April 25

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. — 1 Pet 1:2 BSB

Peter declares that we are “elect unto obedience.” Many are eager to hear about election to eternal life, salvation, and the sprinkling of Christ’s blood. These truths are indeed sweet and precious. But do we find the same delight in being chosen and ordained to know and do God’s will? Do we see the blessing in being ordained to obedience, as well as to the promises of salvation? There is a constraining power in the love of Christ that gives us a holy joy in no longer living for ourselves, but for Him who died and rose again for us. This joy is similar in kind, though not in degree, to the joy of knowing we are chosen for eternal life.

Without obedience, without the fruit of good works, half the sweetness and blessedness of real religion, and of salvation by grace, is neither felt nor known. The liberty of the gospel is fully realized only when it is both obeyed and believed. When we live out the gospel, doing God’s will even in suffering, we experience its full sanctifying and liberating power, making the narrow and rugged path a place of sweetness.