Grace and Peace Increasing and Everlasting

1 Peter 1:1-2 

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

Peter was an apostle, a witness of Jesus Christ and chosen messenger of His good news of justifying deliverance from God’s wrath and justice for the sin we all inherited from Adam.  He wrote to those not calling this world their home as pilgrims or sojourners in a foreign land, knowing they belonged now to a heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16).  Peter reminds them first of all who they are and where they stand with God the Father in the Son as elect, chosen by God to be His special people as Israel was called out before (Deuteronomy 7:6, Titus 2:14).  God knew us before creating us in the sense of predetermining our existence, not merely gazing into the future to see us somehow appear; He planned us to be and to choose (elect) us to be His.  He reminds them of God’s grace to make them for Himself and call them, not expecting them to seek Him apart from His work to bring them while dead in sin (Romans 5:8) into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9-10, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Acts 26:18) from our fleshly inheritance of sin’s deep darkness.  Then he reminded them that God as Spirit in them would complete the work of conforming them to Christ (Philippians 1:6), sanctifying them to be more holy as He is.  This call is also to obedience from the heart as a new desire, not like the forced Law from dead stone, but written Laws on our hearts.  This is possible by Christ’s death in our place, His substitutionary death on the cross that sprinkles atoning blood on us as from a perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 9:13-14, 12:24).  Because of Christ’s work and choice and call, we find grace and peace ever increasing and ever lasting.