1 Peter 1:3,4

‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that does not fade not away, reserved in heaven for you,'

We should note here Who it is Who has wrought for us, it is ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ'. And we should note what He has wrought. ‘He has begotten us again to a living hope' (note the emphasis on ‘living'). And we should further note the means by which He has wrought this, ‘by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead', and what the result is for us, ‘to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that does not fade away', an inheritance as sure and eternal as His own resurrection life.

· ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ.' Note the stress on the fact that God is uniquely the Father of ‘our Lord, Jesus Christ'. This contrast between God's eternal Fatherhood of His Son (He is the Father of His Son - 1 Peter 1:3 a), and His fatherhood of His people (He has begotten us - 1 Peter 1:3 b), comes out constantly throughout the New Testament. The ‘God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ' parallels Jesus description of Himself as uniquely ‘the Son' in relation to ‘the Father' (Matthew 11:27; Mark 13:32; Luke 10:22 and regularly throughout John, see e.g. John 5:17). Jesus never spoke of ‘our Father', with ‘our' including Himself, but always of ‘My Father and your Father' (John 20:17). Note also in Matthew's Gospel how in the first part Jesus speaks regularly of God as ‘your Father' while in the second part He speaks regularly of ‘My Father'. The disciples were to pray ‘our Father', but Jesus never did so Himself. Having made them aware that as believers God was their Father in Heaven, He also wanted them as they advanced in their awareness to recognise His own unique status and relationship with God

‘Our Lord Jesus Christ.' In this description is summed up what He is to us. He is ‘our Lord', sovereign over our lives, God of our worship, supreme over all things, the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:8; James 2:1). ‘Lord' was a regular Gentile title for deity, and in the Septuagint is used to translate the Name of God. As Lord He is closely associated with the Father.

But as ‘Je-sus' (Yah is salvation) He is closely associated with us. He is God made man for our salvation (compare Matthew 1:21; Matthew 1:23), our Elder Brother as the Trek Leader of our salvation (Hebrews 2:11), the One Who humbled Himself and became man on our behalf (Philippians 2:6), the One Who was tempted in all points in the same way as we are, and yet without sin, with the result that He is therefore able to succour us in our own temptations (Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 2:18). Furthermore He is ‘the Christ', the ‘Anointed One', God's promised One, Whose coming was prepared for from the beginning (Genesis 3:15; Genesis 49:10; Num 24:17; 2 Samuel 7:16; Psalms 2:2; Psalms 2:6; Psalms 110:1; Isaiah 9:5; Isaiah 11:1; Ezekiel 37:24; Daniel 9:25; Micah 5:2). No wonder then that he blesses God for giving us His Son.

· ‘Who according to His great mercy.' All is of the great mercy of God, His great compassion and goodness revealed towards the undeserving. Compare for the sentiment expressed here the parallel thought in Ephesians 2:4, ‘God being rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us -- made us alive together with Christ'. We are reminded by the reference to His ‘great mercy' of the words of the hymnwriter, ‘depths of mercy can there be, mercy still reserved for me'. Can God really stoop to such as we? And we know that amazingly the answer expected is ‘yes'. This concept of God's continuing great mercy pervades both the Old and the New Testament (e.g. Exodus 20:6; Exodus 34:7; Numbers 14:18; Deuteronomy 5:7; Deuteronomy 10:9; and often).

· ‘Has begotten us again to a living hope.' Through Him we have been ‘begotten again' by God (see 1 Peter 1:23; John 1:12; John 3:1; James 1:18; 1 John 3:1; 1 John 4:7; 1 John 5:18; and compare the verb used in Isaiah 57:10). We have been born of the Spirit (John 3:1). Having originally given us life as the Creator, God has now imparted to us spiritual life through sanctification in the Spirit, and we have thus become ‘partakers of His divine life' (see 2 Peter 2:4; Ephesians 2:4; Romans 6:23). We have been made His special children (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1; Romans 8:14) with the expectant and sure hope of eternal life, an eternal life which we already enjoy in a very real sense in the present (2 Peter 2:4; Joh 5:24; 1 John 5:11; Matthew 19:29; Matthew 25:46; Mark 10:30; Romans 5:21; Titus 1:2; Titus 3:7), but will enjoy even more fully in the eternal future. As a result the life of God flows within our spiritual veins, and is the guarantee that we will share eternity with Him.

