Christ Covenant Church

Because of man’s free-will, God knew before He created there was a chance mankind could rebel and so (“according to His foreknowledge”) put in place a plan to graciously give those who were repentant and seeking Him: 1) a new identity – i.e. to choose (“elect”) them to become “exiles” on earth and have heaven as their new home (exile [def.] a person who has is no longer welcomed in their place of origin) (1:1), 2) a new purpose – i.e. to set them apart from the world as those living in obedience to and receiving forgiveness from His Son (“Jesus Christ”) (1:2, See also 1:19-20 – Notice, forgiveness thru the sending and sacrifice of Jesus was a part of God’s pre-Creation contingency plan [“He was foreknown before the foundation of the world”]). The components of the gospel that are the same in the New Testament as they were in the Old Testament are: 1) the paradigm of maintaining what you gain through faithfulness in testing and loyalty through time (1:2a w/Exo 24:7-8; 1:5-[7]-9 “pistis” = faithfulness), 2) the