3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
REVIEW: Peter lays the foundation seen in the obedience and shed blood of Christ for these pilgrims who have been called to “grace and a multiplication of peace.” The heavenly Father’s will and plan for His elect in Christ is grace multiplying in peace, even in the midst of trouble, persecution, and trials. The Lord wants to give us heavens perspective. Heaven sees the victory already complete in Christ Jesus. The key to working out our salvation with fear and with trembling is seen in what God has already established in Christ and bringing about that victory in the world, resisting the flesh and overcoming the devil by the completed work of Christ.
Please understand what Peter is saying even to us. See yourself in the world as a pilgrim. A pilgrim that has been elected or chosen to suffer as Christ suffered, “sanctified” (which means to be “set apart” in the fallen condition of the present world). The believer is that pilgrim who has been foreordained to be created in the image of Christ. Through the power of Jesus’ resurrection, the believer has the “nature of Christ.” A pilgrim who can reflect heavens plan and will on earth by obedience received in the blood of Christ.
Verse 3 begins by “blessing God.” Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. When Peter says, “has begotten us again,” he is referring to the first Adam from whom we came in our natural birth. Because of Adam’s sin and our subsequence, sin nature, we needed to be “born again” by the work of the Holy Spirit applying Christ’s redemptive work of the cross and His resurrection. David writes:
“Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me bless His holy name! Bless the Lord O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed as the eagle’s.”
Jesus, in His earthly, being born as a human having an earthly mother and identified with an earthly father. His human genealogy traced back to Adam. Sent by the heavenly Father to redeem fallen humanity, Peter inscribes this to “abundant mercy.”
Why is it not just “mercy?” Why does Peter say abundant mercy? Dictionary: mer·cy /ˈmərsē/ noun compassion or forgiveness is shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.
I believe that Peter grasps the absolute depravity of man in his lost condition. Man is lost, “dead in his trespasses and sins.” Because of God’s holiness, His absolute need for justice to be satisfied, there is no help for fallen mankind within reach of any individual dead or alive. The Bible teaches “depravity.” World history reveals and confirms what the Bible has recorded about man’s condition before God and man’s condition in this fallen world. Man’s hopelessness, no future other than death and in death, eternal separation from God and, by the way, from others. It is the end of relationship, family, experience love and care. Mercy is no more. What I mean is the total loss of compassion or any forgiveness to free those lost and separated from the love of God.
Peter added the adjective “abundant” mercy. You and I cannot comprehend this kind of mercy. It is so much higher than our thoughts and ability to appreciate its whole meaning and application. We are called to be merciful. But without God’s redeeming love applied, our mercy does not come. “What does the Lord require of you o man, but to love mercy, to do justly, and to walk humbly before our God.”
Micah 6:8
According to His abundant mercy He has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Each believer has been begotten. This is an old way of saying “born” and in this case, “born again.” Or another way of saying this is, “regenerated” by the Holy Spirit. We were dead, and now we are made alive because of Christ’s sacrifice and the power of the Holy Spirit.
By His abundant mercy, I was begotten in the work of regeneration which the Holy Spirit worked in my life by grace, a gift of God.
Once I was dead, and now I am alive! If I live daily by this new life God has wrought in Christ, the only death I have to experience going through is the “putting off of this body” so I can put on the body Christ has gone to prepare for me. A body likened unto His glorious body (see Ephesians 2:1-7).
Once, you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. Now we are alive forevermore, begotten to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
We must understand that when we were saved from our trespasses and sins, we were made alive. That eternal life is in you right now if you have placed your faith in the resurrection of the Savior and King or Messiah in the Hebrew language. Many Christians are waiting for eternal life, but the scriptures teach that that life is now. It is Zoe life in Greek or “life in the absolute.” We are to live from that life today. Change your mind about this so great salvation that has been given to you in this life. In other words, “Live from heavens supply and resource daily. Expect what David expected recorded in Psalms 103 mentioned earlier.
Look at verse 4 of 1 Peter 1, “to an inheritance incorruptible.” What does that mean? It means our inheritance is “IMPERISHABLE.” Live your life toward that promised inheritance.
Note that Peter said, undefiled, so what does that mean? Listen to Paul in Colossians 1:3-6,
We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth.
That hope is to be drawn on today. It is in heaven and will still be there when you arrive, but for now, all that is contained in that hope is yours to possess. All the promises of God are Yes and Amen to His glory. As we pray and step out in faith, we receive from the inheritance that is ours. Beginning with our salvation, our receiving of the Holy Spirit, all the gifts He has for us in grace to be able to minister from our inheritance to others. Yes, the fruit of the Spirit, the character of our Father, and His Christ belongs to us. The fruit is for the now, the gifts are for the now, and the “peace of God” that comes in the circumstances of life is ours in the present and the future.
“Consider our heavenly inheritance, accessed today in the power of Christ’s resurrection. Incorruptible and undefiled and is not fading away, reserved in heaven.”
Today, call on His name, today, receive the blessings of Christ in every situation. You don’t have to grunt your way through the trials and the trouble, or any other tribulation. The Lord is waiting for you call on Him, as you abandon self and exercise the faith of God from His word and in the power of His resurrection life.
Verse 5, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. What does that mean? Our life is to be lived by the power of God. Not by our own human wisdom or effort. “Kept by the power of God,” means KEPT, daily, weekly, throughout the year. I trust God when I awake, I trust God throughout my day, and I trust God when I retire to sleep. That trust-flows from my salvation. There will come a day that the Lord will reveal all that He did in my life because I trusted Him. Even at times when I might have wavered, He remained faithful. My faith is not fading, but it continues to increase as I live out of His life toward that fullness of life which will be revealed at the last “trumpet.”
John records in John 11:23-27,
Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
Paul records in 1 Corinthians 15:50-54
Now, this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed — 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
