1 PETER 1:2
First Peter 1:2 shows us the working of the Divine Trinity. In this verse are the foreknowledge of God the Father, the sanctification of the Spirit, and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ [the Son]. The Father as the source foreknew us. Following the Father’s foreknowledge, the Spirit came to sanctify us. His sanctifying work was to separate us and bring us back to God. This is the aspect of the Holy Spirit’s sanctification before Christ’s redemption. Then there is the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son, indicating Christ’s redemption. The sanctification of the Spirit is divided into three stages. The first is for our repentance, the second is for our justification, and the third is for our transformation. In the book of Romans, Christ’s redemption is revealed first and then the Holy Spirit’s sanctification. But in 1 Peter 1:2 the sanctification of the Spirit is first, and then the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ follows this sanctification. This is why we need to see the different aspects and stages of the sanctification of the Spirit.
In Luke 15 the Lord Jesus told three parables. In the first parable, the good shepherd goes to find the lost sheep. The second parable is that of a woman seeking her lost coin. The third parable reveals a loving father receiving a returning prodigal son. These three parables reveal the Divine Trinity. The Son is the good shepherd, the Holy Spirit is the seeking woman, and God the Father is the loving and receiving father. In Luke 15 the seeking woman lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and seeks carefully until she finds her lost coin (vv. 8, 10, 17). This typifies the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. He enlightens us from within and searches out our sins one by one that we may know our sins and repent.
This sanctification of the Holy Spirit causes us to turn to the Lord and receive God’s full salvation. Before we received the Lord, we were living in the world with the worldly people. But one day the Spirit came to find us, to separate us unto God, even before we were redeemed. He sanctified us, separated us unto God, before we were forgiven of our sins and justified by God the Father. His sanctifying work separated us unto God so that we would come to ourselves (Luke 15:17), repent, and turn to God (Acts 26:20).
The seeking of the woman in Luke 15 typifies the initial sanctification of the Spirit which is the sanctification of the Spirit revealed in 1 Peter 1:2. Thus, we can see that 1 Peter 1:2 unveils the divine economy through the operation of the Trinity of the Godhead for the believers’ participation in the Triune God. God the Father’s selection is the initiation; God the Spirit’s sanctification carries out the selection of God the Father; and God the Son’s redemption, signified by the sprinkling of His blood, is the completion.
LUKE 1:35
Luke 1:35 is a verse concerning the divine conception of the Lord Jesus. In this divine conception, the Divine Trinity is revealed. Luke 1:35 shows the Holy Spirit’s coming upon Mary; the Most High, God the Father, overshadowing Mary; and the birth of the holy thing, the Son of God. Thus, the entire Divine Trinity was involved in the conception of the Man-Savior.
(Living In and With the Divine Trinity, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)
