1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Commentary
There is an approprate way for one to respond to God’s working through time and history applied to the individual self. Peter’s introductory prayer is to praise God the father for the work of salvation for believers. The God Peter has in view is YHWH who created heaven and earth and all that is in them, created Adam and Eve and blessed their decendents, flooded the world in Judgement, called Abraham into the promised land, rescued Israel from Egypt, covenented with the fledgeling nation, established David as king, and wrought salvation through the work of David’s son Jesus to rescue sinners from God’s wrath. The entirety of the Old Testament reveals the God whom Peter worships. However, the Old Testament while gving true information about God sees its grand fulfillment in the revelation of His Son.
As the Father, the relationship between the first two members of the trinity is established. God’s fatherhood is not that of physical generation as though the son did not always exist. Rather, the son’s responsiblity in the plan of salvation is to take on a human body and live among men for the purpose of death, so that he might become an atoning sacrifice for men’s sin.
In this blessing passage from verses 3-5, there is no primary verb but there are several participles which help emphasize the action for which God is to be commented. The first in this verse is that God has caused believers to be be born again. The “born again” terminology is common among Christians, but it bears repeating what this means. Nicodemas comes to Jesus at night in John 3 recognizing that Jesus is unique among people and that God shurely must be with him. While seeming to ignore the comment, Jesus asserts to Nicodemas a truth that he should aleady know and understand; that one must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. Jesus futher elabors in light of Nicodemas’ apparent inability to comprehend this cocept, by using both examples and a concrete explaination. Just as one knows that wind is blowing but does not know where it originated from, spiritual life comes from God but is not something that can be verified in the physical realm. Spiritual birth is not a function of ones own will but that of God regenerating and creating new spritiual life within a person. Peter also emphasises this aspect here by stating that it is by God’s geat mercy that he regenerates a person.
Mercy, and it’s related word group grace, speak to various components of God’s working. First mercy involves the compassion of the mercy given in rescusing one that has no capacity for them to rescue themselves. Mercy is also the aspect of God’s love whereby he does not give the full pentaly of the consequences deserved by the sinner. This is only possible when there is an appropriate substitute.
Making a new spiritual life is not without a cost. Sin still needs to be dealt with in a final and ultimate way. Peter already brought in the imagry of the sprinkling of blood from the atonment sacrifice to remind the reader that there is a cost to offending the infinite and holy God. This cost was paid by Christ in his death and his resurrection from the dead.
Peter’s hope is not found in anything in this world but on a living hope. This hope is gounded on the reality of Christ’s resurrection from the dead and forms the foundation for the believers eventual resurrection from the dead. It is not the believers hope to suffer in this life and then to experience nothing afterward. For those without Christ to believe the lie of annialiation is a false comfort for all must stand before the judge of the universe. However, for those in Christ, it is a joyful comfort that one’s sins are forgiven and that they rest in Christ’s work.
Conclusion
The work and provision of Christ is incredible and the Christian who recognizes the depths from which salvation comes stands in awe of God’s wisdom, power, and might. The proper response truly is to bless the Lord and praise his name forever.