“The incarnation was not a parenthesis. It was the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan and intra-trinitarian covenant (pactum salutis) in which God the Son agreed to be our substitute and the Father to give to his Son a people and the Holy Spirit to apply to that people all of Christ’s benefits.”
What is the central unifying narrative thread in the history of redemption? For many American evangelicals the default answer to this question is: national Israel. For them it is a mark of faithfulness to Scripture to assume that the central, unifying thread is God’s promise of and interest in a national, earthly people (Israel). In such a reading of redemptive history, even if such an outcome is not intended, the promise of the coming Savior, tends to be marginalized. When, in response to this understanding of redemptive history, it is proposed that there is another more fundamental unifying thread, one that was seen by the Fathers, the medieval theologians, the Reformers, and the orthodox Protestants who succeeded them, one response is that any reading of redemptive history that dislocates national Israel from the center of the history of salvation is guilty of “spiritualizing” (i.e., allegorizing).
The Apostle Peter, however, would have trouble. however, recognizing such a premise and conclusion. In this passage not only does he point us away from national Israel as the central concern of Scripture but he also points us to a way of reading Scripture and the history of salvation that leads us to quite different conclusions.
1 Peter 1:10–12
| 10περὶ ἧς σωτηρίας ἐξεζήτησαν καὶ ἐξηραύνησαν προφῆται οἱ περὶ τῆς εἰς ὑμᾶς χάριτος προφητεύσαντες, 11ἐραυνῶντες εἰς τίνα ἢ ποῖον καιρὸν ἐδήλου τὸ ἐν αὐτοῖς πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ προμαρτυρόμενον τὰ εἰς Χριστὸν παθήματα καὶ τὰς μετὰ ταῦτα δόξας. 12οἷς ἀπεκαλύφθη ὅτι οὐχ ἑαυτοῖς ὑμῖν δὲ διηκόνουν αὐτά, ἃ νῦν ἀνηγγέλη ὑμῖν διὰ τῶν εὐαγγελισαμένων ὑμᾶς [ἐν] πνεύματι ἁγίῳ ἀποσταλέντι ἀπ᾿ οὐρανοῦ, εἰς ἃ ἐπιθυμοῦσιν ἄγγελοι παρακύψαι. | 10Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look (ESV). |
v. 10: Looking For Salvation
Peter picks up on the main subject of the previous passage, salvation (σωτηρίας). I take this to a literal salvation from divine wrath—hence he wrote (v. 9) of “the salvation of your souls”—and not, as some might have it, a figurative salvation. This salvation as administered through the temporary, national (Israelite) people but, as it turns out, was not essentially about them. Rather, according to Peter, the central thread that unifies the history of redemption was that for which the prophets looking. Peter uses two verbs to characterize the intensity of their looking. The first verb (ἐξεζήτησαν) occurs 7 times in the New Testament and it most often refers to those who are seeking the Lord (e.g., Acts 15:7; Heb 11:6). The second verb (ἐξηραύνησαν) occurs only once in the NT but is related to the verb “to ask.”
v. 11: Where?
First we should note that it was divinely authorized prophets who were conducting this enquiry. By the analogy of Scripture we know from our Lord in John 8:56 that Abraham was looking forward to Jesus’ day. Our Lord teaches us in Luke 24 that all the typological Scriptures (i.e., the Hebrew and Aramaic) point to and are fulfilled by Christ. The Apostle Paul says at all the promises find their “yes and amen” in Christ (2 Cor 1:20). Indeed, our Lord’s life was the fulfillment of prophecy (Matt 1:22; 2:5, 15,17, 233:3; 4;14; 8:17; 12:17; 13:35; 21;4; 26:56; 27:9; John 12:38; Acts 2:30; 3:18; 3:21–25;10:43; 26:22; 28:23; Rom 1:2; 16:26; Eph 3:5; Heb 1:1,2).
For what or for whom were they searching? Peter says that the Holy Spirit was revealing through them the “sufferings (παθήματα) of Christ and his resurrection and ascension into glory.
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