<p>1:1 <i>Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those that have obtained the same precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God, and the Saviour Jesus </i><i>Christ</i>- Peter progresses in his humility from calling himself &quot;an apostle of Jesus&quot; (1 Pet. 1:1) to adding &quot;a servant and an apostle&quot;. Growing humility should characterize all spiritual growth. He saw faith as what was &quot;obtained&quot;; even faith is the gift of God in that some are called and others are not (Eph. 2:8; 2 Thess. 3:2). The Greek for &quot;obtained&quot; is the same word used for receiving a lot cast, when many other words could have been used. We sense in Peter at the end of his life a deep awareness that all is of grace, and we respond to that grace in faith, but thereby even faith is a gift, <i>charis</i>, grace of God. That faith is in the reality of righteousness imputed to us in Christ, on which basis we can be humbly confident of future salvation. If we do really believe it, we cannot be idle in this knowledge of Christ; it will elicit in us a response (:8 RV).</p>