Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved in various trials, that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ— whom, not having known, you love. In him, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently. They prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them. To them it was revealed, that they served not to themselves, but to you, in these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into.
Parallel Translations
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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you,
who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
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Blessed be God the father of oure Lorde Iesus Christ which thorow is aboundant mercie begat vs agayne vnto a lively hope by the resurreccion of Iesus Christ from deeth
to enioye an inheritaunce immortall and vndefiled and that purifieth not reserved in heven for you
which are kept by the power of God thorow fayth vnto salvacion which salvacion is prepared all redy to be shewed in the last tyme
Show all 3 translations
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Blessed bee God, euen the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ, which according to his aboundant mercie hath begotten vs againe vnto a liuely hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead,
To an inheritance immortall and vndefiled, and that withereth not, reserued in heauen for vs,
Which are kept by the power of God through faith vnto saluation, which is prepared to be shewed in the last time.
Cross-references (106)
- 1 Peter 1:23 (v3) having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever.
- 1 John 5:4 (v3) For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: your faith.
- Romans 15:13 (v3) Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Titus 3:4-6 (v3) But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but…
- Ephesians 1:7 (v3) in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
Show all 100 cross-references
- 2 Corinthians 1:3 (v3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;
- Philippians 1:6 (v5) being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
- Revelation 21:27 (v4) There will in no way enter into it anything profane, or one who causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the…
- Romans 12:12 (v3) rejoicing in hope; enduring in troubles; continuing steadfastly in prayer;
- 1 John 3:3 (v3) Everyone who has this hope set on him purifies himself, even as he is pure.
- Ephesians 2:8 (v5) for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
- Hebrews 9:15 (v4) For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under…
- 1 John 2:29 (v3) If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
- Ephesians 1:3 (v3) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
- John 3:3-8 (v3) Jesus answered him, “Most certainly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can’t see God’s Kingdom.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a…
- Ephesians 3:20 (v3) Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,
- 1 Peter 5:4 (v4) When the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the crown of glory that doesn’t fade away.
- Exodus 34:6 (v3) Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness…
- Ephesians 1:17 (v3) that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him,
- 2 Timothy 4:8 (v4) From now on, the crown of righteousness is stored up for me, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day; and not to…
- 1 Peter 3:21 (v3) This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you—not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward…
- Psalms 86:15 (v3) But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
- Romans 8:31-39 (v5) What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up…
- Ephesians 2:6-10 (v3) and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the…
- 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 (v5) But we are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation…
- Job 19:25 (v5) But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth.
- Matthew 25:34 (v4) Then the King will tell those on his right hand, ‘Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of…
- Ephesians 2:4 (v3) But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
- Colossians 1:5 (v4) because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News
- Titus 2:13 (vv3, 5) looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
- John 10:28-30 (v5) I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is…
- 1 Peter 1:13 (v5) Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of…
- Isaiah 40:7-8 (v4) The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. The grass withers, the flower…
- Ezekiel 47:12 (v4) By the river on its bank, on this side and on that side, will grow every tree for food, whose leaf won’t wither, neither will its fruit…
- Romans 8:17 (v4) and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him.
- 1 Corinthians 15:20 (v3) But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep.
- Ephesians 1:11 (v4) We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel…
- Ephesians 1:18 (v4) having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his…
- 1 Timothy 1:14 (v3) The grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
- James 1:18 (v3) Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
- Psalms 31:19 (v4) Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have worked for those who take refuge in you,…
- 1 Corinthians 13:13 (v3) But now faith, hope, and love remain—these three. The greatest of these is love.
- Hebrews 9:28 (v5) so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting…
- Acts 20:32 (v4) Now, brothers, I entrust you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build up, and to give you the inheritance among all…
- Acts 26:18 (v4) to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins…
- Ephesians 1:14 (v4) who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
- John 17:11-12 (v5) I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have…
- 1 Corinthians 9:25 (v4) Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an…
- 1 Corinthians 15:52-54 (v4) 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…
- Galatians 2:20 (v5) I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live…
- Galatians 3:18 (v4) For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise; but God has granted it to Abraham by promise.
- Colossians 1:12 (v4) giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light,
- Colossians 3:3-4 (v4) For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in…
- Jude 1:1 (v5) Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ:
- 1 Chronicles 29:10-13 (v3) Therefore David blessed Yahweh before all the assembly; and David said, “You are blessed, Yahweh, the God of Israel our father, forever and…
- Psalms 37:23-24 (v5) A man’s steps are established by Yahweh. He delights in his way. Though he stumble, he shall not fall, for Yahweh holds him up with his…
- Romans 8:11 (v3) But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life…
- Romans 8:24 (v3) For we were saved in hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for that which he sees?
- Ephesians 3:17 (v5) that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
- 2 Timothy 3:15 (v5) From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
- 1 Kings 8:15 (v3) He said, “Blessed is Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David your father, and has with his hand fulfilled it, saying,
- 1 Chronicles 29:20 (v3) Then David said to all the assembly, “Now bless Yahweh your God!” All the assembly blessed Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and bowed down…
- Psalms 41:13 (v3) Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting! Amen and amen.
- Psalms 86:5 (v3) For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.
- John 5:24 (v5) “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has…
- John 17:15 (v5) I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.
- Romans 11:20 (v5) True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don’t be conceited, but fear;
- Hebrews 6:18-19 (v3) that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to…
- James 1:11 (v4) For the sun arises with the scorching wind and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So…
- 1 Samuel 2:9 (v5) He will keep the feet of his holy ones, but the wicked will be put to silence in darkness; for no man will prevail by strength.
- Psalms 37:28 (v5) For Yahweh loves justice, and doesn’t forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
- Psalms 72:18-19 (v3) Praise be to Yahweh God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds. Blessed be his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be…
- Psalms 125:1-2 (v5) Those who trust in Yahweh are as Mount Zion, which can’t be moved, but remains forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so Yahweh…
- Isaiah 26:19 (v3) Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the…
- Isaiah 45:17 (v5) Israel will be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation. You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting.
- Isaiah 51:6 (v5) Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out…
- Jonah 4:2 (v3) He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to…
- John 1:13 (v3) who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
- John 12:48 (v5) He who rejects me, and doesn’t receive my sayings, has one who judges him. The word that I spoke will judge him in the last day.
- Romans 4:25 (v3) who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.
- Colossians 1:27 (v3) to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope…
- 1 Thessalonians 1:3 (v3) remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and…
- 1 Thessalonians 1:3-4 (v5) remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and…
- Hebrews 3:6 (v3) but Christ is faithful as a Son over his house. We are his house, if we hold fast our confidence and the glorying of our hope firm to the…
- 1 Peter 2:2 (v3) as newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that with it you may grow,
- 1 Peter 3:9 (v4) not rendering evil for evil, or insult for insult; but instead blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a…
- 1 John 3:9 (v3) Whoever is born of God doesn’t commit sin, because his seed remains in him, and he can’t sin, because he is born of God.
- Psalms 103:17-18 (v5) But Yahweh’s loving kindness is from everlasting to everlasting with those who fear him, his righteousness to children’s children, to those…
- Isaiah 54:17 (v5) No weapon that is formed against you will prevail; and you will condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the…
- Jeremiah 32:40 (v5) I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good. I will put my fear in their…
- Romans 5:4-5 (v3) and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope: and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our…
- Romans 5:10 (v3) For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his…
- Romans 5:15-21 (v3) But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by…
- Colossians 1:23 (v3) if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard,…
- 1 Timothy 6:14-15 (v5) that you keep the commandment without spot, blameless, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in its own times he will show,…
- Hebrews 6:12 (v5) that you won’t be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherited the promises.
- 1 John 5:1 (v3) Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him.
- 1 John 5:18 (v3) We know that whoever is born of God doesn’t sin, but he who was born of God keeps himself, and the evil one doesn’t touch him.
- Jude 1:24 (v5) Now to him who is able to keep them from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy,
- 1 John 4:7 (v3) Beloved, let’s love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves has been born of God, and knows God.
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (106 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv3–5 3 Blessed be God We have said that the…
3 Blessed be God We have said that the main object of this 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 without 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 may not be broken down by present troubles, but patiently endure them, being satisfied with eternal happiness.
Further, when he gives thanks to God, he invites the faithful to spiritual joy, which can swallow up all the opposite feelings of the flesh.
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And Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Understand the words thus, — “Blessed be God who is the Father of Jesus Christ.” For, as formerly, by calling himself the God of Abraham, he designed to mark the difference between him and all fictitious gods; so after he has manifested himself in his own Son, his will is, not to be known otherwise than in him. Hence they who form their ideas of God in his naked majesty apart from Christ, have an idol instead of the true God, as the case is with the Jews and the Turks. Whosoever, then, seeks really to know the only true God, must regard him as the Father of Christ; for, whenever our mind seeks God, except Christ be thought of, it will wander and be confused, until it be wholly lost. Peter meant at the same time to intimate how God is so bountiful and kind towards us; for, except Christ stood as the middle person, his goodness could never be really known by us.
Who hath begotten us again He shews that supernatural life is a gift, because we are born the children of wrath; for had we been born to the hope of life according to the flesh, there would have been no necessity of being begotten again by God. Therefore Peter teaches us, that we who are by nature destined to eternal death, are restored to life by God’s mercy. And this is, as it were, our second creation, as it is said in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians. Lively or living hope, means the hope of life. At the same time there seems to be an implied contrast between the hope fixed on the incorruptible kingdom of God, and the fading and transient hopes of man.
According to his abundant mercy He first mentions the efficient cause, and then he points out the mediating cause, as they say. He shews that God was induced by no merits of ours to regenerate us unto a living hope, because he assigns this wholly to his mercy. But that he might more completely reduce the merits of works to nothing, he says, great (multam) mercy. All, indeed, confess that God is the only author of our salvation, but they afterwards invent extraneous causes, which take away so much from his mercy. But Peter commends mercy alone; and he immediately connects the way or manner, by the resurrection of Christ; for God does not in any other way discover his mercy; hence Scripture ever directs our attention to this point. And that Christ’s death is not mentioned, but his resurrection, involves no inconsistency, for it is included; because a thing cannot be completed without having a beginning; and he especially brought forward the resurrection, because he was speaking of a new life.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv3, 5 Everlasting hope.
Everlasting hope.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv3–5 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our…
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Ver. 3. Blessed be the God] A stately proem, and such as can hardly be matched again, unless it be that of St Paul to the Ephesians, Eph 1:3.
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Unto a lively hope] Sure and solid, clearing the conscience, and cheering the spirit. Vivere spe vidi qui moriturus erat. If it were not for hope, the heart would break; as they do whose lives and hopes end together. True hope lives when the man dies. It hath for its motto, Dum expiro, spero. The righteous hath hope in his death, as St Stephen had; who
" Ibat ovans animis, et spe sua damna levabat, "
Went with good cheer to take his end. (Bembus.) And many of the holy martyrs went as willingly to die as ever they did to dine; they called it their wedding day. They knew it was but winking only, and they should be in heaven immediately; hence their invincible courage at the hour of death. The ungodly are not so; their hopes are dying hopes, they are no better than as the giving up of the ghost, Job 11:20.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv3–5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord…
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; either the conjunction and is here but an explicative particle, and so we render it, 2Co 1:3, God, even the Father, & c.; or if we take it for a copulative, as Eph 1:3; God is called the God of Jesus Christ, according to Christ’s human nature, and his Father according to his Divine.
Which according to his abundant mercy; this shows the fountain from whence regeneration and all other spiritual blessings flow, and excludes all merit and dignity in us, as the cause of so great benefits.
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Abundant mercy is the same with riches of mercy, Eph 2:4.
Hath begotten us again; translated us out of a state of sin and misery into a state of grace and life; and so begotten again here, is the same as sanctifying in the former verse.
Unto a lively hope; either a lively hope, for hope of life; or rather, a lively hope is a true and effectual hope, such as proceeds from a lively faith, and is itself productive of peace and purity, Rom 5:2; 1Jo 3:3, in opposition to the vain hope of worldly men, which neither comes from faith nor tends to holiness.
By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: this may be referred either:
1. To God’s begetting us again, and then it implies the resurrection of Christ to be the cause of our regeneration, we being raised to a spiritual life by the power of Christ’s resurrection, and our vivification being often ascribed to it, 1Pe 3:21; Rom 4:25; 6:4,5; see Eph 2:5. Or:
2. To the lively hope to which he begets us, which depends upon, and ariseth from, the faith of Christ’s resurrection, Rom 8:11; 1Co 15:17,19; 1Th 4:13,14. Christ’s resurrection being the cause and pledge of ours, as the certainty of ours depends upon his, so the liveliness of our hope follows upon the faith of it. Possibly the apostle may have in these words some respect to the languishing condition of the hope of him, and the other disciples, Luk 24:21, which was then ready to expire, but was again revived by their being well assured of his resurrection, Luk 24:33,34.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv3, 5 Observe here, 1. How our apostle breaks forth into…
Observe here, 1. How our apostle breaks forth into gratulation and thankfulness to God, for those special blessings, which, by his ministry, were conferred upon these converted Christians, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessing and praise are due to God for the least mercies received from God, because we are less than the least, much more for spiritual and eternal blessings, which are the greatest mercies that either God can give, or we receive.
Observe, 2. The special mercy which he thus solemnly blesses, and gives thanks to God for, namely, their regeneration: for begetting them to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Christ, to an inheritance incorruptible, &c. according to his abundant mercy.
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Where note, 1. The benefit declared, that they were begotten again to an hope of salvation: by means of sin, all influences of grace were suspended, and all hopes of salvation were cut off. Christ’s interposure for us makes our condition hopeful, and the fallen angels hopeless.
Note, 2. The qualification of that hope which Christians are begotten to; it is a lively hope, in opposition to a dead hope, and to a languid and languishing hope: the Christian’s hope is an effectual hope, which proceeds from faith and promotes holiness. A lively hope is an hope that makes us lively, joyful, and comfortable in our lives; an hope that puts life into us.
Note, 3. The means whereby we are begotten to this hope, and that is, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead; not by the bare act of his resurrection, but by the virtue and power of it, we are raised to a spiritual life by it, and our hopes of eternal life are thereby strengthened and confirmed. The justification of our persons, the regeneration of our natures, the resurrection of our bodies, the glorification of our souls and bodies, are singular fruits and benefits of Christ’s resurrection. Well might the apostle then say, that we are begotten to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Note, 4. The moving and impulsive cause from which regeneration, and all other spiritual blessings, do proceed and flow; the mercy and goodness of God, According to his abundant mercy he hath begotten us again.
In the matters of salvation nothing is owing to our merit; for demerit cannot merit, but all is due to divine goodness, and undeserved mercy; that is the fontal cause of all our favours.
Note, 5. The nature of that happiness which believers are begotten to a lively hope and expection of; it is here styled an inheritance. Heaven is an inheritance, and as such it is given to children, to all God’s children, to none but his children; it is an inheritance dearly purchased, yet freely given: Christ is the sole purchaser of it; no joint-purchaers; yet remember, that though we cannot purchase this inheritance in a way of merit, we may forfeit it by our demerit, and provoke our heavenly Father to disinherit us.
Note, 6. The properties and excellences of this inheritance which believers are raised by Christ to the expectation of: it is an inheritance incorruptible; an enduring possession; not subject to decay, having nothing in it that can corrupt it, or corrupt us in the enjoyment of it.
Undefiled, heaven is an holy habitation; the holiness of heaven is the most considerable part of its happiness; sinners therefore that despise holiness, despise the richest jewel in the crown of glory.
It fadeth not away, it withereth not; glory is a flower which will eternally retain its freshness and verdure.
Reserved in the heavens for us; heaven is the country where the saints’ inheritance lies; here it is reserved or laid up safe, by the purpose and pleasure of God, by the purchase, possession, and intercession of Christ; and to be able to say, For us, and be particularly assured of heaven, is a special comfort.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v3 We come now to the body of the epistle,…
We come now to the body of the epistle, which begins with,
I. A congratulation of the dignity and happiness of the state of these believers, brought in under the form of a thanksgiving to God. Other epistles begin in like manner, Co2 1:3; Eph 1:3. Here we have,
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1. The duty performed, which is blessing God. A man blesses God by a just acknowledgment of his excellency and blessedness.
2. The object of this blessing described by his relation to Jesus Christ: The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here are three names of one person, denoting his threefold office. (1.) He is Lord, a universal king or sovereign. (2.) Jesus, a priest or Saviour. (3.) Christ, a prophet, anointed with the Spirit and furnished with all gifts necessary for the instruction, guidance, and salvation of his church. This God, so blessed, is the God of Christ according to his human nature, and his Father according to his divine nature.
3. The reasons that oblige us to this duty of blessing God, which are comprised in his abundant mercy. All our blessings are owing to God's mercy, not to man's merit, particularly regeneration. He hath begotten us again, and this deserves our thanksgiving to God, especially if we consider the fruit it produces in us, which is that excellent grace of hope, and that not such a vain, dead, perishing hope as that of worldlings and hypocrites, but a lively hope, a living, strong, quickening, and durable hope, as that hope must needs be that has such a solid foundation as the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Learn, (1.) A good Christian's condition is never so bad but he has great reason still to bless God. As a sinner has always reason to mourn, notwithstanding his present prosperity, so good people, in the midst of their manifold difficulties, have reason still to rejoice and bless God. (2.) In our prayers and praises we should address God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; it is only through him that we and our services are accepted. (3.) The best of men owe their best blessings to the abundant mercy of God. All the evil in the world is from man's sin, but all the good in it is from God's mercy. Regeneration is expressly ascribed to the abundant mercy of God, and so are all the rest; we subsist entirely upon divine mercy. Of the nature of regeneration, see on Joh 3:3. (4.) Regeneration produces a lively hope of eternal life. Every unconverted person is a hopeless creature; whatever he pretends to of that kind is all confidence and presumption. The right Christian hope is what a man is begotten again unto by the Spirit of God; it is not from nature, but free grace. Those who are begotten to a new and spiritual life are begotten to a new and spiritual hope. (5.) The hope of a Christian has this excellency, it is a living hope. The hope of eternal life in a true Christian is a hope that keeps him alive, quickens him, supports him, and conducts him to heaven. Hope invigorates and spirits up the soul to action, to patience, to fortitude, and perseverance to the end. The delusive hopes of the unregenerate are vain and perishing; the hypocrite and his hope expire and die both together, Job 27:8. (6.) The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the ground or foundation of a Christian's hope. The resurrection of Christ is the act of the Father as a Judge, of the Son as a conqueror. His resurrection demonstrates that the Father accepts his death in full discharge for our ransom, that he is victorious over death, the grave, and all our spiritual enemies; and it is also an assurance of our own resurrection. There being an inseparable union between Christ and his flock, they rise by virtue of his resurrection as a head, rather than by virtue of his power as a Judge. We have risen with Christ, Col 3:1. From all this taken together, Christians have two firm and solid foundations whereon to build their hope of eternal life.
II. Having congratulated these people on their new birth, and the hope of everlasting life, the apostle goes on to describe that life under the notion of an inheritance, a most proper way of speaking to these people; for they were poor and persecuted, perhaps turned out of their inheritances to which they were born; to allay this grievance, he tells them they were new-born to a new inheritance, infinitely better than what they had lost. Besides, they were most of them Jews, and so had a great affection to the land of Canaan, as the land of their inheritance, settled upon them by God himself; and to be driven out from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord was looked upon as a sore judgment, Sa1 26:19. To comfort them under this they are put in mind of a noble inheritance reserved in heaven for them, such a one that the land of Canaan was but a mere shadow in comparison with it. Here note,
1. Heaven is the undoubted inheritance of all the children of God; all that are born again are born to an inheritance, as a man makes his child his heir; the apostle argues, If children, then heirs, Rom 8:17. God giveth his gifts unto all, but the inheritance to none but his children; those that are his sons and daughters by regeneration and adoption receive the promise of eternal inheritance, Heb 9:15. This inheritance is not our purchase, but our Father's gift; not wages that we merit, but the effect of grace, which first makes us children and then settles this inheritance upon us by a firm unalterable covenant.
2. The incomparable excellencies of this inheritance, which are four: - (1.) It is incorruptible, in which respect it is like its Maker, who is called the incorruptible God, Rom 1:23. All corruption is a change from better to worse, but heaven is without change and without end; the house is eternal in the heavens, and the possessors must subsist for ever, for their corruptible must put on incorruption, Co1 15:53. (2.) This inheritance is undefiled, like the great high priest that is now in possession of it, who is holy, harmless, and undefiled, Heb 7:26. Sin and misery, the two grand defilements that spoil this world, and mar its beauty, have no place there. (3.) It fadeth not away, but always retains its vigour and beauty, and remains immarcescible, ever entertaining and pleasing the saints who possess it, without the least weariness or distaste. (4.) "Reserved in heaven for you," which expression teaches us, [1.] That it is a glorious inheritance, for it is in heaven, and all that is there is glorious, Eph 1:18. [2.] It is certain, a reversion in another world, safely kept and preserved till we come to the possession of it. [3.] The persons for whom it is reserved are described, not by their names, but by their character: for you, or us, or every one that is begotten again to a lively hope. This inheritance is preserved for them, and none but them; all the rest will be shut out for ever.
III. This inheritance being described as future, and distant both in time and place, the apostle supposes some doubt or uneasiness yet to remain upon the minds of these people, whether they might not possibly fall short by the way. "Though the happiness be safe in heaven, yet we are still upon earth, liable to abundance of temptations, miseries, and infirmities. Are we in such a safe state that we shall certainly come thither?" To this he answers that they should be safely guarded and conducted thither; they should be kept and preserved from all such destructive temptations and injuries as would prevent their safe arrival at eternal life. The heir to an earthly estate has no assurance that he shall live to enjoy it, but the heirs of heaven shall certainly be conducted safely to the possession of it. The blessing here promised is preservation: You are kept; the author of it is God; the means in us made use of for that end are our own faith and care; the end to which we are preserved is salvation; and the time when we shall see the safe end and issue of all is the last time. Note, 1. Such is the tender care of God over his people that he not only gives them grace, but preserves them unto glory. Their being kept implies both danger and deliverance; they may be attacked, but shall not be overcome. 2. The preservation of the regenerate to eternal life is the effect of God's power. The greatness of the work, the number of enemies, and our own infirmities, are such that no power but what is almighty can preserve the soul through all unto salvation; therefore the scripture often represents man's salvation as the effect of divine power, Co2 12:9; Rom 14:4. 3. Preservation by God's power does not supersede man's endeavour and care for his own salvation; here are God's power and man's faith, which implies an earnest desire of salvation, a reliance upon Christ according to his invitations and promises, a vigilant care to do every thing pleasing to God and avoid whatever is offensive, an abhorrence of temptations, a respect to the recompence of reward, and persevering diligence in prayer. By such a patient, operating, conquering faith, we are kept under the assistance of divine grace, unto salvation; faith is a sovereign preservative of the soul through a state of grace unto a state of glory. 4. This salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time. Here are three things asserted about the salvation of the saints: - (1.) That it is now prepared, and made ready, and reserved in heaven for them. (2.) Though it be made ready now, yet it is in a great measure hidden and unrevealed at present, not only to the ignorant, blind world, that never enquire after it, but even to the heirs of salvation themselves. It does not yet appear what we shall be, Jo1 3:2. (3.) That it shall be fully and completely revealed in the last time, or at the last day of judgment. Life and immortality are now brought to light by the gospel, but this life will be revealed more gloriously at death, when the soul shall be admitted into the presence of Christ, and behold his glory; and even beyond this there will be a further and a final revelation of the amplitude and transcendency of the saints' felicity at the last day, when their bodies shall be raised and re-united to their souls, and judgment shall pass upon angels and men, and Christ shall publicly honour and applaud his servants in the face of all the world.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv3–5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord…
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,.... The epistle begins here with thanksgiving to God, or an ascription of blessing, praise, and glory to him; for this does not mean an invoking or conferring a blessing on him; neither of which can be, for there is not a greater than he to be invoked, nor can anything be added to his blessedness: but God may be blessed by his creatures when they speak well of him, and his wonderful works of creation, providence, and grace; when they ascribe all their mercies, spiritual and temporal, to him; give him the glory of them, and express their thanks for them in heart, lip, and life; and such a blessing of God for a special and spiritual favour, the grace of regeneration, is intended here: by "God" is meant, not God essentially, but personally considered, even God the Father, as is clearly expressed: the words are rendered in the Arabic and Ethiopic versions without the copulative "and", thus, "blessed be God the Father"; and if that is retained, they, may be rendered thus, "blessed be God, even the Father"; as in Co2 1:3 and so the latter be exegetical of the former; though both are true of Christ, in different senses; God is the God of Christ, as Christ is man; and he is the Father of Christ, as Christ is God; for, as man, he had no father, nor is he a son by office, but by nature; see Gill on Eph 1:3.
which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again: regeneration is the blessing thanks are given for; and if we are to be thankful to God, and bless his name, because he hath made us creatures, and hath given us a natural being; much more should we praise him for making us new creatures, and giving us a spiritual being. To be "begotten again", and so to be born again, is opposed unto, and distinguished from our first birth, when we were conceived, and shapen in sin; and designs a birth, spiritual, holy, and heavenly; it is signified by a being quickened, or made alive; so as in a spiritual sense, to see, and hear, and breathe after divine things, and to live a life of faith and holiness; by Christ being formed in the heart; by a partaking of the divine nature, and by being made new men, or new creatures: God, and not man, is the efficient cause of this, which is sometimes ascribed to the Spirit, and sometimes to the Son, and here to the Father; and it is not men's works, but his own good will and pleasure, his great love and free favour, his rich grace and abundant mercy, are the impulsive, or moving cause of it; and abundance of grace and mercy indeed is displayed in the regeneration and conversion of sinners: what they are regenerated to is,
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unto a lively hope; meaning either the grace of hope, which is implanted in regeneration, and not before; for then, and then only, is a good hope through grace given; and it may be said to be "lively", or "living", inasmuch as it is fixed, not on dead works, but on a living Christ, on his person, blood, and righteousness; and is not the hope of a dead sinner, of a lifeless hypocrite, and formal professor, that has a name to live, and is dead, but of a living believer, one made truly alive by the spirit of life, from Christ; and is what is sometimes, at least, in lively exercise, and makes the heart of a believer cheerful, brisk, and lively; and is what is lasting and durable, and will never be lost, but will be held fast unto the end: or else the thing hoped for is intended, the hope laid up in heaven; the blessed hope regenerate ones are born unto, and are looking for, even eternal life and happiness; and the Syriac version renders it, "unto hope of life": that is, or eternal life; and so reads one of Stephens's copies. Saints are both begotten again to the grace of hope, and to the glory which that grace is waiting for: the means is,
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; which may be connected either with the act of begetting again; for Christ's resurrection is the virtual cause of regeneration, or regeneration is in virtue of Christ's resurrection; had he not risen from the dead, none would have been quickened, or made to live, or have been raised to newness of life: his resurrection is the exemplar of regeneration; there is a likeness between them; as his resurrection was a declaration of his sonship, so regeneration is a manifestation of adoption; and as Christ's resurrection was his first step to glory, so is regeneration to eternal life; and both are wrought by the same almighty power: or the clause may be connected with the foregoing, "unto a lively hope"; for the resurrection of Christ is what is the means of, and lays a solid foundation of hope, both of the saints' resurrection from the dead, of which Christ is the meritorious cause, pledge, and pattern, and of eternal glory and happiness, since he rose for our justification, with which glorification is inseparably connected.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv3–5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord…
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ - His Father, with respect to his divine nature; his God, with respect to his human. Who hath regenerated us to a living hope - An hope which implies true spiritual life, which revives the heart, and makes the soul lively and vigourous. By the resurrection of Christ - Which is not only a pledge of ours, but a part of the purchase price. It has also a close connection with our rising from spiritual death, that as he liveth, so shall we live with him. He was acknowledged to be the Christ, but usually called Jesus till his resurrection; then he was also called Christ.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv3–5 Verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father] Ευλογητος…
Verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father] Ευλογητος ὁ Θεος και Πατηρ· Blessed be God even the Father, or blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The και, and, is omitted by the Syriac, Erpen's Arabic, and the AEthiopic. But if we translate και, even, a meaning which it frequently has in the New Testament, then we have a very good sense: Let that God have praise who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and who deserves the praise of every human being for his infinite mercy to the world, in its redemption by Christ Jesus.
Begotten us again unto a lively hope] I think the apostle has a reference here to his own case, and that of his fellow apostles, at the time that Christ was taken by the Jews and put to death. Previously to this time they had strong confidence that he was the Messiah, and that it was he who should redeem Israel; but when they found that he actually expired upon the cross, and was buried, they appear to have lost all hope of the great things which before they had in prospect. This is feelingly expressed by the two disciples whom our Lord, after his resurrection, overtook on the road going to Emmaus, see Lu 24:13-24. And the hope, that with them, died with their Master, and seemed to be buried in his grave, was restored by the certainty of his resurrection. From Christ's preaching, miracles, c., they had a hope of eternal life, and all other blessings promised by him by his death and burial this hope became nearly, if not altogether, extinct; but by his resurrection the hope was revived. This is very properly expressed here by being begotten again to a living hope, εις ελπιδα ζωσας, as some MSS. and versions have it, εις ελπιδα ζωης, to the hope of life; which one copy of the Itala, with Augustine, Gildas, Vigilius of Tapsum, and Cassiodorus, have considered as meaning eternal life, agreeably to the context; and therefore they read vitae aeternae.
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The expressions, however, may include more particulars than what are above specified; as none can inherit eternal life except those who are children in the heavenly family, and none are children but those who are born again: then St. Peter may be considered as laying here the foundation of the hope of eternal life in the regeneration of the soul; for none can legally inherit but the children, and none are children of God till they are spiritually begotten and born again.
It is the Gospel alone that gives the well grounded hope of eternal life; and the ground on which this hope rests is the resurrection of Christ himself. The certainty of our Lord's resurrection is the great seal of the Gospel. Without this what is vision, what is prophecy, what is promise, what are even miracles, to that unbelief which is natural to man on such a subject as this? But the resurrection of the human nature of Christ, the incontestable proofs of this resurrection, and the ascension of our nature to heaven in his person, are such evidences of the possibility and certainty of the thing, as for ever to preclude all doubt from the hearts of those who believe in him.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv3, 5 1Pe 1:3-4. Blessed be the God and Father, or,…
1Pe 1:3-4. Blessed be the God and Father, or, God even the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ — His only-begotten and beloved Son; who, according to his abundant mercy — His compassion for us in our state of ignorance and guilt, depravity and weakness; his undeserved love and goodness, the source of all our blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternal: hath begotten us again — Regenerated us; to a lively — Ζωσαν, living, hope — A hope which implies true spiritual life, is the consequence of repentance unto life, living faith, justification by faith, and a birth from above, by which we pass from death unto life; a hope which revives the heart, and makes the soul lively and vigorous: by the resurrection of Christ — Which not only proved him to be the Son of God, (Rom 1:4,) and demonstrated the truth and importance of his doctrine, which brought life and immortality to light, but manifested the acceptableness and efficacy of the sacrifice he offered for sin, opened an intercourse between God and man, made way for our receiving the Holy Ghost, and is a pledge and earnest of our resurrection, he having risen the first-fruits of them that sleep in him. To an inheritance — For if we are children, then are we heirs; incorruptible — Not like earthly inheritances or possessions, of whatever kind, which are both corruptible in themselves, tending in their own nature to dissolution and decay; and are possessed by that which is corruptible, even through the medium of the body, with its senses and members, all tending to decay and dissolution. But the inheritance we expect is neither corruptible in itself, nor shall we that enjoy it be corruptible, either in soul or body. Undefiled — Every thing here is therefore corruptible, because it has been defiled with the sin of man, and laid under a curse, so that vanity and misery are attached to the enjoyment of every thing; and we ourselves, having been defiled in soul and body, have all the seeds of vanity and misery sown in our frame. But the inheritance reserved for us has not been defiled by any sin, and therefore has no curse, vanity, or misery attached to it: Rev 22:3. And we ourselves, when admitted into that world, shall be perfectly pure, and shall have in our frame no hinderance to the most perfect enjoyment. And fadeth not away — As every thing in this world does, decaying in lustre and glory, in sweetness, or the pleasure it yields in the enjoyment, and in value to us, who can only have a life estate in any thing; whence, whatever we possess is continually decreasing in value to us, as the time approaches when we are to be dispossessed of it. But the inheritance above, on the contrary, will not decay in any of these respects: its value, its glory and sweetness, or the pleasure it yields in the enjoyment, will continue the same to all eternity; or rather, will continually increase; new glories opening upon us, new pleasures offering themselves to our enjoyment, and new riches not ceasing to be conferred upon us from the inexhaustible stores of divine and infinite beneficence. Reserved in heaven — And therefore not subject to such changes as are continually taking place here on earth; for you — Who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, honour, and immortality.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv3–5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord…
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ - See the notes at 2Co 1:3.
Which according to His abundant mercy - Margin, as in the Greek, “much.” The idea is, that there was great mercy shown them in the fact that they were renewed. They had no claim to the favor, and the favor was great. People are not begotten to the hope of heaven because they have any claim on God, or because it would not be right for him to withhold the favor. See the notes at Eph 2:4.
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Hath begotten us again - The meaning is, that as God is the Author of our life in a natural sense, so he is the Author of our second life by regeneration. The Saviour said, Joh 3:3 that “except a man be born again,” or “begotten again,” (γεννηθῆ ἄνωθεν gennēthē anōthen,) “he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Peter here affirms that that change had occurred in regard to himself and those whom he was addressing. The word used here as a compound (ἀναγεννάω anagennaō) does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament, though it corresponds entirely with the words used by the Saviour in Joh 3:3, Joh 3:5,Joh 3:7. Perhaps the phrase “begotten again” would be better in each instance where the word occurs, the sense being rather that of being begotten again, than of being born again.
Unto a lively hope - The word lively we now use commonly in the sense of active, animated, quick; the word used here, however, means living, in contradistinction from that which is dead. The hope which they had, had living power. It was not cold, inoperative, dead. It was not a mere form - or a mere speculation - or a mere sentiment; it was that which was vital to their welfare, and which was active and powerful. On the nature of hope, see the notes at Rom 8:24. Compare Eph 2:12.
