On Sunday evening, Rev James MacIver began a series of sermons on 1 Peter. There is much in this book of the teaching which Peter himself received from the Lord, as we saw in the recent study series on the Life of Simon Peter. Indeed, this letter from Peter to the people of God suffering under all kinds of oppression for their faith can be viewed as the outworking of Christ's exhortation in John 21 - 'feed my sheep'.

Although this letter was written for Peter's contemporaries in Christ, it still has relevance and application for the suffering church today.

Mr MacIver considered the letter in terms of both its author and its intended recipients.

In one sense, there is not too much to be said about the author, as he very properly minimises his own importance. His great concern is for the people, and for their relationship with God. He exemplifies good pastoring by putting his concern for the people ahead of asserting his own personality or abilities. By introducing himself as Peter, for example, he is not actually calling attention to himself, but to his Christ-endowed authority. Peter was named by the Lord and referring to that, he evokes memories of Matthew 16:18, and underlines the fact that he is an emissary of God.

We know, as well, that Peter had sometimes failed to live up to that name; but the same is also true of all God's people at different times. Nonetheless, Peter had Apostolic authority, granted by the Lord and, in their time of trial, the people to whom he was writing would have appreciated this. Their need was for a perfect Father; Peter was God's mouthpiece, bringing His truth to them in their need.

The recipients of this letter are the elect of God. As such, therefore, there are Gentiles in their midst and Peter's concern for them ALL is indicative of the way in which the Lord had changed his thinking for, at one time, he would certainly not have deigned to associate with those of non-Jewish antecedents. However, he has been persuaded - as in Acts 10:28 - that this is wrong. It speaks to us in the contemporary church also, to remember that no matter a believer's ethnic or cultural background, if God is dealing with them, they are elect.

What, though, do we understand by the term, 'elect'?

It is vital, first of all, to maintain the sequence of words used by Peter in verse 1 - 'elect . . . according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood.'

Here we have, Mr MacIver said, 'practical theology for suffering Christians'. He addressed each point in this sequence in turn.

i) 'Elect according to the foreknowledge of the Father' means much more than simply knowing in advance. As the word 'know' in the Bible is usually imbued with a sense of loving intimacy, 'foreknowledge' implies that the Lord loved His people before they were, as Ephesians 1:4 makes clear. His people were predestined out of all eternity to be His.

Remember, again, the circumstance of Peter's audience - they needed to be reminded of the love of the Father, which is not in any way conditional upon any attributes of theirs. Mr MacIver quoted the song, 'You are loved', which says:

'But you are loved - oh, not because of what you've done, no.

Even when your heart has run the other way,

Nothing's gonna change His love

And you are wanted

Not because you are perfect . . .'

ii) 'Through (better translation than 'in') the sanctification of the Spirit' tells us that this elect love progresses through people being sanctified. Their election becomes apparent through the work of the Spirit in them. They have been chosen for holiness and so, God's Spirit will complete that work in them.

iii) 'Unto (better than 'for') obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood'. The substitution of 'unto' here better conveys the sense that God chose His people for holiness in order that they would be obedient to Jesus and be sprinkled with His blood. In Exodus 24: 6-8, we see both the literal and symbolic nature of the sprinkling of blood. Jesus' death accomplished a sacrifice which was directed first towards the Father, and consequently permitted the sprinkling of the elect with His blood.

What we see in this final clause, therefore, is that election culminates in submission to Jesus. As questions 29 and 30 of the Shorter Catechism make clear, redemption is applied to each of God's elect by the Holy Spirit, who works faith in the heart of the believer and unites them to Christ in effectual calling.

Ultimately, therefore, it is about submission and obedience to Christ. It is not essential to understand the doctrine of election in depth, although Christians should use Scripture to glean as full a comprehension as they can. Intellectual knowledge of election will not save anyone, but neither is it possible to obtain salvation without submitting entirely to Jesus Christ.

As DL Moody said: 'Let God have your life. He can do more with it than you can'.