Lesson 2 — Priests Sojourning in the World

¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,²according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.1 Peter 1:1–2

Imagine receiving a letter that begins not with your name, but with your address. Not the street where you live now, but the deeper address of your life. That is how Peter opens. In two short verses he tells these scattered, anxious believers two things they desperately need to hear: who they are (elect exiles), and whose they are (the chosen possession of the whole Trinity). Every command in the next five chapters will grow out of these two verses. Read them slowly. Peter is handing us our identity before he hands us anything to do.

1. The from and the to: an apostle to exiles

The letter opens with an authority and an audience. "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ" (1:1). Peter does not trade on his old name, Simon the fisherman, nor on the memory of his failure. He names what Christ made him: a sent one. Everything he will write comes with the authority of the One who restored him by the Galilean fire and said, "Feed my sheep" (John 21:17).

And to whom does he write? "To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion" (1:1). The phrase is loaded. "Dispersion" was the old word for Jews scattered among the nations after the exile; Peter now picks it up and presses it onto largely Gentile believers, as if to say, you are the true diaspora now. The list of provinces, Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, traces the northern arc of Asia Minor, a scattering of small churches planted across Roman towns that did not understand them.

Notice thisThe very first word Peter uses for these believers is exiles. Not "saints" first, not "church" first, but people away from home. Before he tells them how to behave, he locates them: you are resident aliens. Earth is not your resting place. Sojourner is going to become the letter's signature name for the believer.

This is more than a metaphor. These believers felt like exiles. Their neighbors slandered them as evildoers (2:12); their old companions "malign" them for no longer joining the flood of debauchery (4:4). To be a Christian in Asia Minor was to be visibly different, and visibly suspect. Peter does not flinch from that. He reframes it. You are not homeless; you are away from home. There is a difference, and the difference is hope.

2. The whole Trinity at work for you

Then comes verse 2, and it is one of the most concentrated statements of the Trinity's work in the New Testament. Peter describes these elect exiles as those who are:

chosen "according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1:2),
set apart "in the sanctification of the Spirit" (1:2),
appointed "for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood" (1:2).

The Father planned it. The Spirit applied it. The Son purchased it. Adrian Rogers puts the same truth in a memorable line: "God the Father thought it. God the Spirit wrought it. And God the Son bought it" (Rogers, on 1 Pet 1:2). Before Peter asks anything of these believers, he tells them their whole salvation is the coordinated work of Father, Spirit, and Son. They did not stumble into it. They were carried into it.

Notice the order again, because it is the heartbeat of this letter: identity before conduct. You are elect, therefore you live as elect. You are sprinkled, therefore you walk in obedience. Grace never asks the believer to produce what it has not first provided.

3. Election, handled gently

"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father" (1:2) is a phrase that has stirred long debates in the church. Two major evangelical readings deserve to be named fairly.

The Calvinist emphasis reads "foreknowledge" as God's foreloving, His setting of affection on particular persons before the foundation of the world (cf. Eph 1:4; Rom 8:29). Election is God's sovereign, gracious choice.
The Arminian emphasis reads "foreknowledge" as God's foresight of who would believe, so that election is conditioned on foreseen faith. God's grace goes out to all, and is received by those who believe.

Notice what Peter himself does not do here. He does not lay out a systematic doctrine of election. He writes pastorally, to strengthen suffering believers, and his point is devotional, not polemical: you did not happen to yourselves. Before the world was, the Father set His love on you. That is meant to be a comfort under slander, not a cudgel in a debate. As Rogers helpfully puts it, "the elect are the whosoever wills," affirming both that God's choosing is real and that "whosoever will may come" (Rogers, on 1 Pet 1:2). Both the sovereignty of God and the responsibility to believe are held together, and Peter lets them stand.

The devotional pointWhatever your reading of the ordo salutis, the comfort of verse 2 is the same: you are a wanted child. You were in the heart and mind of God before He swung this planet into space. Election, in Peter's hands, is the deep grounding of an exile's hope.