By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead - The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the foundation of our hope. It was a confirmation of what he declared as truth when he lived; it was a proof of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul; it was a pledge that all who are united to him will be raised up. See the 1Co. 15:1-20; 2Ti 1:10 note; 1Th 4:14 note. On this verse we may remark, that the fact that Christians are chosen to salvation should be a subject of gratitude and praise. Every man should rejoice that any of the race may be saved, and the world should be thankful for every new instance of divine favor in granting to anyone a hope of eternal life. Especially should this be a source of joy to true Christians. Well do they know that if God had not chosen them to salvation, they would have remained as thoughtless as others; if he had had no purpose of mercy toward them, they would never have been saved. Assuredly, if there is anything for which a man should be grateful, it is that God has so loved him as to give him the hope of eternal life; and if he has had an eternal purpose to do this, our gratitude should be proportionably increased.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v4 Reserved in heaven for you. Literally, in you; that…
Reserved in heaven for you. Literally, in you; that is, it is also in you by reason of that lively faith and hope, which is in you, of enjoying Christ. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v3 Analysis:—God is praised for the grace of regeneration and…
1Pe_1:3-12
Analysis:—God is praised for the grace of regeneration and for the hope of the heavenly inheritance, founded thereon. Sufferings should augment and intensify the Christian’s joy, for they serve to prove his faith. The Spirit of Christ had directed the inquiries of the prophets to this end of hope, yea, even the angels were desirous of looking into this salvation
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3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath4begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,5 4To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,6 5Who are kept7by the power of God through faith8unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.96Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through7 manifold temptations: That the10trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be11tried with fire, might be found12unto praise and honour and glory at the13appearing of Jesus Christ: 8Whom having not14seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:15169Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. 10Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently,11 who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: Searching what,17or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. 12Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us18 they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Pe_1:3. The praise of the Divine grace in the glorious hope of Christians flows like a deep and wide stream from the full heart of the Apostle 1Pe_1:3-12. Paul praises in similar language with one long breath of joy the salvation given unto us, Eph_1:3-14. We have first the source and cause of our hope, 1Pe_1:3, then its end and glory, 1Pe_1:4, then the way we must take which ought not to make us hesitate 1Pe_1:5-8, and lastly the means designed to encourage and strengthen us, 1Pe_1:8-12.
Blessed be the God—Christ.—God is here blessed, as is frequently the case in the Epistles of Paul, not only as the Father but also as the God of Jesus Christ, 2Co_1:3; 2Co_11:31; Rom_15:6; Eph_1:3; Eph_1:17; Col_1:3; cf. Joh_20:17. An important suggestion concerning the relation of the Logos to the Father. Only in Christ and through him do all find and possess God. The Paternity points to the eternal generation out of the Being of God, Psa_2:3; and to the intimate relation to the Incarnate Son. Weiss derives this doxological formula from, what may be called, the liturgical usage of the primitive Church, cf. Jam_1:27; Jam_3:9. He thinks that said expression is insufficient as proof of the Essential Divinity and Preëxistence of Christ. Cf. on the other hand, Mat_16:16; Joh_6:68.
Mercy, ἔλεος (חֶסֶד) the compassionating love of God, which condescends to the low estate of the helpless, the weak, the impotent, the wretched and the sinful. It is a manifold mercy, a wonderful riches thereof (Rom_2:4) which appears from the multitude of its gifts of grace, from the depth of our misery, from the extent and diversity of its efforts of deliverance.
Begotten again, ἀναγεννήσας etc. cf. Joh_3:3; Tit_3:5; Jam_1:18; Col_3:1; Eph_2:10. He has kindled in us a new spiritual life by Holy Baptism and the influences of the Holy Spirit connected therewith, cf. Eph_1:19-20. He has laid the foundation of recreating us into His image. “He has made us other men in a far more essential sense than it was once said to Saul: ‘Thou shalt be turned into another man’ 1Sa_10:6.” What is the principal fruit and end of this new generation? A living hope. Its object is not only our future resurrection (Grotius, Bengel, de Wette), but the whole plenitude of the salvation still to be revealed by Jesus Christ, even until the new heavens and the new earth shall appear, 2Pe_3:13-14; Rev_21:1. Birth implies life; so it is with the hope of believers, which is the very opposite of the vain, lost and powerless hope of the worldly-minded. It is powerful, and quickens the heart by comforting, strengthening, and encouraging it, by making it joyous and cheerful in God. Its quickening influence enters even into our physical life. ‘Hope is not only the fulfilment of the new life, created in regeneration, but also the innermost kernel of the same.’ Weiss.
By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.—δἰ ἀναστάσεως, Calvin, Gerhard, Knapp, and Weiss join it to ἀναγενν.; it seems more natural to connect it with the immediately preceding ζῶσαν; so Œcumenius, Bengel, Steiger, Lachmann and de Wette. The life of this hope flows from the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. “If Christ had not risen from the dead, we should be without consolation and hope, and all the work and sufferings of Christ would be in vain.” Luther. As surely as He has conquered death and entered upon a heavenly life of joy, so surely will those who are members of the Body, whereof He is Head, follow Him, even as we sing: Does the head forget its members, And not draw them after it?
1Pe_1:4. To an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away.—Believers are strangers here on earth, but citizens in heaven; they have therefore in heaven a possession and an inheritance which infinitely excels the inheritance of God’s ancient people in the land of Canaan. The heavenly inheritance (cf. Mat_6:20; Luk_12:33; Luk_10:25; Luk_18:18; Mar_10:17) is (a) incorruptible. It is free alike from the germs of corruption and death, like all things earthly, even those which are seemingly most firm and indestructible, e. g. the precious metals, 1Pe_1:18; 1Pe_1:23; cf. 1Jn_2:17. “Rust does not corrupt it, decay does not consume it, death does not destroy it.” Besser. It comprehends union to Him, who only has immortality and is called ‘the Eternal’ 1Ti_1:17. How could it then be destroyed by any external power? It is (b) undefiled or unblemishable. The earth and the land of Canaan in particular were polluted by fearful bloodshedding and many other horrors. Lev_18:27-28; Num_35:33-34; Eze_36:17; Jer_2:7. Injustice, selfishness, hatred, envy and cunning cleave to temporal possessions. If gathered by avarice, they are compared to loathsome and thick mire, Hab_2:6. Every human body and every human soul is stained with hateful desires and mostly, also, with outward sin. All earthly joy is mingled with displeasure and sorrow. But the possessions of the life above are pure, clean and unstained, and nothing impure can attach itself to them, (c) ‘It fadeth not away.‘ Here the beauty of earthly nature is rapidly passing away, there reigns perpetual spring; here a hot wind may change the most blooming gardens into a wilderness, cf. 1Pe_1:24; Isa_40:6; there no such alternation of blossoming and fading is found, but every thing remains in the beauty of imperishable bloom and verdure. Weiss sees in the three predicates a striking climax. He says that the first denotes the freedom of the heavenly possession from the germs of destructibility and transitoriness, which are inherent in all earthly things, that the second denies its ability to be polluted by outward sin, and the third even the alternation, which makes the beauty of earthly nature pass away at least temporarily. [Ἄφθαρτος æternum durens;—Ἀμίαντος purum—cui nihil mali, nihil vitii est admixtum—ut purum gaudium—gaudium cui nihil tristitiæ admiscetur. ‘Ἀμάραντος non marcescens. Morus.—M.]
Reserved in heaven, τετηρημένην. While here below in the strange country of our pilgrimage all possessions are insecure, the inheritance above is in the surest custody, for it is in the Almighty hand of God. As it has been designed and prepared for believers from everlasting, so it is perpetually kept; and believers, on the other hand, are kept for it, 1Pe_1:5, so that they can in no wise lose it, cf. Col_1:5; 2Ti_4:8; Mat_25:34; Joh_10:28. τετηρ. implies both the certainty and present concealment of the heavenly inheritance. The figure is taken from parents who securely guard something for their children, and then surprise them with it.
1Pe_1:5. Who are kept by the power of God, φρουρεῖν, a military term used of a guard for the protection of a place, or of a strongly garrisoned fortress. Fear not the enemies of your salvation, for you are surrounded by a strong, protecting body-guard, by the power of God and His holy angels, cf. 2Co_11:32; Php_4:7; Son_3:7-8; Zec_2:5; 2Ki_6:16-17. Nothing short of Divine power is needed to protect us from so many strong and subtle enemies, as Peter made experience in his own case. Weiss with Steiger and de Wette explain it of the Holy Ghost. δύναμις Θεοῦ is certainly used in that sense, Luk_1:35, but πνεῦμα ἅγιον goes before. The other passages adduced by them are inconclusive. It seems therefore arbitrary to abandon the relation of the expression to the Omnipotence of God. On what condition do we enjoy that guard? Faith, whose object is not mentioned here in particular, and should be supplied from 1Pe_1:8. It is the same means by which salvation is first procured, then constantly kept up, viz.: acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah and confidently surrendering to Him, which is not identical with obedience, but the source of it, cf. Act_3:16; Act_10:43; Mat_9:22; Mar_5:34; Luk_7:50.
Salvation ready, σωτηρία, יְשׁוּעָה negatively, deliverance from eternal destruction, and positively, introduction to the salvation prepared by Jesus, translation from the power of Satan, sin and death into the perfect life of liberty, righteousness and truth, Act_2:40; Act_4:12; Act_5:31; Act_15:11; 1Pe_1:9; Mat_16:25; Luk_9:56. The former point is predominant as the latter lies rather in κληρονομία. With Peter σωτηρία appears in most intimate connection with the completion of salvation, 1Pe_1:9; 1Pe_4:17-18; Act_2:21; 1Pe_2:2. How much he has it at heart is evident from his using the word three times in this section. He thinks of it not as far distant, but as close at hand, as he says in 1Pe_4:5, “Who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead,“ cf. 1Pe_4:7. Sharing the opinion of the other apostles concerning the nearness of Christ’s Advent to judgment, he describes σωτηρία as ready to be revealed (Jam_5:7-8; Rev_1:3; Rev_22:10; Rev_22:20; Heb_10:25; Heb_10:37; Judges 18; 1Jn_2:18; Rom_13:11-12; 1Co_15:51; 2Co_5:2-3; Php_4:5; 1Th_4:17). “The inheritance to which you are ordained, has been acquired long since and prepared from the beginning of the world, but lies as yet concealed, covered and sealed; but in a short time, it will be opened in a moment and disclosed, so that we may see it.” Luther.
To be revealed, ἀποκαλυφθῆναι, denotes salvation fully disclosed, cf. 1Pe_1:7; 1Pe_4:13; 1Pe_5:1. At 1Pe_1:13 it refers to the announcement of the first advent of Christ, cf. Rom_16:25; and to inward revelation at 1Co_2:10; Gal_1:16; Gal_3:23. In the last time, ἐν καιρῷ ἐσκάτῳ, in the completing period of salvation beginning with the return of Christ, this is elsewhere called συντέλεια τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, Mat_13:39-40; Mat_24:3; Mat_28:20; or ἡ ἐσχάτη ἡμέρα Joh_11:24; Joh_12:24; Joh_12:48. In Hebrew אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים Gen. 69:1; Num_24:14; Deu_4:39; Isa_2:2; Mic_4:1; Eze_38:16; Dan_10:14, where regard is had sometimes more to the beginning, sometimes more to the development of that period The last times of the present system of the world, of the αἰὼν οὖτος are also called ἔσχαται ἡμέραι, 2Ti_3:1; Judges 18; 1Pe_1:20; 2Pe_3:3, or ἐσχάτη ὣρα, 1Jn_2:18; they border upon those συντέλεια, but do not coincide with them. Somewhat different appears the usus loquendi of the Ep. to the Hebrews (Heb_9:26). But ἐπὶ συντέλειᾳ may be rendered, near to the period of completion, which the author thought immediately impending.
1Pe_1:6. Wherein ye greatly rejoice.—Ἐν ᾦ connect not with καιρός, but with the whole preceding sentence, 1Pe_1:4-5. The thought of the great possessions reserved for you, justly fills you with exceeding joy. In this do not let yourselves be disconcerted by quickly passing sufferings of probation, which for your proof are necessary to the happiness of all Christians.
If need be.—Εἰ δέον supposes that the afflictions will not be of uninterrupted continuance and that their duration and measure have been decreed by the wisdom of God, and that they will not be continued one minute longer than is needful for us. Believers also need them in exact adjustment to the degree to which their nature remains as yet uncleansed of the poison of sin.
In heaviness through manifold temptations.—Sufferings cause to the outer man pain and grief, Heb_12:11, while the inner man can rejoice in them.
ποικίλοις πειρασμοῖς; πειρασμ. relates to afflictions differing in kind, sent or permitted by God as trials or tests of the reality of the Christian’s religious principles, as exercising his patience and developing his desire after heavenly things. Among the peculiar temptations to which believers who had left Judaism were exposed, we may mention the contempt and abuse they met at the hands of their former coreligionists, the temporal losses to which they had to submit and the efforts of false teachers to induce them to deny the truth and to effect a mixture of Judaism and Christianity. Cf. Heb_10:32; Jam_1:2; Act_8:1; Act_15:1; Act_14:22; 1Th_3:2 etc.; 2Co_11:23.
1Pe_1:7. That the trial of your faith.—End of the temptations 1Pe_1:7 : The splendour and preciousness of faith is to shine with a brilliancy inversely proportioned to their darkness [i. e. of the temptations, M.] Faith must be tested by temptations which are consequently unable to mar the joy of our hope in Christ.
Τὸ δοκίμιον τῆς πίστεως. δοκίμιον signifies proof-stone, proof, tried integrity. Here it can only be taken in the last sense. The proof of faith=faith abiding the proof or test, or faith verified by trial, cf. Jam_1:3. In the Old Testament, the proof or trial of faith is frequently compared to the trial of gold by the process of smelting or refining by fire, Job_23:10; Psa_46:10; Jer_9:7; Zec_13:9; Mal_3:2. Gold is the most precious metal, but faith is even more precious; as gold is tried, proved and refined by fire, so faith must be proved and refined by the fire of temptations. As the heat of fire separates dross from gold, so all alloy must be separated from faith, all self-reliance on our own wisdom or strength, all dependence on the help of the creature,—ἀπολλυμ. Think of consumitur annulus usu. [Ignatius, a successor of Peter at Antioch, calls his chains “spiritual pearls.” Cyprian, speaking of the dress of virgins, says, that when Christian women suffer martyrdom with faith and courage, then their sufferings are like pretiosa monilia, costly bracelets. See Wordsworth in loco, who notices the following passage from Hermas, Pastor i. 4, p. 440, ed. Dressel: “Aurea pars vos estis; sicut enim per ignem aurum probatur, et utile fit, sic et vos probamini; qui igitur permanserint et probati fuerint, ab eis purgabuntur; et sicut aurum emendatur et remittit sordem suam, sic et vos abjicietis omnem tristitiam (ὀλίγον λυπηθέντες) et emendabimini instructuram turris.—M.”] εὑρεθῇ already now, since often the enemies of truth are constrained to acknowledge such fidelity of faith, innocence and patience, but more in the last days and in the great day of Christ. Mat_25:23; 2Ti_4:8; Heb_12:11; Jam_1:12; Rev_2:8-10.
Unto praise and honour—Jesus Christ.—Εἰς ἕπαινον κ. τ. λ. The reward of grace which the elect shall receive at the return of Christ consists of (a) the praise of their fidelity of faith, cf. Mat_25:21; 1Co_4:5; Rom_2:7; Rom_2:10; 2Th_1:5; (b) the honour which Christ promises to His faithful servants and shows to them, in fact, by the honourable position to which He promotes them, Joh_12:26; cf. 1Sa_2:30; Rev_22:4; Rev_3:21; (c) of the glory, which the father has given to Christ, 1Pe_1:11; 1Pe_1:21; Act_3:13; and which He will communicate to all that are His, 1Pe_4:13; 1Pe_5:1; 1Pe_4:14. τιμή and δόξα occur often conjointly in Paul’s writings, 1Ti_1:17; Rom_2:7; Rom_2:10; Heb_2:7; Heb_2:9. The future glory affecting alike the soul and the body (cf. 1Co_15:43—49; Php_3:21,) appears as the end of the whole work of redemption, (Rom_9:23; 2Co_3:18; 1Co_2:7), and therefore as the main object of Christian hope, Rom_5:2; Col_1:27. The effulgency of God will hereafter shine out of all believers, because they hold the most intimate communion with the glorified Jesus. The completion of the elect shall also redound to the praise, honour and glory of God Himself, cf. Rev_4:11; Rev_5:12-13. The object is probably not mentioned designedly.—Ἐν ἀποκαλ. vide 1Pe_1:5.
1Pe_1:8. Whom having not seen—full of glory.—For the confirmation of their hope the Apostle after having mentioned the name of Jesus, continues in allusion to Joh_20:29 : whom although you have not known by face, yet you love. The relation you sustain to Him is that of the heart. The simplest construction of εἰς ὅν is to connect it with ἀγαλλ., in expectation of whom, and because of whom you greatly rejoice. The present and the future are intertwined. χαρᾷ δεδοξασμένῃ in contrast with the idle and vain joy of the world, denotes a joy from which are separated all impure and obscuring elements, which according to the explanation of Steinmeyer and Weiss, contains glory in the germ, by which the future glory irradiates already the earthly life of Christians, and which anticipates, as it were, the future glory. Roos: “Joy clothed in glory.”
1Pe_1:9. Receiving the end of your faith, κομιζόμενοι. Living hope regards the future as the present. The word is used of competitors in the games, who, upon proving victorious, carry off presents or prizes.—τὸ τέλος, the end to which competitors in the Christian race aspire, cf. 1Co_9:24 etc.; 2Ti_4:7-8; Heb_12:1.—The salvation of the soul is the end of faith and the reward of grace, given to the Christian at the completion of the contest, cf. Act_15:11; 1Pe_1:5.
1Pe_1:10. Of which Salvation—grace that should come unto you.—Connection: This salvation increases in importance and precious-ness, if we consider that the prophets did with the utmost eagerness inquire into the means and time of salvation, and that even the happy angels desired to have an insight of this mystery. How happy are we to whom is revealed, what was concealed from them! ἐκζητεῖν, to make most diligent and zealous inquiry into a thing and to regard it from every point of view. ἐξερευνᾷν=כָּרָה,חָקַר, used of miners engaged in digging for precious metals in the bowels of the earth. They have searched with a diligence like that displayed in the mining of gold and silver, cf. Job_28:15-19; Pro_3:14-18. περὶ τῆς εἰς ὑμᾶς χάριτος. They did prophesy of the saving grace, which by the life, the sufferings and the death of Christ has risen upon a sinful world (the whole world of sinners). This grace is no longer represented to you by various types, but has become real. Cf. Joh_1:17.
1Pe_1:11. What, or what manner of time—glory that should follow.—Εἰς τίνα ἢ ποῖον καιρόν. Their inquiries were not only of a general character, how many years would have to elapse to the advent of the Messiah, but had also particular reference to the peculiar condition and characteristics of that time and to the relations of the Jewish people to foreign powers. τὸ ἐν αὐτο͂ς πν. Χριστοῦ. The explanation, ‘the spirit testifying of Christ,’ which is even found in Bengel, is inadmissible on grammatical grounds. Perhaps it may be conceived as follows: The same Spirit of God, the Messianic Spirit, who in the course of time operated in the person of Christ, revealed himself in the prophets; sic Schmid II., de Wette, Weiss. But more simple and natural appears the ancient interpretation, that it was the spirit belonging to the preëxisting Messiah from eternity, and which He was consequently able to impart to the prophets. Thus the preëxisting Messiah is mentioned at 1Co_10:4; 1Co_10:9. Weiss quotes Barnabas (Ephesians 5 Hefele patres apost. Opp. ed. 3, 1847,): prophetæ ab ipso habentes donum prophetarunt, and Calvin: veteres prophetias a Christo ipso dictatas, cf. 5:20; Joh_12:41; Col_1:17.—τὰ εἰς Χριστὸν παθήμ. Sufferings in store for, waiting for Christ.—τὰς μετὰ ταῦτα δόξας, sufferings and glory are thus connected, Luk_24:26; cf. Mat_16:21. It is a treasure of glories, of which Christ has taken possession and which will be fully revealed at the marriage of the Lamb, Rev_19:7.
1Pe_1:12. Unto whom—look into. Ἀποκαλ. relates to the communication of things new, and previously unknown, cf. Mat_10:26; Rom_1:18; 1Co_3:13. ὁτι—αὐτὰ. sc. παθημ. κ. δοξ. should be treated as a parenthesis in answer to the question, Why were those things revealed to them, seeing they were not permitted to realize their fulfilment? It was not done for their sake, but for ours; they were thereby to minister unto us.—εὐαγγελισαμένων ὑμᾶς, who have evangelized you, brought you the glad tidings. From this it may be inferred that others besides Peter had first preached the Gospel to those Christians, at all events that he was not their only teacher.—ἀποσταλέντι ἀπ̓ οὐραν. cf. Luk_24:49; Act_2:2, etc.; Gal_4:6; Joh_15:26. While in the Old Testament we frequently meet with the expression that the Spirit fell on the prophets, Eze_8:1; Eze_11:5; denoting the suddenness, the passing and overpowering nature of His influence, He is in the New Testament said to be sent.—παρακύψαι properly to stand by and stoop down, in order to examine something very closely, to look at something with the countenance bent down. The salvation, revealed by Jesus Christ, contains a wealth of thoughts and ideas that is unfathomable even to the angels, cf. Jam_1:25; Eph_3:10. Their looking into has already begun and is still continuing. This is indicated by the Aorist. [Wordsworth: This high and holy mystery which represents the angels themselves bending over the Word of God enshrined in the Ark of the Church, was symbolized by the figures of the Cherubimof Glory spreading their wings, and bending their faces, and shadowing the Mercy-seat, in the Holy of Holies, upon the Ark, in which were kept the Tables of the Law written by God (Exo_25:18-22; Heb_9:4-5); and by the side of which was the Pentateuch. Deu_31:24-26.—M.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
(1). The circumstance that the first person in the Godhead is described as the God and Father of Jesus Christ, points indisputably to a certain dependence of the Being of Christ on the Father, not only with respect to the humanity of our Lord, but, also, with respect to His Divine nature. Thus Christ called the Father His God, even after His resurrection, Joh_20:17; Rev_3:12; Rev_2:7. With this agree the expressions of the Apostles, Eph_1:17; Rom_15:6; 2Co_11:31; Col_1:3. Where the three supreme names are mentioned together, the Father only is called God by emphasis, 1Pe_1:1-2; 2Co_13:13; 1Co_12:4-6; 1Co_3:23; 1Co_11:3; Rev_1:4-6. Nevertheless, the Scriptures teach us firmly to maintain the true Divinity of Christ, although, the quo modo Of such simultaneous equality and dependence of Being transcends our powers of comprehension. The filial relation among men affords, however, an analogy. [Cf. the following section of the Athanasian Creed:—“Sed necessarium est ad æternam Salutem, ut Incarnationem quoque Domini nostri Jesu Christi fideliter credat. Est ergo Fides recta, ut credamus et confiteamur, quia Dominus noster Jesus Christus, Dei Filius, Deus pariter et Homo est. Deus est ex Substantia Patris ante sæcula genitus: Homo ex Substantia Matris in sæcula natus. Perfectus Deus, perfectus Homo ex anima rationali et humana carne subsistens. Æqualis Patri secundum Divinitatem: Minor Patre secundum Humanitatem. Qui licet Deus sit et Homo, non duo tamen, sed unus est Christus. Unus autem, non conversione Divinitatis in Carnem, sed adsumtione Humanitatis in Deum. Unus omnino, non confusione Substantiæ, sed unitate Personæ. Nam sicut Anima rationalis et Caro unus est Homo; ita Deus et Homo unus est Christus.” Fides Catholica 1:27–35.—M.]
(2). As corporeal life presupposes birth, so does spiritual life, Joh_3:3, and just as man is unable to beget and bring forth himself into physical and earthly life, so his spiritual generation and new-birth are equally independent of himself.
(3). As there are two men in every true Christian, a new man and an old one, so heaviness in manifold temptation and rejoicing may readily co-exist, 1Pe_1:6.
(4). Our Lord’s return has been one of the fundamental articles of the faith of universal Christendom in every age of the Church’s history. To hide this important doctrine under a bushel, is at once a defect of teaching and in opposition to the mind of Christ and His apostles, 1Pe_1:7. It is to be noticed that the return of Christ shall be preceded, not only by several ages, but also, by several ends of ages, with typical final judgments, as St. Paul speaks of τέλη τῶν αἰώνων. The flood, the dispersion of the ten tribes, the judgment on Judah, but especially the destruction of Jerusalem and the conquest of Palestine, were in a certain sense such final judgments, cf. 1Co_10:11.
(5). 1Pe_1:10-12, afford us an insight into the mode of prophetic inspiration, and into the relation of the Divine influence and the free mental activity of the prophets. They met, as it were, the Spirit of God with their earnest longings for salvation; the Spirit communicated to them the main burden of prophecy; while the time and details of the beginning of salvation were left to their researches and inquiries. They made a free appropriation of what the Spirit had disclosed to them, and sought to apply it to time and circumstances.
[The Scripture facts on the subject of inspiration are as follows: the subjects of inspiration were permitted to make diligent and faithful research (Luk_1:1-4), to clothe the same thought in different language (cf. Mat_26:26-27; Luk_22:19-20; 1Co_11:24-25; also Mat_3:17; Mar_1:11; Luk_3:22), give distinctive colouring to their accounts; according to the circumstances that grouped round their individuality (compare the character and early associations of the four Evangelists, as well as the scope of each Gospel, compare, also, the style of Ezekiel and Isaiah, of John and Paul), to cite other inspired authorities (Psalms 108 and Psa_57:7-11; Psa_60:5-12, etc.), to use uninspired documents (Jos_10:13; Num_21:14; Jude 9.14, 15), they sometimes were uncertain of the precise meaning and application of their message (1Pe_1:10-12; Dan_12:8, etc.) and their message was delivered in language approved by the Divine Spirit (1Pe_1:10-11; Dan_12:8; 2Ti_3:16; Heb_1:1; 1Co_2:12-13), see Angus’s Bible Handbook, §§ 146–150, for a brief account of Inspiration. “Inspiration is such an immediate and complete discovery by the Holy Spirit, to the minds of the sacred writers, of those things which could not have otherwise been known, and such an effectual superintendence as to those matters which they might have been informed of by other means—as entirely preserved them from error in every particular, which could in the least affect any of the doctrines or precepts contained in their books.” Scott’s Essays.—M.]
(6). Since, according to 1Pe_1:11, the Spirit of Christ wrought in the prophets, the prophetical writings must possess an authority not inferior to the testimony of Christ in the New Testament. Both Testaments contain one and the same principle of revelation, one kernel and centre; but while the Old Testament is only the threshold and fore-testimony of the New Testament, the New Testament is the end and fulfilment of the Old.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Christianity is essentially a life of hope—it is founded on living hope. The eye of faith looks out for the glorious revelation of Jesus Christ from heaven, for the first resurrection, for the heavenly city of peace (Jerusalem), for the precious inheritance, for the new heaven and the new earth.—He that has become conscious of his sinfulness and manifold bondage and has fixed his eye on the heavenly treasure, must needs celebrate the praises of God.—Without regeneration there is no partaking ‘of the heavenly inheritance.—Nothing short of Divine power is sufficient to keep us unto salvation.—The hope of faith is the root out of which grows the fruit of a spiritual joy, serene and triumphant over pain.—When the Christian contemplates the glorious fruit and its consequences, he can rejoice at what most deeply pains the children of this world.
The mystery of afflictions and temptations in believers.—The solution of the riddle lies in their scope—proof, separation from dross, exercise and purification.—The world’s joy never comes up to the terms in which its praises are published in speech or in song, while the opposite holds good of Christian joy.—What must be the character of such as desire to be partakers of the kingdom of Christ?—Disparity and similarity in the disposition and situation of believers of the Old and New Testaments.—The sweet harmony of the prophets in their predictions of Christ.—The Holy Ghost the best Teacher.
The words of Jesus and the Apostles a precious key to the right understanding of prophecy.—If the angels greatly desire to look into the mysteries of the plan of salvation, who are represented by the Cherubim on the mercy-seat, how much more highly ought we to prize the knowledge of salvation in Christ!
Starke:—Would you give the consolation of 1Pe_1:3-9 for an empire? If the hope be living, the inheritance is sure, viz., the crown that never fades, the treasure that none can steal. Abide the heat. How short is suffering—how long the glittering eternity! Heavenly life God will give above, evermore my heart shall praise Him.
Hedinger:—Regeneration is solely the work of God all-merciful, who helps the wretched from a spiritual death to spiritual life.—Children and friends inherit our goods; those therefore who desire to receive the heavenly inheritance must be the children and friends of God, Rom_8:16-17.—If you find this present time sorrowful and anxious, have patience; in the world you shall have tribulation: look joyfully forward to the last time that shall put an end to all grief, and bring you eternal glory.—God knows best what medicine He has to use for and what burdens He has to lay on each, in order to kill the old Adam.—As gold is the most precious metal, so faith is the most noble of the manifold gifts in the kingdom of grace, and as much passes for faith without being it, so the cross decides its genuineness.—The sum-total of the doctrine of Christ treats of His humiliation and exaltation. For Christ had to drink of the brook and therefore shall He lift up His head, Psa_110:7; suffer and enter into glory.—If any be bowed down with grief, let him take comfort from the example of Christ and the words of the Apostle: suffering first, glory after. The reverse takes place among the children of this world, with them joy comes first, and then grief, 2Ti_2:12; Luk_6:25.—Kapff:—What is genuine faith? 1. A birth out of (emanating from) God; 2. an assurance of what is unseen; 3. an inheritance of eternal life.—Lisco:—Christian hope; (a) its foundation; (b) its object; (c) its power; (d) its glorious reward.—Eternal salvation: (a) it was the object of the longing of the holy prophets; (b) it is made to depend on a certain order; (c) it is announced to all as existing.—The blessedness of Christian hope; (a) it flows from mercy; (b) it is the most precious of all possessions; (c) nothing can pluck it from us. What is the glorious goal which the children of the kingdom go forth to meet? (a) This goal is the heavenly inheritance; (b) it is founded on the mercy of God; (c) the way to it, persevering faith, is not without manifold tribulation; (d) it was the object of the longing of all the saints of old.—The living hope to which we Christians are born again, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; 1. its preciousness in respect of its cause, object and influence; 2. its certainty; (a) the love and faith of the members of Christ; (b) from the declarations of the prophets and evangelists. The Christian’s gladness in sadness; 1. because of the life of regeneration; 2. because of his inheritance; 3. because of Divine protection; 4. because of suffering; 5. because of future joy.—Staudt.
[1Pe_1:3-4, 1. The Christian’s title to the heavenly inheritance—begotten again; 2. his assurance of it—a lively hope; 3. the immediate cause of both—Jesus Christ. 4. The source—the abundant mercy of God.—A living hope; the world’s highest motto is ‘dum spiro spero,’ the Christian may add ‘dum expiro spero!’—Abundant mercy. Great sins and great miseries need great mercy, and many sins and many miseries need many mercies. (Bernard).—Love will stammer rather than be dumb.
1Pe_5:5. “Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks;” what more safe than to be walled with salvation itself? cf. Pro_18:10.—1Pe_5:6. The battle tries the soldier, the storm the pilot.—Christian militant—dignum Deo spectaculum.
1Pe_5:7. An unskillful beholder may think it strange to see gold thrown into the fire and left there for a time; but he that puts it there, would be loath to lose it; his purpose is to make some costly piece of work of it; every believer gives himself to Christ, and He undertakes to present him blameless unto the Father; not one of them shall be lost, nor one drachm of faith; they shall be found, and their faith shall be found, when He appears. That faith that is here in the furnace, shall be then made up into a crown of pure gold, it shall be found unto praise and honour and glory.
1Pe_5:8. The sun seems less than the wheel of a chariot; but reason teaches the philosopher that it is much larger than the whole earth; and the cause why it seems so little is its great distance. The naturally wise man is as far deceived by this carnal reason in his estimate of Jesus Christ, the Sun of righteousness, and the cause is the same, his great distance from Him, cf. Psa_10:5.—“If I have any possessions, health, credit, learning, this is all the contentment I have of them, that I have somewhat I may despise for Christ, who is totus desiderabilis et totum desiderabile.” Greg Nazian. Orat. 1.—There is an inseparable intermixture of love with belief. If you ask, how shall I do to love, I answer, believe. If you ask, how shall I believe? I answer, love.—Joy unspeakable.—It were a poor thing if he that hath it, could tell it all out. (Pauperis est numerare pecus). And when the soul has most of it, then it remains most within itself, and is so inwardly taken up with it that it can then least of all express it. It is with joys, as they say of cares and griefs, leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent. The deepest waters run stillest. True joy is a solid, grave thing (Res severa est verum gaudium. Sen.), dwells more in the heart than in the face; whereas base and false joys are but superficial, skin-deep (as we say); they are all in the face.—Lauda mellis dulcedinem quantum potes, qui non gustaverit, non intelliget.—Aug.—1Pe_1:12. The true preachers of the gospel, though their ministerial gifts are for the use of others, yet that salvation they preach, they lay hold on and partake of themselves, as your boxes wherein perfumes are kept for garments and other uses, are themselves perfumed by keeping them! From Leighton by M.]
Footnotes:
[4]1Pe_1:3. [Regeneravit nos.—Vulg.—M.]
[5] 1Pe_1:3. [German:—“Who, according to His manifold mercy, hath begotten us again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, unto a living hope.”—M.]
[Translate:……begat us again unto……through the resurrection, etc.—M.]
[Cod. Sin.—διὰ for δι’.—M.]
[6] 1Pe_1:4. [Text. Rec. ἡμᾶς. A. B. C. K. L., ὑμᾶς; so also most of the Versions.—M.]
[Cod. Sin.—ἀμάρ. κ. ἀμίαντ·—ἐν οὐράνῳ—M.]
[7]1Pe_1:5. [Guarded.—Gal_3:23.—M.]
[8] 1Pe_1:5. [εἰς, till.—Act_4:3; Php_1:10; Gal_3:13; Gal_3:24; 1Th_4:15; cf. also 2Pe_2:4.—M.]
[Calvin:—Quid juvat, salutem nobis in cœlo esse repositam, quum nos in mundo tanquam in turbulento mari jactemur? quid juvat, salutem nostram statui in tranquillo portu, quum inter mille naufragia fluctuemur? Praevenit Apostolus ejusmodi objectiones, etc.—M.]
[Bengel: “Hæreditas servata est; hæredes custodiuntur; neque illa his, neque hi deerunt illi. Corroboratio insignis.”—M.]
[Aretius:—“Militare est vocabulum φρουρά: præsidium. Pii igitur dum sunt inpericulis, sciant totidem eis divinitus parata esse præsidia: millia millium custodeunt eos.”—M.]
[Cod. Sin.—ἑτοίμως.—M.]
[German:—“Which is already prepared.”—M.]
