BIG IDEA:
3. Our Guaranteed Future (which we are already experiencing to some
extent) Is Worth Waiting For (:10-12)
INTRODUCTION:
Scot McKnight: Peter contends that this salvation, which the Asian Christians have enjoyed and for which they earnestly hope, is the very salvation that the ancient prophets (cf. Matt. 13:17) were seeking in all its details but never found. Peter’s ultimate point is to demonstrate the privilege of enjoying salvation in his era, the privilege of living in the “A.D.” rather than the “B.C.” era.
No matter how intense their search or profound their vision, Peter insists that these prophets, like John the Baptist after them, only served a preliminary role in the plan of God (1:12). They were preparing the world and God’s people for a later time—and that later time is now (cf. 2:10, 21, 24, 25; 3:6, 9) for Peter. This is the great privilege of the church age: the enjoyment of the inauguration of God’s salvation in Christ. It is so great that even the angels are looking down to gain a view, like wedding attendees attempting to steal a glance at the bride before her appearance. The angels are brought in here, not to invite us to speculate about their activities, but to press on our minds the privileges of salvation; neither the prophets nor the angels experience what the church assumes and enjoys.
John MacArthur: Peter’s theme in the opening chapter of this letter is the blessedness or greatness of salvation. Here he examines it from the viewpoint of four divine agents who were involved with the message of salvation: the Old Testament prophets who studied it, the Holy Spirit who inspired it, the New Testament apostles who preached it, and the angels who examined it.
Erland Waltner: Chiastic Structure
a Inquiries of prophets in the past
b Divine revelation to prophets in the past
b’ Divine announcement to Christians in the present
a’ Inquiries of angels in the present
I. (:10-11) OT PROPHETS
As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, 11 seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.
Louis Barbieri: Thus we understand that the Old Testament prophets did not construct their prophecies through their own wisdom and intelligence. Rather, they were led by the Spirit of God. They realized the importance of what they were writing, but they did not always fully understand when all these things would come to pass. This passage clearly points out the work of the Holy Spirit in the inspiration of sacred Scripture. This ministry of the Holy Spirit is discussed also in Peter’s second letter (2 Peter 1:20–21).
John MacArthur: Though the Old Testament prophets knew that their writings described a future manifestation of salvation grace, their desire to understand those prophecies was still so compelling and pervasive that they made careful searches and inquiries into their own writings. Those two terms emphasize the intensity with which the prophets had delved into their prophecies and the diligence with which they had investigated them to better understand the magnitude of salvation grace.
As Jesus told His disciples, “For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it” (Matt. 13:17; cf. Isa. 6:11; Hab. 1:2). Because the Old Testament prophets, including the last one, John the Baptist, were limited, they were all the more intent on studying their own writings to see the Messiah and comprehend the salvation He would bring.
Still the prophecies had immense value (cf. Luke 1:70; Acts 3:18; 1 Thess. 5:20; 2 Peter 1:19), though their fulfillment was not for the Old Testament prophets to witness. They instead looked ahead to a time when Messiah’s saving work would embrace believers from all nations in new covenant blessings (Pss. 22:27–28; 72:8–17; cf. Isa. 42:6; 60:1–3; 62:1–3, 11–12; 66:12–13). They lived in hope, just as Christians do who anticipate their Lord’s Second Coming. Old Testament saints were saved by faith in God based on the fact that Messiah Jesus would in the future bear the full judgment of God for their sins (Isa. 53:4–6). God was always applying the new covenant, always by grace offering forgiveness of sins to those who repented and believed, although the new covenant was not ratified until the cross. Old Testament believers were saved by a future grace, New Testament ones by a past grace—the Cross is the pinnacle of redemption.
Peter Davids: This salvation, however, is not simply a product of Christian experience, but the fulfillment of an expectation of pre-Christian Judaism, as far as Peter is concerned. The prophets are surely the OT prophets, for they stand in contrast to the “you” of this early congregation. Peter, like others in the early church, saw as the greatest importance of the prophets not their rebukes of the errors of their day (which make up the major portion of their oracles), but their predictions of a future day of salvation or deliverance. It was the firm conviction of the church that this future had become a present reality in the coming of Jesus, his resurrection, and the outpouring of the Spirit, as one can see in the citing of the OT as a basis for such belief in all four Gospels (e.g., Matt. 13:16-17; Luke 10:23-24), in Acts (e.g., Acts 2), in Paul (e.g., Rom. 4:7-8; 1 Cor. 9:10; 10:11), and in Hebrews (e.g., Heb. 1–2), not to say 1 Peter. Since the prophets obviously preceded the period of fulfillment, they must (in the view of our author and likely in reality as well) have meditated on their own oracles, that is, “investigated and searched diligently,” for without the fulfillment they were surely unclear about the meaning of their own visions (cf. 1 Macc. 9:26 for an example of what this meant for some Jews), hoping that the day of salvation (however they understood it) would dawn in their own age.
But the prophets were not speaking about their own age in this regard, for their oracles concerned “the grace that [has come] to you.” Peter stresses that, far from being underprivileged, Christians have received special favor from God. The prophets spoke indeed of grace, of salvation, but the deliverance prophesied did not belong to them but to the Christians reading this letter. However much these readers may be suffering, they stand in a position that even the greatest of the ancient prophets did not have.
The data the prophets lacked in particular were time (“what time”) and context (“what manner of time”), which were needed to give full understanding of their words, for communication has meaning only in context.
