1 Peter 1:2 - Explained

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

The Bible says at the beginning of this verse, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Now there are various false teachings around this idea of the elect. One false teaching is that the elect refers to the Jews. But notice that this verse brings up the blood of Jesus Christ later on — so this is not referring to the Jews. This is actually referring to believers, people that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

But another false teaching comes from the Calvinists, who teach what they call unconditional election — the U in their TULIP acronym. Calvinists teach that God chooses us for heaven or hell with no conditions. It is nothing we do, it is not about us believing on Jesus Christ — it is an unconditional election, because according to them we are incapable of believing on Jesus Christ on our own. And they would point to verses like this one and say, see, we are elect — it is God's choice, not what we do.

But notice carefully how the Bible words it. It does not just say elect. It says "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father." What is the definition of foreknowledge? The technical definition of foreknowledge is awareness of something before it happens or exists. The Bible is saying that we are elect based on God knowing beforehand what is actually going to take place.

Now, throughout the Bible, what is the condition put on salvation? "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Throughout the Bible a condition is given, and that condition is believing on Jesus Christ. What the Bible does not teach is that God is the one who gives us that faith and causes it to happen. What the Bible says is that God has foreknowledge about what will happen.

Calvinists will often just point to the word elect and think that proves their point — see, we are elected, we do not choose God, God chooses us. But when you think about the word election, think about a presidential election. A presidential election is not just randomly choosing who the next president is going to be. The president is elected based on something — based on whoever gets the most votes, or depending on what the system is in that country. The word elect does not mean there is no condition. In fact, every election I know of is based on some sort of condition. A presidential election is based on votes.

And God electing us — us being his elect — is based on his foreknowledge. His foreknowledge of what? That we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. The election is not unconditional. It is based on what God knew beforehand, and what he knew beforehand is who would believe on his Son.

Pastor Matthew Stucky