[9] 1Pe_1:6. [ἐνᾦ, “in the which tyme.”—Tyndale.—M.]
[Cod. Sin.—*δέον without ἐστιν.—*λυπηθέντες.—M.]
[German:—“Whereat ye rejoice; who now, if it must be so, are for a little time (or a little) afflicted in manifold temptations.”—M.]
[Translate:—“In which (time) ye rejoice, for a little time at present (Alford), if it must be so, having been afflicted, in—“M.]
[10]1Pe_1:7. [δοκίμιον probably = δοκιμασία, proof Jam_1:3. Proof comes nearer the German than trial.—M.]
[11] 1Pe_1:7. [δοκιμάζειν probare, whence the German pruefen, erprobt, and the English prove.—M.]
[German:—“That your faith in its proof may be found much more precious than perishable gold, which is also proved by fire, unto praise and honour and glory in the revelation,” etc.—M.]
[Cod. Sin.—πολυτιμότερον.—δοκ. κ. τιμ.—M.]
[12]1Pe_1:7. [εἰς, resulting in. See Robinson s. v. εἰς 3. a.—M.]
[13]1Pe_1:7. [ ἀποκαλύψεͅι = in revelation. Vulg. Wicl.—M.]
[14] 1Pe_1:8. [ Lachmann and Tischend. ἰδόντες, but εἰδότες is also strongly supported.—M.]
[Cod. Sin., agrees with the former.—M.]
[15]1Pe_1:8. [ Laetitia glorificata—Vulg., Germ., Wicl., Geneva, Alford. Triumphant joy.—Brown.—M.]
[16] 1Pe_1:9. [ Receiving the end of your faith; rather, “carrying off the end of your faith”.—M.]
[This is the sense of κομιζω in middle; see Liddell and Scott s. v. ii. 2.—Reportantes, Vulg.—M.]
1Pe_1:10. [Cod. Sin.—ἐξηραύν. with A. B΄.—M.]
1Pe_1:11. [Cod. Sin.—ἐραυν. with B΄.—M.]
[17]1Pe_1:11. [ Quo et quali tempore.—Jaspis. “In relation to whom and what time.”—Purver.—M.]
[18] 1Pe_1:12. [ ὑμῖν is the more authentic reading.—M.]
[ἡμῖν Rec. K. Syr. Copt, ὑμῖν A. B. C. L., Cod. Sin.—M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–5 He begins, like Paul, in opening his Epistles with…
He begins, like Paul, in opening his Epistles with giving thanks to God for the greatness of the salvation; herein he looks forward (1) into the future (Pe1 1:3-9); (2) backward into the past (Pe1 1:10-12) [ALFORD].
Blessed--A distinct Greek word (eulogetos, "Blessed BE") is used of God, from that used of man (eulogemenos, "Blessed IS").
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Father--This whole Epistle accords with the Lord's prayer; "Father," Pe1 1:3, Pe1 1:14, Pe1 1:17, Pe1 1:23; Pe1 2:2; "Our," Pe1 1:4, end; "In heaven," Pe1 1:4; "Hallowed be Thy name," Pe1 1:15-16; Pe1 3:15; "Thy kingdom come," Pe1 2:9; "Thy will be done," Pe1 2:15; Pe1 3:17; Pe1 4:2, Pe1 4:19; "daily bread," Pe1 5:7; "forgiveness of sins," Pe1 4:8, Pe1 4:1; "temptation," Pe1 4:12; "deliverance," Pe1 4:18 [BENGEL]; Compare Pe1 3:7; Pe1 4:7, for allusions to prayer. "Barak," Hebrew "bless," is literally "kneel." God, as the original source of blessing, must be blessed through all His works.
abundant--Greek, "much," "full." That God's "mercy" should reach us, guilty and enemies, proves its fulness. "Mercy" met our misery; "grace," our guilt.
begotten us again--of the Spirit by the word (Pe1 1:23); whereas we were children of wrath naturally, and dead in sins.
unto--so that we have.
lively--Greek, "living." It has life in itself, gives life, and looks for life as its object [DE WETTE]. Living is a favorite expression of Peter (Pe1 1:23; Pe1 2:4-5). He delights in contemplating life overcoming death in the believer. Faith and love follow hope (Pe1 1:8, Pe1 1:21-22). "(Unto) a lively hope" is further explained by "(To) an inheritance incorruptible . . . fadeth not away," and "(unto) salvation . . . ready to be revealed in the last time." I prefer with BENGEL and STEIGER to join as in Greek, "Unto a hope living (possessing life and vitality) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Faith, the subjective means of the spiritual resurrection of the soul, is wrought by the same power whereby Christ was raised from the dead. Baptism is an objective means (Pe1 3:21). Its moral fruit is a new life. The connection of our sonship with the resurrection appears also in Luk 20:36; Act 13:33. Christ's resurrection is the cause of ours, (1) as an efficient cause (Co1 15:22); (2) as an exemplary cause, all the saints being about to rise after the similitude of His resurrection. Our "hope" is, Christ rising from the dead hath ordained the power, and is become the pattern of the believer's resurrection. The soul, born again from its natural state into the life of grace, is after that born again unto the life of glory. Mat 19:28, "regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory"; the resurrection of our bodies is a kind of coming out of the womb of the earth and entering upon immortality, a nativity into another life [BISHOP PEARSON]. The four causes of our salvation are; (1) the primary cause, God's mercy; (2) the proximate cause, Christ's death and resurrection; (3) the formal cause, our regeneration; (4) the final cause, our eternal bliss. As John is the disciple of love, so Paul of faith, and Peter of hope. Hence, Peter, most of all the apostles, urges the resurrection of Christ; an undesigned coincidence between the history and the Epistle, and so a proof of genuineness. Christ's resurrection was the occasion of his own restoration by Christ after his fall.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv3–5 I. THE BLESSEDNESS AND GLORY OF THE GOSPEL SALVATION,…
I. THE BLESSEDNESS AND GLORY OF THE GOSPEL SALVATION, 1Pe_1:3 to 1Pe_2:8.
1. Hope looking toward the heavenly inheritance, 1Pe_1:3-5.
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3. Blessed—With an outburst of joy the apostle directs the thoughts of his suffering brethren toward the much mercy which has prepared for them the heavenly inheritance, so glorious in comparison with their present condition.
God… Father—”God who is the Father of Jesus Christ,” says Steiger; thus distinguishing him from all other gods, and declaring him as known only in his Son.
Begotten us again—Once spiritually dead and without hope; now brought into a new life by the Holy Spirit, through whom the merciful God regenerates us.
Lively hope—Better, living hope, the result of the new birth. Both Jews and heathen had a belief in a future state, but a new life is given to the hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What before was theory, is now become demonstrated fact. Christ’s resurrection is a pledge to all his people of their own resurrection. Their hope of it, and of the glory that shall follow, is full of life and vigour, and stirs them to ceaseless endeavours to gain the blessed end.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–5 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our…
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ] Here again we note the close correspondence with the opening words of two of St Paul’s Epistles (2Co_1:3, Eph_1:3). It is, of course, possible that both have adopted what was a common inheritance from Jewish devout feeling, modified by the new faith in Christ; but looking to the reproduction of Pauline phrases in other instances, the idea of derivation seems on the whole the most probable.
which according to his abundant mercy] Literally, as in the margin, “his much or great mercy.” The thought, though here not the phraseology, is identical with St Paul’s “being rich in mercy” (Eph_2:4). In the prominence thus given to the “mercy” of God, as shewn in His redeeming and sanctifying work, we recognise the conviction that those who were the objects of His favour were at once wretched, and unworthy of it through their guilt, and that His pity for that wretchedness was the source of the “grace” or “favour” which He had thus shewn to them.
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hath begotten us again unto a lively hope] Better perhaps “a living hope,” a hope not destined, as human hopes proverbially were, to be frail and perishable, but having in it the elements of a perennial life. And this was brought about by God’s regenerating work on and in the soul. The word which St Peter uses is peculiar to him among the writers of the New Testament, and meets us again in 1Pe_1:23. The thought, however, is common to him with St James (“of His own will begat He us,” Jas_1:18), with St Paul (“the washing of regeneration,” Tit_3:5), and with our Lord’s teaching (“except a man be born again”) as recorded by St John (Joh_3:5). It is noticeable that St Peter, who elsewhere (chap. 1Pe_3:21) lays so much stress on baptism, does not here refer to it as the instrument of the new birth, but goes further back to the Resurrection of Christ as that without which baptism and faith would have been alike ineffectual. In this also his teaching is substantially at one with St Paul’s, who sees in baptism that in which we are at once “buried with Christ,” and raised by and with Him to “newness of life” (Rom_6:3-4).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv3–5 (3) Blessed.—A form consecrated to God alone (e.g., Mar_14:61;…
(3) Blessed.—A form consecrated to God alone (e.g., Mar_14:61; Rom_9:5; 2Co_11:31), a completely different word from the “blessed,” or happy, of the Beatitudes; and differing from the “blessed” of the Virgin Mary (Luk_1:28; Luk_1:42) in that this form implies that blessing is always due on account of something inherent in the person, while that only implies that a blessing has been received. The idea of blessing God (literally, speaking Him well, Psa_100:3) is, of course, wholly Hebrew.
Of our Lord Jesus Christ.—No longer only “the Lord God of Israel,” as, e.g., 1Ch_29:10; 2Ch_6:4; Luk_1:68; He is now in a nearer, tenderer relation to these members of the new covenant. He is the Father of the Messiah, and yet the God whom Jesus adores (Joh_20:17).
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Which according to his abundant mercy.—This is the reason for which God deserves blessing from us. The word “according” never means exactly the same as “in” or “by”; here it rather shows that the particular instance was in keeping with what might have been expected, had we but known, from the “much pity” which God must have felt for creatures so forlorn. Our regeneration was no sudden capricious favour.
Hath begotten us again.—Rather, begat us again—the historical moment being here given as that of the resurrection of Christ. This great word, which is St. Peter’s own, being only found again in 1Pe_1:20, evidently contains the whole meaning of the being “born from above” or “begotten all over again” of Joh_3:3, of the “fresh creation” of 2Co_5:17, Gal_6:15, of the “regeneration” of Tit_3:5, of the “begotten of God” in St. John’s Epistle, and (to a certain extent) of the “brought He us forth” of Jas_1:18. It seems to indicate that, if it takes effect, it makes a complete change not only in the condition and prospects of the man, but in the man himself: such a change, for example, as would pass over an animal if it were suddenly to receive the powers of a human being. It is no metaphor when the change from the natural man to a man united with the Incarnate God is described as an act of creation parallel only to those of the creation of matter and force (Gen_1:1-2), the creation of life (Gen_1:21), and the creation of humanity (Gen_1:27), for, according to St. Peter’s teaching, we are thus actually made “partakers of the divine nature” (2Pe_1:4).
Unto a lively hope.—Or, into a living hope. Before this regeneration there was nothing to look forward to—at best a kind of dead-alive surmise that there might be something beyond the weary world. But as the animal we have imagined would find himself suddenly new-begotten into a state in which he was conscious of himself and of God, so we found ourselves new-begotten into a state of definite and most energetic expectation of whole sæcula sæculorum—worlds beyond worlds—of bliss before us.
By the resurrection of Jesus Christ.—Mystically speaking, the moment of our emergence into this new glow of expectation was that when the Messiah Jesus, who had been cut off, emerged from among the dead. Then we saw it all! St. Peter, indeed, is speaking, so far as himself was concerned, not mystically, but literally, as his history before and after the Resurrection shows. To him, and to the other Apostles, the Resurrection was a regeneration, and they became new beings. To subsequent Christians precisely the same effect takes place when (suddenly or gradually) the fact of the Resurrection is acknowledged and its significance realised. (See what St. Paul says, Php_3:10.) Yet we must not confine the meaning of the words to the effects of this conscious realisation. St. Peter is viewing the transaction theologically, i.e., from God’s point of view, not phenomenally, from man’s. He speaks of the begetting, not of the being born—of the Resurrection itself, not of the preaching of the Resurrection. To God, with whom, according to St. Peter, time does not exist (2Pe_3:8), there is no interval between His begetting of Christ again from the dead (Act_13:33; Rev_1:5), and His begetting of us again thereby. In the mystery of our union with the Incarnate Word, His historical resurrection did, through baptism, in some ineffable manner, infuse into us the grace which makes new creatures of us. Archbishop Leighton says well, “Not only is it (the Resurrection) the exemplar, but the efficient cause of our new birth.” (See below, 1Pe_3:21, and Rom_6:4.)
(3-12) PANEGYRIC OF THE GOSPEL FROM A HEBREW POINT OF VIEW.—The Apostle thanks God for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That fact is a regeneration of us, and a pledge of future glory, in view of which such afflictions as beset the Asiatic Hebrews were seen to serve a purpose, and that purpose the very “salvation” which had formed the theme of the Old Testament.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv3–5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord…
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Greek word rendered "blessed" (eujloghtov) is used by the New Testament writers only of God; the participle eujloghmenov is said of men. St. Peter adopts the doxology used by St. Paul in writing to the Churches at Corinth and Ephesus (2Co_1:3; Eph_1:3) the last being one of those to which this Epistle is addressed. It is a question whether the genitive, "of our Lord Jesus Christ," depends on both substantives or only on the last. The Greek will admit either view, and there are high authorities on both sides. On the whole, the first seems the most natural interpretation. The Lord himself had said, "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God". (Joh_20:17) He could not say, "our God," for the relations are widely different; he could say, "my God," as he had said upon the cross; for, in the well-known words of Theophylact, "he is both the God and the Father of one and the same Christ; his God, as of Christ manifest in the flesh; his Father, as of God the Word." So St. Paul, after using this same form of salutation in Eph_1:3, speaks of God in the seventeenth verse as "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory". (comp. also Rom_15:6; 2Co_11:31; Col_1:3) Which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; rather, begat, as in the Revised Version. St. Peter refers our regeneration back to the great fact of the resurrection of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is "the First-begotten of the; (Rev_1:5) we are "buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead". (Col_2:12) The Church, "which is his body", (Eph_1:23) died with him in his death, rose with him in his resurrection. Christians individually are baptized into his death, "that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life". (Rom_6:4) The resurrection of Christ was in a real sense the birth of the Church. Therefore St. Peter, who in 1Pe_3:21 speaks so strongly of the effect of holy baptism, here refers oar regeneration to that without which baptism would be an empty ceremony, the resurrection of our Lord. God"s great mercy (Eph_2:4, Eph_2:5, "God, who is rich in mercy.... hath quickened us together with Christ is the first cause of our new birth, Christ"s resurrection is the means through which it was accomplished. St. Peter alone of the New Testament writers uses the word here rendered "hath begotten again" (ajnagennhsav); it occurs also in ver. 23. But our Lord himself, and his apostles St. James and St. Paul, teach the same truth to similar words. (see Joh_3:5; Jam_1:18; Tit_3:5) Some commentators, as Luther, Bengel, etc., connect the words, "by the resurrection," etc., not with "hath begotten us again," but with the word lively" or "living a hope that liveth through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This connection is grammatically possible, and gives a good and true meaning; it is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ which makes the Christian"s hope living and strong; but the other explanation seems more natural, and is supported by such passages as Rom_4:25, and 1Pe_3:21 of this Epistle. The heavenly inheritance is the ultimate end of our regeneration; the hope of that inheritance is the present joy of the Christian life. St. Paul reminds the Ephesian Christians that when they were without Christ they had no hope; (Eph_2:12) but God according to his great mercy begat us again into a new life, and one important aspect of that new life is hope, the hope of ever-deepening fellowship with God now, of everlasting life with God in heaven. That hope is living; it is "pervaded with life, carrying with it in undying power the certainty of fulfillment, (Rom_5:5) and making the heart joyful and happy." (Huther); "it has life in itself, and gives life, and has life as its object" (De Wette). And it liveth, it doth not perish like the hopes of this world, but it lives on in ever fuller joy till it reaches its consummation in heaven; even there "hope abideth," forever in heaven there will be, it seems, a continual progress from glory to glory, nearer and nearer to the throne. St. Peter is the apostle of hope. He loves," says Bengel, "the epithet living, and the mention of hope.
Vers. 3-12.
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Thanksgiving.
I FOR THE HOPE OF THE CHRISTIAN.
1. The ground of that hope. It is the mercy of God. We need to pray constantly, "Have mercy upon us, miserable sinners;" for, indeed, we are sinners, and sinners must be miserable, unless God is pleased to forgive them and to reconcile them to himself. But God did more than forgive; in his mercy he begat us again. The heavenly inheritance is ours by right of the new birth; we hope for it because we are children of God. We were by nature children of wrath, (Eph_2:3) but God begat us again; and, if we are children, then are we heirs, heirs of God.
2. The character of that hope. It is a living hope. It is the hope of life, and it is full of life; it is bright, active, cheerful; it springs up ever fresh and clear in the Christian"s heart, giving calm peace and inner joy even in the midst of troubles. And it dieth not; worldly hopes perish and die; they mock us with a deluding expectation, but they end in disappointment, and leave us sad and hopeless. "The hope of unjust men perisheth", (Pro_11:7) often while they live, always when they die. But "the righteous hath hope in his death"; (Pro_14:32) for his hope liveth even in death. "The world," says Archbishop Leighton, "dares say no more for its device than Dum spiro spero; but the children of God can add by virtue of this living hope, Dum exspiro spero.
3. The means by which we are begotten again into that hope. It was by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The new birth is sometimes ascribed, says Archbishop Leighton, "to the subordinate means to baptism, called therefore the laver of regeneration; (Tit_3:5) to the Word of God; (Jam_1:18) to the ministers of this Word, as 1Co_4:15, " For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus have I begotten you through the gospel." But these subordinate means derive their efficacy from the mercy of God saving us through the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the only begotten Son. His resurrection was in some sense a birth into a new life of mediation and intercession. Compare St. Paul"s application of Psa_2:7, "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee," to our Lord"s resurrection. (Act_13:33) And it is the cause of our new birth. St. Paul speaks of rising with Christ in baptism; (Col_2:12) but we can only rise with Christ through his resurrection. That resurrection is "not only the exemplar, but the efficient cause" of the living hope on which St. Peter loves to dwell" (Leighton).
4. The object of that hope. It is the heavenly inheritance. It is God who fills his people"s hearts with the hope of that inheritance. He enlightens the eyes of their understanding, that they may know "what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints". (Eph_1:18) That inheritance is
(1) incorruptible; like the peace of God which is its foretaste on earth, it passeth understanding; it hath not entered into the heart of man; we can only describe it by contraries; we know rather what it is not, than what it is. It is not corruptible. Here we are "inter peritura perituri" (Leighton); we perish, our best possessions perish. There they die no more; their inheritance of gladness is like themselves, incorruptible. Here the very heavens shall perish; they shall wax old as a garment; (Heb_1:11) the new heavens and the new earth, which are the inheritance of the saints, abide forever.
(2) It is undefiled. Here the trail of the serpent is over all things; men"s hearts, lives, conversation, bear the taint of evil; the earth has been marred by the sin of man; there is no earthly beauty, no earthly possession, free from blemish. The heavenly inheritance is wholly pure; "the street of the city is pure gold, as it were transparent glass;" nothing that defileth can enter there.
(3) It fadeth not away. The lapse of time cloth not affect it, for it is timeless, eternal. There is no old age there, but perpetual youth. The best joys of earth fade into weariness; there is no weariness in heaven; the new song never wearies the blessed. The joy of God"s presence is never obscured there. Gods saints sometimes have "sweet presences of God here, but they are short, and often interrupted; but there no cloud shall come betwixt them and their Sun; they shall behold him in his full brightness for ever" (Leighton).
5. The certainty of that inheritance which is the object of our hope.
(1) It is reserved in heaven for God"s elect. Its preciousness is shown by its being in heaven, and by its being reserved for God"s chosen. He reserves it for them; therefore none can take their crown, none can spoil them of their reward, for God, who hath reserved it for them from the beginning, is able to keep it unto that day.
(2) They are guarded unto salvation. The inheritance is reserved for them; they are guarded from the evil. (Joh_17:15) God careth for them; his angels by his appointment succor and defend them. Their Guardian is almighty. "Fear not," he saith, "for I am with thee." They need only faith to look above, to grasp the promises, to cling to the Savior"s strength.
(3) That salvation is ready to be revealed. It is veiled from us now; but the veil shall be withdrawn in the last time. Then shall "thine eyes see the King in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off" (Isa_33:17). Now we must live in hope, blessing God for that living hope which is the anchor of the Christian soul.
II FOR THE JOY OF THE CHRISTIAN.
1. It is great. He rejoices in hope; he exults when the blessed hope lives clear and bright in his heart; he strives to "hold fast the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end". (Heb_3:6) But:
2. That joy is amid tears; for man is born to sorrow; suffering is the lot of all men, and Christians have their own peculiar trials: "Ye must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom" of God. Those to whom St. Peter wrote were suffering a great trial of affliction: the apostle comforts them, bidding them look away, as far as might be, from their earthly troubles to the joyful hope of everlasting life.
3. The joy of the Lord is strength in the time of trouble. (Neh_8:10) It helps the Christian to discern the meaning of his afflictions; they are but for a moment, for a season, and they are necessary; they come from our Father in heaven, and he doth not willingly afflict nor grieve the children of men; he sends them "for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness". (Heb_12:10) They would not be trials if they were not felt; the Christian"s cross must sometimes be sharp and heavy, or it would not make him partaker of his Savior"s sufferings. The Christian is often sorrowful, but he ought to be "always rejoicing" even in sorrow; for these trials, so hard to bear, are as necessary for the purifying of our faith as fire is for the refining of gold. Gold is counted precious among men; faith is precious in the sight of God. Gold perisheth; faith abideth. The proof of faith is of infinitely greater importance than the proof of gold. Temptations try the Christian"s faith. God tried the faith of Abraham and Job; temptation, resisted and overcome, proves faith to be real and true. And temptation refines faith; temptation borne meekly and patiently purifies faith from the taints which cling about every human character; it helps us to overcome pride and self-confidence and worldliness, and keeps us humble, distrustful of ourselves, trusting only in God. The joy of the Lord, realized amid sorrow, helps the Christian to believe that these trials, so grievous now, will be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
4. It springs out of the love of Christ. Love implies knowledge. We see not the Lord Christ with the bodily eye; but the vision of faith is more precious far than sight; many who saw him did not believe. "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed;" for faith brings the Lord very near to the soul, yea, into the heart; faith opens the door to him, and then he entereth in, and maketh his abode within the heart that in faith receives him. Therefore we may know him with a real knowledge, with that knowledge which is eternal life, with the knowledge with which the true sheep know the good Shepherd the knowledge which he himself, in the wonderful words of Joh_10:14, Joh_10:15, compares with the knowledge with which he himself, the Son of God, knows the eternal Father. It is a knowledge of love, of intimate spiritual communion. "Truly," says St. John, "our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." The joy of God"s saints is unspeakable.
No tongue of mortal can express, No pen can write their blessedness; He only who hath proved it knows What bliss from love of Jesus flows.
It were a poor thing," says Leighton, "if he that hath that joy could Sell it all out. Pauperis est numerare peens. And when the soul hath most of it, then it remains most within itself, and is so inwardly taken up with it, that possibly it can then least of all express it. It is with joys as they say of cares and griefs, Leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent. The deepest waters run stillest. "Res severa est verum gaudium," says Seneca. True joy is a solid, grave thing; it dwells more in the heart than in the countenance; whereas, on the contrary, base and false joys are but superficial, skin-deep (as we say); they are all in the face." And it is full of glory, glorified with a foretaste of the glory that is to be revealed; for they who have that joy are spoken of as even now receiving the end of their faith, the salvation of souls. That precious gift of salvation is not only negative, deliverance from the guilt and power of sin; it is much more than this it is Christ himself manifested into the believer"s heart. He is our Jesus, the Salvation of Jehovah to his chosen; his presence sheds a glory round. "The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them." In such measure as that presence is realized, is the blessing of salvation, the end of our faith, received. His saints as they grow in grace, are ever receiving a fuller and deeper salvation the salvation of souls now. Hereafter he "shall fashion anew the body ofour humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory". (Php_3:21, Revised Version)
III THE DEEP INTEREST TAKEN IN THAT HOPE AND JOY.
1. By the prophets. Christians are often apathetic: they do not realize the exceeding glory and grandeur of the joy that is set before them; their hearts are dull and cold. It was not so with the prophets. They saw not what the apostles saw; but the Spirit of Christ was in them; it testified of the sufferings of Christ and his after-glories. They inquired and searched diligently by prayer and devout thought, like Habakkuk (Hab_2:1) and the psalmist; (Psa_85:8) or sometimes by study and reading, like Daniel. (Dan_9:2) We should imitate them; we should search the
2. Scriptures, we should meditate and watch and pray. We should every day fix our hearts in devout contemplation on the sufferings of Christ; we should lift up our souls to behold in thankful adoration the glories of the risen, ascended Lord. Very sacred and precious must be the mysteries of our salvation which attracted the concentrated attention of those holy men. They saw the facts of our Lord"s life and death afar off; we have received the gospel from eye-witnesses speaking by the power of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. That Holy Ghost, the Comforter, once sent by Christ from the Father, (Joh_15:26) abides forever with the faithful; he will guide us into all truth; if we search for it like the prophets, he will lead us nearer and nearer to the Savior.
3. By the angels. But higher intelligences than the prophets are interested in the scheme of our salvation. The blessed angels long to look into these things, and that with rapt fixed attention. The mystery of godliness, manifest in the flesh, was seen of angels. (1Ti_3:16) They watched the great facts in the history of redemption; they delight to contemplate the progress of the gospel now. They watch with intensest interest the great struggle between good and evil in the world, and as each ransomed soul, drawn by the power of the cross, turns to God, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God." How strange that men, for whom the Lord Jesus died, should be so cold and listless, while angels, of whom he took not hold as he taketh hold of the seed of Abraham, (Heb_2:16, Revised Version) look so eagerly into the great truths of our redemption! They are our fellow-servants; (Rev_22:9) we shall he their fellow-students, if we take example from them, and study with love and awe and reverence the life, the death, the resurrection, of him who loved us even unto death.
LESSONS.
1. Cherish the Christian"s hope; earthly hopes are but castles in the air, delusive, unsubstantial; the living hope abideth.
2. Thank God for the hope of glory; it comes only from his mercy; it cheers us in our troubles, in the approach of death; in everything give thanks.
3. The heavenly inheritance is kept for God"s elect; they are kept for it; let them rejoice evermore.
4. Their trials are precious; they issue in praise and honor and glory; let them rejoice even in sorrow.
5. The love of Christ gives the holiest joy; let us seek that joy in seeking to love him more and more.
6. Prophets and angels love to gaze into the mysteries of our redemption; let us do the like.
Vers. 3-5.
The key-note of the Epistle the believer"s hope.
The "sojourners of the dispersion" were now entering on a season of severe trial; one purpose of the apostle, therefore, was to send them encouragement and support; and the purport of these chapters may be summed up in the word" hope." Paul was pre-eminently the apostle of faith; John, of love; Peter, of hope. This passage has additional interest as written by the Peter of the Gospels. He was one of those who had "thought the kingdom of God should immediately appear," and a party to the question, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom unto Israel?" In those early days they were captivated by the thought of an earthly heritage. How different now! Here his eye is fixed on the "inheritance reserved in heaven." We remember, too, that we here listen to him who, on that never-to-be-forgotten morning, whilst it was yet early, came breathless to the sepulcher, and looking in, saw the linen clothes, etc., and was assured that the place was empty, and how the sudden conviction of the Resurrection flashed on his mind with all the wonderful hope this would impart to the troubled heart of the Lord"s denier. What he says here is what his whole consecrated, joyous life had been saying ever since that day and because of it: "Blessed be the God," etc.
I THE CHRISTIAN"S HOPE. "The lively hope of an inheritance.
1. It is that of the inheritance of sonship. "God hath begotten us" unto it; that is, God hath made us children a second time by regeneration. "And if children, then heirs;" the inheritance is ours because we are God"s sons. That brings its glory before us prominently. Fatherhood does its very best for the children ("Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children we"ll do the work, if they see the glory). Apply that to the heavenly Father and the heritage he prepares for us. Prepares. "I go to prepare a place for you;" that will be God"s best! What must that be which is proportionate to his resources and love?
2. This inheritance is permanent. "Incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away" (three almost synonymous words, characteristic of Peter"s energy). They all include the idea of permanence, but they treat it in different aspects. "Incorruptible;" that is, spiritual, not material. The blessedness of that state will not depend on anything that can decay. The blessedness of heaven will be in the development of our spiritual nature. "Undefiled;" that is, untainted, unblemished. Here our spiritual blessings have some taint; there will be activity without weariness, love without coldness, hope without fear, purity without doubt, songs without sighs, light without shade. "That fadeth not away;" that is, all this to be everlasting; the beauties of that state will never diminish, its tasks never be monotonous, nor its tastes insipid, nor its fellowship ended.
There the eye grows never dim, Gazing on that mighty sun.
1. This inheritance is certain. "Reserved in heaven for you who are kept" for it. It is kept where waste or diminution cannot be known, and we are kept for its enjoyment. No earthly heritage is sure, but this is. "Reserved in heaven for you." Then that is safe. "You who are kept by the power of God for it." Then you are safe; the child of God is as sure of heaven as if he were there. We should be surprised if it were not so; for "as for God, his way is perfect." The word "kept" literally means "garrisoned." There is a picture in the word: "The angel of the Lord encampeth," etc. Garrisoned by the power of God, not by his weakness. Left to ourselves, we should lose it; but we cannot lose it thus.
2. This inheritance is the object of lively hope to Gods children. Equivalent to "life-giving." This hope is life. What can animate us to fight like the assurance of victory, what make us steadfast in pilgrimage like the certainty of reaching the goal? what destroy the fascination of the present like the conscious possession of better things? what solace us in grief like the knowledge that we are on the way to the eternal home of tearless eyes? This hope brings with it a new being.
II THIS HOPE IS JUSTIFIED BY THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD.
1. Christs resurrection is the Proof of immortality. Man asks, "If a man die, shall he live again?" The natural heart thinks so, but cannot prove it. The Old Testament rather dimly hints it, Christ"s resurrection is the assurance of it. He died his enemies admitted that; he lay for three days
2. in the grave; but then he rose, and that with undiminished powers and unchanged affection. The risen Savior was the proof that death was but like the plunging of the swimmer into the wave, from which he emerges on the other side essentially unchanged.
3. Christs resurrection is, further, the assurance of the believers justification. It settled the question with his foes as to who he was. He said he was the Son of God; they said he made himself equal with God, and they asked for some sign by which they could know it, and he replied that they should have the sign of the Prophet Jonas. He was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. The Resurrection was the Divine endorsement of the claims of Jesus, another voice from heaven: "This is my beloved Son; hear him!" Thus Christ"s teaching was endorsed, (Joh_3:16) and the sufficiency of his atoning work. "God raised him from the dead and gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in him.
1. And Christs resurrection is the pledge of the believers preservation. For he has risen into the inheritance, and that as our Representative. Before he rose he said, "Because I live ye shall live also;" "Where I am there shall also," etc.; "Father, I will that they whom," etc. But not only so. What is he doing there? He is there still as Savior, to keep by his intercession those for whom by his cross he atoned. "Who is he that condemneth? It is," etc.; "Wherefore he is able to save to," etc. How surely, then, we are "begotten to lively hope by the resurrection," etc.!
III THE CERTAINTY OF THIS HOPE CONSTRAINS THE CHRISTIAN TO BLESS GOD. AS the apostle thinks of all this, he exclaims with fervor, "Blessed be the God," etc.!
1. The mote of joy is here. Grasp the hope revealed in the resurrection of Christ, and life loses its gloom, and songs rise in the desert.
2. And this is also consecration. For to bless God is to glorify him. When we realize what thus he gives to us, we shall already begin the heavenly life where from love and gratitude they praise him night and day. C.N.
Vers. 3-5.
An outburst of praise.
be the God and Father," etc. So the writer passes from himself and from his readers up to God; and with this elevation of theme there is an outburst of praise. Meditating on this outburst of praise, we note it is
I PRAISE TO GOD. He traces the great joy he is describing up to its Fountain God; he sees the gift of which he almost seems to be singing, in the open hand of the Giver God. "Blessed be," etc.
1. Here is reverent praise. "Blessed." The word is consecrated to God alone, and is completely different to the word in the Beatitudes. The Hebrew meaning is "speaking him well.
2. Here is loving praise. It is not alone to God as God, the infinitely Good One of transcendent perfection, but the insertion of this conception of Father, and Father of Jesus, makes him nearer and dearer to the heart than the old description," God of Israel.
3. Here is intelligent praise. "Father of our Lord Jesus." How vividly Peter could recall the form and voice and countenance of Jesus! It was his Father he would have men praise. No vague, dim, unrelated, infinite essence and origin of all things do we worship, but the Father of Jesus, revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ.
4. Here is grateful praise. It is praise for great mercy. Pity is love to the weak; mercy is love to the undeserving is therefore the climax and crown of love. This is God"s love to man. St. Bernard had a familiar saying to the effect that "great sins and great miseries need great mercy, and many sins and many miseries need many mercies." Hence we have revelations of God"s mercy, as great mercy, abundant mercy, plenteous mercy, tender mercies, multitude of mercies, mercy that "endureth for ever." The heart of man may well glow with gratitude as he vows, "I will sing of mercy," etc.
II PRAISE TO GOD FOR A BRIGHT HOPE OF A GLORIOUS FUTURE.
1. Here is praise to God for a hope. This is, indeed, part of the praise of every heart which thanks God for Christianity. For Christianity does not profess to satisfy all the aspirations of the heart here. Much yearning for knowledge, for pardon, for grace, is met now, but much remains as unfulfilled hope, and for that hope we praise God. What hope?
(1) Hope is expectant desire. What we wish for and what we count on having are the two ingredients of hope.
(2) Living hope.
(a) This, in contrast to the dead-alive surmises, vague guesses at the future, the pagans had, and above which Jews scarcely rose.
(b) This in contrast, as Leighton says, to lying hopes and dying hopes about things in the world hopes that die before us or die when we die.
(c) This is a hope that makes life a life of hope, an anchored life that does not drift, a brightened life that does not darken into despair; eager, expectant vision; who, though "sojourners of the Dispersion," with a vast sense of weariness enfolding all things, were truly pilgrims whose faces and whose feet were set towards the land of sunrise, not of sunset.
2. Here is praise to God for a future. What future? St. Peter describes to them a plan that is
(1) a contrast to their present lot as "sojourners of the Dispersion," who had lost inheritance in Palestine; and
(2) a completion of what inheritance Palestine might have been and what their Christian character already was. "Inheritance." It can only be known negatively, and there is no actual description of what is beyond apprehension and understanding. But we can know what it has not that which "mars and spoils best things here. A possession secured, surely awaiting them. A state and a condition of the soul and its surroundings.