Daniel Doriani: Peter stresses the content of God’s work and message, which he summarizes as “the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1 Peter 1:11). Peter returns to the suffering and glory of Christ in 2:21–24; 4:13; 5:1; and 5:9. Of course, the Gospels also describe Jesus’ birth, teachings, encounters, travels, and miracles. But the suffering and glory, especially the death and resurrection, of Christ are central to his work and to our relationship with him. Peter commands believers to “rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed” (4:13). In his suffering on the cross, Jesus bore our sin and offered us forgiveness (2:20–25; Luke 24:25–27, 45–47). “He suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (Heb. 2:9). Further, Peter’s churches were in travail and needed to identify with Christ in his suffering. If they did so, they could endure and so share in his glory. We must stand “firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast” (1 Peter 5:9–10).
David Walls: In their searching for more, they discovered that Jesus would first of all suffer and only then would glory follow. The pattern seen in the life of Christ is, in fact, the pattern of our lives. Our suffering is not a sign that Christ has betrayed us, or that he is no longer concerned about us, or that he has abdicated his throne. Our suffering is a sign of our fellowship with the resurrected Lord, who first suffered for us. Suffering, in some respects, becomes a sign of the glory that is to follow in our lives when we enter the presence of Christ in heaven.
II. (:12a) NT PROCLAIMERS
It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven–
Thomas Schreiner: The same Spirit that inspired the prophets also speaks authoritatively (v. 12) through the gospel. Peter points to the work of the Spirit in predicting Christ’s death and resurrection, showing that the Spirit’s ministry centers on Jesus Christ, which fits with what we see elsewhere in the NT. The Spirit glorifies and calls attention to Christ (John 16:14). Christ’s death and resurrection are a staple of NT preaching. Peter’s point, of course, is that the prophets predicted these matters but did not know when they would be fulfilled, hoping upon hope that they would be fulfilled in their days.
Old Testament prophets longed to see and experience the fulfillment of what they prophesied. But God “revealed” (apekalyphthē, it is a divine passive) to them that their ministry of prophecy and foretelling would not be realized in their day. Their ministry was not ultimately directed to themselves or their own generation but to Petrine readers and to all those who live on the other side of the death and resurrection of Christ. In other words, the OT prophecies not only apply to Peter’s readers but were intended for them. Further, Peter “claims not only that the Old Testament prophets were ministering ultimately to believers in the eschaton, but that the prophets knew it by revelation.” What the prophets foretold has “now (nun) been announced” to believers through those who proclaimed the gospel. A distinction is drawn between the prophets who anticipated and predicted the coming of the gospel and those who have now actually proclaimed the fulfillment of the gospel to the believers in Asia Minor. Both are inspired by the Spirit. Saying that the Spirit is “sent from heaven” signifies that the Spirit is a transcendent gift, one that comes from God himself.
III. (:12b) CURIOUS ANGELS
things into which angels long to look.
Peter Davids: The sense of privilege that the readers should have of actually living in the time of fulfillment that the prophets longed to experience is underlined by mentioning “which things angels desire to look into.” Apart from Heb. 1–2, angels are rarely mentioned in the NT epistles, but the Jews knew of the great archangels watching the earth (e.g., 1 Enoch 9:1, which uses the same verb in its Greek version). The sense is not one of idle curiosity but of a longing to see the fulfillment of God’s promises. Great as they are, it was not to them or for them that the fulfillment came. Instead, the day of salvation dawned on these Christians in a way not even revealed to the angels (cf. Mark 13:32—even the Son does not know the time of the final consummation), just as the revelation in Christ was greater than any divine communication given through angels (Heb. 2:16). Although suffering, these believers are a privileged people
Erland Waltner: The verb to look, used to describe the intensity of the interest of the angels, means “to bend over,” “to be looking or peering into something.” It suggests curiosity about something hidden or interest in seeing something spectacular. The concept that angels take interest in human affairs is also reflected in the words of Jesus in Luke 15:7, 10: the angels rejoice over a sinner who repents (Hiebert: 71). Peter’s concern is not to emphasize either the activity or the authority of angels. The focus is rather “on their intense interest in what has taken place and on the limitations of their power and knowledge” (Michaels: 49).
This implies that the significance of Christian redemption indeed goes beyond the realm of human beings. This may also be implicit in 3:19, and is explicit in 3:22, where Peter further speaks of angels, authorities, and powers. The Christian hope made possible through Jesus Christ touches the realm of heaven, the trans-human world as well as human history. This invests the experience of Christians in Asia Minor with extraordinary significance and helps give their suffering transcendent meaning. Peter wants them to know that they have certain advantages beyond those of the OT prophets and even beyond those of angels.
John MacArthur: The holy angels will join the song of redemption even though they have not experienced salvation. They have been witnesses to the greatness of God’s salvation, and they long to look further into it so they might praise and glorify Him more.
No matter how difficult life’s trials are, Christians can face them triumphantly because of the greatness of God’s grace in giving them a salvation the prophets studied, the Holy Spirit inspired, the apostles preached, and the angels continue to investigate.
John Piper: If angels get excited about our salvation, how much more should we. If angels love to look at the work of God in saving sinners like us, how much more should we who are the very beneficiaries of that salvation (not just onlookers) love to look into it and be thankful for it and say with Peter, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”