A member of the church I pastor recently sent me a list of questions regarding 1 Peter 1:10-12. I enjoyed sitting down and punching out my understanding of those verses and his questions.
First, the text and then my response...
1 Peter 1:10-12
"Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look."
First, the text and then my response...
1 Peter 1:10-12
"Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look."
Introduction
This is a FASCINATING text! In it, we see some of the mystery of divine inspiration revealed. Divine Inspiration is a term used to speak of how the Holy Spirit used fallible men to write an infallible Book. The Holy Spirit did not put them into a trance and take over their bodies. Instead, he ‘influenced’ them (in a way we cannot adequately understand) and used their experiences, their vocabulary and idioms, grammar and so much more to pen the Bible. Yet, in some way, while they may not have been conscious at the time that they were penning Scripture, at some point they came to understand that God was speaking through them and they went back to discover what God was saying through them.
v. 10 - 'prophets', who specifically? Daniel and Isaiah. I give these two names because both 'predicted the sufferings of Christ', as stated in v. 11.
· Peter seems to be intentionally ambiguous about who the ‘prophets’ were. He seems to simply give a blanket statement.
· In fact, I believe that Peter could have been referring not just to Isaiah and a couple of others but to every God-sent prophet in the Old Testament. If we look at how the writers of the New Testament quoted the Old Testament when speaking of Jesus, we come to see that they were convinced that everything in the Old Testament pointed to Jesus. For instance, while the Psalmist didn’t realize as he was penning Psalm 22 that he was describing in great detail the scene of the crucifixion, we now realize that is exactly what happened.
· Further, we need only to look at Jesus to see that every Old Testament prophet spoke about Him. When He was on the road to Emmaus and speaking to the disciples who were perplexed with the crucifixion and rumors of a resurrection, Luke 24:27 tells us: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he (Jesus) interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Clearly, Jesus believed that every prophet in the Old Testament (including Moses and ALL the prophets) spoke about Him.
· So, I believe “the prophets” is simply a blanket statement for the folks in the Old Testament who spoke on behalf of God and, without their knowledge, were speaking of Jesus.
v. 11 - 'Spirit of Christ', should I interpret this to mean Holy Spirit
· Most certainly the “Spirit of Christ” is the Holy Spirit. This is divine inspiration. Men spoke on behalf of God as God’s Holy Spirit “influenced” them. When they were speaking the words that would eventually end up in Scripture, they spoke infallibly (no incorrect grammar, vocabulary, untruth in what they said, etc.)
· 2 Peter 1:21 “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
v. 11 - 'in them', does this imply the Holy Spirit embodied someone prior to Acts 2?
· The Holy Spirit indwelled people before Pentecost. Yet, not in the same way as He does now.
· In the New Testament, ever since Pentecost, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the experience of every single believer. In fact, if someone does not have the Holy Spirit within them, they are not saved (Romans 8:9). Further, the Holy Spirit will never, ever leave a believer until He has safely delivered them into God’s presence after death (Ephesians 1:13-14).
· However, the Holy Spirit did not indwell every follower of God in the Old Testament. He limited His work to those who were in positions of leadership and influence (i.e. Israel’s kings, prophets, etc.). Further, the Spirit didn’t come on someone in the Old Testament at the point that they became a God-follower but at the point that they were set aside for godly leadership as in David’s case (1 Samuel 16:13) or at some particular point that they needed more resources than what they humanly had as in Samson’s case (Judges 14:6). Yet, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit could depart from someone who He had been indwelling rendering them ineffective at carrying out God’s task such as in Saul’s case after His obedience (1 Samuel 16:14). Because of this, David felt the need to pray, to beg(!), that God wouldn’t take His Holy Spirit from him after his own personal sin (Psalm 51:11).
· So, in the NT, the Holy Spirit fills every believer and it is permanent. In the OT, the Holy Spirit only indwelt those set aside for godly leadership and it could be temporary if the leader abandoned God and fell into repeated, willful sin.
v. 11 - 'glories that would follow', does this imply glory exclusively comes after suffering? I ask because NT authors advocate rejoicing during the suffering.
· Peter wrote this letter specifically to persecuted Christians. 1 Peter 1:1 says that he wrote to “the exiles of the Dispersion.” Persecution had come and Christians scattered.
· It MAY be true that there are specific rewards on Judgment Day for those who suffer for the sake of Christ. Yet, in 2 Timothy 3:12, we are told that every single Christian will suffer persecution to some extent.
· So, the thought of “glories that would follow” may simply be referring to the blessings of God’s presence and Heaven that awaits every single believer. This is certainly what motivated Jesus to endure all that He did (Hebrews 12:2).
v. 12 - 'not serving themselves', does this mean OT prophecies about the Son of Man were meant to benefit only those believers following Christ's death, resurrection and ascension, and not those prior to Christ?
· The Old Testament prophets and the folks who listened to them benefited from God’s words.
· What the Lord seems to be saying in this passage is that there is a much greater understanding and, therefore, blessings that are ours because we live on the opposite side of the cross. Many of the things that they said before Jesus’ incarnation just didn’t make sense to them but we understand them because the cross is in our frame of reference. (Just read Isaiah 53. Isaiah could not have seen nearly the power and beauty of what he said as we now do simply because we live after the cross and can see much more clearly than him.)
v. 12 - 'you', does this pronoun simply refer to Peter's audience?
· While Peter intended for the “you” to mean his audience, the truth that he is conveying is true of every single believer since the cross, resurrection and ascension.
v. 12 - 'even angels long to look into these things', three questions: what does this mean? are angels uncertain about the will of God? if so, does this imply others in the presence of God (e.g. Heaven) are uncertain about his will?
· Angels were created as servants of God. Yet, God never made it possible for them to be made right in His eyes if they sinned as God has done for us. When Lucifer (Satan) and those angels who followed Him sinned, they were cast out of Heaven (Isaiah 14:15; Ezekiel 28:16-17; Luke 10:18) with no hope of redemption. Those faithful angels that remain are interested (fascinated!) with what God has and is doing for mankind who rebelled against Him. They are ever learning about God’s will.
· Those in heaven most certainly do not fully understand God’s will. God is omniscient (He knows all things) but we never will. In fact, we are told in Revelation 6:9-11 that there will be martyrs who ask when God will administer justice on those who took their lives. The very fact that they are asking a question from their place in Heaven means that they do not have all knowledge and do not fully understand God’s will. Heaven isn’t all about us having a perfect knowledge. I believe that God wants part of the joys of Heaven to be the thrill of discovery. We will continually grow in our knowledge and experience of God and, in so doing, be continually motivated to worship and enjoy Him for eternity as we discover more about Him.