(a) "Incorruptible." No tendency in it to decay and to destruction. Substance imperishable. The tenure not to expire as in Palestine.
(b) "Undefiled." Not to be spoiled by defilement or pollution, as their old inheritance in Palestine, by idolatries and tyrannies.
(c) "Fadeth not away." Its beauty immortal. No winter to wither it.
III PRAISE TO GOD FOR HIS WONDERFUL METHODS OF INSPIRING THE HOPE AND ENSURING THE FUTURE. The future. Peter is here praising God both as Trustee of such a future, and Guardian of those who inherit it by hope.
1. God has that future reserved. "In heaven in safe keeping.
2. God will in due time let it be revealed. "Salvation.
3. God has that future for his bestowal as an inheritance. He gives heaven to man as a gift of love free love. Righteously, and according to their fitness for it; but graciously, and not as measured by their merits. A heaven we merited would be a poor, meager heaven in contrast with what is here described; and so might it not be a hell? The heir does not buy, does not win, does not by battle secure inheritance; he simply grows up to the age that claims it. So with heaven. When John at Runnymede asked the barons assembled about him there, by what right they held their lands, hundreds of swords flashed like lightning from their sheaths, and defiant tones pealed like a thunder-clap on the king"s ears, "By these we won them, and by these we hold them." But let any inquiring lips ask multitudes above, in blessed possession of the inheritance of heaven, by what right they hold those high and priceless possessions; and, taking crowns of dignity and glory from their brows, and casting them before the Lamb that was slain, their adoring exclamation, is, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his blood," etc. Nay, not only when the redeemed are in heaven do they realize that it is an unbought, unmerited inheritance, but even when good men tread the frontier of that kingdom, and step on the threshold of that home, they feel the same. When Bossuet, perhaps the most illustrious of French preachers and prelates, lay dying in great suffering and prostration, one who was present thanked him for all his kindness, and, using the court language of the day, begged him when in another world to think of the friends that were so devoted to his person and reputation. At this last word ("reputation"), Bossuet, who had almost lost the power of speech, raised himself from the bed, and gathered strength to say, not without indignation, "Don"t talk like that! Ask God to forgive a sinner his sins." Yes; that is the Christian"s attitude, that the Christian"s spirit, even entering heaven. "When I draw this fleeting breath, When my eyelids close in death Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in thee.
IV HOW DOES GOD INSPIRE AND PRESERVE THE HOPE?
1. It is a hope that is born with mans new birth. A man is an heir, by birth, of his father"s patrimony; a Christian is an heir, by regeneration, of heaven.
(1) The godly man is born again.
(2) The godly man is born again by the power of God. "He begat us again.
(3) The godly man is born again by the power of God through the resurrection of Christ. Christ"s resurrection is not only a parable of the higher life you live, but it is the power of it.
2. It is a hope that is continued by God in connection with a mans character. God, as we saw, is Trustee of the future; so is he Guardian of the heirs. They are:
(1) Guarded by the power of God. Kept as with a garrison.
(2) Guarded by the power of God through faith fidelity on man"s part. Peter had at length learned implicitly to trust Jesus Christ, and to be brave infidelity to him. This is the twofold thought of the word "faith" here, namely, trust and fidelity. God, who is reserving heaven for the redeemed, is by their faith training them for heaven. So that the old saying is wise and good, "Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people." "It a good land: let us go up and possess it. U.R.T.
Vers. 3-12.
Salvation in its completion.
I THE SUBJECT OF A DOXOLOGY.
1. God praised. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Peter may have seen the same form of words in Paul"s opening doxologies in 2 Corinthians and Ephesians. Having called up his readers before his mind and saluted them, he here bursts forth in an ascription of praise to God. To praise God is with becoming feelings to acknowledge what he is or has done. As this is pleasing to God, (Ps 1 Ps 23) so also, if we are much exercised on what God is or has done, it is a relief and delight to us. It is not the God of Christ (as the language might seem to imply) that is here praised, but God generally. It is the exalted Name that is fitted to call forth all sacred feelings. But there is added the Christian interpretation. We praise "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." We praise Jesus Christ, who, according to Divine appointment, did saving work for us. We praise him as our Lord who receives our service for God and dispenses to us the Divine blessings of salvation. We praise not only him, but his Father, who,
2. in the incarnation of the Son and atonement made by him in his death, has shown us Fatherly love.
3. God praised for his mercy. "Who according to his great mercy." The Pauline expression is "God who is rich in mercy". (Eph_2:4) Mercy has been called the internal impulsive cause of salvation. It was mercy which moved God to come to our help in our misery. Mercy up to the measure of the human would have been insufficient as a cause. For we rose up before his mind as those who had rebelled against his authority and brought on our own misery. But "let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man." It was mercy up to the measure of the Divine great beyond all measurement that led to our being rescued.
4. God praised for his mercy in begetting us again unto a life of hope. "Begat us again unto a living hope." Peter appears here as the apostle of hope, as Paul is the apostle of faith and John the apostle of love. Regeneration has been called the formal cause of salvation. The mercy of God moved him to put forth creative power upon us so as to bring us into a new relation to himself, and give us the commencement of a new life. (Eph_2:5) This life is meantime a life of hope. What we were born out of was a state of hopelessness; (Eph_2:12) what we are born into is a state of hope, and a state in which hope is "living," i.e. instinct with life, full of energy, able to bear up the spirit, able to resist decay.
1. God praised for his thus begetting us by means of the resurrection of Christ. "By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Peter goes beyond the meritorious cause of our salvation in Christ"s death, and sees the power which can regenerate in his resurrection (efficient cause). Because he rose again after being dead, therefore God can put forth power upon dead hearts, and upon dead bodies too, to raise them to newness of life. It is not only in the power of Christ"s resurrection that we live, but also that our life is a life of hope. We see, in the fact that our Head lives with a full and glorious life, what can make our life full and glorious too.
2. God praised for his thus begetting us with a view to an inheritance.
(1) The inheritance in its peculiar nature. Unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." The inheritance is the final cause of salvation. It is the objective appointment corresponding to the subjective hope. "As long as we journey we have the living hope; when the journey is finished the living hope becomes the promised inheritance." Here again the Jewish coloring of Peter"s thought appears. As the elect people, we have an inheritance (an apportioned possession), such as the land of Canaan was to look forward to. The Canaan condition represented rest, satisfaction, in comparison with the wilderness condition. In describing the antitype of the land of Canaan, Peter proceeds not positively, but by negation. It is an inheritance not subject to corruption. The fruits of the earthly Canaan, however good, perished with the using; not so the fruits of the heavenly Canaan. It is an inheritance not susceptible of defilement. The earthly Canaan, though sacred, could be defiled; (Jer_2:7) not so the heavenly Canaan. It is an inheritance that fadeth not away. The flowers of the earthly Canaan soon faded away; not so the beauty of the heavenly Canaan. Thus by three negatives does be magnify the inheritance.
(2) The inheritance in its present relation to us. The inheritance reserved for the heirs. "Reserved in heaven for you." Far separated from us, it is beyond the perils of earth, and is inalienable from us. The heirs guarded for the inheritance. "Who by the power of God are guarded through faith unto a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." We are safe guarded as in a citadel. That which guards us is the power of God, so that it is active toward us. That by means of which the power of God guards us is our faith, so that we are not to be inactive toward God. That toward which the power of God guards us is our salvation in its completion, which is not the inheritance, but rather the condition of the inheritance (to be interpreted by reference to the Israelites, who, when their salvation was completed, enjoyed the possession of the land of Canaan). This salvation is viewed as hidden, but already in existence, only waiting God"s time for its revelation, which is not to be till the last time (also hidden).
II THE SOURCE OF JOY IN ITS COMPLETION.
1. The last time is associated with joy. "Wherein ye greatly rejoice." Peter has a way of moving from one section to another by catching up the last word. The preceding section concluded with the words "in the last time;" this section commences with the words "in which," i.e. in which last time. If" in" retains the same force (which is only natural), then the present tense following comes to have (as it sometimes has) the force of a future. This view greatly helps to clear up the thought in this section. The use of the present in this way has the effect of "emphasizing the certainty of the future joy." In the last time we are greatly to rejoice (originally, "dance for joy").
2. We are to have a joy which cannot be repressed, but must find expression in outward signs of triumph.
3. The present time may be associated with being put to grief. "Though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold temptations." Instead of rejoicing (as we shall do in the future), we may now be put to grief. The being put to grief is regarded as from without. The grief arises within us from temptations, which we may think of as events of an adverse nature. Those make an assault on us, and, from our imperfect spiritual life, would lead us into sin. It is said in 2Ti_3:12, "Yea, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." There are events in the lives of us all that, instead of making us sad, make us glad. But none of us are exempted from the coming on us of sorrowful events. If they do come, there is a "need be" for them. As our needs are manifold, so the temptations appointed for us as suited to them are manifold too. The view that the apostle has reference to future joy is confirmed by the language here. For first, the being put to grief in manifold temptations is regarded retrospectively. Looking back from the time of rejoicing, it is said, "Ye have been put to grief." Again, the "little while" has its due force only when compared with the length of the future joy.
1. The end sought in our now being put to grief is the joy of future recognition. "That the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire, might be found unto praise and glory and honor." We are not to think here of the putting to proof, nor of the means of proof (untoward events), but of the approving that comes out in the result. What comes out in faith, when brought into contact with temptations, is its sincerity and its strengthening. Faith thus sincere and strengthened is more precious than perishable gold: are we to wonder at the treatment being similar? Gold is subjected to fire for the purpose of being tested and purified: shall not imperishable faith be similarly tested and purified? "Gold is committed to the fire, not for its destruction, but for glory;" so our faith, after having passed through "fiery trial," as the result of judicial investigation, is to be "found unto praise and glory and honor." There is an accumulation of words to bring out what there will be, in contrast with the present needful fire, to make us glad.
2. Our joy will be completed at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
(1) What there is in the revelation of Jesus Christ to give us joy. "At the revelation of Jesus Christ." In. 2Ti_1:12 there is reference to the first "appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus;" the reference here is to his second appearing, for which Peter uses what Trench calls the grander word (grand as "appearing" is) There was revelation in his first appearing. There was a bringing out into accomplished fact of the hidden counsel of God. It was made clear how God was to proceed in laying the foundation of human salvation. In the Incarnation we have the essential revelation. But even in revealing Jesus Christ was hidden. It was not known what depth of love there was in his heart, and what glory properly belonged to him. His revelation will be a joyful event, because it will be the full disclosure of his grace, with such glorious accompaniment as is fitted to exalt him as Savior.
(2) The foregoing conditions of joy at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
(a) Love. "Whom not having seen ye love." Peter was not among those who had not seen Christ; he therefore does not include himself. We are told of one who had three wishes that he had seen our Lord in the flesh, that he had heard Paul preach, and that he had seen Rome in its glory. There is a certain advantage to our loving in our standing at a distance from our Lord"s day. We stand clear of prejudices connected with our having seen him; and we have all the facts before us, so that we can form an accurate conception of what he was and did. If we get at the meaning of these facts, and have our hearts touched with love to him, then the first condition is fulfilled of our having joy at his revelation.
(b) Faith. "On whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing." A point has been raised regarding love coming here before belief. "Why is the natural order of things reversed? How can we love before we believe? Must we not first feel convinced of the reality of Christ and the genuineness of his claims? Must we not on this conviction trust him, and so have love generated in our souls?" The answer given is that "in the history of a soul"s coming to Christ we are touched by the narrative of his sufferings, or stirred by an appeal, or moved by the grandeur of some utterance," and thus are led on to the more difficult exercise of trust. It may be said that love is mentioned first as lying near to our rejoicing as it ever will do. It would be an advantage if (prejudice aside and an imperfect conception aside) we saw the Object of our love. The present substitute for seeing is believing. We are to have living intercourse with an unseen Savior until, to the great advantage of our love and also of our joy, our faith becomes sight.
(3) Stow our joy at the revelation of Jesus Christ is characterized.
(a) As transcendently excellent. "Ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory." The present tense is again used with the force of a future. When at the revelation of Jesus Christ, with hearts full of love to him, we see, our joy will be unspeakable. "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." What a joy to look upon him, then, in the human nature which he took upon him! to look upon him with the marks testifying to the mysterious sufferings through which he came! to look upon him finally triumphing over sin and death! It will be unspeakable experience of joy added to experience of joy beyond all power of expression. It will be as if the joy of a lifetime were concentrated into a moment. It will also be full of glory, the joy of a glorified spirit in a glorified body in presence of the glory of the Redeemer.
(b) As faiths reward in the souls experience. "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." The revelation of Jesus Christ is to be the time for distributing rewards. What we are to receive as our reward is not apart from our foregoing faith; it is its goat. Faith is the principle of life: the soul is the subject of the life, which is to be saved or lost. When Christ makes our faith issue in our emancipation from all sin and imperfection and in the vigorous exercise of all our powers, our joy will be complete.
III THE SUSPECT OF INQUIRY BY PROPHETS AND ANGELS.
1. Prophets.
(1) Their private desire and public function. "Concerning which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you." Salvation, carried forward from the preceding section, must continue to have the sense of completed salvation. It is a magnifying of this salvation that prophets had to do with privately and publicly. They are mentioned here as a great order. They had their private exercises. Concerning the salvation they "sought and searched diligently." There is the idea of intensified search in both verbs. If there is a distinction, the one may refer more to the end, and the other to the means. They eagerly tried to grasp what the full salvation was to be. The remarkable thing is that their private desire was in connection with their public function, which is here defined as a telling beforehand of the grace that was to come to men in Christian times. What they were eager to find out was the Christian elements contained in the salvation. This is pointed to in grace, which is to be referred to that on which salvation depends, and by which also it is charactered. There was a display commencing with the incarnation of the Son of God on our behalf, which certainly was not due to our merit, but only to grace. There is additional grace in our living in Christian times.
(2) To what their inquiry was subjected. "Searching what time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that should follow them." The latter of the verbs is here continued (not in the intensive form). Their search was directed to two connected points time and manner of time. This must be referred to Messianic time and circumstance as giving a gracious character to the salvation. How were they led to think of a salvation connected with Christian facts? In a very direct way the Spirit of Christ was in them. It was this that made the prophets a great order; and yet in this respect they were not entirely removed from us, for in, Rom_8:9 it is said of us that we have the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit of Christ was in them to fit them for their prophetic function. The language is remarkable as pointing to the pre-existence of Christ, and also to the Spirit in the prophets as proceeding, not directly from the Father, but from the Son, and the Son that was to be incarnate. The language is also to be noted as explaining the private desire of the prophets. If they had been uttering their own thoughts, they would have understood them; but as they were uttering the thoughts of the Spirit of Christ, they had, as well as other men, to set themselves to understand them. The matter of revelation was closely related to the Revealer. It was a testifying beforehand to the sufferings of Christ (destined for Christ) and the glories that should follow them. There was a time when Peter did not see what he here sets down. His mind was full of the triumphs of the Messiah, but not of the triumphs as founded on sufferings. "Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee." Since that time he had read prophecy in another light. "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself." The sufferings of Christ reached their climax in his death; the glories of Christ began with his resurrection, and cannot be said to have yet reached their climax. The plural indicates that, as there was a plenitude of suffering, so there will also be a plenitude of glory. Our salvation cannot be apprehended aright apart from both Christ"s sufferings and glories. Both enter into it to give it character. We are saved not only in virtue of Christ"s death, but also in virtue of Christ"s triumph.
(3) Favored position of men in Christian times. As ministered to by prophets. "To whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto you, did they minister these things." It was revealed to prophets that the things which they announced beforehand would not be fulfilled in their day. They had application not to themselves, but to others. This was not altogether regressing so far as they were concerned. It set their mind at rest for their own day; and for the future they could still closely examine their own words, and try to form some conception of what gospel realities were to be. Picturing the gospel day as well as they could, they would look forward to it with longing desire. It was honoring so far as Christian believers were concerned. Prophets, in what they said of the gospel day, had been ministering unto them. As ministered to by apostles. "Which now have been announced unto you through them that preached the gospel unto you by the Holy Ghost sent forth from heaven." The same things which had been announced beforehand had then been announced as fulfilled. The announcers were the apostles. They also are a great order having to do with salvation the glorious company of the apostles." Their function was to preach the gospel, i.e. the message of salvation, but connected with the facts of Christ having come into the world, having suffered, and thereafter passing into heaven. They were fitted for their work not other wise than were the prophets. It is not said that the Spirit of Christ was in them; but the Holy Spirit by whose influence they were moved in their preaching is represented as sent forth from heaven, i.e. as following on Christ"s going into heaven. As thus endowed, they could preach the gospel with proper unction, and unerringly. We have net the presence of the apostles; but we have many of those statements of truth which, under the guidance of the Spirit, they omitted.
2. Angels. "Which things angels desire to look into." This is a third great order connected with salvation. The things announced by apostles which before had been predicted, i.e. gospel facts which give meaning to salvation, angels desire to look into. "God manifest in the flesh " was "seen of angels." While the mystery was being evolved they were held in rapt wonder. What is here said has reference to an after-period. After Christ has undergone "the suffering of death," and passed into glory, they are still occupied with inquiring into the meaning of the facts. The language is remarkable. Angels desire to bend aside, i.e. from matters,properly belonging to them to examine into, i.e., matters belonging properly to men.
Whatever happens under the government of God cannot but be interesting to them. They are profoundly interested in the facts pertaining to human salvation as throwing a new and powerful light on the character of God, and opening up to them therewith a new and higher life. For although they cannot undergo the saving change, yet they can take the great facts of the gospel into them for their spiritual nourishment and growth. R. F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v3 Blessed be the God and Father.
1Pe_1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father.
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Man blessing God
I. Man blesseth God three ways.
1. In his heart, when, refreshed with Gods favour and inflamed with the joys of His presence, he doth lift up his heart with affection, striving to laud God and acknowledge His mercy.
2. In his tongue, when he taketh to him words, and openeth his lips to confess and praise God either in secret or openly.
3. In his works, and that-
(1) When he sets up memorials of Gods great works or deliverances.
(2) When he receives the sacrament, setting himself apart to celebrate the memory of Christs death.
(3) By the obedience of his life, striving to glorify God in a holy conversation.
(4) And lastly, by showing mercy, and thereby causing others to bless God.
II. Great reason hath man to bless God.
1. For God is blessedness itself, and whither should the water run but into the sea, from whence it is originally taken.
2. Besides, the Lord hath required our praise, as the chief means of glorifying Him.
3. And He hath blessed us, and therefore we have great reason to bless Him. He hath blessed us in the creatures, in His Son, by His angels, by His ministers; blessed us in the blessings of the gospel, blessed us in His house, and in our own houses, in our sabbaths, sacraments, the Word, prayer, etc., blessed us in our souls, bodies, states, names, etc. (N. Byfield.)
An ascription of praise
I. The spirit of devotional thankfulness. Blessed be the God and Father of Jesus Christ. A living Christian cannot receive Divine mercies like a dumb animal, but rejoices in the sunshine of thanksgiving.
1. It should be the ruling principle of our lives. How much happiness is lost by forgetting the privileges we enjoy! Thankfulness in our lives would enable us to appreciate what we already possess.
2. It should be the keynote of our prayers. It is discouraging to bestow favour on a hard and unthankful recipient.
3. It should permeate all our religion. There is something in praise that softens the heart and ennobles the mind.
II. The grand reason which demands this spirit. It is the regeneration which is in Christ Jesus. This regeneration is represented as introducing us to three grand privileges, which may well excite our praise.
1. A prospect of eternal life-To a lively hope.
2. A prospect of unchanging possession-To an inheritance incorruptible, etc.
3. A possession of perfect protection-Who are guarded by the power of God.
4. A prospect of perfect victory-Unto salvation. (J. J. S. Bird, B. A.)
The apostolic benediction
The Epistle at this point where it begins to flow is Like one of those infant rivers which burst full bodied at their birth from a great inland sea in which their waters have been gathered. Unlike the waters of Ezekiels vision, that gathered volume as they flowed, this is a river to swim in the moment that it breaks away from the fountainhead,
1. Who is this of whom the prophet speaks?-God.
2. In what aspect does the Supreme present Himself?-As the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. What has He done?-Begotten us again; made us new creatures.
4. From what motive has He acted?-According to His abundant mercy.
5. By what means has He accomplished this great change?-By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
6. To what end in the experience of His people does He thus work?-To a living hope burning in their hearts here, and an inheritance incorruptible beyond the grave. (W. Arnot.)
An outburst of praise
I. Praise to God.
1. Reverent.
2. Loving.
3. Intelligent.
4. Grateful.
II. Praise to God, for a bright hope of a glorious future.
1. It is praise to God for a hope.
(1) Expectant desire.
(2) Living hope. In contrast with dead hopes; lying hopes; weak hopes.
2. It is praise to God for a future.
(1) In contrast with the present lot.
(2) A completion of what inheritance in Palestine might have been.
III. Praise to God, for His wonderful methods of ensuring the future and inspiring that hope.
1. The future is ensured.
(1) God has reserved it in safe keeping.
(2) God will, in due time, let it be revealed.
(3) God has ensured it as an inheritance.
2. How is the hope of the future inspired and preserved?
(1) It is a hope that is born with mans new birth.
(2) It is a hope that is continued by God in connection with mans character. Guarded by the power of God through faith. (U. R. Thomas.)
A seven-fold hymn praise
1. Abundant mercy. Everything must start from that. Our first cry must be, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Gods mercy is abundant wherever you see it. You see mercy in nature and in providence, but in Christ it seems to overflow its banks.
2. The new birth. If we are to enjoy heaven we must be born again, have new tastes.
3. A living hope. This irradiates all the future. Earthly hopes are dying hopes. The most that the worldly man can say is, while I breathe I hope. But the Christians hope is not crushed by death; it is a living hope in that He gives me life. See yonder swimmer tossed about by the waves; he is sinking, but at last they see him; a boat puts off; the cry is raised from the pier head; the rescuers are on their way; he lifts himself once more, he sees the boat sweeping towards him; he has a living hope; he struggles a little longer, until the rescuers are able to pull him into the boat. So it is with our hope; living hope inspires us with courage.
4. Then he comes to the blessing, which is like the central shaft of the candlestick-the blessing upon which all the rest depends-the risen Christ. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We worship no dead hero, but a living, loving Lord.
5. An incorruptible inheritance. I once received a letter asking me to preach a sermon about heaven. I cannot preach about heaven. St. Peter could not. He could only tell us what it was not.
6. The guaranteed preservation. Kept by the power of God.
7. Salvation to be revealed. (E. A. Stuart, M. A.)
Benedictus Deus
The sum of this text, and the name of it too, is set down in the very first word of it. A Benedictus it is from us to God, for something coming from God to or for us. Something? Nay, many. And many they are; we reduce them to three: Our regeneration which is past, our hope which is present, and our inheritance which is to come.
1. Regenerating, or begetting, is of itself a benefit; we get life by it if nothing else.
2. But to beget to an inheritance is more than simply to beget.
3. And yet more than that, to beget to such an inheritance as this, of which so many things are here spoken.
For the order we will put the words in no other, for we can put them in no better than they stand.
1. God first, and the true God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. Then His mercy, the cause moving.
3. Then Christs resurrection, the means working.
4. Then our regeneration, the act producing.
Producing hope of the inheritance, then after the inheritance we hope for. Of which two points there are: How it is qualified, uncorrupt, undefiled, not fading. Then, how seated, even in heaven there it is, there kept it is. Now then for these. For His mercy first: for our regenerating by His mercy; for the hope of this inheritance, but more for the inheritance itself, specially such a one so conditioned as here is set down; for keeping it for us in heaven; for keeping us for it on earth. For these all, but above all for the means of all, the rising of Christ, the gate of this hope, the pledge of this inheritance; for these owe we this Benedictus to God. To God the Father and to Christ our Lord, by whom and by whose rising, lose this life when we will, we have hope of a better; betide our inheritance on earth what shall, we have another kept for us in heaven. Thus every one naturally ariseth out of other. Blessed be God. Yea, blessed and thanked and praised; but here blessed suits best, that the most proper return for a blessing that we inherit is the blessing (1Pe_3:9). The hope is a blessed hope (Tit_2:13). But the inheritance is the state of blessedness itself. Therefore Benedictus is said well. But thereby hangs a scruple; for what are we that we should take upon us to bless God? Yes, He us, and we Him too, as if they were reciprocal, one the echo, the reflection of the other. Equal they are not. It were fond to imagine the Father gives the child no other blessing but the child can give him as good again. What then? He that wisheth heartily would do more than wish if his power were according. What say we, then, when we say Benedictus? It is a word compound; take it in sunder, and dicere is, to say somewhat, to speak; and that we can; and bene is (speaking), to speak well; and that we ought. To speak, is confession; to speak well, is praise; and praise becometh Him, and us to give it Him. And what good can we wish Him that He hath not? Say we it, say we it not, He is blessed alike. True to Him we cannot wish; not to His person; but to His name we can, and to His Word we can; we can wish it more devoutly heard. God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the style of the New Testament, ye read it not in the Old. The sun was yet under the horizon, but now up, and of a good height.
(1) Blessed be God; say that, and no more, and never a Jew, Turk, or Pagan but will say as much. We would not bestow our Benedictus upon any but the true God, so settle our Benedictus upon the right God.
(2) For this cause, but not for this alone, when we bless Him I daresay we would bless Him with His best title. So hath it ever been. You shall observe in titles ever upon the coming of a greater, the less is laid down. For if this be to be God, to be bounteous, beneficial. In nothing was God ever so beneficial as in sending His only begotten Son into the world. This shall be His title forever. Forever to have a chief place in our Benedictus. And yet there is another on Christs behalf, our Lord; even to bring Him in too. For, seeing all that which follows comes not but by the rising of Christ, we cannot leave Him out. All the good that comes to us, as it comes to us from God, so it comes to us by Christ. This is most plain; first, that did generate Christ; before that did regenerate us. If He not generate, we not regenerate; then no children, then no inheritance. For in Him this text, and all other texts, are yea and amen. By this time we see why this addition, it is His title of severance, it is the highest title of His honour; it takes in Christ, who would not be left out in our Benedictus. From the party whom we pass to the cause, why. For we say not this Benedictus, as we say many a one here, without any cause; Benedictus for nothing; nay, for God is ever aforehand with us. For generation is the proper act of a Father. But before we come to it let us not stride over that which stands before it. God did this, did all that follows, but upon what motive? According to His mercy. And mercy accords well with a Father; no compassion like His. But the benefits ensuing are too great to run in the common current of mercy. Great, therefore according to His great mercy. Mercy, the thing; great, the measure; a word of number rather than magnitude. The meaning is, no single mercy would do it; no, though great, there must be many. For many the defects to be removed, many the sins to be forgiven, many the perfections to be attained, therefore, according to His manifold mercy. According is well said. For that indeed is the chord, to which this and all our Benedictuses are to be tuned. Yea, many times blessed for His manifold mercies. Mercy, then, first; regeneration second, the act of this mercy. Verily, even for our natural generation, we owe Him a Benedictus. No man by his first birth, be it never so high or noble, is a whir the nearer this inheritance. Now re hath in it two powers. Re is again the second time. For two there be, that old creation, and the new creature in Christ. But re is not only again, but again upon a loss. Not a second only, but a second upon the failing of the first. So doth redemption, a buying again, upon a former aliening. Reconciliation, upon a former falling out. Restitution, upon a former attainder. Resurrection, upon a fall taken formerly. Regeneration, upon a former degenerating, from our first estate. Our first would not serve; it was corrupt, it was defiled, it did degenerate. There was more then need of a new, a second, a regeneration, to make us children of grace again, and so of life. This act of regenerating is determined doubly, Εἴς is twice repeated. To hope first, then to the inheritance; ye may put them together, to the hope of an inheritance. But because an inheritance is no present matter; it is to come, and to be coming to. From begetting, we step not straight to entering upon our inheritance. There needs no great Benedictus for hope. For what is hope? What, but a waking mans dream? And such hopes there be many in the world. But this is none such. To show it is none such it is severed by two terms: regeneravit and vivam. They are worth the marking both.
(a) Regeneravit, first; that it is spes generata. So this a substantial hope, called therefore by St. Paul the helmet of hope (1Th_5:1-28), the anchor of hope (Heb_6:1-20), things of substance, that will hold, that have metal in them.
(b) Then mark vivam. And vivam follows well of regeneravit. For they that are begotten are so to live, to have life. Vivam also imports there is a dead or a dying hope, but this is not such but a living.
Nay, viva is more than vivens, lively, then living. Where viva is said of ought the meaning is they spring, they grow, they have life in themselves. And, indeed, regeneravit is a good verb to join with hope. There is in hope a kind of regendering power; it begets men anew. And viva is a good epithet for it. When one droops give him hope, his spirits will come to him afresh, it will make him alive again. And for such a hope blessed be God. And whence hath it this life? The next word shows it, vivam, per resurrectionem. The vigour it hath from Christ rising, and by His rising opening to us the gate of life at large. Life by the resurrection, the true life indeed. Not to live here still, but to rise again and live as Christ did. We for the most part put it wrong, for we put it in them that must die, and then must our hope die with them, and so prove a dying hope. But put it in one that dies not, that shall never die, and then it will be spes viva indeed. No reed, no cobweb-hope then; but helmet, anchor hope-hope that will never confound you. And who is that, or where is He, that we might hope in Him? That is Jesus Christ, our hope; so calls Him St. Paul (1Ti_1:1). Yet not Christ every way considered; not as yesterday, in the grave, nor as the day before, giving up the ghost upon the Cross, dead, and buried, yields but dead hope. But in Jesus Christ rising again. We pass now to the inheritance. But as we pass will ye observe the situation first? It is well worth your observing that the resurrection is placed in the midst, between our hope and our inheritance. To hope before it, before the resurrection, hope; but after to the inheritance itself, to the full possession and fruition of it. An inheritance accords well with according to His mercy. We have it not of ourselves or by our merits, but of Him and by His mercies. Else were it a purchase and no inheritance. It comes to us freely, as the inheritance to children. Well with mercy, and well with regeneravit. For the inheritance is of children. Nor shall we need to doubt any prejudice to God, from whom it comes, by our coming to this inheritance. Here the inheritance comes not but by the death of the party in possession, but there no prejudice to the ancestor; he dies not for the heir to succeed. Nor no prejudice to the heir neither; to us by Him, not to Him by us. It is not as here, one carries it from all, and all the rest go without; or if they come in his part is the less. So say we again now, one thing to be born to an inheritance, another to such an inheritance as this here. For in inheritances there is great odds, one much better than another even here with us. St. Peter writes to the dispersed Jews, and by in caelo, he gives them an item, this inheritance is no new Canaan here on earth, nor Christ any earthly Messiahs to settle them in a new land of promise. In heaven, then. There it is first, and there it is kept; the being there one, the keeping another. For that there it is kept is happy for us. Earth would not keep it, here it would be in hazard. It would go the same way Paradise went. Since it would be lost in earth it is kept in heaven. And a Benedictus for that too, as for the regenerating us to it here on earth, so for the keeping, the preserving of it there in heaven. Kept, and for us kept, else all were nothing, that makes up all that it is not only preserved, but reserved for us there. But reserved yet under the veil. But time shall come when the veil shall be taken off, and of that which is now within it there shall be a reveiling. Only it stayeth till the work of regeneration be accomplished. For these come we now to our Benedictus. For if God, according to His manifold mercy, have done all this for us, we also, according to our duty, are to do somewhat again. First, then, dictus, somewhat would be said by way of recognition; this hath God done for us, and more also. But to say Benedictus anyway is not to content us, but to say it solemnly. How is that? Benedictus in our mouth and the holy Eucharist in our hands. And yet this is not all; we are not to stay here, but to aspire farther, even to strive to be like to God, and be like God we shall not unless our dicere be facere as His is, unless somewhat be done withal. In very deed there is no blessing, but with the hand stretched out. (Bp. Andrewes.)
According to His abundant mercy.
Gods abundant mercy
A little mercy, such as is in man, or some reasonable store, as in angels, would not serve the turn.
1. Was it a small matter that moved God to choose thee to salvation, rather than thousands of others, or was it a small mercy to give us His only Son, to deliver us by suffering all the wrath due to us?
2. Is it a small measure of mercy to call us to the hope of salvation from our wretched estate when we went on in sin, and minded no good, nay, all evil?
3. They that have had their part in this abundant mercy must be stirred up to abundant thanksgiving (Psa_116:12-14). We must testify our love in zealous obedience all the days of our life, showing forth the virtues of Him that hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.
4. It teaches us also to show mercy to one another: in giving, forgiving, and the like.
5. It shows also the miserableness of our estate, that without abundant mercy we can never be saved. (John Rogers.)
A string of pearls
I might almost entitle these three verses a New Testament psalm. They are stanzas of a majestic song. You have here a delightful hymn; it scarce needs to be turned into verse; it is in itself essential poetry. To lead the mind to praise God is one of the surest ways of uplifting it from depression. The wild beasts of anxiety and discontent which surround our bivouac in the wilderness will be driven away by the fire of our gratitude and the song of our praise. In these three verses we have a string of pearls, a necklace of diamonds, a cabinet of jewels.
I. I see in the text, as the source of all the rest, abundant mercy. No other attribute could have helped us had mercy refused. As we are by nature, justice condemns us, holiness frowns upon us, power crushes us, truth confirms the threatening of the law, and wrath fulfils it. It is from the mercy of God that all our hopes begin. Mercy is needed for the miserable, and yet more for the sinful. Misery and sin are fully united in the human race, and mercy here performs her noblest deeds. God has vouchsafed His mercy to us, and we must thankfully acknowledge that in our case His mercy has been abundant mercy. Where sin hath abounded, grace hath much more abounded. Contemplate the abundant mercy of our blessed God. A river deep and broad is before you. Track it to its fountainhead; see it welling up in the covenant of grace, in the eternal purposes of infinite wisdom. The secret source is no small spring, no mere bubbling fount, it is a very Geyser, leaping aloft in fulness of power; the springs of the sea are not comparable therewith. Not even an angel could fathom the springs of eternal love or measure the depths of infinite grace. Follow now the stream; mark it in all its course. See how it widens and deepens, how at the Cross it expands into a measureless river! Mark how the filthy come and wash; see how each polluted one comes up milk-white from the washing!
1. It is Gods great mercy that is spoken of herein. You must measure His Godhead before you shall compute His mercy.
2. But note again, it is the mercy of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. When I see Jesus descending from heaven to earth, paying all the debts of His people, I can well understand that the mercy of God in Christ must be abundant mercy.
