Calvin notes that the main object of Peter’s first epistle,
“is to raise us above the world, in order that we may be prepared and encouraged to sustain the spiritual contests of our warfare. For this end, the knowledge of God’s benefits avails much; for, when their value appears to us, all other things will be deemed worthless, especially when we consider what Christ and his blessings are; for everything w/o him is but dross. For this reason he highly extols the wonderful grace of God in Christ, that is that we may not deem it much to give up the world in order that we may enjoy the invaluable treasure of a future life; and also that we might not be broken down by present troubles, but patiently endure them, being satisfied w/ eternal happiness.”
In summary then Peter’s goal is to remind his readers that what is to be gained by the certain future by the faithful Christian far exceeds the hardships and struggles of the present as well as what might be considered as perceived loss of the present.
Surely, we can understand the necessity to speak words of promise and hope to a people who are suffering for the cause of Christ. Surely, we can understand the temptation that might be present to conclude that the promise of the unseen as held out by Christianity was not worth the perils of the seen as brought by the tormentors of these Christians.
Consequently Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes to these recipients encouraging them to press on doing so by means of the Character of God and the abundance of mercy.
In the midst of their trials, Peter, following his salutation, opens with
I.) A Blessing Of God For His Goodness
By doing so, Peter subtly reminds his readers that this whole life is about God. Yes, trials may be present and hardships may descend upon us but even under these constraints there is a necessity to bless God and to remind ourselves of the objective truths regarding his goodness.
A.) Note the specific God that Peter references is brought to the fore by God’s sui generis (one of a kind) relationship to Jesus Christ
1.) Pursue the idea of the exclusivity of God
God can’t be known apart from a known Christ.
There is no knowing God in his naked majesty apart from Christ
2.) Pursue the idea that God is God to us because of the relationship
that both the Father and the Church has to Jesus Christ
3.) Pursue how Peter references Christ – 1.)Lord 2.) Jesus 3.)Christ
B.) Note The Piling Up Of God’s Blessings Upon God’s People As The Reason Why Peter’s Open’s With a Blessing of God
1.) Abundant Mercy
As I stated at the outset the spotlight is cast upon God here. To a people who are grieved by various trials the Apostle becomes radically God-centered.
He immediately reminds them, in a general way, of God’s abundant mercy and from there Peter will get into specifics as to the character of that abundant mercy. The emphasis here is on the objective truth of God’s goodness. Hardship and persecutions may come but in the midst of those subjective experiences we must remain mindful that God is good to those who trust in him.
It seems what is happening here is that Peter is reminding his readers to view their circumstances through God’s character and not begin reading God’s character through their dire circumstances. Trials may come and go, but God remains always full of abundant mercy (Covenant hesed) towards his people.
The radical God-centeredness of this passage continues as the specifics of God’s abundant mercy are named. Note in all that is to be named here as instantiations of “abundant mercy” the repeated emphasis is on the fact that God has done all the doing for His people.
God has begotten us to a living hope (cmp. John 1:13). We did not beget ourselves to a living hope.
The Father is the one who raised Christ from the dead as the foundation of our living hope. We did not raise Christ from the dead so that we could have a foundation for our eventual living hope.
The Father is the one who has given us an inheritance. We did not give ourselves an inheritance.
The Father is the one who keep us. We do not keep ourselves.
All of these markers that testify of God’s goodness are received by us passively. God is the one who does all the doing. God is the one, through the work of Christ, and by the ministry of the Spirit who both makes us alive and who causes us to contend till the very end.
This is why we say … “To God be the glory.” This is why we dwell so much on the idea of “grace alone.”
It is the greatness of God that is dwelled upon here and so upon which we dwell.
But let us look at each of these blessings a little more carefully.
— Begotten — regeneration
— Living hope — This living hope is characteristic of the one who patiently waits for the salvation God has promised to his people. It is living because it is a sure and real thing. It is hope because it raises our minds beyond our trials to God’s sure and certain promises.
It stands in contrast to the dead hope of the pagans. Whether their hope is Nirvana, or the voluptuaries of Allah’s paradise, or the reincarnation to progress of the Hindu, or the pagan after life of the Jew, or the envisioned utopia of the humanist. All of these are dead hopes. Only the Christian has a living hope.
— This living hope comes through the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
In the middle of this God centered passage that is intended to give encouragement to believers Peter puts the Cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
— Inheritance
Described as — 1.) Incorruptible 2.) Undefiled 3.) Doesn’t fade
4.) Reserved
Application
1.)God is the center of every narrative and the center of that center is that God has done all the doing in Christ to rescue and redeem His people.
2.) A Christian’s plight and sorrows are never so defeating that they lose reason to bless God. Despite the greatest opposition or the greatest hardship the Christian remains the person who blesses God for His goodness to him.
3.) It is this living hope that Peter describes that keeps our dying and resisted efforts alive. We keep on contending for the crown rights of King Jesus because we have this living hope.
