Now we come to the obedience and sprinkling of the blood. The obedience of the blood and the sprinkling of the blood are Jewish, Old Testament, dispensational matters. The use of these terms in 1:2 implies and indicates that in Peter’s writings the dispensation has changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament. In the Old Testament God gave Moses commandments concerning the law and concerning the blood of animals, a type of the blood of Christ shed for our redemption. Thus, all the Jews, according to the Old Testament economy of God, believed in the law and in the sprinkling of the blood of the animals used for sacrifices. On the day of Atonement in particular, the Israelites put their trust in this blood. In other words, they obeyed the law and the blood. The law and the blood were basic elements of their religion. Judaism is composed mainly of the law and the blood of atonement.
With the coming of Christ, the New Testament economy began. The Lord Jesus came to replace the law, and His blood fulfills the type of the animal blood and replaces it. The components of the New Testament economy, therefore, are the Person of Christ and the blood of Christ. For this reason, the Lord sent the apostles to proclaim that the dispensation of law is over and that we need to believe in Christ. They were also to declare that no longer was there the need for the sprinkling of the blood of animals, for the prevailing blood is the blood of Jesus Christ. Now we need to obey the faith in Christ and also obey Jesus’ blood.
First Peter 1:2 indicates a change in dispensation. The old dispensation had the blood of animals; the new dispensation has the blood of Jesus Christ. Thus, we must obey this blood. In verse 2 Peter seems to be saying, “Formerly you accepted the blood of animals and obeyed it. Now God commands you to accept the blood of Christ.” This is what Peter means by the expression “the obedience of the blood.”
Whereas Peter speaks of the obedience of the blood, Paul refers to the obedience of faith. In Romans 1:5 he says, “We received grace and apostleship unto obedience of faith among all the nations on behalf of His name.” He speaks of the obedience of faith again in the last chapter of Romans: “But now has been manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the command of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations unto obedience of faith” (Rom. 16:26).
Peter realized that it was by the working of the Holy Spirit that the Jews who believed in animal blood could turn their belief to the blood of Christ. In this way they received the blood of Christ and obeyed it. This is what Peter means by the obedience of the blood.
In 1:2 Peter also speaks of the sprinkling of the blood. The Old Testament was established through the sprinkling of animal blood (Exo. 24:8). Concerning this, Hebrews 9:18-20 says, “Wherefore neither was the first covenant dedicated without blood. For when every commandment according to the law had been spoken by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded to you.” Furthermore, according to the book of Hebrews, the blood of Christ with which we are sprinkled has been brought into the heavens to purify the things in the heavens. Hebrews 9:12 says, “Nor through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having found an eternal redemption.” In Hebrews 9:23 we see that the blood of Christ purified the heavenly things: “It was necessary therefore for the examples of the things in the heavens to be purified by these, but the heavenly things themselves by better sacrifices than these.” I mention this to point out that the expression “the sprinkling of the blood” is a dispensational term, an Old Testament practice referred to by Peter and also by Paul. Peter’s word in 1:2 indicates that today is no longer the dispensation of the sprinkling of animal blood. That was the Old Testament dispensation. Today is the dispensation of the sprinkling of the blood of a living Person, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Hence, Peter’s word regarding the sprinkling of the blood in 1:2 is an indication that the dispensation has been changed from that of animal blood to that of the blood of a living Person.