3. Note carefully another word, it is the mercy of the Father. The Father of Him who is the perfect and the ever blessed is also your Father, and all His mercy belongs to you. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name.
II. The next great blessing in the text is that of incorruptible life. Mark that, O believer. One of the first displays of Divine mercy which we experience is being begotten again. Our first birth gave us the image of the first Adam-earthly; our second birth, and that alone, gives us the image of the second Adam, which is heavenly.
1. The new life of a Christian is Divine in its origin-God hath begotten us. The new life cometh not from man, it is wrought by the operation of the Holy Ghost. As certainly as God spake, and it was done, in the creation of the world, so He speaks in the heart of man, and it is done, and the new creature is born.
2. The new life in us, as it has a Divine origin, has also a Divine nature. Ye are made partakers of the Divine nature. The Holy Spirit Himself enters the believer and abides in him, and makes him a living man. What a great mystery is this, but at the same time what a blessing! Observe, to be begotten again is a very marvellous thing. Suppose a man born into this world with a predisposition to some sad hereditary disease. There he is, filled with disease, and medicine cannot eject the unwelcome tenant from his body. Suppose that mans body could be altogether new born, and he could receive a new body pure from all taint, it would be a great mercy. But it does not approach to regeneration, because our supposition only deals with the body, while the new birth renews the soul, and even implants a higher nature. Regeneration overcomes not a mere material disease, not an infliction in the flesh, but the natural depravity of the heart, the deadly disorder of the soul.
III. A third blessing, strictly connected with this new life, is a lively hope. He hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. Could a man live without hope? Men manage to survive the worst condition of distress when they are encouraged by a hope, but is not suicide the natural result of the death of hope? Yes, we must have a hope, and the Christian is not left without one.
1. He has a lively hope, that is to say, first, he has a hope within him, real, true, and operative. A Christians hope purifies him, excites him to diligence, makes him seek after that which he expects to obtain.
2. It is a lively hope in another sense, namely, that it cheers and enlivens.
3. It is also called a living hope, because it is imperishable. Other hopes fade like withering flowers. The only imperishable hope is that which climbs above the stars, and fixes itself upon the throne of God and the person of Jesus Christ.
4. The hope which God has given to His truly quickened people is a lively hope, however, mainly because it deals with life. Charles Borromeo, the famous bishop of Milan, ordered a painter who was about to draw a skeleton with a scythe over a sepulchre to substitute for it the golden key of Paradise. Truly this is a most fitting emblem for a believers tomb, for what is death but the key of heaven to the Christian? We notice frequently over cemetery gates, as an emblematic device, a torch turned over ready to be quenched. Ah, it is not so, the torch of our life burns the better, and blazes the brighter for the change of death.
IV. We notice another delightful possession which ought effectually to chasten away from all of us the glooms of this life, and that is a risen Saviour. Jesus Christ died, not in appearance, but in reality; in proof whereof His heart was pierced by the soldiers spear. He was laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, truly a corpse. He really and literally rose from the dead,-the selfsame Christ who was born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, and afterwards ascended into heaven. Now, note ye well the comfort which arises out of this fact, since it proves that we possess a living advocate, mediator, and high priest, who has passed into the heavens. Moreover, since all believers, being partakers of the incorruptible life of God, are one with Jesus Christ, that which happens to Him virtually happens to them. They died in His death, they live in His life, they reign in His glory.
V. The fifth is as incorruptible inheritance. A heavenly nature requires a heavenly inheritance, heaven-born children must have a heavenly portion.
1. First, as this substance-it is incorruptible.
2. Next, for purity-it is undefiled.
3. And then it is added for its beauty,-it fadeth not away.
4. And then for possession, it is secure reserved in heaven for you.
VI. The sixth blessing is inviolable security. The inheritance is kept for you, and you are kept for the inheritance. The word is a military one, it signifies a city garrisoned and defended. Each believer is kept by that same power which bears the earths huge pillars up, and sustains the arches of heaven. VII. Out of the seven treasures of the Christian the last comprehends all, is better than all-it is a blessed God. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is joy to have heaven, it is joy to possess a new life to fit me for heaven, but the greatest of all is to have my God, my own Saviours God, my Father, my own Saviours Father, to be all my own. God Himself has said, I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The anthem of the redeemed
Gratitude is happiness, and happiness speaks in poetry, and delights in song. Music is the language of a jubilant heart.
I. We have here the abundant mercy of God in producing a living hope in the breast of rebels against his authority. This expression implies three things:
1. That humanity once had a living hope. The breast of man, in the short but bright period of innocence, was indeed inspired with a living hope.
2. That mankind have somehow or Other lost this living hope. We know how they lost it. It was sin that quenched this glorious lamp.
3. That the reproduction of this living hope is a wonderful display of Divine mercy. Justice overwhelms the sinner with terror and midnight despair.
II. We have here the abundant mercy of God, in the transcendent value of the object on which this living hope is fastened. An inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, etc. Hope always implies an object. The value of the hope depends upon the nature of the object.
III. We have here the abundant mercy of God, in the wonderful instrumentality by which this living hope is reproduced. It is begotten again by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. How does the resurrection of Christ appear necessary for the reproduction in man of this living hope?
1. Christ taught the existence both of the desirable and the obtainable in connection with the future state. In the nature of the case hope implies both of these things. This something Christ presented in His teaching. He revealed to men heaven in all its glories, and He revealed too the manner in which that heaven could be obtained. Hence His teaching was in every way adapted to generate this living hope in the minds of men.
2. His resurrection from the dead was an incontrovertible proof of the truth of what He taught.
IV. We have here the abundant mercy of God, in the almighty agency he employs, to secure the ultimate realisation of this living hope.
1. The implied necessity of Gods preserving agency Who are kept. No power but that of God can keep us.
2. The expressed method of Gods preserving agency. Through faith. He always works by means.
3. The glorious designs of Gods preserving agency. Unto eternal salvation. And in this constant agency what abundant mercy! Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for His mercy endureth forever. (Homilist.)
Gods mercy manifold
As John Bunyan says, all the flowers in Gods garden are double; there is no single mercy; nay, they are not only double flowers, but they are manifold flowers. There are many flowers upon one stalk, and many flowers in one flower. You shall think you have but one mercy, but you shall find it to be a whole, flock of mercies. Manifold mercies! Like the drops of a lustre, which reflect a rainbow of colours when the sun is glittering upon them, and each one, when turned in different ways from its prismatic form, shows all the varieties of colour, so the mercy of God is one and yet many, the same, yet ever changing, a combination of all the beauties of love blended harmoniously together. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Begotten us again unto a lively hope.-
The Christians living hope and incorruptible inheritance
If I had to say in a word what the Christians hope is, I should say it is the hope of an unfading inheritance, the hope of being made meet for it, the hope of what is condensed into that all-comprehensive word salvation! And can you make mention of any other hope that does not pale when placed beside this?
I. It is a living hope.
1. The living hope of a living man. A man spiritually dead cannot possess this hope. It is not a phantasy. It is not an effeminate wish, or a masculine wish for that matter; it is not a mere sentiment or a fond desire. It is a living hope! It is an indivisible, inalienable part of his new life, and it cannot exist in any other heart than that of the spiritually transformed man-the man who is begotten again.
2. It is a living hope because it centres in a living Christ. Begotten to it, how? By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The life of Christ, so full of goodness, and love, and purity, and self-sacrifice, and His death, so awful, the culminating sacrifice of all, were not enough. He must come back into life, or no sinner can be forgiven. Blessed be God! He did come back!
3. The Christians hope is a living one as contrasted with and opposed to hopes that perish. God hath pledged its realisation under the seal of His own oath.
II. God is the author of this hope. He hath begotten us again to it. It is all of His abundant mercy. Therefore let us bless Him for it. And let us show our gratitude to Him by letting the light of our hope shine on others.
III. The inheritance to which the Christians hope points. (E. D. Solomon.)
Shadows of the future
To the Christian the future life is not merely a subject of anticipation, but of confident and well-grounded assurance. Our Saviour seemed specially anxious to impress this fact on the minds of His disciples. He said to them, Because I live, ye shall live also. Well, now we know that Christ lives. The existence of the Church of Christ today is an unmistakable evidence of the existence and continued activity of Christ. And if Christ lives, then we shall live also. What ought to be the influence of these anticipations on our life as Christian men and women here?
I. These anticipations ought to have a place in our thoughts, in our conversations, in our prayers, in our affections, and in the activities of our lives. It is the fashion of some preachers to decry this other world religion, as they call it. They say, We have nothing whatever to do with the other world; the present life demands all our care, and they would severely repress all interest in the future life. The human heart rebels against all such unnatural restriction. You may just as well say to the mariner, Because there are rocks and quicksands in the course which you have to take you must never lift up your eyes to the stars, but keep them steadily fixed on the waters you have to cross. Why, he would say, I guide my way across the waters of this world by the light of other worlds. And so the Christian mariner can say, I guide my course through this world by the light and the hope and the influence of the other world.
II. Our thoughts of the future life should be characterised by moderation, reverence, and spirituality. Let us be content with the beautiful simplicity and lofty spirituality of the New Testament representations as a life of glorious spiritual progress, of freedom from sin, holy love, honourable service, delightful fellowship, and a growing likeness to Christ; We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, We shall be with Him, and we shall do Him service. (F. Binns.)
Great expectations
I. Christian hope in the excellency of its nature. Lifes pathway strewn with withered hopes. Gold, pleasure, fame, etc., disappoint.
II. Christian hope in the divinity of its source.
III. Christian hope in the medium of its production. Jesus, by His resurrection, the proof, pledge, and pattern of our future heavenly happiness.
IV. Christian hope in the glory of its object.
1. Vast inheritance.
2. Righteous-gotten rightly and enjoyed rightly.
3. Everlasting.
V. Christian hope in the certainty of its realisation. (B. D. Johns.)
The lively hope
I. The true character of the Christians hope.
1. It is lively in the sense of living. It is not delusive. It is no self-excited sentiment-the fruit of ignorance and presumption. It has a real, a well-defined, and well-ascertained existence in the heart.
2. It is a lively hope in the sense of activity. It produces courage, patience, holiness.
II. The object of the Christians hope. An inheritance, etc.
III. The method of attaining this hope.
1. Its author is God. It is a Divine creation in the heart.
2. This gift of God is prompted by His abundant mercy.
3. Yet the mercy which restores hope to man is not indiscriminate-it is the mercy of righteousness.
4. The medium through which this blessing reaches us-the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This was pre eminently the Divine attestation of the truth of the Saviours Messianic mission.
IV. The security or the possessors of this hope. (Thos. Brookes.)
The Christian salvation described and acknowledged
I. The blessings acknowledged.
1. Divine sonship. We become the children of God-both in reference to state and character, to condition and disposition-through the belief of the truth; and this belief of the truth is produced and maintained by the influence of the Holy Spirit.
2. The inheritance provided for them.
3. The living hope of the inheritance, through the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead. This hope rests entirely on Gods free sovereign kindness, manifested in harmony with His righteousness; but it is only in the belief of the truth that this sovereign kindness can be apprehended as a ground of hope.
II. The acknowledgment of these blessings.
1. God is the author of these blessings.
2. It is as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that God bestows these blessings. In the riches of His sovereign mercy He determined to save an innumerable multitude of sinful men, and in the depth of His wisdom He formed a plan for realising the determination of His mercy, not merely in consistency with, but in glorious illustration of, His holiness and justice.
3. These blessings originate in the abundant mercy of God.
(1) Think on the character of Him who bestows these blessings-the absolute, independent Jehovah, perfectly, infinitely, unchangeably, happy in Himself.
(2) Think on the nature of the blessings,-the very highest that can be conferred on creatures, and in their measure limited by nothing but the capacity of the recipient.
(3) Think on the character of those on whom they are bestowed-sinners, guilty, depraved, condemned; deserving everlasting destruction.
(4) Think of the number of those on whom these blessings are bestowed (Rev_21:24; Rev_7:9).
(5) Think of the means through which the blessings are communicated-the Incarnation, the sacrifice of Gods own son (1Jn_4:10; Joh_3:16).
4. These blessings are of vast magnitude and incalculable value. They include deliverance from guilt, depravity, degradation, death, everlasting misery; the enjoyment of the favour of God, tranquillity of conscience, ever-growing conformity to the Divine image, and happiness throughout eternity.
5. The proper method of acknowledging these benefits is to bless their munificent giver. This is one of the purposes for which we are begotten again (Isa_43:21; 1Pe_2:9). Our whole life should be a hymn of praise to the God of our salvation (Psa_103:1-4; Psa_86:12-13; Rom_12:1; Heb_13:15-16; Rev_5:13). (J. Brown, D. D.)
Begotten unto a living hope
We are not surprised that Peter attached special importance to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The most significant fact about the crucifixion was that it culminated in the resurrection. If Christ had not risen from the dead, there would have been no adequate message for the world. Now, though the story of the resurrection was to all the apostles specially inspiring, it was that which brought hope to Peter above all others. After his three-fold denial of Christ, he had gone out, weeping bitterly. Hence the special emphasis with which our Lord mentioned Peter in His message to His disciples: Tell My disciples, and Peter, that I am risen from the dead, etc. Thus the resurrection of Jesus Christ was everything to Peter. It was that which brought; with it hope to the man who, of all the apostles-excepting Judas-had lost most hope.
I. Peters high conception here of Gods mercy. Peter does not undertake to measure or to describe it. It is a mercy that has filled him with wonderment and with boundless gratitude. Peter speaks these words out of the exuberance of his own joy. That word us has a me at the heart of it. The powerful preacher is the man who preaches out of his own experience; and thus the greatest sinner forgiven must always be the greatest witness, if he is only true to his privilege. No other disciple had experienced the intense grief which Peter had felt. Hence the special significance of these words upon his lips. This word again further emphasises the testimony. All hope had practically died out of Peter. He thought everything had ended in darkness; hence the thanks he gives to Him who had begotten him and his brethren unto a lively hope.
II. Peters high conception of the hope unto which he and others had been begotten. It was a hope full of life. Peter had no patience with anything that did not abound with life. He himself was all alive, whether he confessed or denied his Lord. His was an intense nature. And when hope was rekindled in him, it was a living hope. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, had that living hope. Then he spoke in the face of the mightiest opposition, spoke only as a man with a flaming heart and a fiery tongue could have spoken. He attributed all this hope to Gods mercy. It was the gift of another, said Peter, practically; I never could work myself up into this enthusiasm. All my energy was gone, and my enthusiasm had died out of me; but He who gave His Son has given me again this lively hope.
III. Peters high conception of the inheritance in store for us-an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, etc. This assurance, if you possess it, ought to make a difference to all your life. Here is a man who believes that this life of fifty, sixty, or seventy years, as the case may be, embraces everything: that there is nothing beyond it for him. What noble heroism can you expect of that man? But here is another man who feels that, after all, this life is but the preparatory period, the time of schooling for an inheritance in which life shall show its full meaning, and every capacity of our being shall be ennobled and find full exercise. I will tell you what such a man ought to be. I do not say what those who profess to believe this often are, but what each of them ought to be. (D. Davies.)
A right to hope
My father said once, Harriet, I have been reviewing my evidences. I have been putting the question to myself, just as I would press it on a sinner, or a person newly converted; and I have come to the conclusion that I have a right to hope. That kind of mechanical or conventional test used to prevail in churches as now; and here was this old saint, that had been for fifty or sixty years working almost beyond human strength in the midst of the world, as sweet as honey in the honeycomb in his disposition, putting himself on the rack of self examination, and coming, with great hesitation and modesty, at last, to the conclusion that he had a right to hope! Hope! When a man has any conception of Jesus Christ, how can he have anything else? Hope! When the heart of Christ is pouring forth salvation, and is made manifest, as the shining of the sun, and has enough and to spare, how can one do otherwise than hope? And yet there are a great many persons who cannot do it. There are a great many who do not realise the blessing which is vouchsafed to them, sometimes from their bodily condition, and sometimes from their mental training; sometimes from one reason, and sometimes from another. (H. W. Beecher.)
The Christians hope
Dr. Arnolds whole countenance would be lit up at his favourite verse in the Te Deum: When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. (Stanleys Life of Arnold.)
Christian hope well founded
God would never show us a thing He did not mean to give us. This is the way one boy teases another. (Geo. MacDonald.)
The death test
A few hours before Bishop Joness death (Methodist Episcopal Church), his son-in-law, anxious for some dying testimony, bent over him and asked, Bishop, say something to us, some parting words. The brief, emphatic reply was, I am not disappointed.
Christianity provides a future
A converted Japanese artist said recently to a missionary, I suppose the reason why English artists put so much perspective into their drawings is because Christianity has given them a future; and the reason why Oriental artists fail to do so, is because Buddha and Confucius do not raise their eyes above the present.
By the resurrection of Jesus Christ.-
Easter hopes
I. To say that we cannot get on without hope is a truism. Hope is not the salt, it is the sinew of mans moral life. His capacity for excellence is exactly proportioned to his power of throwing himself onward into a future, which is as yet beyond his reach, and which may even be always beyond it. This truth holds good whether we look at man as an individual or as a member of society. The great object of a wise educator is to set before the boy whom he is teaching some future to which he may aspire, and which may fire his best enthusiasms; some future which may supply him with a strong motive for making the most of his present opportunities; some future upon which, during the drudgery and toil of his earlier tasks, his eye may rest, as upon the prize which will reward| him, the object of his hope. And does not the same rule hold in later life? The boy becomes a man, the father of a family, and he transfers to his children some of the hope which he cherished for himself. He thinks less of what they are than of what it is probable that they will be a few years hence. So strong and penetrating is his sympathy, that in them he lives his own boyhood over again, only with the larger experience and wider horizon of his manhood. Nor is this less true of a professional work in life: hope is ever the motive principle of the exertions which command success. Minds of a lower type look forward to the reputation which will be won by success; minds of a higher order look forward to the happiness of doing work for God by rendering some real service to their generation or to posterity. And it is this hope which sustains them under all discouragements. Nor is hope less essential to associations of men than to man in his individual capacity. An army is never thoroughly demoralised until the hope of victory is gone. A nation is not ruined until it, has reached a point at which it remarks that it can make out for itself no prospect of expansion in coming years. And as hope is thus necessary to the temporary well-being of societies of men, and of individual men, so is it essential to the highest well-being of man as man. The hope upon which states, institutions, artists, painters, military men, politicians rest, is directed to objects within the sphere of sense and time. But man, as man, must look beyond sense and time. The man who has no clear belief in a future life may undoubtedly have, within some very restricted limits, a strong sense of duty. He may even persuade himself that this sense of duty is all the better and purer from not being bribed by the prospect of a future reward or stimulated, as he would say, unhealthily, by the dread of future punishment. But, for all that, his moral life is fatally impoverished. It is not merely that he has fewer and feebler motives to right action; it is that he has a false estimate of his real place in the universe. He has forfeited, in the legitimate sense of the term, his true title to self-respect. He has divested himself of the bearing, the instincts, the sense of noble birth and high destiny which properly belong to him.
II. Man then needs a hope, resting on something beyond this scene of sense and time. And God has given him one, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Our Lord indeed taught, in the plainest language, the reality of a future life (Joh_14:2; Mat_25:46; Mat_6:20; Luk_20:38). He contributed to the establishment of this truth in the deepest convictions of men, not merely many lessons taught in words, but a fact, palpable to the senses. His resurrection converted hopes, surmises, speculations, trains of inference, into strong certainties. Not that the fact of Christs resurrection could force itself upon reluctant minds, or rather upon reluctant wills, in the earliest ages, as now, there were expedients for evading its force. The evangelical narrative, the convictions of the earliest Church, the moral strength of the Church, advancing through blood and suffering to the heights of a worldwide empire, resist these expedients, as inconsistent with fact, inconsistent with reason. There are at least three forms of interest which might be accorded to such a fact as the resurrection. The first, the interest of curiosity in a wonder, altogether at variance with the observed course of nature. This interest may exist in a high degree; observing and registering the fact, yet never for one moment getting beyond it. The second, the interest of active reason, which is satisfied that such a fact must have consequences and is anxious to trace them. This interest may lead a man to see that the resurrection does prove the truth of Christianity, even though he may know nothing of the power of Christs blood and of Christs life as a matter of experience. A third kind of interest is practical and moral. It is an effort to answer the question, What does the resurrection of Christ say to me, mean for me? If it is true, if Christianity is true, what ought to be the effect on my thoughts, my feelings, my life? Now St. Peter answers that all should be invigorated by a living hope. Burthen this absorbing moral interest does not come of ordinary powers of observation and reason, like the two earlier forms of interest. We are, says St. Peter, begotten unto it. Of this birth, the Father of souls is the Author, and His Eternal Spirit the instrument, and union with Christ the essence or effect. It does much else for us; but it does this among other things, and not least among them: it endows us with a living hope.
III. St. Peter calls this hope a lively, or living, one. What does he mean by this? There are within many a soul trances of powers, ideas, feelings, which once lived, but which have died away. We investigate them from time to time, like the buried ruins of Pompeii or Herculaneum. But a Christians hops endures. Earthly disappointments do but force us to make more of it. The lapse of time does but bring us nearer to its object. Surely we can ask ourselves few questions so important as Have I this hope? Not to have this hope is to be living at random; it is to be drifting on towards eternity without a chart in hand, or a harbour in view. And if we humbly trust that we have this hope, what are the tests of our possessing it?
1. A first test is that earthly things sit easily upon us. We are not uninterested in them: far from it. We know how much depends on our way of dealing with them. But, also, we are not enslaved by them. To have caught a real glimpse of the eternal is to have lost heart and relish for the things of time.
2. A second test of our having this hope is a willingness to make sacrifices for it. What difference do my hopes of another world make in my daily life? What am I doing, what do I leave undone, that I should not leave undone or do, if I believed that all really ended at death? What changes would be made in my habits, occupations, daily modes of thought and feeling, if-to put a horrible supposition-I could awake tomorrow morning and find that Christs conquest of the eternal world for me was a fable?
3. A third test is progressive efforts to prepare for the future life (1Jn_3:3). (Canon Liddon.)
The risen Lord the Christians hope
I. The ground of this hope.
II. The power of this hope.
III. The destiny of this hope. (J. E. H. Meier.)
The right view of Christs resurrection
I. The different effects produced upon the minds of many, who have only an outward belief of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. Of all the wonderful events which marked the Saviours abode upon earth, there does not appear one for which so much was done to make it clearly proved by its evidence as His resurrection. It was proved by the angels, by the confession of the Roman soldiers who guarded the sepulchre. It was proved by the single testimony of some of the apostles. It was proved by the testimony of the eye, the ear, and the hand (1Jn_1:1). The consequence has been, that all who profess to believe Christianity believe the fact of Christs resurrection. But with many it goes no further than to convince their reason. It brings no personal conviction of the deep interest which the soul now has, and the soul and body hereafter shall have, in this great truth. Then, again, many believe the resurrection of Christ, not only as an established fact, but as a certain pledge of the general resurrection in the last day. But here they also stop. The belief of their own resurrection has no effect upon their will. They cannot look forward with the certain hope of holy Job (Job_19:25-27). How different a view does St. Paul give us of what the belief of the resurrection of Christ, as the pledge of our own, ought to produce upon the soul (Rom_6:4). St. Paul shows that there must be a conformity of the soul to Christ while it is in the fleshly body, if we would be partakers of the glorified body at the resurrection of the just (Col_3:1). I will name one other class of persons, who, in a certain way, believe in the resurrection of Christ. Many believe it because it stands as an article in the creed. But here they also stop. The fact of the resurrection of our Lord produces no soul-stirring feelings of wonder, gratitude, and love towards this triumphant Conqueror of Satan, sin, and death; neither does it beget in them any holy desires to be conformed to His image in the converting power of the Holy Ghost. Beware of this deadening view of any of the great doctrines of the gospel of our salvation.
II. The only right view of this great and most important fact of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the grave. The text shows us what effect true faith in this great fact had produced upon the first Christians: by it they were begotten again unto a lively hope. It was in them a practical truth-it touched their hearts. Through the power of it, in the presence and influence of the Holy Ghost, they were anew created, new born unto God. It was a hope which was embodied in their whole character, gave strength and substance to all they did, and was to them that hope which was laid up for them in heaven (Col_1:5). Hence we see that a real and justifying belief of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ acts immediately upon the will and the affections. (H. Marriott.)
A lively hope generated by Christs resurrection
By speaking of our being begotten again to a lively hope, the apostle would simply indicate something of a universal change having passed, through Christs resurrection, over this earth and its inhabitants. And such a change did actually pass. There was substituted a living hope for a dead throughout every department of this creation, amongst its irrational as well as its rational tenants. It was not that heretofore there had been no hope whatsoever; for man is so constructed that he cannot live without hope; he must follow a meteor where there is no star on the firmament. There was hope amongst men, even when truth had almost departed, and ignorance of God pressed heavily on all countries and classes. There was hope that Deity might be propitiated; that in some better world the disorders of the present might be rectified. Reason did something, in the midst of ponderous night, to keep men from quite parting with the expectation of immortality; and, combining the teachings of conscience with the lingerings of tradition, it caused a spectre of hope to flit to and fro amid the cloud and the darkness. Yes, a spectre of hope!-a dead thing, though, at times, it appeared amongst the living, and wore something of the hues which had belonged to the fresh and beautiful visitant that had gladdened the earth, whilst yet untainted by sin. A living hope! a hope that is not merely performing some of the actions, but possessing all the energies, of life-that should not merely beckon onward, but waited to be examined and handled-this never sprang from the reveries of philosophers, but eluded the searchings of those who laboured most gravely at the opening a path to happiness hereafter (H. Melvill, B. D.)
To an inheritance incorruptible.-
The heavenly inheritance
The greatness of Gods mercy is to be seen-
I. In the great number of the saved.
II. In the greatness of the change which takes place in this great multitude. The very life of God is transmitted to the soul of the believer in regeneration.
III. In the greatness of the inheritance.
1. Incorruptible. Heaven has in it the power of endless rejuvenation.
2. Undefiled. Its worth is intrinsic; it does not sometimes go up and sometimes come down; its value is the same the centuries through; it was worth the blood of Christ two thousand years ago, and it is worth the blood today again.
3. That fadeth not away-amaranthine, evergreen, always fruitful, always beautiful. No autumn winds strip the trees of their foliage, no winter blasts rob the fields of their verdure. A pamphlet was being lately circulated in this country to persuade English men to emigrate to Texas, and one reason adduced was that the soil being so rich and the climate so equably soft, two harvests could be gathered in one year. A very cogent reason, doubtless, if true. But my text speaks of a better country than Texas-a country which will yield not two crops, but twelve crops in the twelve months (Rev_22:2).
IV. In the greatness of the expense to which He went to be able to confer this great inheritance.
V. In the greatness of the power that is pledged to bring the great multitude to the possession of the inheritance. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)
The inheritance of moral manhood
I. The inheritance of the good is distinguished by every species of excellence.
1. Incorruptible. The principle of decay is not in it. The pyramid crumbles at the touch of time, and the long-during mountains shake under the footstep of ages; but eternal cycles roll over the plains of heaven without impairing the beauty or paling the brilliance of the incorruptible inheritance.
2. Undefiled. Inherently and essentially pure.
3. Fadeth not away.
II. The inheritance of the good is in safe keeping-reserved in heaven. This inheritance could not be on earth. Its vitality would perish. Its purity would be sullied. Its brightness would be dimmed. It is necessary that it should be reserved or kept back for a season. You may have seen a parent reach down from an eminence some valuable article and show it to the child; the child has lifted his tiny hands to grasp the prize, but the parent has interposed, saying, No, my son, this is for you when you are a man. Precisely so with us; wait until you are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the saints in light. In what does this meetness consist? Undoubtedly in moral manhood. The soul is to become of age by growth in moral purity and moral power.
1. A recognition of God in everything. In battle, and storm, and plague, the clear eye of moral man looks up, knowing that Omnipotence guides that storm, and guards the childs inheritance.
2. Power over every combination of circumstances. The man is perfectly calm in positions which alarm the child. The heir knows that even if circumstances should press so heavily upon him that his earthly house of this tabernacle should be dissolved, he has a building of God-a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2Co_5:5).
3. An intelligent decisiveness of character. Is your conviction strong and intelligent? Is your purpose high and determined? Never was fixedness of moral view more essential to progress than in the present day. Every breeze seems laden with refined error and mystic heresy. Know well your doctrines; fix your eye earnestly on the beacon lights of immutable truth.
III. The inheritance is the portion of a special class. Kept.
1. By the supreme love of their omnipotent Saviour (Joh_10:28-29). The Lord Jesus not only redeemed His people, He is at this hour interceding for them; and His intercession keeps the saints. Peter was kept (Luk_22:31) by the Saviours mediation.
2. By the ministry of angels. This reflection is illustrative not only of the goodness of the Lord, but also of the dignity of the saved. No guardian band keeps watch over the sun in his glorious palace, no eyes glitter upon the stars as upon an appointed charge; but spirits, pure and strong, hover around the humble child of God. They constitute the military guard of the minor heir, and when he attains his majority they cease to be his protectors only that they may become his companions.
3. By the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
IV. The inheritance of the good can be entered upon only in Gods own time. Ready to be revealed in the last time. The Bible does not hold out heaven as an inducement to cease from earthwork, nor as a prize to be seized unconditionally. Is it your highest wish to enter heaven yourself, and leave your fellow creatures to do the best they can for themselves? Is there no moral work to be done before you enter on your promised rest? Is there no prodigal to reclaim, no aching heart to comfort? We must add labour to hope, and patience to faith. It is in this fashion that we prove the practical value of Christianity. Lessons:
1. Seek to be assured of your heirship.
2. Remember that you are under age.
3. Rise superior to your troubles. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Begotten to the heavenly inheritance
These two terms, begotten again and the incorruptible inheritance, are made for each other, like the two halves of a seashell. They shut accurately upon each other, but upon nothing else. Our inheritance by the first birth is neither undefiled nor unfading. To escape the curse of the first birthright we must have another birth. The new creature in Christ is joint heir with Him- heir of all things. The inheritance is-
(1) Incorruptible. It is not liable to complete dissolution, like a dead body that returns to dust. It is-
(2) Undefiled. It is not liable to have all its beauty dimmed by some unclean spot falling on its form. Often an earthly inheritance, while its substance abides the same, loses all its attraction for the owner. The eldest son, perhaps, for whom it was fondly cherished, has thrown away his good name. Henceforth the father cannot look with complacency on his green fields and waving woods. A glance at the landscape makes him shudder. His inheritance is defiled. Not so the heritage to which the children of God have, in the regeneration, been served heirs. The inheritance is-
(3) Unfading; its bloom will never wither. The Lamb is the light thereof, and there shall be no night there. The silence of Scripture, especially in contrast with the coarseness of earth born systems, is sometimes as emphatic a testimony to its Divine origin as its positive revelations. Lights on the shore flash far over the ocean, and conduct the voyager to the land; but they do not reveal to him while at sea the particular features of the landscape; it is thus that the Bible exhibits lights sufficient to guide inquirers safe to heaven, but not sufficient to reveal its interior beauties. Those who reach the better land will discover its glories after they arrive. (W. Arnot.)
The security of the inheritance
Some are born to a great inheritance, and yet miss it. In our days thrones are frequently shaken, and their occupants cast off. Princes who were born to a royal heritage wander as exiles in a foreign land. But there are no revolutions in the kingdom of heaven. Every one gets his own there. The laws of nature give a token of the certainty that prevails in the region where the Lord reigns. Although a globule of air were imprisoned for a thousand years within a shell at the bottom of the ocean, the moment its prison house decayed it would rise sheer through the water, though it were miles in depth, and never halt till it emerged with a bound into its native element, the sky. Behold a specimen of His power, who has promised none of them shall be lost. (W. Arnot.)
Who are kept by the power of God.-
Divine power and human faith
It is not Divine power alone, which would make man a mere passive creature; not human faith alone, which were to risk salvation on human strength. Were heaven reserved for man, and man left to himself to fight his way there, even with all the grand revelation of the Gospel, who would ever enter there? The Divine power is the efficient cause, faith the instrumental cause, in salvation. All worlds that revolve in space are upheld by Omnipotence: but the God of All-might upholds them by means of the grand law of gravitation. A flower is the work of Divine wisdom and beneficence, the forthputting of the Divine power of life; but it is by means of root and soil, and moisture and warmth, and light, that the flower shoots and blossoms into beauty. Such, however, are illustrations of means in the lower sphere of nature. We are sustained in life by the will and power of God. But He has given us instinct and reason, so that in the use of food, air, exercise, sleep, our bodily powers are maintained. There are two keepings: heaven for us, us for heaven. How does God guard His own? A large question, which admits of two main answers, the second of which will bring us to speak of the grace of faith. God guards His people by outward defence and by inward help. By outward defence, that is, by providence. No man ever can know in this life how much he owes to the restraining and overruling providence of God. He may be able to mark some things, but who can fully trace the all-guiding hand of God? Two ways there are in war to relieve a beleaguered city. One is by force from without to compel the enemy to raise the siege and abandon the attack; the other, to throw in succours-troops, provisions. We may know that God by His power can do either. For wise reasons He does not drive off the assaulting hosts. He throws into the city of Mansoul, succours. This is grace. Supplies of grace make the Christian strong. And he rejoices in not only the incoming of new life, but in the mortifying of inbred sin. Observe Gods method. He saves no man against his will or without his will. Salvation is of God. How then? God deals with man as a reasonable being. Faith is really the movement of the whole soul. There is in all this no force, no compulsion, no violation of the laws of mind. All is natural, while supernatural. (D. S. Brunton.)
Of perseverance
I. By what means no Christians come to persevere?
1. By the help of ordinances; prayer, word, sacraments.
2. By the sacred influence and concurrence of the Spirit.
3. By Christs daily intercession.
II. By what arguments may we prove the saints perseverance?
1. From the truth of God. God hath both asserted and promised it (1Jn_2:9; 1Jn_2:27; Joh_10:28; Jer_32:40; Mal_2:16).
2. From the power of God.
3. From Gods electing love.
4. From believers union with Christ.
5. From the nature of a purchase. Would Christ, think ye, have shed His blood that we might believe in Him for a while, and then fall away?
6. From a believers victory over the world.
III. What motives and incentives are there to make Christians persevere?
1. It is the crown and glory of a Christian to persevere. The excellency of a building is not in having the first stone laid, but when it is finished. The excellency of a Christian is, when he hath finished the work of faith.
2. You are within a few days march of heaven.
3. How sad not to persevere in holiness! You expose yourselves to the reproaches of men and the rebukes of God.
4. The promises of mercy are annexed only to perseverance (Rev_3:5; Luk_22:28).
IV. What expedients or means may be used for a Christians perseverance?
1. Take heed of those things which will make you fall away.
(1) Presumption.
