VI. 1 Peter 1:2, 3. Do the words, “of Jesus Christ,” apply to one term or both? and what the Jewish allusions?
The words apply to both, doubtless. The whole passage characterizes the position of the Christian with reference to that of the Jew, in virtue of being begotten again to a living hope. (Compare chap. 2:4, 5, and Matt. 16:16.) Our inheritance is incorruptible, is in heaven. The election of the saints is according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, made effectual, not by such earthly deliverance as Jehovah had wrought, but by sanctification of the Spirit: all natural references, by contrast, to Israel's portion, especially as Peter writes to the sojourners of the dispersion. So again, the double character of Christian standing before God. It is Christ, not the sealing of a legal covenant, not the blood of bulls and goats. We are set apart, by the quickening power of the Holy Ghost, to the sprinkling of Christ's blood, and the obedience in which He walked on earth—practical obedience. The obedience of Christ differed from the law in every way. Law promises life when we have kept required and imposed commandments; Christ's obedience was the expression of life in love. Self-will—lust—exists in us: law forbids its gratification. If I submit, I am counted obedient. Christ never obeyed thus; He came to do God's will. Obedience was never for Him a bridle but on a contrary will. We need, alas! such a bridle still; but proper Christian obedience is the delight of our new nature in doing the will of God, whose commandments and word are the perfect expression of it for us. It is what James calls “the perfect law of liberty.” Christ's motive for action was the will and word of His Father; so it is ours as Christians. “Begotten again,” for the spiritual Jew conveyed the idea of a new state, such as Ezek. 36 presents, and referred to in John 3. The whole truth being now made clear, we know that this takes place by the communication of a new nature in Christ. He becomes our life, being a quickening spirit. Hence it involves a new position, even His own, as the object of faith now.
Matt. 19:28. Mr. C. inquires as to the heavenly place and portion of twelve, seeing that they are here promised the highest seats of dignity and rule in relation to the tribes of Israel, “in the regeneration,” or the times of restitution, the true year of Jubilee here below. The other side of the glory, which is theirs, is seen in Rev. 21, where the names of the apostles are not merely written on the gates, but in the twelve foundations of the heavenly city. They will have their place in the glorified Church on high, as ordered in the eternal counsels of God; but this will not clash with their special connection with Israel on earth. God has made known to us the mystery of His will, that for the administration of the fullness of times He is to head up all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.