Fourth Dimension

Albert Einstein explained that we should always think in four dimensions: length, width, height, and time. Based on that, he formed the space-time theories, including the theory of relativity with mass (including length, width, and height) and time: Energy (E) equals mass (m) times the speed of light (c) squared.

The Scriptures often portray salvation in the past, present, and future time elements. YHWH said:

“I have seen the misery of my people and heard their cry [past] . . . I have come down to rescue them [present] . . . to bring them into a good and fertile land, flogging with milk and honey [future].” (Exod 3:7)

This formula of God planning something based on a situation [past], doing an action [present], and delivering his people [future] repeats thought out the scriptures. Concerning Jesus, Peter said,

“God handed this man to you according to his pre-plan [pro-gnosis, past]; you killed him by nailing him to the cross with the help of wicked people [present]; but God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death [future].” (Acts 2:23–24)

As he wrote to the Hebrew Christians in the diaspora, Peter repeated these time units:

“Chosen . . . according to pre-plan (pro-gnosis) of God the Father [past], in the holiness of the Spirit [present], for the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ [future].” (1 Pet 1:2a)

Peter’s greeting is, as my Singaporean friends say, “same same but different” from Paul’s. The similarities lie in how God the Father did the preplanning, Jesus Christ did what’s required for procuring salvation, and Spirit sanctified, i.e., made his people holy and set apart. The differences lie in the vocabulary, concept, and order.

Vocabulary: Peter alone used the word “pre-plan” (pro-gnosis) in the New Testament. Although Paul spoke of foreknowledge, he used another word: pro-orízo (Rom 8:29; 1 Cor 2:7; Eph 1:5). Orízo means to appoint something ahead of time, and gnosis means to plan something ahead of time. With God, what he plans, he fulfills it. As such, these verbs have the same meaning of preplanning and accomplishing something. But Peter and Paul chose two different verbs to portray it.

Concept: Peter and the writer of Hebrews alone use “sprinkling” (rantismos) for Jesus’s blood sprinkled on the people (1 Pet 1:2; Heb 12:24). Since Peter’s audience were Hebrews, they would have known the significance. When Aaron and his sons were appointed as the high priest and priests, Moses took blood from the altar, mixed it with oil, and sprinkled it on Aaron, his sons, and their garments to consecrate them (Exod 29:21). When a leper was healed, blood was sprinkled on that person to pronounce his/her cleanliness (Lev 14:7). Sprinkling blood on people declared them as purified. Peter’s audience was similarly declared purified or cleansed by Jesus’s blood sprinkled on them. Such purification enabled them to obey Jesus Christ.

Order: Immersed in Paul’s theology, we think of Jesus’s work preceding Spirit’s work, justification (someone set as just) before sanctification (someone living as just). God’s work isn’t that mechanical or wooden. With Peter’s audience, Spirit started his sanctifying process so that they might obey Jesus and be sprinkled with his blood. Spirit does the pre-work.

God the Father, Jesus, and Spirit were working to bring salvation to the Hebrews in the diaspora. The same is true of us, the Gentiles: Father, Son, and Spirit purify us daily so that we will wholeheartedly obey the Lord Jesus.