(2) Hypocrisy.
(3) An evil heart of unbelief.
2. If you would persevere in sanctity-
(1) Look that you enter into religion upon a right ground; be well grounded in the distinct knowledge of God; you must know the love of the Father, the merit of the Son, and the efficacy of the Holy Ghost.
(2) Get a real work of grace in your heart. Nothing will hold out but grace; paint will fall off.
(3) Be very sincere.
(4) Be humble.
(5) Cherish the grace of faith.
(6) Seek Gods power to help.
(7) Set before your eyes the noble examples of those who have persevered in religion. (T. Watson.)
By, through, for
We have in this verse and the preceding one a grand picture of the double operation of the Divine power on the two sides of the veil. God works amidst the unseen realities, preserving the inheritance for us; and God works here, keeping us for the inheritance. It were vain to prepare the house unless He prepared its occupants. It were vain to nourish in human hearts desires and fitnesses for that supernal bliss, unless He were preparing the fruition of our desires. These two processes go on side by side, and at last the results of the two shall fit together like the two halves of a tally, and neither shall the saints be wanting for the inheritance, nor the inheritance for the saints.
I. What are we kept by? The Divine strength is as a fortress, protecting our weakness, and we lie safe in the hollow of that great sphere like some weaponless creature in its shell. We are imbedded, surrounded, over-arched above, and under-propped, and guarded on either side, and therefore we lie secure. The weakest of us can get behind that great shelter of the power of God. The fortress defends us, if we abide in it, from sin that would wreck our souls, but it does not shelter us, though we abide in it, from sorrows and all the ills and wearinesses and toils that flesh has to encounter, not because it is flesh, but because God is good. We are kept from the evil that is in the evil. The very exposure to the one often becomes the defence from the other. Then let us remember, too, that this power in which we are kept is a power which keeps us by itself being in us. So Paul speaks about being strengthened within with a Divine might. We are kept in God when God is kept in us.
II. What are we kept through? Faith is the condition, but it is no more than the condition. The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. And so one of the Hebrew words which expresses trust or faith, literally rendered, means to flee to a refuge. That figure sets forth picturesquely the nature and effects of faith. We are in the shelter of the enclosing walls, when by faith we enter into them. When we trust in the Lord we have a strong city, and salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Faith is conscious need. Faith is humble dependence. Faith is brave confidence. And if we go into our daily conflicts with the world and the flesh and the devil, wanting either of these three things, we want an indispensable link between our weakness and Gods strength, and therefore want a necessary condition for the influx of His power which brings the victory.
III. What are we kept rob? It is salvation in its rudimentary state here, it is salvation in its loftiest development yonder. All the crystals of one mineral have precisely the same angles and the same facets and planes, whether they be so small that it takes a strong microscope to see them, or large as basalt pillars of a Giants Causeway. The little salvation here and the giant salvation of the heavens are one and the same thing, and the difference is wholly one of degree. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The security of the faithful
Two persons may be in a lifeboat, and both being in the boat are therefore equally safe; yet one may be full of fear, because he understands neither the qualities of the boat nor the principles upon which it is constructed: he sees the waves rolling, and he fears he shall be drowned; while the other man, well acquainted with the principles of construction, and knowing also those laws by which it is governed, has peace because he is confident. So it is with regard to the character of the Lord Jesus. If you have been taught by the Spirit of God to know what Christ is-to know the preciousness of His blood-to know its saving power-to know its superiority even to Satan, then you may sit under His shadow with great delight, and perfect confidence and comfort. But, at the same time, if you are really trusting in Christ, although your faith be feeble, you are not less secure. The timid man is as safe in the boat as the courageous man, because they depend, not upon their frames and feelings, but their safety consists in the fact of their being in the boat. So all that are really trusting in the Lord Jesus are equally secure, although there may be great differences in the power of faith. (J. W. Reeve, M. A.)
Kept
I. We are kept safe.
1. God hides His people (Psa_27:5; Col_3:3).
2. God guards His people.
II. We are kept up. A corpse might be kept safe, but it would only be preserved corruption. Let us remember that He who keeps our spiritual life secure from outward attack, also keeps it from internal decay. With perpetual preservation there is continual renovation.
III. We are kept back. He who knows anything of the tendencies of his heart praises God as much for restraining as sustaining grace.
IV. We are kept on. If ye are found still running with patience give glory to Him unto whom alone it belongs.
V. We are kept through. There is as much need for us to be taught how to bear with equanimity, as how to serve with unceasing zeal. We are kept through faiths trial as well as in faiths service.
VI. We are kept clean. We who are kept safe in our title are kept meet in our persons for the coming glory.
VII. We are kept in order. The grace that saves places us in Christs school house for instruction.
VIII. We are kept always. The keeping of the text extends unto the last time. We are kept unto the end. What is there before us? Well, there is sickness for sure. But the promise is, He, that is the Lord, will make his bed in his sickness. Beyond sickness stands grim death, but that has lost all power to sting. Beyond death there yawns an open grave. But here the Lords keeping shines forth most magnificently. Yes, kept for the resurrection morning. Kept by invincible might for reunion with the glorified spirit. Nothing short of eternal keeping becomes the ever-living God, or meets the requirements of our immortal souls.
IX. We are kept for a public exhibition (Eph_2:7). (A. G. Brown.)
The Divine keeping
When God promises that we shall be kept by the power of God, He does not mean that we shall be kept from temptation, struggle, and trial. You know that in times of war a commander would throw his strong garrisons into those towns which would be attacked. We have not many soldiers in Islington, but at seaport towns like Dover and Portsmouth you will find large numbers, because they are towns more likely to be attacked. And so when I read in Gods Word that the Christian is garrisoned by the power of God, I learn that the Christian must expect to be attacked, must expect temptation, must expect to be in the midst of the battlefield. But it also implies this, that the commander considers that a most important point, and He throws a garrison into it, And not only because He expects it to be attacked, but because He means to keep it. (E. A. Stuart, M. A.)
How God keeps His saints
Those who wish to see the Scottish regalia, kept in Edinburgh, have to climb the hill to the castle, then pass guard after guard, and through room after room, until they come to a narrow, steep, winding stair. Ascending it they enter a room, and there before their eyes are the Scottish crown jewels. They are openly displayed, in full view; but while they are where every eye can see them, they are where no hand can touch them. Strong iron guards cover them, so close that, while they do not interfere with sight, no hand could go through. That is how God keeps His precious ones, His crown jewels, so that every eye can see them, but without His permission no hand can touch them. God fences them round so that no one may approach them to do them evil.
Gods protecting agencies
The traveller on the Highland railway can hardly fail to be struck, as he journeys north, with the unusual sight of a picturesque and well-kept flower garden blooming in the angle of ground formed at the junction of two rail way lines. The helpless flowers thrive there in spite of the terrible forces that come so near them on every side. If you were to put an untaught savage inside the garden hedge, and let him hear the screaming engines, and see the files of carriages, or the trucks laden with coal, timber, and iron, converging toward this fairy oasis, he would be ready to say, These beautiful things will be torn to shreds in a moment. But behind the garden fences there are lines of strong, faithful steel, keeping each engine and carriage and truck in its appointed place; and though the air vibrates with destructive forces, the pansy, primrose, and geranium live in a world of tremors, not a silken filament is snapped, and not a petal falls untimely to the earth. In the very angle of these forces the frailest life is unharmed. To all these possibilities of destruction the steel puts its bound. So with the fine spiritual husbandries that foster faith in the souls around us. That faith some times seems a thing of hair-spun filaments, a bundle of frailties, a fairy fabric of soft-hued gossamers trembling at every breath. The avalanche of nineteenth century atheism is poised over it. The air hurtles with fiery hostilities. The mechanisms of diabolic temptation encroach on every side upon our work. Public house, gaming club, ill-ordered home, threaten disasters, of which we do not like to think. The air quivers with the anger of demons. Yet the work is Gods, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In the very angle of these demoniac forces the work shall thrive, for the hidden lines of His protecting power are round about it. (T. G. Selby.)
Salvation ready to be revealed.-
Salvation remedy
I. A delightful theme.
II. An interesting fact. Ready to be revealed. What is implied here?
1. Concealment partial or entire for the present.
2. Preparation.
3. Completeness.
III. An important crisis. The last time. (Essex Remembrancer.)
Salvation ready for revelation
The complete future salvation is both negative and positive. There is a grand indefiniteness which means comprehensiveness in the word. In its narrowest literal sense it means being made whole; in its wider signification it means being delivered from threatening perils, discomforts, and the like. On the positive side the word implies the bestowal of all true good. So what is ready to be revealed is, on the one hand, absolute emancipation from everything, be it sorrow, be it sin, be it ignorance, which is of the nature of darkness, and is to any part of the human sensibility a pain or evil. And on the other side, what waits to be revealed in us is the absolute fulness of all good of every sort which fits any part of a mans nature, and makes it feel blessed and at rest. For heart, and mind, and will, and taste, and intellect, and imagination, and the desire for society, and the desire for love, and the desire for progress, and the desire for change, and the desire for enterprise, and the desire for service, and all else that makes up human nature, the full salvation of the heavens has a corresponding gift. And, says Peter, it is all lying just on the other side of the curtain there. A curtain is a very thin thing, very easy to push aside; a fingers touch and it goes. And, as at some great civic pageant the preparations for tomorrows show are carried on behind some interposing thin veil of canvas or the like, where we can hear the hammers at work, and catch a light now and then that tells of preparing glories, so, on the other side of the thin partition, through which there come furtive gleams and sounds that tell what is going on, the inheritance is being prepared for the great unveiling. It is ready to be revealed, but the universe is not ready for the revelation. That unseen order of things has present existence. All that is future about it is its manifestation. Unseen, it lies around this little visible life. A touch, a crumb of bread in your windpipe, a clot of blood as big as a pins head on your brain, and the future, as we call it foolishly, proves itself the present, the all-encircling. There is but a thin veil between us and it. It is ready to be revealed when He puts out His hand and draws back the curtain for us one by one, as He will at the last for a universe. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The end of salvation ready to be revealed
But is salvation not already revealed? No; the way of salvation is revealed, but the salvation itself is hid out of sight. If the road that leads to the city of God fills us with such wonderment and praise, what ecstasies will possess us once we find our feet on the golden pavements! Imagine not that you will have to spend eternity in mental indolence. No; when you shall have exhausted the revelation of the way, the revelation of the end will still remain; when you shall have gone through this Bible which teaches us how to attain salvation there will be another Bible, the Bible of eternity, to disclose to your wondering gaze the contents of that salvation. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)
The last revelation of salvation
The finished work of Christ, the prepared home in heaven and the peace of God within a believers heart-these are both alike hidden, secret things. But these things are although they are not seen. They are all ready underneath the covering veil, and when that veil is removed every eye shall see them. When the Lord shall come again His coming will be like the morning. As the daylight reveals the green herbs and growing flowers which the veil of night had concealed, the coming of the Lord will expose to view a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. The flowers and forests, the hills and streams, were all there in the night though they were not seen. They needed not to be made in the morning. They were ready to be revealed. Suppose a creature with the intelligence of a man, but with the term of life allotted to some of the insects-a day. Suppose that creatures life begins after sunset. At midnight and in the early morning watches he looks around, but sees nothing. He reasons, and loses himself in dark speculation. A voice from the abyss above reaches his ear, and tells him that a beautiful furnished world is ready to be revealed, and will be revealed in the morning. He believes and waits; the promise is fulfilled. The glory of the world when the sun is up surpasses all his expectation. Such a creature is redeemed man. All is ready. The inheritance needs only to be unveiled. The unveiling only remains for the last time. Now is the time for seeking and obtaining it; then it only remains that it should be fully displayed. (W. Arnot.)
In the last time.-
The last time
I. Gods last works are his best works, which should teach us to imitate God, and never fear the forbearance of God; time cannot change Him, He will be never the worse for delay.
II. If we mark what days these last days are we may also note that God doth His best works when men do their worst. For of these last days it is that the apostle speaks, that they should be wicked and perilous days, and this we should learn of God also, to let our piety and patience then shine most.
III. There is a time when God will at once fully deliver and save His servants, and judge for them, and therefore we should no be weary of well-doing.
IV. Gods servants must not think to be fully delivered till these last times, and therefore they must walk circumspectly, and always stand upon their guard.
V. It is the will of God that the day of judgment should not be known to any man or angel for the moment of it, and therefore it is here described by ages, not by days and hours, which may confute curiosity, and teach us to watch at all times.
VI. The world shall have an end, there is a last time, and therefore woe is to them that so greedily mind transitory things, and that place all their happiness in the things of this life. (N. Byfield.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v3 Chapter 2
Chapter 2
THE HEAVENLY INHERITANCE
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1Pe_1:3-9
"OUT of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," words true of all this letter, but of no part more true than of the thanksgiving with which it opens. The Apostle recalls those dark three days in which the life he bore was worse than death. His vaunted fidelity had been put to the proof, and had failed in the trial; his denial had barred the approach to the Master whom he had disowned. The crucifixion of Jesus had followed close upon His arrest, and Peters bitter tears of penitence could avail nothing. He to whom they might have appealed was lying in the grave. The Apostles repentant weeping saved him from a Judas-like despair, but dreary must have been the desolation of his soul until the Easter mornings message told him that Jesus was alive again. We can understand the fervency of his thanksgiving: "Blessed be God, which hath begotten us again by the resurrection of Christ from the dead." No better image than the gift of a new life could he find to describe the restoration that came with the words of the angel from the empty tomb, "He is risen; go your way: tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee." The Lord forgave His sinning, sorrowing servant, and through this forgiveness he lived again, and bears printed forever on his heart the memory of that life-giving. The very form of his phrase in this verse is an echo from the resurrection morning. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Only in a few passages resembling this in St. Pauls epistles is God called "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ." But Peter is, mindful of the Lords own words to Mary, "Go unto My brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God"; {Joh_20:17} and now that he is made one of Christs heralds, the feeder of His sheep, he publishes the same message which was the source of his own highest joy, and which he would make a joy for them likewise. That God is called theirs, even as He is Christs, is an earnest that Jesus has made them His brethren indeed. To the doctrine of their election according to the foreknowledge of the Father he now adds the further grace which couples the Fatherhood of God with the brotherhood of Christ.
That these gifts are purely of Gods grace he also implies: "He begat us again." Just as in natural birth the child is utterly of the will of the parents, so is it in the spiritual new birth. "According to Gods great mercy" we are born again and made heirs of all the consequent blessings. This passage from death unto life is rich, in the first place, in immediate comfort. Witness the rejoicing amidst his grief which St. Peter experienced when he could cry to the Master, "Lord, Thou knowest all things: Thou knowest that I love Thee." But the new life looks forever onward. It will be unbroken through eternity. Here we may taste the joy of our calling, may learn something of the Fathers love, of the Saviors grace, of the Spirits help; but our best expectations center ever in the future. The Apostle terms these expectations a lively, or rather a living, hope. The Christians hope is living because Christ is alive again from the dead. It springs with ever-renewed life from that rent tomb. The grave is no longer a terminus. Life and hope endure beyond it. And more than this, there is a fresh principle of vitality infused into the soul of the newborn child of God. The Spirit, the Life-giver, has made His abode there; and death is swallowed up of victory.
In continuing his description of the living hope of the believer, the Apostle keeps in mind his simile of Fatherhood and sonship, and gives to the hope the further title of an inheritance. As sons of Adam, men are heirs from their birth, but only to the sad consequences of the primal transgression. Slaves they are, and not free men, as that other law in their members gives them daily proof. But in the resurrection of Jesus the agonized cry of St. Paul, "Who shall deliver me?," {Rom_7:24} has found its answer. Christians are begotten again, not to defeat and despair, but to a hope which is eternal, to an inheritance which will endure beyond the grave. And as in their spiritual growth they are ever aspiring to an ideal above and beyond them, in respect to the saintly inheritance they have a like experience. They begin to grasp it now in part, and have even here a precious earnest of the larger blessedness; they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise and marked as the redeemed of Gods own possession. {Eph_1:13-14} But that which shall be is rich with an exceeding wealth of glory; Christ keeps the good wine of His grace to the last. How beggared earthly speech appears when we essay by it to picture the glory that shall be revealed for us! The inheritance of the Christians hope demands for its description those unspeakable words which St. Paul heard in paradise, but could not utter. The tongues of men are constrained to fall back upon negatives. What it will be we cannot express. We only know some evils from which it will be free. It shall be incorruptible, like the God and Father {Rom_1:23} who bestows it. Eternal, it shall contain within it no seed of decay, nothing which can cause it to perish. Neither shall it be subject to injury from without. It shall be undefiled, for we are to share it with our elder Brother, our High-priest, {Heb_7:26} who is now made higher than the heavens. Earthly possessions are often sullied, now by the way they are attained, now by the way they are used. Neither spot nor blemish shall tarnish the beauty of the heavenly inheritance. It shall never fade away. It is amaranthine, like the crown of glory {1Pe_5:4} which the chief Shepherd shall bestow at His appearing; it is as the unwithering flowers of paradise.
Nor are these the only things which make the heavenly to differ from the earthly inheritance. In this life, ere a son can succeed to heirship, the parent through whom it is derived must have passed away; while the many heirs to an earthly estate diminish, as their number increases, the shares of all the rest. From such conditions the Christians future is free. His Father is the Eternal God, his inheritance the inexhaustible bounty of heaven. Each and all who share therein will find an increase of joy as the number grows of those who claim this eternal Fatherhood, and with it a place in the Fathers home.
St. Peter adds another feature which gives further assurance to the believers hope. The inheritance is reserved. Concerning it there can be no thought of dwindling or decay. It is where neither rust nor moth can corrupt, and where not even the arch-thief Satan himself can break through to steal. There needs no preservation of the incorruptible and undefiled, but it is especially kept for those for whom it is prepared. He who has gone before to make it ready said, "I go to prepare it for you." The Apostle has made choice of his preposition advisedly. He says, εις υμας-on your behalf; for your own possession. The inheritance is where Christ has gone before us, in heaven, of which we can best think, as Himself hath taught us, as the place "where He was before," {Joh_6:62} the Fathers house, in which are many mansions. There it is in store, till we are made ready for it.
For the present life is only a preparation-time. Ere we are ready to depart we must pass through a probation. God suffers His beloved ones to be chastened, but He sends with the trial the means of rescue. They are guarded. The word which St. Peter here uses is one applicable to a military guard, such as would be needed in the country of an enemy. God sees what we stand in need of. For we are still in the territory of the prince of this world. But mark the abundant protection: "by the power of God through faith." The Apostles language sets our guardianship forth under a double aspect. The Christian is in (εν) the power of God. Here is the strength of our wardship. Under such care the believer is enabled to walk amid the trials of the world unscathed. Yet the Divine shield around him is not made effective unless he do his part also. Through faith the shelter becomes impregnable. The Christian goes forward with full assurance, his eyes fixed on the goal of duty which his Master has set before him, and, heedless of assailants, perseveres in the struggles which beset him. Then, even in the fiercest fires of trial, he beholds by his side the Son of God, and hears the voice, "It is I; be not afraid."
Thus to the faithful warfarer the victory is sure. And to this certainty St. Peter points as he continues, and calls the heavenly inheritance a salvation. This will be the consummation. "Sursum corda" is the believers constant watchword. The completed bliss will not be attained here. But when the veil is lifted which separates this life from the next, it is ready to be manifested and to ravish the sight with its glory. The sense of this salvation ready to be revealed nerves the heart for every conflict. By faith weakness grows mighty. Thus comes to pass the paradox of the Christian life, which none but the faithful can comprehend: "When I am weak, then I am strong"; "I can do all things through Christ, that giveth me power."
Hence comes the wondrous spectacle, which St. Peter was contemplating, and which amazed the heathen world, exceeding joy in the midst of sufferings. "Wherein ye greatly rejoice," he says. Some have thought him to be referring to a mental realization of the last time, about which he has just spoken-a realization so vivid to the faith of these converts that they could exult in the prospect as though it had already arrived. And this exposition is countenanced in some degree by words which follow (1Pe_1:9), where he describes them as now receiving the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls.
But it seems less forced to consider the Apostle as speaking with some knowledge of the circumstances of these Asian Christians, a knowledge of the trials they had to undergo, and how hope was animating them to look onwards towards their inheritance, which was but a little while in reversion, towards the salvation which was so soon to be revealed. Full of this hope, he says, ye greatly rejoice, though ye have had many things to suffer. Then he proceeds to dwell on some of the grounds for their consolation. Their trials, they knew, were but for a little while, not a moment longer than the need should be. Their sorrow would have an end; their joy would last for evermore.
The form of St. Peters words, it is true, seems to imply that there must always be the need for our chastening. And what else can the children of Adam expect? But it is He, the Father in heaven, who fixes both the nature and the duration of His childrens discipline. Some men have felt within themselves the need of chastisement so keenly that they have devised systems for themselves whereby they should mortify the flesh, and prepare themselves for the last time. But of self-appointed chastenings the Apostle does not speak. Of such the converts to whom he writes had no need. They "had been put to grief in manifold temptations."
We can gather from the Epistle itself some notion of the troublous life these scattered Christians had amid the crowd of their heathen neighbors. They were regarded with contempt for refusing to mingle in the excesses which were so marked a feature of heathen life and heathen worship. They were railed upon as evil-doers. They suffered innocently, were constantly assailed with threatenings, and passed their time oft in such terror that St. Peter describes their life as a fiery trial.
Yet in the word (ποικιλος) which he here employs to picture the varied character of their sufferings we seem to have another hint that these did not fall out without the permission and watchful control of God Himself. It is a word which, while it tells of a countless variety, tells at the same time of fitness and order therein. The trials are meted out fitly, as men need and can profit by them. The Masters eye and hand are at work through them all; and the faithful God keeps always ready a way of deliverance. In this wise does St. Peter proclaim that the putting to grief may be made unto us a dispensation of mercy. Himself had been so put to grief by the thrice repeated question, "Lovest thou Me?". {Joh_21:17} But a way was opened thereby for repentance of his triple denial, and that he might thrice over be entrusted with the feeding of Christs flock. Such was the putting to grief of the Corinthian Church {2Co_7:9} by St. Pauls first letter, for it wrought in them repentance, so that they sorrowed after a godly sort. And such sorrow can exist side by side with-yea, be the source of-exceeding joy. The Apostle of the Gentiles is a witness when he says that he and his fellow-laborers are "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." {2Co_6:10} The Christian does not allow troubles to overwhelm him. The very comparison which St. Peter here institutes, speaking though it does of a furnace of trial, bears within it somewhat of consolation. Gold that is proved by the fire loses all the dross which clung about it and was mingled with it before the refining. It comes forth in all its purity, all its worth; and so shall it be with the believer after his probation. The things of earth will lose their value in his eyes; they will fall away from him, neither will he load himself with the thick clay of the worlds honors or wealth. The ties of such things have been sundered by his trials, and his heart is free to rise above the anxieties of time. And better even than the most refined gold, which, be it never so excellent, will yet be worn away, the faith of the believer comes forth stronger for all trial, and he shall hear at the last the welcome of the Master, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord," the joy which He bestows, the joy which He shares with those that follow Him.
This is the revelation of Jesus Christ of which St. Peter speaks. This is the praise which through His atonement His servants shall find, and shall become sharers of the glory and honor which the Father has bestowed upon Him. To Christ then turns every affection. "Whom not having seen ye love." This is the test since Christs ascension, and has the promise of special blessing. To His doubting Apostle Christ vouchsafed the evidence he desired, for our teaching as well as for his; but He added therewith, "Blessed are they which have not seen and yet have believed." And their joy is such as no tongue can tell. Not for that are they silent in their rejoicing; their hearts overflow, and their voices go forth in constant songs of praise. But ever there remains with them the sense, "The half has not been told."
For faith anticipates the bliss which God hath prepared for them that love Him, and enters into the unseen. The Holy Spirit within the soul is ever making fuller revelation of the deep things of God. The believers knowledge is ever increasing; the eye-salve of faith clears his spiritual vision. The thanksgivings of yesterday are poor when considered in the illumination of today. His joy also is glorified. As his aspirations soar heavenward, the glory from on high comes forth, as it were, to meet him. By gazing in faith on the coming Lord, the Christian progresses, through the power of the Spirit, from glory to glory; and the ever-growing radiance is a part of that grace which no words can tell. But so true, so real, is the sense of Christs presence that the Apostle describes it as full fruition. Believers "receive even now the end of their faith, the salvation of their souls." So assured does He make them of all which they have hoped for that they behold already the termination of their journey, the close of all trial, and are filled with the bliss which shall be fully theirs when Christ shall come to call His approved servants to their inheritance of salvation.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv3–5 3–5. Blessed be the God. The ground of special…
3–5. Blessed be the God. The ground of special thanksgiving is that the Father, out of his overflowing mercy, hath begotten us. Has caused us to be born again as his children. Unto a lively hope. As children we have a glorious hope of eternal life through the resurrection of Jesus.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v3 1Pe_1:3. Blessed be.—A characteristic Jewish recognition of God’s mercy.…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
1Pe_1:3. Blessed be.—A characteristic Jewish recognition of God’s mercy. Compare with 2Co_1:3; Eph_1:3. Abundant.—πολὺ, much. Begotten us.—The choice of the nation is thought of as its first Divine birth; the call into gospel privileges is thought of as a new and second Divine birth (see Joh_3:5; Tit_3:5; Jas_1:18). Lively hope.—Living hope. “A life in which hope is the energising principle” (Alford). Macknight’s note is suggestive: “Believers of all nations are begotten to the hope of a new life after death, through the covenant of grace made with our first parents after the Fall. In the same hope they are begotten a second time, through the resurrection of Christ from the dead.” By the resurrection.—Here St. Peter speaks from his own personal experiences. The great revealing time, which brought to him the consciousness of a new life, was the resurrection of Jesus. Then he believed in Him with a belief that brought to him a new life. Archbishop Leighton makes the resurrection the efficient cause of our new birth.
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1Pe_1:4. To an inheritance.—Still the Jewish national figure is in the mind of St. Peter. That nation was begotten to the inheritance of Canaan; we are begotten to a spiritual inheritance, figured for us as a heavenly Canaan. Incorruptible, etc.—“Exuberant description of the excellencies of the new Canaan.” In heaven.—The heavenly spiritual spheres. Reserved until you were quickened with the new life that could appreciate it. Not future heaven, but present heavenliness.
1Pe_1:5. Kept.—“Who, by virtue of God’s power, are under guard.” “As the inheritance hath been preserved, so are the heirs guarded; neither shall it fail them, nor they it” (Bengel). Through faith.—Not intellectual belief, but daily trust, which keeps us in spiritual union with God, and secures the Divine defence. Unto salvation.—Full salvation from all the frailties and consequent sorrows of this life; full development of the new life begun in us. Ready to be revealed.—A heaven actually prepared. A future that even now may be a spiritual presence. The idea of an inheritance gives the character to St. Peter’s figures. But heaven must be in man before he can be in heaven.
1Pe_1:6. Greatly rejoice.—The prospect brings all the joy of a present possession. “Salvation is realised by faith as a thing so actually present as to cause exulting joy, in spite of existing afflictions.” The rejoicing is in “the whole complex sense of the preceding verses, concerning the hope of glory.” In heaviness.—Or “ye were grieved, burdened, distressed.” Temptations.—Troubles, persecutions, regarded as trials or testings of faith (see Jas_1:2).
1Pe_1:7. Trial of your faith.—“Faith is not known to be what it is until it is tested by suffering.” More precious.—The faith is meant, not the trial of it. Illustration from the severe processes found necessary for the refining of gold. “More valuable than the trial of gold, which is perishable, and that is a fiery trial.” Appearing.—Better, “revelation.” The Early Church’s expectation of Christ’s coming is very difficult to understand, but it explains many apostolic expressions.
1Pe_1:8. Not seen.—Some MSS. read, “Whom not knowing, ye love.” Love.—The word of calm and Divinely-given attachment, not the word of warm human friendship. Compare our Lord’s commendation of those “who have not seen, yet have believed.”
1Pe_1:9. Receiving the end.—Getting now, up to measures of capacity, all the blessings of the salvation. “Their joy and peace in believing constituted a present salvation, the pledge and earnest of final and complete deliverance.”
1Pe_1:10. Read “prophets” without the article. Plumptre thinks St. Peter is speaking mainly, though perhaps not exclusively, of the prophets of the Apostolic Church. It is, however, usual to see reference to the prophets of the Old Testament. “All the prophets looked forward with envy to the prize now in their hands.” Have enquired.—Calvin says: “When he states that the prophets inquired and examined, this refers not to their writings or teaching, but to the private longing with which each was fired.” (Compare, however, Act_1:6-7.)
1Pe_1:11. Spirit of Christ.—If this does not mean the “Messianic Spirit,” it would seem to support Plumptre’s limitation to New Testament prophets. Sufferings of Christ.—τὰ εἰς Χριστόν παθήματα: the sufferings for Christ, or “which pass on unto Christ.” “The sufferings spoken of are those which the disciples were enduring for Christ, and which he thinks of as shared by Him, flowing over to Him” (Plumptre).
1Pe_1:12. Unto us.—The better MSS. give “unto you.” Now reported.—By the Christian teachers and preachers. Application is direct to the Christian Jews of Asia Minor, who were late in receiving the good tidings, but entered into the full heritage of all the good things. Angels.—Read without the article.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Pe_1:3-12
Present and Future Salvation.—The similarity between the “blessings” of 1Pe_1:3 and the “blessings” of 2Co_1:3; Eph_1:3, attracts attention, and requires explanation. It is quite possible that the expression, “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” had become fixed in the Early Church as a formula familiarly used; and, if so, we can readily recognise its value as a succinct statement of the primary Christian truths. It affirms that the Christian God is the one and only God, the same God whose unity and spirituality were the sacred trust of the Jewish nation; that this God, having been manifested to men in a Son, and in Sonship, may now be apprehended as the Divine Father; and that what He is to us we may learn from what He is to Christ: that Jesus is the Saviour from sin which His name expresses; and that, as Christ, or Messiah, He is sent of God to do that saving work; that He who saves from sin gains the right to rule the saved ones as Lord; and that the relation in which they stand to Him is a distinctly personal one, so that they can call Him “our Lord.” It is the Christian truth epitomised in the Christian name for God. And it fittingly introduces the references to the salvation which the Father God works by the ministry of “our Lord Jesus Christ.”
I. The life which the Father quickens.—“Who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope.” “A life in which hope is the energising principle” (Alford). St. Peter is not here referring, generally, to the new birth, and the new life of the soul, but specifically to that new life which comes to men in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. St. Paul’s expression helps to explain St. Peter’s. He says, “If ye then be risen with Christ”; as if for the believer in Christ there was as truly a fresh life, as there was for Christ after His resurrection. St. Peter is writing to new-born souls, to those who have the life in Christ, and purposes to set before them their Christian privileges and responsibilities. The new life which the Father quickens is a double life; it is a present life of privilege, and it is the hope of a future life of blessedness. It is a living life, in the holy cheer of a living hope. It has the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. It is the life of hope which the Father quickens, through the resurrection of Christ, that is St. Peter’s great point. That was the truth to cheer persecuted Christians who were driven from their homes, perhaps with the loss of all things. What had they for their comfort, save their Christian hope? If we would understand how this new life of hope comes to us through the resurrection of Jesus, we may consider St. Peter’s own experience. That resurrection made him a new man. If St. James was our Lord’s real brother, as is assumed, his belief in Jesus as the Messiah came as the persuasion of His resurrection, and St. James was “begotten again” through the resurrection. “Mystically speaking, the moment of our emergence into this new glow of expectation was that when the Messiah Jesus, who had been cut off, emerged from among the dead.” The believer is born again to this lively hope when the fact of the resurrection is acknowledged, and its significance realised.
II. The future for which the Father quickens.—“Unto an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven.” Children are begotten, not only to life, but to the father’s property, that is their inheritance; it is theirs in reversion. Those who had been called to suffer the loss of all things might well remember that it was but a present and temporary loss—a loss of their banking account, not of their title deeds—it in no way affected their inheritance. If a man’s future is well secured, he can with comparative ease bear present disaster. The future as an inheritance is suggestively presented to us as our Heavenly Father’s home and estate; but instead of indications of the wealth and extent of it, our minds are occupied with the differences between it and the inheritances of earth. It is unchangeable, holy, permanent. Earthly properties are ever changing their values; sometimes consist of things of a low and degrading character, and are always uncertain; riches have a way of spreading wings. The Pontine dispersion had lost their inheritance in Palestine, but they have in no sense lost their title to their Father’s heavenly inheritance.
III. The keeping until the future is ready.—“Who by the power of God are guarded through faith.” It were but to lift a part of the load to assure the persecuted believers that an inheritance for them was held in reserve. What would ensure their preservation through their present struggles; and what could be done for them in the long waiting-time? They were to think of themselves as now being kept, being guarded. That includes the supply of every present need, if only they can realise that it is their God and Father who is keeping His sons until the time of their entering on their inheritance. His keeping is fulness of blessing. But the keeping of God implies the watching and effort of the believer. The keeping is done through, or in connection with, the believer’s faith. He must keep up his faith if God is to keep him. The term that is used and translated in R.V., “guarding,” is a military term. As the heir of a royal house is never allowed to be without a watchful attendant, so for every “heir of salvation” there are God’s attendant ministering spirits. We are safe, we may be satisfied, till our day of possession comes round.
IV. The discipline of the keeping time.—“Though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold temptations;” trials. A most sympathetic and wise reference to the calamities and afflictions which these Christians had to endure. St. Peter would have them thought of as only the school-boy discipline of the heir to an estate, who must be duly prepared for his coming responsibilities and privileges. Moral character can only be moulded through a discipline of severe experiences; and when we have entered on our inheritance, our surprise will be that God has been enabled to accomplish in us such fitness for it through so few earthly trials. Observe the suggestive relation of the many and various trials and the “little while” for which we have to be disciplined by them. There is always this great consolation connected with our earthly trials: they never do stay long. There is no element of permanency in human troubles. They would not be disciplinary if there were. They cannot stay one moment after God’s purpose in them is fully wrought. And so we can always truthfully speak of “our light affliction, which is but for a moment.” And there is always this consolation: God’s discipline now is the guarantee that He is preparing us for something by-and-bye.
V. The present possession of that future.—“Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” “Faith is the substance”—the actual, present realisation—“of things hoped for.” It is in one sense true that the heir to an estate, while he is only the heir, has nothing; but it is also true that in the feeling that all is coming to him, he has a present possession of everything; and, moreover, he has the use, up to present needs, of all that belongs to the estate. So the believer has all the comfort of knowing heaven is coming, and for the supply of all his present needs he has the full use of all the heavenly things. The attention of these persecuted men is turned away from the loss of their worldly goods, to the untouched, ever abundant supplies of spiritual good, which really are some of their future inheritance come to them now. “Poor in this world, rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom.”