It should be noted that by this stress on the new birth as a central theme in his letter Peter could be seen as being closer to John's theology than to Paul's. This is not a ‘confirmed Paulinist' speaking, even though he shares many ideas with Paul (as we would expect of Peter, who, as Paul confirms, expressed agreement with his teaching - Galatians 2:2; Galatians 2:6). He is one who like John had learned from the Master Himself, see Matthew 19:29; Matthew 25:46; John 3:15; John 5:24; John 5:39; John 6:54; John 6:68; John 10:10; John 17:3. We can consider how this emphasis on new birth echoes Peter's own words to Jesus in John 6:68, ‘You have the words of eternal life'. The thought is typically Petrine.

Compare also 2 Peter 2:4 where he speaks of our being ‘partakers of the divine nature'. While Paul certainly taught the hope of eternal life (Romans 5:21; Romans 6:23; Titus 1:2; Titus 3:7), and believed in ‘regeneration' (Titus 3:5), he tended to bring the idea out in a different way in terms of new creation (e.g. 2 Corinthians 5:17), and of being united with Jesus in His resurrection (Romans 6:4 and regularly). In fact, of course, all of them were interpreting the ideas of Jesus Himself (John 3:1), while giving them their own slant.

‘Who has begotten us again to a living hope.' Believers are each begotten of God in certain hope of the resurrection. In God's eyes we are ‘new-born babes' (1 Peter 2:2). But there may also be included here the idea that we are also begotten as one whole (His church). Just as Israel of old was ‘My son, My firstborn' as God began His work of redeeming them from Egypt (Exodus 4:22), but were also individually ‘the children of the LORD your God' (Deuteronomy 14:1), so in the same way all who believe and thereby become members of His true church are begotten by Him as one whole, and yet are also each begotten individually (1 Peter 2:2; John 1:12; John 3:1). Thus the ‘begotten AGAIN' may signify that this is the Exodus experience being repeated (see Isaiah 66:8; Ezekiel 37; and compare Matthew 21:43). Originally Israel in Egypt were begotten as His firstborn son. But they had gone from Him. Now in the church through the resurrection Israel are ‘begotten again'.

Alternately the ‘again' may refer to the fact that each of us has first been born as a human being, and are now secondly born as believers as children of God through the Spirit (John 1:12; John 3:1; James 1:18), by being made partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Either way the individual aspect must certainly not be lost sight of. We are each of us a ‘new-born babe' (1 Peter 2:2). But nor must the corporate aspect be lost. We are built together into one spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5). That is why we must love one another fervently (1 Peter 1:22).

‘A living hope.' That is, a certain and sure hope that springs from His life as the source of all life. It is a life-giving, life-guaranteeing hope of eternal life obtained through Him by means of His resurrection life. These words would have special significance for Peter as he remembered back to the disciples' black despair when Jesus was crucified, and the glorious hope and joy that followed as a result of His resurrection. It is a promise of life out of the darkness of death.

· ‘By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.' Our certainty and hope lie in the resurrection of our Messiah Jesus (Acts 2:33; Acts 2:36; 1 Corinthians 15), which along with His coming and death is the greatest event in history. He was the firstfruits of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:23), ‘the firstfruit of those who sleep' (1 Corinthians 15:20), the guarantee of what is to come for all who are His (Ephesians 4:30). This fact unites us together in our salvation. Through this mighty event salvation is guaranteed for all whose trust is in Him, for from His risen life we receive life (John 10:17; Joh 10:28; 1 John 5:12; Galatians 2:20).

This idea of being ‘begotten again' as a result of directly sharing in the life of One Who was raised from the dead is a uniquely Christian idea. What is received is ‘life in Christ', heavenly life, triumphant life, life through death, life out of defeated death (Isaiah 25:7; 1 Corinthians 15:54; Hebrews 2:14), imperishable life, not simply as a renewed earthly life or some remarkable ‘spiritual' experience, but as the renewed life of the resurrection in which was expressed the holy power of God (compare John 5:24; Romans 6:4; 1 Corinthians 15:20; Hebrews 2:14, and see Isaiah 25:7; Isaiah 26:19) and which guarantees the resurrection of the body in spiritual form (1 Corinthians 15:44).

