Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. ~ 1 Peter 1:3
Today, we return to our study of 1 Peter 1. According to today's verse, it is by God's great mercy that we are born again. Our old life was so tainted and wretched, God had to perform a new creation in us. A better translation of the phrase "born again" is "to be born from above." When we were born this second time we were given by God a spiritual birth. As time goes by we recognize that this new birth from above is a transformation that occurred on the inside of us and works its way out. And so Peter uses that term here, begotten again, transformed from the inside out.
Our old life could not be transformed. So, out of the hopelessness of our old
lives, God brought into being a new life, which Peter describes here as a new birth. Interestingly, many understand incorrectly that Christianity is about changing the old ourselves. This is not so. God, as a result of us believing in His Son, has given us a new birth which is the introduction of Himself into out dead spirit. This was promised to Abraham so long ago in the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 12. According to Galatians 3:14, the Holy Spirit was the ultimate promise that God made to Abraham. This is why the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, "You must be born again." Becoming "born again" to God is something that God does in our lives once we have come to faith in His Son as our Savior. Our "born again" status is not something that we do to and for ourselves; it is a gift that the believer in God receives from God.
Most Christians fail to recognize there is no way for our old lives can be transformed. In fact, when we try to change our old selves and are to some degree successful at it, we become more moral beings. But, morality and spirituality are not one in the same. In fact, we waste our time trying to "moralize" ourselves. No, the answer is dying to the old life and yielding to God's transformative work in our spirit. Our new birth is our living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. When the Lord Jesus rose from the grave, He whipped sin and death. He, at that moment, made it possible for us to receive His life into ours and then to live a new life which renders the life everyone on this earth is seeking.
The Apostle Peter refers to our hope as a "living hope" because it is the very life of the Lord Jesus that has come to bear on our existence from the inside out. It is His life that is our living hope. As He lives His life in, to, and through us, we experience eternal life. This kind of life enables us to love when we want to hurt. It enables us to forgive when we want to get revenge. And, in so doing, we become the people that we want those who hurt us to be. His mercy defines us as we experience His life. If we embrace the way of the old life, we will be defined by it with all of its smelly grave clothes. This new life is the life that Jeremiah speaks of in Jeremiah 31:33 which reads, "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
Most Christians fail to recognize there is no way for our old lives can be transformed. In fact, when we try to change our old selves and are to some degree successful at it, we become more moral beings. But, morality and spirituality are not one in the same. In fact, we waste our time trying to "moralize" ourselves. No, the answer is dying to the old life and yielding to God's transformative work in our spirit. Our new birth is our living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. When the Lord Jesus rose from the grave, He whipped sin and death. He, at that moment, made it possible for us to receive His life into ours and then to live a new life which renders the life everyone on this earth is seeking.
The Apostle Peter refers to our hope as a "living hope" because it is the very life of the Lord Jesus that has come to bear on our existence from the inside out. It is His life that is our living hope. As He lives His life in, to, and through us, we experience eternal life. This kind of life enables us to love when we want to hurt. It enables us to forgive when we want to get revenge. And, in so doing, we become the people that we want those who hurt us to be. His mercy defines us as we experience His life. If we embrace the way of the old life, we will be defined by it with all of its smelly grave clothes. This new life is the life that Jeremiah speaks of in Jeremiah 31:33 which reads, "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
The Greek word the Apostle Peter used in today's verse for "hope" describes "an eager and confident expectation." One translation translates the word as "a hope that lives on and on." Unlike the empty, dead hope of this world, this "living hope" is energizing, alive, and active in the soul of the believer. This is due to the fact that we have a living and resurrected Savior. Our living hope is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
The last phrase of today's verse is quite instructive. It reads, "Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Pivotal to this "living hope" is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. The willing are granted a personal relationship with God because God, the Judge, became a man and lived the perfect life on our behalf, and then died on our behalf. He took our death sentence upon Himself to satisfy His own justice. And then, He was raised on our behalf. In His resurrection, we have resurrection. Because He was raised, we will be raised. Because He lives, we live.
The Apostle Peter was a fiercely loyal follower of the Lord Jesus. He was the only one of the twelve who made this promise to Him, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And, in just a few short hours later, he called down curses on himself as he denied ever knowing the Lord Jesus not once but three times. Peter's denials proved he wasn’t as strong as he claimed to be. Years later, Peter wrote today's verse. Peter and John had run to the tomb on Easter morning after the women reported that it was empty. Later that day, Peter saw the Lord Jesus alive, and his fear, grief, and despair turned to hope. This was a new kind of hope, the type of hope that renders the new life God promised Abraham so long ago. This new hope is now our living hope. And, this new hope is the type of life that renders a prison cell into a place of rejoicing.
