This is Spoken Gospel.

We’re dedicated to seeing 
Jesus in all of scripture.

In each episode, we see what’s 
happening in a Biblical text

and how it sheds light
on Jesus and his gospel.

Let’s jump in.

Peter opens his letter with good news.

His Gentile audience that was once outside 
God’s people has now been chosen by God.

These strangers are adopted 
and reborn into God’s family.

But this salvation, guaranteed by Jesus 
and his sufferings, isn’t fully here yet.

For now, God’s chosen
people must wait in exile.

So, Peter tells his people to get ready.

Like Israel preparing to leave Egypt and 
enter their new home, these believers need to  

“gird their loins” as they 
march to their new country.

For Peter, this means both behaving a certain 
way and holding onto a Jesus-centered hope.

God’s people put aside the passions
and preferences of their old kingdom

and put on the holiness
demanded of God’s Kingdom.

Getting ready also means 
God’s people set their hopes  

fully on all the good news 
Jesus will bring to pass.

Both trusting King Jesus and acting like a citizen of God’s
Kingdom is how we prepare to enter our new country.

But the life of a foreigner 
is also a life of fear.

Not a fear of being persecuted or being
different (although that is a reality),

but a fear born of knowing that
citizenship in God’s Kingdom costs.

God’s people are not rescued with something trivial
like gold or silver, but by the precious blood of Jesus.

Israel walked out of Egypt only after they 
walked under doorposts painted with blood.

And on the way to their new home both Jews and
Gentiles must pass under the shadow of a bloody cross.

Citizens of God’s Kingdom are called
to sacrificially love like their Savior,  

and to put away the type of evil 
that nailed Jesus to the cross.

All believers must leave behind old behaviors in fear of
dishonoring what God has done for them—and
look forward to a different hope.

God has known “since forever ago”
that he would die to rescue his people.

In Jesus we know that God
has bent the timeline of eternity

and sacrificed his body 
for the benefit of his people. 

That’s our hope, and that’s also why we fear.
That’s why we must act like citizens of 
God’s Kingdom as we wait for his return.

[music]

Waiting in exile as a foreigner is hard.

Being alienated and persecuted for 
your allegiance to Jesus, even more so.

But Peter goes on to say that we have been born 
again by the undying and imperishable Word of God.

He quotes from the prophet
Isaiah who said God’s Word would

outlast the most powerful
nation of his day—Babylon.

And in Jesus it has! Neither Babylon nor 
Rome could stop God from keeping his Word.

From eternity past God has chosen a people to save 
by choosing his Son, the Word made Flesh, as King.

No country can stop God.

And Jesus’ resurrection has repatriated 
us into a Kingdom where death is dead.

By God’s Word and Son, we are
now imperishable and undying.

And that hope of being included
in an eternal Kingdom should

motivate us to act like that
Kingdom has already come. 

And then, in a very abrupt change of metaphor,
Peter tells us to act like babies craving milk.

Milk is what matures a child.

And Peter says that the way children 
of God mature into their citizenship  

is by continually craving the good 
news of what Jesus has done for us.

Jesus is like a breast-feeding mother, continually 
giving of himself for the sake of his children.

And like children, we grow when we go back, over 
and over and over, to the one who saves and provides.

Often, we think the way we leave behind
our old behaviors, and say no to our sin,

and hope in our coming resurrection is by scrunching 
up our faces, doing more, and trying harder.

But Peter says maturing as God’s 
child is as simple as drinking,  

eating, and trusting what 
God has done for us in Jesus.

So, may the Holy Spirit open your eyes to see 
the God who has chosen us to be his people.

And may you see Jesus as the one 
who saves us and makes us holy.