· ‘To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that does not fade not away, reserved in heaven for you.' And through His incorruptible and undefiled resurrection life, and through the word of God active through it, we ourselves receive the incorruptible seed of eternal life (1 Peter 1:23), which will result for us in an incorruptible, undefiled and unfading inheritance. The idea of an inheritance is of something freely given, and freely received. It is unearned and undeserved, and bestowed freely by the Donor, because He has accepted us as His sons and daughters. And it is ours because we are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16).

It also connects directly back to God's promises in the Old Testament. Just as Canaan was Israel's ‘inheritance' as, having been redeemed by Him (Exodus 20:2), they travelled through the wilderness towards the promised land, the land of rest (e.g. Exodus 15:17; Numbers 26:53; Numbers 33:54; Deuteronomy 4:38), so is what awaits us in Heaven our ‘inheritance' (compare Ephesians 1:14; Ephesians 5:5; Acts 20:32; Acts 26:18; Hebrews 9:15), obtained for us through the redemption of His blood (1 Peter 1:18; Romans 3:24), so that we are strangers and pilgrims on the earth (1 Peter 2:11) as we travel forward in a heavenly direction in expectancy of our inheritance. This idea of our heavenwards journey, and the dangers that must be avoided, is well brought out in Hebrews 2:10 to Hebrews 4:11 (compare 2 Corinthians 10:1).

Not the change of the inheritance from an earthly to a heavenly one (or more strictly to one on the new earth, which is the only place where an everlasting inheritance could be possible). This change in the situation of God's promised inheritance to His people from an earthly inheritance to a heavenly inheritance is significant in relation to all God's promises in the Old Testament. Like Abraham, the hope of the true Israel is no longer to be that of possession of an earthly land, but of possession of a ‘continuing city' and of a Greater Land above. Compare Hebrews 11:9 which illustrates this quite clearly. ‘They sought a better country, a heavenly' (Hebrews 11:16). And that was in reference to the direct descendants of Abraham! The land that they sought was not of this world. Consider also the new position of Jerusalem as the ‘Jerusalem which is above' (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22), and the fact that Mount Zion is now in Heaven (Hebrews 12:22).

And in this case the inheritance is directly connected with Christ's resurrection life, which itself is eternal, incorruptible, undefiled (Hebrews 7:26) and unfading. It is a reminder that ‘the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are unseen are eternal' (2 Corinthians 4:18). The emphasis on ‘undefiled' takes us back to the idea of the ‘sanctification of the Spirit' and the ‘sprinkling of the blood of Jesus'. These have removed our defilement (1 Peter 1:2), thus enabling us to have a share in His undefiled life.

‘Incorruptible -- unfading.' Jesus had constantly brought home to His disciples the contrast between the fading, corruptible things of this life in contrast with the unfading, incorruptible things of the next (Matthew 6:19; Matthew 6:33; Matthew 19:21; Luke 12:31; Luke 18:29; 2 Corinthians 4:17; compare James 5:1). Peter has learned his lesson well. The eternal future would not be affected by such things as corruption and the effects of the passage of time.

So in total contrast to the old Israel's inheritance in Canaan, the inheritance of the new Israel is free from all possibility of invasion, corruption and death, it is free from sin and from all that could mar or spoil, and it is free from the ravages of time. ‘You have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, and to the heavenly Jerusalem, -- and to the general assembly of the firstborn who are written in Heaven, -- and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect' (Hebrews 12:22).

‘Reserved (by God) in Heaven for you.' And this has been reserved, kept safely, for us in Heaven. The Holy Spirit, Who has been given to all who truly believe in Jesus Christ, is the sample and guarantee (the ‘earnest' - Ephesians 1:14; Ephesians 4:30; 2 Corinthians 1:22) of what is to come, something which Peter now tells us is ‘reserved in Heaven' for us. Our reserved table awaits us where the Master Himself will serve us (compare Luke 12:32 and its context, including Luke 12:37). Whatever happens to us in this world, once we are truly His our inheritance can never be taken away from us, and it is all the result of the grace of God active through the power of His resurrection, and made sure to us by Jesus Christ Himself (Joh 10:27-29; 1 Corinthians 1:8; Philippians 1:6; Philippians 3:10; Jude 1:24).