VI. The advantage which Christians have over Jews in this present spiritual possession.—The Jews’ advantages were all in the material, earthly sphere. A land of Canaan; a formal and ceremonial religion; an obedience of works. According to their ideas, a Messiah as an earthly conqueror and King. So outward was the entire Jewish range, that the more devout souls, the prophets, anxiously looked forward to the spiritual time, which the Christians had now entered upon (1Pe_1:10-12). So far from Christian Jews wanting to go back to formal Judaism, the best Jews of the ages had always wanted to get on to Christianity; and even the angels were profoundly interested in this spiritual dispensation. There is nothing to envy in the past. It has had its day; it fitted to the needs of its day. But it only fitted to the average needs of men. In the old times the better, the more spiritual, men could not rest in it, could not be satisfied with it. Abraham “rejoiced to see Christ’s day.” And so did every man of faith, every man of spiritual insight and spiritual feeling, all down through the ages. If they anticipated the spiritual dispensation, how foolish those actually in the spiritual dispensation must be if they hankered after, and thought of returning upon, the old and formal and preparatory one.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
1Pe_1:3. Hope as a Power in Moulding Character.—Three great graces—faith, hope, and love—are the abiding graces, vital in their influence on character, and central in their relations to Christianity; combining, they produce all the “fruits of the Spirit.” Faith, taking hold on the unseen, prevents us from giving too much heed to that which is visible; Hope, taking hold on the future, prevents us from giving undue attention to that which is temporal and present; Love, taking hold on the unselfish and the Divine, prevents us from being absorbed in carnal and idolatrous self-interest. In the original the emphasis grammatically falls on the word hope, for while the other words are participles, this is in the imperative. Literally translated, it would read thus: “Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, being sober, hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The text suggests the power of hope as an inspiration in character and conduct, and indicates the objects of Christian hope, and the time when those objects shall be most gloriously and fully revealed.
I. Look at the power of hope in human character.—What makes the difference between human beings and beasts? Very largely, the presence of hope as a factor in character. Hope is one of the foremost elements in human character; distinguishing man as man, giving him a higher rank than all the rest of the animal creation. And as it is a necessary factor in character, so it is in human progress. Any conditions in human society which tend to repress or suppress hope are abnormal and unnatural, and hostile to man’s well-being. We glory in our American civilisation because, more than in any other country on the face of the earth, men may here rise, give scope to hope, foster aspirations, and encourage all rational expectations. Hope presents a perpetual incentive to progress; not an ignis fatuus, a will-o’-the-wisp, beguiling us into marsh and mire, but impelling us continually onward to things higher and better. If we could reach our own ideal, further progress would be impossible. And hope helps us to bear trials. It surrounds us with a kind of “elastic medium,” so that when the terrible afflictions of this life beat against us, they rebound from us. There is a power in hope that prevents the severity of their blows from crushing us.
II. What are the objects set before the Christian hope?—“The grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Few of us ever think of this. When we speak of the grace that is revealed, we think of what is already manifested, of Golgotha with its cross, of Gethsemane with its agony, of the Garden with its rent tomb, of the ascending Christ and the descending Spirit. But in the third verse of this chapter the apostle says God “hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.” Peter is speaking of something future, not grace already manifested, but an inheritance “reserved in heaven,” “ready to be revealed in the last time.” And so here, “The grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ’s incarnation was not a revelation. His Divinity was rather hidden within the veil of His humanity: only now and then the glory of that Divinity shone forth, and then His disciples saw that He was the Son of God, and realised for a moment the greatness and the grandeur of His personality. When Jesus was here He was in disguise. God was only feebly and faintly manifested in the flesh, which obscured the glory. But when Christ comes a second time, no longer to make a sin-offering, but to bring full salvation unto His people, then will be the revelation of Jesus Christ. He will come like the King in His glory, and with Him all the holy angels and saints; not to pursue a weary way from the manger to the cross, but as a King to reveal and unfold Himself; and that will be the revelation of Christ. All the grace that comes to you, from the hour of your regeneration to the hour of your complete sanctification, is nothing in comparison with the grace that is to be revealed to you by Christ in the day when you are presented, faultless, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. When Christ shall come to receive His saints to Himself there will be a revelation of grace in comparison with which all the grace that you now have, or have previously known, will be but as a drop in comparison to the ocean.
III. The contrast between the objects of Christian hope and worldly hope.—What God promises stands firm—a verity, a reality; there is an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading. You do not see that inheritance yet. You are like a minor who has not yet entered on his estate, but who receives the revenue of it as the payments of interest come in: and so we have a foretaste of our future inheritance; the Spirit of God gives us an earnest of our possession until the day of redemption. There is nothing illusive in the Divine promise. And consider, once more, the permanence and reliability of the Christian objects of desire and expectation. We come to a limit in this world. You may have all the treasure of the world, and yet when death comes, from your relaxing grasp all these things disappear. You may have been applauded and admired by the world, but the applause of men will fade and faint on your ear as you reach the gates of the tomb. The glory of your possessions and your achievements will all pale and grow dim when you face the last great destroyer. But, blessed be God, the point at which human hopes are utterly blasted is the point at which Christian expectations only arrive at their consummation.—A. T. Pierson, D.D.
The Resurrection the Chief Doctrine of Christian Faith.—If Christ had not risen from the dead there would be no Christianity; our faith would be in vain, and our hope void, the whole gospel a farce, and there would be no forgiveness of sin. The resurrection of Christ is the basis of all that we have and hope and love in Christ, but especially have we in it the surety of the hope of eternal life, because thereby all fear of death has been banished, and future blessedness and life have become a reality in Christ Jesus. He is our Head, and we through faith are members of His body. And since our Head has overcome sin and death and Satan, we partake of the triumph and the victory. For He has conquered our enemies for us and not for Himself. The victory is ours, as is also the triumph. When a ruler or a general conquers the enemies of a kingdom, he indeed triumphs, but the fruits and glories of the victory belong to the whole country and to all the citizens. Therefore all Christians triumph with Christ in His glorious resurrection.—Gossner’s Schatz-Kästlein.
The Resurrection Mystically Treated.—St. Peter is speaking, so far as himself is concerned, not mystically but literally, as his history before and after the resurrection shows. To him and to the other apostles the resurrection was a regeneration, and they became new beings. To subsequent Christians precisely the same effect takes place when (suddenly or gradually) the fact of the resurrection is acknowledged and its significance realised (Php_3:10). Yet we must not confine the meaning of the words to the effects of this conscious realisation. St. Peter is reviewing the transaction theologically—i.e., from God’s point of view, not phenomenally, from man’s. He speaks of the begetting, not of the being born—of the resurrection itself, not of the preaching of the resurrection. To God, with whom, according to St. Peter, time does not exist (2Pe_3:8), there is no interval between His begetting of Christ again from the dead (Act_13:33; Rev_1:5) and His begetting of us again thereby. In the mystery of our union with the Incarnate Word, historical resurrection did, through baptism, in some ineffable manner, infuse into us the grace which makes new creatures of us. Archbishop Leighton well says, “Not only is it” [the resurrection] “the exemplar, but the efficient cause of our new birth.”—A. J. Mason, M.A.
The Resurrection.
I. In these words our attention is directed to Jesus Christ.—“Jesus Christ” is a name above all other names on earth. Many great names of heroes, military conquerors, philosophers, poets, scholars, artists, musical composers, scientific investigators, and discoverers, and great religious reformers, are dear to the heart of this country, and of the whole civilised world. But the name of Jesus is above all other names. Every Sabbath is the weekly memorial of His triumphant resurrection.
II. Jesus Christ is considered in His human nature.—“Seed of David.” See Matthew’s Genealogy. He was also Son of God. “Thou art My Son.” “In the beginning was the Word.” As God, He could make an atonement for human sins. Yet He was human; a real man, with all our liabilities and limitations, experiencing our infirmities, and having a fellow-feeling with us.
III. The emphasis given to our Lord’s resurrection.—“Remember.” The resurrection is more than a fact. Many facts are secret or private. But the resurrection of Jesus was a public, and thus a historical fact.
IV. The entire Christian Church—east and west, north and south, is founded on the fact.—Every individual church, of every name and denomination, is founded on the fact. The church in Antioch, the apostolic churches in Europe, and all other churches, are built up on the same foundation. The observance of the Lord’s day bears testimony to the fact of His resurrection.
V. The disciples of our Lord proclaimed far and wide the fact of the Lord’s resurrection.—They had seen the Lord, and they went into details. They preached everywhere, Christ the Crucified, and Christ the Risen. For their testimony they braved opposition, odium, and obloquy. Jesus also foretold His resurrection. Consider three theories.
1. Some person or persons had taken His body and hidden it. They could have had no motive for such theft.
2. His enemies took it and hid it, It was in their interest, as His enemies, to produce His body after the third day.
3. The disciples themselves stole the body and hid it. How could they dare martyrdom for a fable?
VI. The Resurrection is a joyful fact.—“According to My gospel.” It was part of the “glad tidings of great joy” which it was His pride and delight to proclaim. The apostle appropriated it with rapture. “My” gospel. “Remember.” We are apt, in the daily jostle of daily business and engagements, to push aside and to forget this fact. Hence the importance of the anniversary of Easter Day, and of every successive Sabbath Day.—James Morison, D.D.
1Pe_1:3-9. The Living Hope of the Christian.
I. What gives us this hope? (1Pe_1:3).—It is God who docs this, according to His great mercy. Without this love of God there is fear of Him, and a lack of trust in Him on the part of man, and an endeavour to base and build upon other foundations. Yet all of these prove to be dead hopes, and end in self-deception, or even despair. The living God, through the resurrection of His Son, has given a firm foundation for a living hope; the resurrection being the sure evidence that Christ’s atonement for our sins has been accepted, and that in Him and Him alone we can hope.
II. Who can entertain this hope? (1Pe_1:5).—It is those who are guarded through faith unto salvation. The only assurance and certainty in this living hope springs from the faith in God’s mercy, and Christ’s life and work. And reasons to believe we have now, as many as had the early Christians. To them, indeed, the Lord appeared visibly, even to Paul; but we have His sure Word and testimony, and the Holy Spirit working through that Word, convincing and convicting the heart.
III. What does this hope bring? (1Pe_1:4).—It is an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled which this living hope guarantees. All this, however, is only possible under the presupposition that those who are to receive this realisation of their hopes are also alive, and have been raised from the tomb. Christ’s resurrection is thus to us also a sure sign that we too shall rise and live in and with Him eternally.—Wilhelm Bauer.
1Pe_1:4-5. The Inheritance.—Most of the salutations in the epistles refer to the privileges of believers. We often dwell on the things which we do not possess, but in these introductions we are reminded of the things which we do possess. Our names are down in the old register—the election book. See 1Pe_1:2. We trace back our lineage. Every step of the inquiry delights us, as we move from one number of the pedigree to another—martyr, apostle, prophet, priest, king, to the father of the faithful, yea, to Enoch, Enos, and Abel. But the last step is the grandest—to see our name in the old book of election by grace. The new birth,—see 1Pe_1:3. We have a new heart of love and tenderness. We are bidden to look forward to the inheritance of the saints in light.
I. That by the promise of the gospel we are entitled to an inheritance.—Begotten again, we are children, and as such, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. The words which the apostle uses in the text appear synonymous, and yet they are not. (See the original.)
1. Immortal in its nature.—“Incorruptible.” The final state of godliness will be of such a spiritual nature that corruption will be impossible. In other words, it will be a state without sin, and, consequently, without its destructive effects. Present experience has its moments of foretaste of that state. Let us examine this matter. Returning on Wednesday evening from Box Hill, the heavens were generally covered with clouds, but in the west the setting sun had riven the clouds, and there was a streak of beautiful blue sky. So is Christian experience—clouds generally, but here and there beautiful light. I will look towards the heaven of your soul. Before the cross and the end of the ninth hour, the light returned. So when conviction made way for conversion; on the mount of transfiguration, overshadowed by the cloud of glory. So communion with God. “The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” Look to 1Pe_1:18-19; 1Pe_1:23, of this chapter. The life of Jesus is immortal—invulnerable. Strike the light, but you cannot wound it: so is the truth. Touches of these speak of the state when all shall be undying—thought, praise, purity, joy, etc.—all undying.
2. Pure in its administration.—“Undefiled.” It will be a state the enjoyment of which will preclude the possibility of abuse. The most perfect and delicate flower is the most susceptible of being tarnished or destroyed; the touch of the finger will do this. So with the Christian virtues. When we would do good, evil is present. There are interruptions. Let us name one or two. Interruption to continuous religious thought. The astronomer making observations, and the cloud coming between. Some gloomy thought. There are also circumstances outside ourselves that do this. Like the withering blast of the east wind, our prospects are often blighted. But the state of heaven will be such that no clouds will darken the mind, and no trials will harass the heart. The touch will be pure—even if we touch the throne itself there will be no dark Mark 3. Perpetual in its beauty. “That fadeth not away.” The beauty that was, has faded; the beauty that is, is fading; and the beauty that is to come must fade here—Nature’s beauty, human beauty, and fortune itself. Moral beauty. The fair and promising young man has gone wrong. Look at yonder garden. Body like unto His glorious body. The soul without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. Virtue eternal as its Author.
4. Distant in its location.—“Reserved in heaven.” You must remove to a new scene, where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. No battlefields there; no hospitals; no graveyards. No, not even a trace of sin. “Reserved.” Some lovely spot. “Behold, I go and prepare a place for you,”—crowns, thrones, etc.
II. That believers are now kept under guard and discipline in order to the future enjoyment of that blessed state.—
1. Faith is the medium of power.—The power of resistance, and the power of perseverance. To reign with Christ in life is full of inspiration. We lay hold of eternal life.
2. Salvation is the end of faith. What is the voice of faith but a cry for a better state? We cannot rest till we reach the goal. We press forward.
3. Time is the revealer of salvation. You will see. The ages have rolled on—wonderful things. Time’s last effort. Bring in the inheritance. What is our title?—Anon.
1Pe_1:5. Kept by the Power of God.—Believers, as a class, are thus described: “Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.” The words bring before us the doctrine commonly known as that of “final perseverance,” as opposed to that of possible defection and perdition on the part of true believers and regenerated sinners. Look at the objections to this doctrine, as they seem to weigh upon the minds, not of speculative theologians, but of practical experimental Christians, whose belief is, in purpose and profession, founded on the word of God and the experience of His people. The objections are twofold:
(1) The doctrine is unscriptural;
(2) it is of evil tendency. These are virtually one; for the objection to the doctrine as unscriptural has no substantive existence or foundation apart from its imputed or alleged pernicious tendencies in practice. It must be admitted that in Scripture there is no categorical denial of this doctrine, or any statement absolutely inconsistent with it. If it is rejected it must be because it is believed to be pernicious. What, then, is the evil tendency imputed to this doctrine?
1. It is said to assume the final perseverance of the saints to be secured by a power inherent in themselves, or by something in the very nature of a saving change, precluding all defection as a sheer impossibility, entirely irrespective of the subject’s own religious state or dispositions, or of any influence exterior to him, over and above the impulse given at conversion, or the vis inertiœ of his new-born nature—a belief which may be justly charged with tending to indulge a proud reliance upon self, and an habitual security, alike dishonouring to God and dangerous to man.
2. The only proof which it requires of the saving clause, from which it draws its proud security and absolute immunity from danger, is the consciousness or memory of inward exercises, not susceptible of formal proof, and wholly independent of the actual condition of the subject at the time when he asserts his claim to this prerogative or privilege of absolute exemption from the risk or possibility of a fall from grace. The rejection of the doctrine is always based on the assumption of an inherent independent power of self-preservation, or the sufficiency of mere subjective states and exercises, to demonstrate the possession of that power. But no such assumptions are imputed in the word of God. As in our text, the preservation is explicitly described as the effect of a power exterior and superior to themselves, as effected by a sovereign, a Divine, an almighty agency. If all depend upon the action of Omnipotence (the power of God), where is the pernicious tendency? If we can no more, in and of ourselves, secure our own continuance in this state than we could create it, or create ourselves, or than we could create a World, “where is boasting then? It is excluded.” It may, however, be said that if we look upon the exercise of the power of God as absolutely and irrevocably pledged for our protection, the tendency of this belief to generate security and licence is as evident and strong as if the power were inherent in ourselves; nay, more so, since the power, instead of being finite, is now infinite; instead of being human, is Divine; instead of being ours is God’s, and yet completely under our control. This specious representation quietly assumes that we ascribe the perseverance of believers to an absolute, immediate act of power, without the use of means or the prescription of conditions. But this aspersion on the doctrine is wiped off by the simple but authoritative language of the text, which, so far from representing this conservative agency of God’s grace and omnipotence as acting independently of faith in the preserved and persevering subject, holds up faith itself as in a certain sense the means by which the perseverance is secured, by which the preservation is effected. Faith is not a thing to be assumed at pleasure, but to be established as conclusive evidence; not that of consciousness, or memory, or fancy, but of actual experience and practice. Where the fruits of faith are not, there is no evidence of faith. Where faith is not, there is no pledge of God’s omnipotence to save from falling. It is only those who have this faith and bear this fruit that have a right to claim a place among the happy souls who are “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.”—J. A. Alexander, D.D.
Kept unto Salvation.—Many of God’s people are at times full of fears concerning their personal interest in Christ. Perhaps it ought not to be so. We have to face the fact that it often is so. The work of sanctification is a quiet, gradual, unseen work, of which we cannot accurately trace all the stages. It may be likened to the currents that run below the surface of the ocean, and secretly bear the vessel on its way, or out of its way. Or it may be likened to the steady march of time, which changes all earthly things, wears away the framework of the Pyramids, and crumbles down the everlasting hills, though, watch as we may, we can hardly follow the process. In our times of fear, we more often doubt our right to the Divine promises than doubt the general fulfilment of the promises. At our darkest times we are assured that the promises are “yea and amen” for those, to whom they are given. Our difficulty is that they are not given to us. Sometimes these feelings follow on the encouragement of some loved sin. Keep that sin; call it by some milder name though you may, it will stand between you and God. Like the host of Israel that went forth against the city of Ai, you will return from your toil defeated and disgraced if some accursed thing be kept within your camp. Sometimes they follow on neglected means of grace. Only as the soul maintains a constant intercourse with God can it maintain a constant assurance of His love. Sometimes they follow on watching too minutely our own thoughts, and frames, and feelings. We may soon come to put our trust in those feelings, and then every change in our feeling will fling a shadow over us, and feeble feeling will fill us with despair. In our text may be found a threefold description of the true child of God, by the help of which we may scatter the doubts and fears that loom over us. He is one
(1) on whom the preserving power of God rests;
(2) one in whom the spirit of faith is working;
(3) one for whom salvation is prepared.
I. The child of God is one on whom the preserving power of God rests.—This is a description which links the believer with the king-psalmist of Israel, whose poetically recorded experiences we so greatly enjoy. Perhaps there was no thought brought so much peace to the psalmist as the thought that he was “kept by God.” To his thought, God was “a sun and a shield; the Lord would give grace and glory.” His prayer was, “Hold Thou me up, and I shall be safe.” God was to him “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land”: “the Keeper of Israel, who never slumbered nor slept.” He could say of God, “I flee unto Thee to hide me.” Christian experience ever deepens our conviction of our own weakness; our inability to protect and keep ourselves. We feel more and more every day that we need a guarding as well as a guiding hand. The promises Christ gave to His disciples show that this need was recognised. “They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.” Those disciples are the sheep and lambs of Christ’s flock. They may be quite sure that the Shepherd is ever near to protect, defend, and keep. Our Lord, in His great intercessory prayer, said, “I kept them in Thy name, and none of them is lost.” Discipleship to Christ involves Divine keeping; and the Saviour prayed as though He were bound to give an account to God of each believer’s safety. We may realise this preserving power of God in several ways.
1. In the guidance and help of the Holy Spirit. No doubt the operations of the Spirit are mysterious. “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth.” But He does take up His abode in the believing soul. His presence pledges the fact of the change wrought in us. His operation is designed to preserve the soul from all evil, and to guide it into all truth. Source whence all Divine blessings for the soul flow, whence all the food of the spiritual life comes, whence all developments of the spiritual life receive their furtherance, that Spirit is no less the “Great Heart” guide, by whom the pilgrim is defended and preserved, the champion by whom his foes are defeated and his difficulties overcome. His presence is our seal unto the day of redemption; His work to keep the soul unto the full salvation that is prepared. The presence of the Holy Spirit is the fulfilment of all the promises of the Divine Presence. When Moses stood before the burning bush, and received the Divine command for the deliverance of Israel, he was overwhelmed by the responsibilities of the charge, and received this comforting and strengthening assurance: “Certainly I will be with thee.” That promise was fulfilled in the presence with him of God’s Holy Spirit. When Jeremiah pleaded his incapacity for the prophetic office, so earnestly saying, “Ah, Lord God; behold, I cannot speak! for I am a child,” God’s promise came, comforting him: “Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee.” That also was fulfilled in the presence of God the Spirit. And how much to us all is that promise and assurance of our ascending Saviour, “Lo, I am with you all the days, even unto the end of the world.” However else we may think that promise to have been fulfilled, it was certainly fulfilled in the abiding presence with us of the Holy Spirit. We imagine a sort of threefold Divine presence that we enjoy. A presence of God the Father—a Divine eye watching our every step, searching our every thought and purpose; a presence of God the Son, the living Friend to whom our thoughts may be made known, whose companionship we may daily enjoy; and a presence of God the Spirit, working within us, checking, inspiring, guiding, keeping. But, if we think a little closely, shall we not find that these three are one? If we have the presence of the Spirit, have we not each person of the blessed Trinity—the loving Father, the only-begotten Son, and the all presiding Spirit. Surely the whole promise of a present God is fulfilled for you, if you know that the Spirit of God is with you. If you know His power in your heart, rejoice; it is the power of God, a power efficient to keep you unto the salvation ready to be revealed.
2. In the strength we derive from the exercise of prayer. The spirit of prayer is illustrated in the wrestling of Jacob with the angel at the Brook Jabbok. Intense earnestness is expressed in that determination, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Prayer is a laying hold of the Divine arm, a reliance on the Divine strength. The very terms of Christian prayer indicate our sense of God’s interest in us, and concern for us. “Abba, Father,” gathers about us fatherly love, fatherly watchfulness, and fatherly preservations. Thankfulness in prayer is the recognition of the hand of goodness ever over us. And the substance of all prayer is, that in all the forms of our spiritual toil and struggle we may have the help of God; we may not be left to our own weakness; we may be upheld and kept. And so of all the answers we receive to our prayer. They may be summed up in one thing: the realisation of God’s presence with us, and power resting on us. The sense of Divine aid, Divine inspiration, Divine keeping, which we may bear about with us day by day, is the answer to our prayer.
3. In the actual experience of the believer. In their temple service the Jewish people might well sing, “The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge,” because their entire history was lit up with continual signs of His presence and power. Delivered from the house of bondage with a high hand, the sea saw the majesty of their leader, and fled, leaving a highway for God’s people; waste deserts became lands of plenty, and foes failed when Israel’s God marched before them. Manifested in burning bush and fiery pillar, ruling as Theocratic King, raising up one and setting down another, delivering and redeeming again and again, no truth was brought home to the Jew like this one, “The Lord of hosts is with us.” And we are the Israel of God. The power of God is witnessed in all our past history. Looking at the way in which the Lord hath led us, we say, again and again, There God guided; there God preserved; there God conquered for us; there foes gathered thickly, but God put His hedge of mercy round us; there we made mistakes, and wandered into by-paths that might have led us to destruction, but God in mercy restored our wandering feet. Over all our past may well be written, “Kept by the power of God.” We have been like that servant of the prophet. We could see that the house was surrounded with foes, and there was no way of escape. We could not see what, nevertheless, we might have seen, that the mountains all round about were full of the chariots and horsemen of the Lord. Far “greater were those with us than all that could be against us.”
II. One in whom the spirit of faith is working.—Faith is often dealt with as connected with our first approach to God; as the gate at the head of the way of life. But we need to see that this same “faith” is called for throughout the whole course of the Christian life. We live day by day, spiritually, only as we believe; our strength, our comfort, our success, are in direct proportions to our faith. The work being carried on in your hearts is a spiritual work; you cannot watch it with your bodily eyes. The Being working is a spiritual Being; you can never see Him by your side. His way of working is a spiritual way; you may not always discover it: only faith brings the comfort of the Divine strength and nearness. That is true for us which was but fabled of an ancient prince. He had lost his father, and when setting out to endeavour to gain tidings of him, one of the divinities came down, took the form of an aged counsellor, and accompanied him in all his journeyings. That is true for us, but we only feel it, only get the joy of it, only know the impulses of it, only walk strongly and safely, as faith realises the fact. There is a great difference between knowing things with the mind, and believing them with the heart. The doctrines, commands, and promises of God lie within this sacred book like dry bones in the valley. They are mere forms of truth; mere declarations of Divine wisdom; beautiful enough, but cold and dead. Faith comes, the faith which says, This is the Word of God, and the Word of God to me—and then the dry bones live; a creative breath seems to have passed over them all. Without faith the Word of God is as a harp fully strung, but silent. Even in its silence one feels there are within it the possibilities of beauteous song. But let faith come, and touch the chords; then music is drawn forth, which seems like earth-echoes of the angels’ songs above. Now it may be warlike tones, wild and clear, that nerve the Christian’s arm, and send him boldly forth to fight the good fight of faith; now gentle, soothing strains that calm the troubled breast, and whisper to the torn and tried, God’s eternal peace. Have faith in God. Lay hold thereby of the power of God. Let that be the spirit in you which grasps the Divine energy that would rest upon you. With the power on you, and the faith in you, you shall be kept unto the salvation prepared. Learn from that great chapter of Hebrews how faith can work in daily life. Faith marked the acceptable worship Abel offered. Faith gave the triumph in the hour of Enoch’s translation. Faith kept Noah when the judgments of God were in the earth. Faith guided Abraham in his journeyings. Faith saved Moses in the moments of danger. Faith discomfited the foes of God’s Israel. And what shall we more say? Time would fail to tell the triumphs of daily faith, the toil it helps us to perform; the sorrow it helps us to bear; the wisdom it helps us to gain; the evils it helps us to fight; the glory it helps us to win.
III. One for whom salvation is prepared.—Our salvation begins when we begin to live for God. Peter speaks of “receiving now the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul.” But that salvation has another stage. It is really as yet undeveloped. “Now are we the sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be.” The salvation now is salvation in the world, that shall be salvation from the world. This is salvation going on amid dangers, temptations, and evils: that shall be salvation perfected in scenes of holy rest, and triumph, and peace. And that fuller salvation is ready, prepared, waiting to be revealed. This further salvation is God’s purpose in the work of His Son. However much the work of Christ accomplishes for us here on earth; however God’s grace beautifies character, conquers evil, gladdens the home, gilds life with brightness, and crowds it with blessing, we cannot limit the great salvation to that which is earthly and fleeting. The purpose of God in redemption is wide and broad and deep as the everlasting life, and long as the everlasting ages. It may find you a poor sinful soul, low down in degradation; it will cleanse all stains, heal all wounds, and bless you now; but it will not rest satisfied until you are placed as a polished jewel in the crown of the Redeeming King. This is the design of the preserving power that rests upon you. For what does He keep you I Why does an eye that never slumbers nor sleeps watch Israel? Why does the Almighty Friend ever abide with us? Why? It is this: that we are being “kept” to the salvation that is ready to be revealed. This is the end of our faith. Faith grasps much for this life; but it is like the foreign bird, brought from sunnier climes—it ever seems to be stretching its wings and striking the bars of its cage, as though it would be away to the home it loves. Faith, a heavenly thing, born of God, in sympathy with the high and heavenly, will press beyond the struggling and darkness of time, and strive to gain the light and peace of eternity. And all is to be revealed in the last time. We know when that is. When the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they be few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened; when the silver cord shall be loosed, and the golden bowl be broken; when the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit return unto God who gave it;—then shall the full salvation be revealed, and we shall enter the New Jerusalem, from whence they go out no more, and where God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. Kept now for sanctifying, one day we shall be glorified.
1Pe_1:6. Rejoicing and Heaviness.—This verse seems to gather up the thought of the first nine verses. The tone of this epistle reveals the sanctifying influence of a Christian experience upon St. Peter. What strikes attention is the recognition of the twofoldness of religious life. If it breathes the air of heaven, it treads the soil of earth. We are often surprised to find the life is a constant struggle, and the soul is calm with a Divine peace. St. Peter intimates that this is the very thing we should expect. The best men cannot always live in the sunshine of hope. A Christian life on earth can hardly fail to be a mingling of rejoicing and heaviness.
I. The spirit of the Christian should usually be a spirit of rejoicing.—
1. The rejoicing of love (1Pe_1:8). Love to Christ. The love that comes with faith in the unseen. Accepted love is our deepest source of earthly joy. We feel a holy pride when we can say of the Lord Jesus, “This is my beloved, and this is my friend.”
2. The rejoicing of the promised future (1Pe_1:4). But the future finds nothing for the soul apart from Christ. Heaven is everything if the “Lamb be the light thereof.”
II. The spirit of the Christian may be for a time a spirit of heaviness.—The rejoicing is “without limit.” The sadness is “for a season,” and “if needs be.” The heaviness comes from the trying, testing, of the very faith whence the rejoicing comes. The struggle of life may be expressed in this form: Under how thick darkness can you cling to Christ? Beaten how ever severely by foes, can you still keep hold on Christ, refusing to be beaten off! Whatever your earth-trials may be, remember they are but passing things. The soul’s restful joy in God should be deep, abiding, eternal.
Note by Archbishop Leighton.—“His scope is to stir up and strengthen spiritual joy in his afflicted brethren. In this thing ye rejoice, that ye are begotten again; that there is such an inheritance, and that you are made heirs of it; that it is kept for you, and you for it; that nothing can come betwixt you and it, and disappoint you of possessing and enjoying it. Though there be many deserts and mountains and seas in the way, yet you are ascertained that you shall come safely thither.”
The Christian State.—
1. The Christian state is properly one of deep and abiding joy. See this in St. Paul.
(1) Joy in the salvation wrought by God.
(2) Joy in the salvation resting on God. A deep-sea calm. An above-clouds calm.
2. Apparently, the Christian state is one of agitation, anxiety, and heaviness. Observe, however, the qualifications of this—“for a season,” “if needs be.” Still, even with these qualifications, the Christian state is often one of heaviness. How is this? The soul’s joy is the sign of a life of faith, and this must be tested, as in the case of Abraham, David, Peter. Can anything keep up the soul’s joy under the heaviness.
(1) Assurance that it is testing, not destruction, not punishment.
(2) Assurance that God is watching the process, regarding it as a precious work of refining.
(3) Seeing that the designed issue is a simpler hold of Christ; a clearer spiritual sight of Him. And so, through the experience, the joy really becomes “unspeakable and full of glory.” And so we receive now the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls (a) from fear, (b) from sin, (c) from corruption. And thus we are made ready for Christ’s appearing. We see what we ought to regard as our great Christian treasure—our souls’ joy in the great salvation. We are sure to have the joy if only we have, and can keep, holy admirations of Christ.
The Future in the Present.—St. Peter here states a fact of common human experience, which takes its highest form in the Christian spheres. The future we anticipate does exert a present influence on us. What is to be is everywhere helping men to bear what is. The “castles in the air” of the boy or girl at school help them over present tasks and discipline. The future of business success strengthens men to bear with and to overcome present perplexities and difficulties. The “good time coming,” the “golden age,” are not altogether things in the by-and-bye. They are actually with us now, in the cheer and strength they give.
1Pe_1:8. Things Unseen.—It takes a very strenuous effort to bring the unseen Christ before the mind habitually, and so as to produce effects in the life. You have to shut out a great deal besides, in order to do that; as a man will shade his eyes with his hand in order to see some distant thing the more clearly. Keep out the cross lights, that you may look forward. You cannot see the stars when you are walking down a town street and the gas lamps are lit. All those violet depths, and calm abysses, and blazing worlds, are concealed from you by the glare at your side. So, if you want to see into the depths and the heights, to see the great white throne and the Christ on it, who helps you to fight, you have to go out unto Him beyond the camp, and leave all its dazzling lights behind you.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
The Love of One Unseen.—In Peter we have not a highly intellectual, cultured man, so it was not given to him to set the first forms and shapes to the expression of Christian doctrine. For that work the Apostle Paul was specially called, endowed, and educated, and the fitness of the Divine choice of instruments has never been more fully demonstrated than in the selection of Paul for that particular work. Peter evidently had a larger heart than head; his great feature was impulsiveness: sometimes it led him astray into forwardness, presumption, and over-positiveness; but sometimes it enabled him to make noble testimonies, and even sometimes to force an entrance into mysteries whose doors refused to yield at the bidding of sanctified intellect. It may be said, in a comprehensive way, that we are indebted to Paul for Christian truths that may be thought out. Paul, in his most enthusiastic moments, is a man of mind and culture, and he abundantly proves that the intellectual man need not be a cold, hard, dry, or unloving man. Again and again we find his soul catching fire of the truth with which he deals, all aglow with the fervour and enthusiasm which the truth he studies enkindles; bursting out in intense utterances of adoration, as if the emotions of his heart must force the bonds of silence, and send forth at least a cry. Peter adds to the circle of Christian truth and doctrine almost wholly those forms which bring satisfaction to the heart, which are found out by the sensitiveness of Christian emotion; and so his words come to us like fresh revelations in particular moods of our feeling. In our times of meditation, of quickened emotion, of sacramental preparation, we shall find words of Peter frequently suggested, and largely helpful; by their aid our souls may often gain wing, and fly into the innermost recesses of communion with Christ, and with His truth. Peter’s words have often proved, through the Divine Spirit, live coals from off the altar, which have reillumined the smouldering love of our souls, and set the flame rising high again, and burning bright for consuming the dross of self and sin. Our text is one of his most characteristic and best-remembered words. I envy no man who is so unsusceptible to its tenderness, its thrill of emotion, and its hallowed suggestiveness, that he can coldly study it, take it to pieces, criticise it, and set out the precise meaning of its parts. I cannot. I shall not try to. I shall not satisfy anybody to-day who asks exactly what it means, what it teaches and what it involves. I have wanted it to be to me a live coal, setting fire to holy feelings of love and truth within me. And now I want it to be a live coal to you, kindling such fires of thankfulness, faith, and love in you, that we may have an unusual time of refreshing and hallowed joy in presence of the emblems of our suffering, dying Saviour to-day. I want to lead you along this line of thought, staying a little while at each point for the needful unfolding and illustration. Salvation comes by love to a Person; that love may be sight-quickened, that love may be faith-quickened; the love quickened by faith will be altogether nobler, mightier, more satisfying than the love quickened by sight.