4. Sprinkled with blood: cleansed and consecrated

The last phrase is the most striking: "for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood" (1:2). No believer literally has Christ's blood sprinkled on them. Peter is reaching back into the Old Testament, where blood was sprinkled in three settings (Rogers, on 1 Pet 1:2; cf. Henry on 1 Pet 1:2):

Cleansing (the healed leper, Lev 14) — the blood of a bird over running water, and the cleansed leper sprinkled, a soul set free.
Consecration (the ordination of priests, Ex 29; Lev 8) — blood sprinkled on Aaron and his sons, setting them aside for the priesthood.
Covenant (the ratification at Sinai, Ex 24) — Moses sprinkling blood on the altar and on the people, sealing God's covenant with them.

All three are here. The blood of Christ cleanses us from sin, consecrates us as priests, and seals us in the new covenant. And here, at the very gate of the letter, the priesthood through-line of this whole series sounds for the first time. You have been sprinkled, Peter says. You are cleansed. You are consecrated. You belong to God by covenant. That is who you are, before you do anything.

The single takeawayYou are an elect exile, sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Your identity is given by the whole Trinity before any conduct is required of you. Live like someone who has been chosen, cleansed, and consecrated.

5. Grace and peace, multiplied

The greeting ends with a benediction, and it is a prayer in disguise: "May grace and peace be multiplied to you" (1:2). Not a measly portion. Not "grace and peace to you," but multiplied. The word Peter uses suggests an overflowing abundance. He will pray it again in 2 Peter 1:2. It is the blessing of a man who knows, from his own failure and restoration, how much grace an exile needs.

"Grace" is God's favor that we did not earn; "peace" is the settled wholeness, the shalom, that comes from being right with Him. Peter prays both in surplus measure over a people about to be told they will suffer. That ordering matters. Grace and peace come before the trial, so the trial never finds us unequipped.

Try thisTake verse 2 and turn it into a prayer over yourself this week. Name each member of the Trinity and what He has done: "Father, You chose me. Spirit, You set me apart. Lord Jesus, Your blood has cleansed and consecrated me." Pray it slowly, once a day. Let the identity settle before any command.

Application — head, heart, hands

Head. Believe that your salvation is the coordinated work of the whole Trinity, planned by the Father, applied by the Spirit, purchased by the Son. You did not initiate it, and you cannot unpick it. Election, in Peter's pastoral use, is the deep grounding of your security.

Heart. Cultivate the affection of a wanted child. You were in the mind of God before the world was. Let that quiet the anxiety of feeling unwanted, whether by the world or by circumstances. Mortify the lie that you are an accident or an afterthought.

Hands. Live this week as a sojourner who knows she is consecrated. When slander or social pressure comes, remember your deeper address: elect exile, sprinkled, sealed. Let one concrete choice (how you spend money, how you speak at work, how you treat a difficult neighbor) be shaped by "I belong to God by covenant," not by the approval of the moment.

Check your understanding

In 1:2, which work is assigned to each Person?

Father applies, Spirit plans, Son purchases it
Father plans, Spirit applies, Son purchases it
Father purchases, Son plans, Spirit applies it
Spirit plans, Father applies, Son purchases it

Verse 2 traces the whole Trinity: the Father's foreknowledge (planned), the Spirit's sanctification (applied), and the Son's sprinkled blood (purchased). Each Person has His role in one coordinated salvation.

Check your understanding

What does "sprinkling with his blood" chiefly evoke?

A literal ritual the readers must now perform
A prediction of future Roman persecution ahead
Old Testament cleansing, consecration, and covenant
A metaphor for the believers' own good works done

Peter reaches back to three Old Testament settings where blood was sprinkled: the cleansed leper (cleansing), the ordained priest (consecration), and the covenant ratified at Sinai (covenant). All three are fulfilled in Christ's blood applied to the believer.

Check your understanding

Why does Peter call the believers "exiles" first?

To locate their identity before he gives commands
To shame them for past sins before forgiving them
To prove they are better than their neighbors now
To predict they would soon leave Asia Minor entirely

Peter's first word for these believers locates their identity (away from home, headed for heaven) before he gives any command. The letter's pattern is identity before conduct: who we are in Christ shapes how we live in the world.

Read for the next lessonRead David Guzik on 1 Peter 1, focusing on his notes on verses 1–5, then meditate on the Trinitarian greeting of 1:1–2 once more. The next lesson moves into 1 Peter 1:3–5, "A Living Hope," where Peter opens his great doxology: born again to a living hope through Christ's resurrection.