The fact that God is eternal places
everything in his scope, both the beginning of time and its end. That there was never a ‘time’ when God did
not know everything is beyond our understanding and is one of the mysteries of ‘eternity’,
not to God, but to us his finite creatures.
For the enlightenment of our finite
understanding and our appreciation of our Infinite God, Peter in 1Peter 1:2 is saying
that God’s election of some was because of his foreknowledge of their positive
response to the redemption promised in Christ Jesus; a redemption also prepared
in eternity past.
We are not elected to heaven, that is the
end result of being redeemed but we are elected UNTO a life of obedience and
cleansing to a living hope given to us by means of Christ’s resurrection.
There is far more involved here than being
saved from the penalty of sin, it refers to our life as Christians, a life that
expresses an eternal incorruptible inheritance that we can know is reserved in
heaven for us who are guarded by faith unto the salvation which will be revealed
in the last time. We can experience that
salvation now but it will be fully revealed at the resurrection of the Church,
at the ‘Rapture’.
This experience of salvation is joy even in
the midst of trial and is the proof of our faith; this faith is likened to pure
refined gold that will be to praise glory and honour at the coming of Christ
Jesus.
We
have not seen Jesus but our love for him, engendered by the Holy Spirit’s
ministry within us, causes us to live our lives in unspeakable joy, receiving
even now (experiencing) the salvation of our souls.
Election was according to the foreknowledge
of God and by means of the sanctifying ministry of the Spirit but it was unto a
life of obedience etc. (Unbelievers are
not elected to such a life but are left where they choose to remain.)
