1 Peter 1:20 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

God's eternal foreordination of Christ's redeeming sacrifice, and completion of it in these last times for us, are an additional obligation to our maintaining a holy walk. Peter's language in the history corresponds (Acts 2:23), "foreknowledge:" here, literally, "foreknown:" an undesigned coincidence and mark of genuineness. Redemption was no after-thought remedy of an unforeseen evil. God's foreordaining of the Redeemer refutes the slander that, on the Christian theory, there are 4,000 years of nothing but an incensed God. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).

Manifest - in the fullness of the time. He existed from eternity before.

In these last times (1 Corinthians 10:11). This last dispensation, made up of "times" marked by great changes, still retaining a general unity, stretches from Christ's ascension to His coming to judgment.

1 Peter 1:20

20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,