and experience it. Jesus didn’t die to redeem angels. He died to redeem sinners.
Don’t Grow Casual with the Gospel (or Further Up!)
What does this foray in the glories of the gospel mean for us? Prophets never grew tired, and angels never grow tired of seeking the good news—never. We should never grow tired of the gospel message; it is the message prophets longed to see and lived to proclaim. It is the message angels delight to learn about, and continually marvel at. It’s the message the Spirit foretold, delivered, and keeps us in.
We, as Christians, are inheritors and stewards of the greatest treasure in the cosmos.
The gospel, the message of Christ’s suffering and glory for our salvation, is our great privilege. It makes us who we are. It should be the content of our thoughts, the theme of our words, the guide to our lives, the hope of our future, the sustaining truth in every trial, and the obsession of our church.
If prophets strained to see it and angels still study it, then a casual familiarity with the gospel is a contradiction.
How are we obsessing over the gospel of our salvation? Who are we getting together with to talk about the gospel? Who are we sharing the gospel with? Is the gospel the hope sustaining us through our own trials, or are we looking elsewhere?
What is the gospel to us? Everything or just something?