1 Peter 1:2 describes believers as
Elect
a. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father
b. through sanctification of the spirit
c. unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus.
Ok, writing has never been my strongsuit. The truth is, I know this is with believers, but I just wanted you the reader to know that all of this was true first with Christ.
First, Christ is "elect." Notice 1 Peter 2:4-6. It calls Him "elect" twice.
Second, Christ is "elect according to the foreknowledge of God. Notice 1 Peter 1:20. This verse says that He was "foreknown before the foundation of the world." I love context.
Third, Christ is "elect according to the foreknownledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit." Hebrews 9:14 says He was "offered through the eternal Spirit." I don't know the depth of that statement, but it seems that the Holy Spirit ushered Christ into the "holy place" (see two verses earlier).
Fourth, Christ is "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and the blood of sprinkling." Hebrews, again, is replete with references of Christ's obedience unto death (Hebrews 5:8) and His offering/"sprinkling" of His blood (Hebrews 9:14; 12:24) which resulted from this obedience.
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2 comments:
Hi Brother, I wonder if you can tell me why we go to church, besides the obvious reasons..to worship God and have fellowship one with another. As I study scripture, I see that Jesus never said, "Go to Church" after healing someone or delivering them from demons. Instead He said, "Go thy way." If you read the Psalms, there's no mention of church-going (or there's no emphasis on it IF it's in there). The wisest King Solomon doesn't tout it either in his great wisdom. I'm not really picking up the urgency in the Scriptures AT ALL. I think the church somehow has managed to indoctrinate people into a belief that shouldn't be so prevalent in our lives. The devil clearly uses it to make people believe they're righteous for their much church attendance. I too, fell for that lie. What happened is, I began my walk with Christ feeling the freedom that He promises. "Whom the Son has made free is free indeed." But once I started attending church regularly, I began to lose the joy of my salvation because of the burden of traditions and religion that I felt I had to honor in order to please God. As you know, the undertones are there. "Pay your tithes," "Show up for Sunday School lessons," "Join the choir." All of these things require a faithful attendance in order for us to "do our best for God." I've since backed out of church to review this. I hope you can say something that will make sense, Bill the Reasoner. Let me say this, it's not God that I've backed away from as my prayer life and study of scripture is as good as it ever has been. I think I've begun to question the actions of the church, primarily. Thank you.
Kelline,
I can see there is alot on your mind here. The shortest, simplest answer is "We go to church because the early church did." A trip through the book of Acts should be convincing enough.
I appreciate you stopping in.
Brother Bill
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