Reflections on the First Chapter of First Peter

Here is what the apostle Peter said in I Peter 1:11-12:

"Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into."

According to these verses, the purpose of the prophecies was for us, the saints who are alive after the resurrection of Christ. Now, the prophets themselves must have had some understanding of “the things, which are now reported unto you,” such as “the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.” However, their understanding was incomplete: we as New Testament saints can now look back and have a more complete understanding of the events of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection.

I think this principle applies to a lot of the Old Testament. Just as we can not fully understand Christ’s redemptive work from Old Testament prophecies alone, there are many things in the Old Testament that we can not understand from the perspective of the Old Testament alone. Take the Law for example.

As Paul says in Romans 3:20, “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.” This confused many people in the Old Testament, for they thought that the purpose of the Law was to lead to salvation. However, there was still an understanding among Old Testament saints that salvation was not by the Law, but by grace (for example, David speaks of salvation by grace in Psalms 32:1-2, which is also quoted by Paul in Romans 4: 7-8). But, the full application of justification by grace was not understood. This confusion carried over into the early Church, where there were disputes as to what parts of the Law the Gentiles must follow (which was addressed by the council at Jerusalem in Acts 15). Here is what Paul had to say about one part of the Law:

"For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, they circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumsicion be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, it if fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?" (Romans 2:25-27)

Apparently, circumcision has no significance, it is keeping of the righteousness of the Law this is significant (Paul does say in I Cor. 7:19 that “circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God”).

Now, would an Old Testament saint know that circumcision is of no account to God? Maybe not. As pointed out before, they did have an understanding that salvation was through grace, not works, but considering that circumcision was an issue that was disputed among the early Church (and came to a head in the council at Jerusalem), there was some error in the thinking on circumcision. The same would apply to other aspects of the Law, such as eating unclean versus clean animals, keeping holidays and feasts, and other issues dealt with by the apostles in the Epistles. However, we have the New Testament to clarify and explain what is the significance of the Law to New Testament saints.

The purpose of this discussion is not to say that the Law is outdated or old, but the purpose of this discussion is to highlight that the Law (and the Old Testament as a whole, for that matter) is merely the beginning of God’s plan. That plan was completed and fulfilled in Christ’s death and resurrection, and now, looking back, we can have an understanding of what the whole plan looks like and better understand the various parts of the plan. Again, as Peter said, to the prophets “it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel.”