Charles Ellicott Commentary 1 Peter 1:2

"according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied." — 1 Peter 1:2 (ASV)

Elect.—A true chosen people. This word distinguishes them from the other Jewish settlers in those regions. It is an evasion of the difficulty to say that they were elect only in the mass, as a body.

The election was individual and personal. God selected these particular Hebrews out of the whole number and made them Christians; but what He elected them to is abundantly shown in the following words. Despite their election, they are not certain of salvation, and their title of “elect” implies no more than the fact that God has placed them into the visible Church. (See Notes on 1 Thessalonians 1:4 and 2 Peter 1:10.)

According to the foreknowledge of God.—The origin of this election, its aim, and the means employed are now addressed, and connected with the three Divine Persons respectively.

1. The origin. Their election is not accidental, nor something done on the spur of the moment, an afterthought of God, but “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father”—that is, in execution of His pre-arranged scheme. The word implies not simply a perception of the future, but the forming of a decision. (Compare the same word in 1 Peter 1:20, and in Romans 8:29 and Romans 11:2.) Though the thought is also common to St. Paul, St. Peter was familiar with it before St. Paul’s conversion. (See Acts 2:23.)
2. The means. The pre-arranged scheme of God embraced not only the choice of these particular persons for a blessing, but also the way in which the choice was to work itself out—“in a course of sanctification by the Spirit.” The words and the thought are identical with those of 2 Thessalonians 2:13, but they probably differ in exact meaning in that there “the Spirit” refers to the spirit sanctified, while here it is the Spirit who sanctifies. (Compare also 1 Thessalonians 4:7.) We see that even the blessing of “obedience and sprinkling”—much more that of glory hereafter—is unattainable except through the path of sanctification.
3. The end. That to which God had elected them was not, in the first instance, the participation in the joys of the post-resurrection life, but the benefits of redemption in this life. While other “sojourners of the Pontine dispersion” were allowed to remain in the disobedience that characterized the Jews, trusting to the efficacy of membership in the covenant people, these individuals had, in accordance with God’s plan, been admitted to “obedience”—that is, the reception of the gospel facts and precepts (see Note on 2 Thessalonians 1:8)—and to the—

Sprinkling of the blood.—This important phrase must be compared with Hebrews 9:19 and Hebrews 12:24, passages perhaps suggested by it, unless, indeed, the idea had already become common property within the Church. There is nothing in St. Paul’s writings comparable to it.

Since the people themselves are “sprinkled,” and not their houses, the reference cannot be to the Paschal sprinkling (Exodus 12:22). Instead, as in Hebrews, it refers to the scene under Mount Sinai in Exodus 24:8, where, once for all, the old covenant was inaugurated by the sprinkling of the people. It was to this same scene that our Lord referred when He said of the Eucharistic cup, “This is My blood of the new covenant.”

Thus, “elect unto the sprinkling of the blood” seems to mean “selected for admission into the new covenant inaugurated by the sprinkling of Christ’s blood.”

However, whereas the old covenant was inaugurated by sprinkling the people collectively and once for all, the new covenant is inaugurated repeatedly by individual application. Therefore, the Eucharistic cup was not (according to the Quaker theory) to be drunk only once by the Apostles then present as representatives of the entire subsequent Church.

Neither does this inauguration by sprinkling occur only once in an individual’s lifetime; rather, as often as the covenant is broken by sin, the individual comes to renew it again. Doubtless, the participation in Holy Communion is the act of “sprinkling” St. Peter has in mind here, as it is the one act that signifies membership in the new covenant people, the new Israel.

Of course, the application of blood in both covenants rests on the concept of a death-forfeit being remitted.

Of Jesus Christ.—He does not say “of the new testament,” but substitutes the name of the Victim in whose blood the covenant is inaugurated—Jesus. And who is this Jesus? The Christ! The Messiah! It is as though Israel at Sinai had been sprinkled with the blood of Moses. What a contrast between the other Jews of Pontus, with their Messianic expectations, and these “elect sojourners” sprinkled with Messiah’s blood!

Be multiplied.—This occurs again only in 2 Peter 1:2 and Jude 1:2. (Compare Daniel 4:1.) It contains an exhortation to progress. There are some good things of which we cannot have too much.