I. Salvation comes by love to a Person.—I am always trying to make you see what a large, comprehensive thing our salvation is. With its varied forms of beginning, with its many-sided applications as it continues its working, and with its many endings of relation to soul-life, body-life, and social life, the salvation of a man may well be called “so great salvation.” Looking in some directions towards God and conditions of reconciliation and acceptance with Him; in others, towards ourselves and the effectual removal of the very love of sinning; and in yet others, towards our fellowmen, and perfecting the harmony of our intercourse with them;—verily a man’s salvation does grow to our thought as a very wide, rich, comprehensive thing. I cannot get all the fulness of the idea of a man’s salvation into the word conversion; that is but a point of it, a stage in it, a portion of it. Nor will it all go into the word sanctification; that, too, expresses a part only. The Bible words are regeneration and salvation—wide words, that arch over a man’s life, from the moment of spiritual awakening right through to the moment of “presenting faultless before the glory,” even as the arched dome of heaven spans our earth from utmost east to utmost west. Can we get any worthier impression of what God intends, and what he prophetically sees realised, when he begins to save a man? Surely He anticipates the poor half-burnt brand, not only plucked from the fire, but the fire-marks taken away; the brand quickened with new life, grafted into the true vine, filled in every duct and vessel with the rich vine sap, and bringing forth abundant fruit. The brand is not fully saved until the grape clusters hang thickly upon it. Surely when God touches the heart of the poor, weary, homeless, despised, and despairing prodigal with the thought of love and home, it is in the hope of finding him one day settled in the old son’s place, and filled with the old child-spirit of obedience and trust. The prodigal is not saved by being put back into the home, he is only saved when he gets again the spirit of the home. What does God see as the final issue when He begins to save a man? Surely a sight that must fill with rejoicing that heavenly Father’s heart. He sees one clothed in white robes, all stainless, which are the emblem of one at last made all pure and “glorious within.” He sees one crowned with a crown which is the seal of final victory in the life-battle with sin. He sees one tuning a right noble song from a heaven-harp; a song so sweet, so loud, it shall for ever tell what joys fill that soul with rapture which has reached the perfect righteousness and the full salvation. Let us but get this large idea of what it is for a man to be saved, and then we shall see the truth of the statement that salvation comes by love to a Person. No merely intellectual grasp of any truth, even the sublimest ever revealed to man, can work out this great and mighty change. The force that alters man for better or for worse is the force of His love. “Tell me,” it has been said, “the companions a man keeps, or the friends he has, and I will tell you what he is.” The great renewing, changing, saving power is our love to the Lord Jesus Christ, the infinitely excellent and loving One; or, as I like to think of it, it is our heart-grasp of Him; because all heart-grasps must be blended faith-holdings and love-holdings; and when faith and love hold together, love is sure to swallow up and absorb the faith: and when our love just opens our whole soul and life to Christ, and bids Him welcome to come right in, then all the saving power He has in His Divine right, and has won by His life, experience, and sacrifice, can be exerted in us; He can save us wholly; save us with His full salvation from the past, from our sins, from sinfulness, from death, from hell; save us by changing us into the likeness of His own obedience, trust, and love; and so prepare us to “shine for ever in the light of God,” the monuments of a great salvation. We may believe a thing, we cannot love a thing: we may like it, admire it, value it, cherish it. It is of necessity to love that its object must be able to respond, returning love for love. So you see I believe in the work of Christ; believe in the Atonement; and the Redemption; and the Sacrifice; and the Resurrection. But since my higher life, my full salvation, comes by that love, which is a swallowing-up of faith in something higher, I must get beyond things: I shall never be able to love the work, and the Atonement, and the Redemption,—they must pass into lights which shine down upon, and all around, the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Atoner, the Propitiator, Him who gave Himself for us—glorifying Him, making Him so beautiful that our heart is wholly won to Him, our love fully set upon Him, and body, soul, and spirit, are yielded in a sacrifice of affection unto Him. Sometimes you feel a little difference between the mode in which I present Divine truth to you, and the modes of your previous apprehension; and possibly you may sometimes think the difference far greater than it is. Really it lies in this: you think so much of the redemption; I try to lift up your eyes, and get them fixed on the Redeemer. You dwell on the work of salvation; I try to point out the person of the Saviour, and show you what glorious power to deliver He has gained through His work. You try to formulate a doctrine of the Atonement; I long to make you see the infinite fitness and fulness of the Divine Atoner and Reconciler. You say, “It is Christ that died.” I try to repeat after Paul, and say, Yes, that is true, but there is more. Oh! to see and feel that something more: “Yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” It is impossible to do more than suggest to you how much the apostles made of the person of Christ, and how constant is their demand of loyal attachment to Him, trust and love to Him. A little roll of passages may suffice to set this upon your thoughts. Christ required personal relations to Himself. “Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden.” “He that hath the Son hath life.” “I give unto them eternal life.” “Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out.” “By faith that is in Me.” “Whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.” “This do in remembrance of Me.” The apostles preach, saying: “Him hath God exalted, a Prince and a Saviour.” “God hath made that same Jesus whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ.” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” “Unto you that believe He is precious.” Paul shows us his loving relations to a personal living Saviour, when he says, “The life I live in the flesh is a life of faith on the Son of God”; and our text is in fullest accord with the whole New Testament when it says, “whom,” not “which”—“whom having not seen, we love; in whom though now we see Him not yet believing, we rejoice,” etc. And surely He is the true minister of the Word who, as an ambassador of the living Christ, beseeches men in Christ’s stead to be reconciled unto God.” This, then, is a most true and worthy way in which to think about Divine things. Our full salvation comes by love to a Person. In presence of these sacramental emblems, how true that must seem to every one of us! Just what we gather round them for is, that, seeing Christ afresh by their help, we may set our love afresh upon Him; and often we have found that nothing so mightily helps us in our godly living as these sacramental quickenings of our love to the personal and living Christ. We do not see Him in a vision of dazzling brightness, “clothed in white garments down to the foot.… His head and hairs white, like wool, as white as snow, His eyes like flames of fire, His feet like fine brass, burning to white heat in a furnace?” His voice does not come to us like “the sound of many waters”; but we still hear Him say the words which quicken adoring, thankful, trustful love: “Fear not; I am the first and the last, I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen.” The old test of discipleship remains: “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?” Well for us all, and for the progress of the work of redemption in us, if we can respond, “Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee.”
II. That love maybe sight-quickened.—As was the love of the disciples for their Master. They were with Him in the privileges of closest intimacy; they received the impressions of confidence which ought to follow witnessing His mighty works; but far beyond that, the secrecies of communion, the knowledge of His private life of purity and charity, woke in their hearts an enthusiasm of affection which made them in due time heroes and martyrs. With what a tender, trustful affection John loved Christ; getting as close as he could to Him, and even, with almost a woman’s gentleness, venturing to lean on His bosom. With what a passionate and ardent affection Peter loved Him; a kind of love which might stumble, but was too wholly sincere and intense entirely to fail and fall. Would you see love that comes by sight, read the heart of Mary Magdalene, that woman who was “last at the cross and first at the grave,” and wept her sorrow because they had taken away the body which she had meant to embalm with sweetest spices by her own loving hands; or go into the Bethany home, and see Mary pass out, soon to return and blend precious ointment and thankful tears upon the Saviour’s feet; look at her:—
“Her eyes are homes of silent prayer,
Nor other thought her mind admits,
But, he was dead, and there he sits,
And He that brought him back is there.
“Then one deep love doth supersede
All other, when her ardent gaze
Roves from the living brother’s face,
And rests upon the Life indeed.”
Tennyson.
All this was sight-quickened love; they saw and believed; and need I point out how this love was salvation to them, delivering them from sin, and self, and all ignoble ends, and lifting them up to all high and noble uses, and putting a glory on their lives? Too readily we cherish the thought of our dreadful loss, in that we have never seen Christ. Sometimes the heart goes out in a passionate longing: “Oh that I could but once see Him!” How would we journey if we might at last gaze upon Him in one of His attitudes of infinite tenderness, bending to look with such gentle acceptance on the poor sinner that rained her tears upon His feet, or holding a little babe in His arm, and touching the other little ones that clung about His robe, and saying, “Suffer the little ones to come unto Me.” Only to see a full-length picture of Him sets our heart beating with emotion; surely we could believe, we could love, if we might but see Him. So we repeat the mistake of doubting Thomas, who wanted to see the wound-marks in His hands and side. And to us, as well as to Him, comes the Saviour’s gentle reproof: “Thomas, because thou hast seen Me thou hast believed; blessed are they which have not seen, and yet have believed.”
III. That love may be faith-quickened.—As was the love of these stranger Jews, scattered abroad, to whom Peter wrote, and as is ours. They, nor we, have ever seen the Son of God; yet, “though now we see Him not, believing in Him, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” Archbishop Leighton says: “The eye is the ordinary door by which love enters the soul, but this (saving love to the Lord Christ) enters by the faith-faculty, which is the soul’s eye.” For the things that are unseen and eternal stand related to the soul’s eye just as the things that are seen and temporal do to the bodily eye. And amongst the various definitions given of faith, I would single out this one as peculiarly full, and true, and suggestive: “Faith is that state of the soul in which the things of God become glorious certainties.” Must not all the faculties of our soul be vastly superior to the faculties of our bodies? In truth they are sublime powers, only feebly represented even by the wonderful senses of eye, and ear, and touch. It is a far, far grander thing that we can love, and believe, and adore, and obey, than that we can see, and hear, and feel. And all that sphere of unseen things with which faith and love and hope have to do is far more real than that outward world of sensible objects with which eye and touch can deal. Put together these two things: “The sun shines;” “God lives;” and surely that one which only the soul’s eye sees, which only faith can grasp, is the one which is most certainly true, really the most free from doubt to every one whose soul-eye is clear. Only try to think what a little piece of our life, after all, is concerned with “things seen and temporal,” and how broad, and wide, and high, and rich, is the world of the unseen with which we deal. The things of thought, emotion, and affection, are mostly unseen. The heroes, whose stories we cherish for continual inspiration, are all unseen. Our departed friends are now unseen; we have only the images of them which faith and love create. Beyond the blue sky we see the dome of God; within the movements of nature we trace the handiwork of God. Measure life by what our eye sees, our ear hears, and our hand can touch, and it is a poor, limited life indeed; so many miles through to the other side—so many leagues measured all round. Look at life with the soul’s eye, see it with the faith-faculty, and then our human life grows profound and awful; worlds are within worlds; worlds are beyond worlds; everything has eternal issues and relations. By the measurements of faith the world’s diameter is infinite, and its circumference is God. But the question which our text suggests, and which our Christian hearts want answered, is this: Can this faith-sight of Christ help me to love, to the love that saves? Well we know, for again and again we have felt how, looking into the face, and watching the life, of our brother or sister has touched our hearts and won out a love that longed to prove its deep, true power in sacrifices for them. Well we know how sight-quickened love has delivered us from evil, elevated us, made us nobler men and women. But can it be so with faith-sight? Yes, brethren, and more, much more. Try if your loves are all limited to those you see. Try whether it is so, that all the persons present to your heart are persons you can look upon and touch. Well the widow knows that her unseen husband is far closer and more real to her than any who sit beside her. The mother folds her heavenly child to her heart oftener than her living children to her bosom. And by faith we can see Christ; we can realise Him, and find kindlings of love rise towards Him, purer, stronger far than any that we might have felt, had we looked into His human face and touched His gracious hand. How true poetry is to the deepest feelings of our nature! Tennyson, mourning over his friend, lost to touch, tells us how near that friend ever was to thought, and heart, and faith:—
“Dear friend, far off, my lost desire,
So far, so near, in woe and weal;
O loved the most, when most I feel
There is a lower and a higher;
“Far off thou art, but ever nigh,
I have thee still and I rejoice.”
“Known and unknown; human, Divine;
Sweet human hand, and lips, and eye;
Dear heavenly friend that canst not die,
Mine, mine, for ever, ever mine.”
And hear how the poet-soul thinks of Him who found it “expedient that He should go away,” out of sight and touch, to become for human souls the ideal of all that is pure, and loving, and winsome, and beautiful:—
“Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
Whom we, that have not seen Thy face,
By faith, and faith alone, embrace.
“Thou seemest human and Divine,
The highest, holiest manhood Thou.”
Better, far better for us, that Christ is now unseen. We are no longer limited to the impressions produced by His human figure, we can raise the noblest and most perfect ideal of Him; we can put about our thought of Christ everything that we find touches our heart most deeply, everything we count most loving and lovely. Even when we love through sight we do not love exactly what we see, but an ideal which our heart fashions; we love our beloved because we see them transformed with a beauty which our heart gathers round them; and upon the records left of the Son of God we all can build the figure of our own Christ, transcendently, infinitely pure and lovely, and our soul will be lifted up by the very nobility and glory of the unseen One whom we love. And this is our confidence and joy; our ideal shall never disappoint us. Let the faith-faculty do its utmost, and the love-faculty crown its creation to the utmost, it cannot reach the very glory of Jesus; it is never worthy of Him. He is better than mind can think. He is better than heart can conceive. Our Christ is unseen, and yet we set our love upon Him. Our Christ we shall not see to-day, and yet, believing in Him, we may be found rejoicing with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of our faith, even the salvation of our souls. How can this be? What is there in our soul-vision of Christ to kindle fresh love and awaken a joy that shall be ever growing toward the unspeakable? What? Oh, brethren, as you see Him there, about Him is the fashion of a “lamb as it had been slain.” Gazing on Him, our soul is flooded with memories of a wonderful, blessed past. We see the manger-place that tells how He thought not even equality with God a thing to be held with unrelaxing grasp, but emptied Himself and entered the world a helpless Babe. We see the daily scene of self-denial and grace—mighty deeds of kindness, and winsome words of love,—melting even hard hearts to His obedience. We see the scene shaded by the olives of Gethsemane. We see the scene illumined by the torches of a murderous band. We see the scenes that disgraced for ever the tribunals of earthly judgment. We see a Saviour coming forth, wearing a mock crown of thorns and a scornful old purple cloak, yet calm in the grace of His self-sacrifice. We see three crosses; our soul is entranced to watch the dying agonies and listen to the dying cries of One whose woe a darkening sky in mercy hid; and as we see our hearts remind us that all this was borne for us.
“For love of us He bled;
For love of us He died;
’Twas love that bowed His fainting head,
And pierced His sacred side.”
Is it any wonder that those memories should quicken within us a new and enthusiastic love? And when the memories of the past grow faint, we look again, and lo! how beautiful our Saviour is! In His face shines the glory of an infinite love, that has won its triumph out of sacrifice. Does heaven seem bright? It is the light of His beauty shining through it. Is heaven radiant with song? The one burden of those who sing is the infinite worth and grace of Him who “loved us and gave Himself for us.” And as, admiringly, with the eyes of our soul, we look upon Him; as we cherish loving memories, and listen to His words of tenderness and grace, still spoken to all loving hearts;—how can we keep our souls from rising in their responsive love, and saying, with new enthusiasm of affection, “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Theo.”
Did St. Peter say, “Not having seen”? That is but partly true, poorly true. Our souls have seen the unseen Christ. The life is ever freshly manifested to the faith-quickened vision of human souls. We have seen. We have “beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”; and it may be that we shall have another soul-vision to-day, and our hearts may respond, as did Thomas, saying, “My Lord and My God.”
1Pe_1:7. The Proper Reading of Human Afflictions.—They are the “trial of our faith.” Faith is here put for the Christian profession, which is based on faith in Jesus as Messiah and Saviour. And the trial of the faith is spoken of because those addressed were actually then suffering on account of their Christian profession. The writer of the epistle more fully describes the trial through which these Jewish Christians had passed (Heb_10:32-34). “After ye were enlightened, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly while ye were made a gazingstock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly while ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods.” The trial of faith is sometimes spoken of in a way that leaves a very unworthy impression of God upon the mind. It is assumed that He sends trial in an arbitrary way, upon His good pleasure, and as an exercise of what is called Divine Sovereignty. Scripture gives no warrant for our representing Divinely sent trials as other than “for our profit.” Man submits metals to severe testings, but only with one or both of two distinct objects in view. Either for the improving of the metal itself, or for the preparing of the metal unto some use and service. And human afflictions, as God-sent trials of faith, are never read aright, unless they are seen to have a distinct purpose in the improvement of the person subject to them, or in the fitting of him for some particular ministry. “He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.”
1Pe_1:8. Loving Whom we have Not Seen.—That God should be invisible is a necessity of His perfection. Heaven is no more capable of containing God than the earth, although more of His glory is displayed there. And angels and sainted souls in heaven, in their highest raptures, in their clearest visions, “see no similitude.” But here is another kind of invisibility altogether. God having appeared and made Himself “manifest,” disappears again from mortal sight. Jesus Christ, in personal, visible form, has wholly left this world. All the myriads of living men who name His name have to speak of Him as “Him whom they have not seen.” This is apt to shape itself to our first thoughts as, in some sense, a loss. “The eye affects the heart,” and we think that if we saw Him with our eyes it would surely be a little easier to believe in Him, and our love would spring up at the sight. When we think more deeply, and bring into our view, as far as we can, all the elements of the case, we drop these earthly hankerings and vain regrets, and, coming upon the higher ground of our text, we say, “Whom having not seen, we love.” It is very desirable that we should live habitually on this higher ground, making as few backward, downward movements, to the lower ground, as may be. It is a fact that great multitudes saw Jesus Christ in the flesh, and did not believe. It is a fact that great multitudes who had thus seen Him in the flesh without believing, did believe immediately after He disappeared. It is a fact that those who had believed when He was here, believed still more when He went away. Their faith then became more intelligent and more heroic; it became another and a higher thing. It is a fact that many who had not seen Him, but, being His contemporaries, had often heard of Him, without believing by the hearing, no sooner heard that He had gone from the world than they believed at once. It is a fact that great numbers, in many cities and countries, hearing from the lips of preachers and evangelists the whole story of His coming to this world and going hence, believed. It is a fact that on the same testimony, and by force of the same evidence, men have believed ever since, all over the world, and are believing new. Take for guidance of thoughts three words out of the passage:—
I. Faith.—“Yet believing, were joice.” Faith is naturally the first thing, without which no other thing can be. If we do not believe in the existence of Christ in heaven, of course we shall not direct any affections to Him there. If we do believe, we have it as our life-work to nourish faith, to raise it to its higher degrees, keep to it in perpetual exercise. Faith is fundamental, but it is structural as well—it grows in and with the building. If his life is a growing one, as every life should be, his faith grows with and in his life, and his life by his faith. Nearly all believing may be said to be believing in Christ. This makes the object of faith so simple, and yet so manifold! It is Christ in heaven, but that one thing contains many. He is therewith as a sacrifice, to offer its perpetual virtue; as an advocate, to plead for those who are in trouble and danger; as a Ruler, to watch and guide all affairs; as a Friend, to do His friends all kindly service; as an Elder Brother, to prepare for the home-coming of the younger members of the Divine family, and to welcome them home when they come.
II. Love.—“Whom having not seen, ye love.” The love is really born with the faith, begins to act with it, grows by its means, and is not cooled or repressed by the invisibility of its object. Love is the tenderest and the most delicate, and yet it is the strongest and most overmastering, of all human emotions. To love Christ—there, in a moment, you have the sublime of this affection! But how does the great and glorious Christ feel to me? For love rises to meet love. The feet of love are fleetest when other feet are seen advancing. The arms of love, are outstretched to meet outstretched arms.
III. Joy.—One Christian feeling thus glides into another, becomes part of another. Faith begins to have a glow in it, and—lo! it is “Love.” “Love” begins to have a gladness and to wear a glory, and—lo! it is heavenly “Joy.” There is some joy in every Christian’s heart. Much will depend on temperament, much on habit, much on outward circumstances, as to the development and cultivation of this sacred principle. But in every case you have the element and actual beginning—the root, and fountain, and flowing spring, of a heavenly and eternal joy. Blessed necessity! that compels every soul in Christ to be happy in Him! A flame of renewal has passed through the inmost being, refreshing waters of grace have cleansed every corrupted faculty, and cooled every fevered thought. If he cannot break out into a loud song, he can chant some softer syllables of praise. It is even said to be the joy “unspeakable”; and it is “full of glory.”—A. Raleigh, D.D.
The Love of the Unseen.—Show how it is that we find it possible to love the unseen; and that it is possible for our love of the unseen to become a mightier moral power than our love of the seen. Our salvation comes by love (which necessarily includes faith), but in setting our love upon Christ we are under this apparent disability: we have not the important help of the sight-faculty. We are, however, under this real advantage, that we are set upon securing the help of the faith-faculty. That will do much more and better for us than the sight-faculty ever, under any circumstances, could. Observe that, in a proper sense, we cannot be said to love things. We love persons. But the interest we have in things may help us toward loving persons. Our Lord’s sacrifice, atonement, etc., are not objects of love, but helps toward our loving Christ. The faith-faculty is exercised about truth declared. It fashions from its own ideal of the person so revealed. And no worthy ideal of Christ, fashioned upon the basis of truth declared concerning Him, can ever disappoint. The sight-faculty does materially help us to love, but it keeps us under limitations, from which the faith-faculty wholly delivers. “Thomas, because thou hast seen Me thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.”
1Pe_1:11-12. The Unselfish Ministry of the Prophets.—“Not unto themselves, but unto you, did they minister the things.” And this they knew. This “was revealed to them.” This they accepted as, for them, the duty of the hour. But there could not be a much harder lot. They pictured a glorious time; they lived in their imaginations; but for them it was all a dream, an anticipation, a vision of the far-away, which they knew could never become reality for them. But they were willing to serve others. It must have been hard for them. It must have been a great strain on character and faith. They saw the sufferings of Christ, they saw the spiritual glory that followed them. They saw the spiritual kingdom of Christ possess the earth, and they knew they would never breathe the air of that kingdom, or be employed in its service. Yet those old prophets do but illustrate the universally working law of service for God. You cannot do it if you want anything for yourself.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
1Pe_1:5. Kept by God.—The Rev. J. H. Brooks, D.D., says: “If your final salvation depends on your holding out or holding on, you will most certainly be lost. Two ministers were conducting a meeting together, and at its close one of them said, ‘I picked up a Dublin tract on a railroad train the other day, and with great interest and profit, although it teaches a doctrine I don’t believe.’ ‘What is the doctrine?’ asked his friend. ‘The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints,’ he answered. ‘Neither do I believe it,’ was the reply. ‘Is it possible?’ exclaimed the first. ‘I thought, you were decided in your belief of it.’ ‘No, I am not. I once believed it, but since I have come to know more about the saints, and especially about myself, I believe all of us would go to the devil if left to ourselves; but I believe very firmly in the perseverance of the Lord;’ and they shook hands to show their fellowship in this truth.”
1Pe_1:6-7. The Purpose for which Trials are Sent.—When Joseph Alleine and seven other ministers, and forty private Christians, were committed to the prison of Ilchester about two hundred years ago, Alleine said much to cheer them. Among other sweet things, he said: “Shall I tell you a story I read? There was a certain king that had a pleasant grove, and that he might make it every way delightful to him, he caused some birds to be caught, and to be kept in cages till they had learned sundry sweet and artificial tunes. And when they were perfect in their lessons, he let them abroad out of their cages into the grove, that he might hear them singing those pleasant tunes, and teaching them to other birds of milder note. Brethren,” he added, “the Lord is that king, this grove is His Church, these birds are yourselves, this cage is the prison; and God hath sent you hither that you should learn the sweet and pleasant notes of His praise.”
1Pe_1:7. Trial of Faith.—When a founder has cast his bell, he does not at once put it into the steeple, but tries it with the hammer, and beats it on every side, to see if there be a flaw. So when Christ converts a man, He does not at once convey him to heaven, but suffers him first to be beaten upon by many temptations, and then exalts him to his crown.
1Pe_1:8. Loving the Unseen.—A mother in England taught her little child that his father was away in India. As soon as he could lisp his father’s name, his picture was shown him, and he was taught to say, “That’s my papa.” Though he had never seen his father to know him, yet through that mother’s faithful teaching he had learned to love him. One day, unexpectedly to all, the father returned from India, and as he entered the hall door, his little son was the first to greet him, exclaiming as he did so,” My dear papa, I am so glad to see you.” So the Bible pictures before us Christ, our Elder Brother, “whom, having not seen, we love,” and of whom we sing, “He’s my Saviour.” By-and-bye, when we behold Him face to face, we shall know Him and meet Him, not as a stranger, but as a friend.
Faith and Reason.—An old writer says Faith and Reason may be compared to two travellers. Faith is like a man in full health, who can walk his twenty or thirty miles at a time without suffering; Reason is like a little child, who can only with difficulty accomplish three or four miles. Well, says this old writer, on a given day Reason says to Faith, “O good Faith, let me walk with thee.” Faith replies, “O Reason, thou canst never walk with me.” Well, they set out together; when they come to a deep river, Reason says, “I can never ford this.” When they reach a lofty mountain, there is the same exclamation of despair; and in such cases Faith, in order not to leave Reason behind, is obliged to carry him on his back; and, adds the writer, “Oh, what a luggage is Reason to Faith!”
Faith as the Eye of the Soul.—Faith is a grace that has both its birth and life in light, and in that light it sees light. Faith is not only a hand, but an eye, to the soul, and hath its sights both in way of aspect and prospect, not only to look on things immediately before it, but to look on things far hence and to come; it can see things that are invisible. Some things are invisible in respect of their nature; so God is, and so spirits are. Some things are invisible in respect of their distance, they are not yet present with us, but are things to come; faith can see both these. It is true we have not the sight of sense, but we have a sight as noble, yea, and in some respects, more excellent than that of sense. The sight of faith is more full and certain than that of sense. We have, indeed, not a perfect sight, but we have such a sight which God hath vouchsafed to His poor ones in the world, that by the power of it they may be enabled to walk through all the conditions, how dark and sad soever.—Symonds (1651).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v3 3... “Having begotten us into a living hope through…
ARGUMENT 3
FULL SALVATION AND THE SECOND COMING
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3... “Having begotten us into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Remember once for all, throughout the New Testament “begotten” and “born” are precisely synonymous, both being translations of gennaoo. From this fact the logical sequence follows that the natural analogy in this case does not obtain in the spiritual kingdom, but the very moment the Holy Ghost begets a soul, that soul is born of God. This undeniable fact, revealed in the inspired Greek, sweeps from the field some very foolish theology which I have heard proclaimed from the pulpit, i.e., “begotten by the Word and born of the water.” “The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” was a sunburst, reviving and gloriously vitalizing the waning hope of Israel, verifying all the Messianic prophecies, which had held the nations spellbound four thousand weary years, and flooding the world with the “living hope” of universal salvation.
4. “Having been reserved in the heavens for you.” Ouranois, “heavens,” is here, as uniformly in the New Testament, in the plural number, corroborating the astronomical revelation of innumerable worlds, constituting the celestial universe, the enormous number of one billion and one hundred and seventy millions of worlds already reached by the telescope, which, we have ample reasons to believe, constitute but a fraction of God’s boundless dominions. How glorious it will be in coming eternity to wing our flight from world to world, exploring the illimitable glories of Omnipotence.
5... “Unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last dispensation.” This is final salvation consummated in the transfiguration of the body when our Lord descends to “steal” away his Bride. It constituted the climax of Christian hope in the Apostolic age, waning with the apostasy of the Church and finally, with the other great spiritual truths, sinking into total eclipse. God used Luther and his compeers to restore the long lost experience of justification by faith independently of priestly manipulation; Wesley and his comrades to restore the glorious experience of entire sanctification, instantaneously received by faith. It is the glory of the present holiness movement to restore divine healing, woman’s ministry, the Lord’s coming, and the transfiguration of the Bride. Salvation in this final, complete and triumphant sense was the constant and flowing inspiration of the Apostolical saints. It is much to be regretted that this most potent of all incentives to a holy experience in life was ever forfeited by the Church. The restoration of the Apostolic hope of the glorious privileges of the transfigured bridehood is becoming the most transcendent stimulant to entire sanctification, holy living and heroic achievement in the conquest of the world for Christ.
6. Here we have indirect allusion to the bloody persecutions everywhere developing which very soon after this writing nailed Peter to the cross, decapitated Paul and opened the bloody Coliseum to fatten the lions on the saints of God.
7. Here God tells us that the true heroic faith which will not flicker amid persecutions is more valuable than gold. If the people only believed it, what a wonderful revolution would supervene “in the revelation of Jesus Christ.” This means the revilement of the glorified personal Christ, who now encumbers the Mediatorial throne, back to this world, where He wilt again be visible to human eyes, and His voice again audible on the earth. We now live amid a grand culmination of prophecies assuring us that the time is at hand when our glorious Lord shall again appear. What an inspiration to us all to be under the blood robed and ready and on the constant outlook.
8... “Ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” God’s salvation is the same in all ages. Here we see how the saints in the Apostolic age were literally transported with delight in contemplation of the Lord’s glorious descension to this world, which is a confirmatory proof that they were fully sanctified and filled with the Spirit as none others will be competent to meet Him with a shout, thus vividly illustrating the true Bible standard of Christianity in all ages, i.e., emptied of sin and filled with the Holy Ghost.
9. “Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” How wonderfully simple is Apostolic preaching. Here you see that all salvation is by faith. If you are not fully, completely and triumphantly saved with the clear attestation of the Holy Spirit, rest assured faith is still deficient. The Holy Spirit is with you to give you all you need, forever ejecting all doubt, enabling you to believe with a perfect faith, and thus appropriate entire sanctification.
10. The wonderful Pentecostal experience of the complete soul victory in the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, constituting the normal standard and the crowning glory of the Gospel dispensation, moved in gorgeous panoramic visions before the inspired gaze of the old prophets, thrilling them with enthusiasm and inundating them with utter bewilderment.
11. “Searching into what, or what kind of a dispensation the Spirit of Christ, who was in them, witnessing the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories, did reveal.” John Wesley says this is the glory of holiness, which was destined to supervene after the suffering of Christ, the wonderful plan of salvation having been thoroughly perfected forever, verifying and satisfying the violated law, lifting forever the dark veil of condemnation from a sinking world, and irradiating all the dismal hell dens of earth with the transcendent possibility of an uttermost salvation, and the population of heaven with the teeming millions of a sin debauched earth. No wonder these prophetic visions astounded and thrilled the prophets of a moonlit dispensation.
12... “Which are now proclaimed unto you by those who preach the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost, who has been sent down from heaven.” The personal Holy Ghost, the predicted successor of the ascended Christ, came down on the day of Pentecost and filled the disciples, thus inaugurating the full orbed Gospel dispensation. The antediluvian world had skylight, the patriarchal age starlight, and the Mosaic Church moonlight. Day dawned with John the Baptist, the sun rose when Jesus was born, and the glorious noonday culminated at Pentecost, never to wane, but to brighten into the perennial glory of God’s millennial day. It was not the Divine plan that the Church should ever be dragged back into the moonshine dispensation by unsanctified Gospel preachers. Hence He positively forbade His own apostles to go preaching till after the reception of the Pentecostal baptism. Peter and all the disciples had received the personal in-dwelling Holy Ghost sanctifying them to preach the everlasting Gospel of full salvation to all nations. Oh, the blessedness of those who “preach the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,” and transcendent felicity of those who hear! “Into which things the angels desire, bending over to look.” Here Peter has a vision, including earth and heaven, in which he sees the blood-washed and fire-baptized sons and daughters of Zion standing amid the slums and jungles of sin and misery “preaching the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven.” Meanwhile he sees the angels in heaven strolling around over the golden pavements, bending over the celestial battlements with seraphic eyes looking down upon the scene enraptured with the sight of God’s humble children filled with the Holy Ghost, preaching the everlasting Gospel to a dying world.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v5 Pro 4:23. - 1Pe 1:5.
Proverbs
KEEPING AND KEPT
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Pro 4:23. - 1Pe 1:5.
The former of these texts imposes a stringent duty, the latter promises divine help to perform it. The relation between them is that between the Law and the Gospel. The Law commands, the Gospel gives power to obey. The Law pays no attention to man’s weakness, and points no finger to the source of strength. Its office is to set clearly forth what we ought to be, not to aid us in becoming so. ‘Here is your duty, do it’ is, doubtless, a needful message, but it is a chilly one, and it may well be doubted if it ever rouses a soul to right action. Moralists have hammered away at preaching self-restraint and a close watch over the fountain of actions within from the beginning, but their exhortations have little effect unless they can add to their icy injunctions the warmth of the promise of our second text, and point to a divine Keeper who will make duty possible. We must be kept by God, if we are ever to succeed in keeping our wayward hearts.
I. Without our guarding our hearts, no noble life is possible.
The Old Testament psychology differs from our popular allocation of certain faculties to bodily organs. We use head and heart, roughly speaking, as being respectively the seats of thought and of emotion. But the Old Testament locates in the heart the centre of personal being. It is not merely the home of the affections, but the seat of will, moral purpose. As this text says, ‘the issues of life’ flow from it in all the multitudinous variety of their forms. The stream parts into many heads, but it has one fountain. To the Hebrew thinkers the heart was the indivisible, central unity which manifested itself in the whole of the outward life. ‘As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.’ The heart is the man. And that personal centre has a moral character which comes to light in, and gives unity and character to, all his deeds.
That solemn thought that every one of us has a definite moral character, and that our deeds are not an accidental set of outward actions but flow from an inner fountain, needs to be driven home to our consciences, for most of the actions of most men are done so mechanically, and reflected on so little by the doers, that the conviction of their having any moral character at all, or of our incurring any responsibility for them, is almost extinct in us, unless when something startles conscience into protest.
It is this shrouded inner self to which supreme care is to be directed. All noble ethical teaching concurs in this-that a man who seeks to be right must keep, in the sense both of watching and of guarding, his inner self. Conduct is more easily regulated than character-and less worth regulating. It avails little to plant watchers on the stream half way to the sea. Control must be exercised at the source, if it is to be effectual. The counsel of our first text is a commonplace of all wholesome moral teaching since the beginning of the world. The phrase ‘with all diligence’ is literally ‘above all guarding,’ and energetically expresses the supremacy of this keeping. It should be the foremost, all-pervading aim of every wise man who would not let his life run to waste. It may be turned into more modern language, meaning just what this ancient sage meant, if we put it as, ‘Guard thy character with more carefulness than thou dost thy most precious possessions, for it needs continual watchfulness, and, untended, will go to rack and ruin.’ The exhortation finds a response in every heart, and may seem too familiar and trite to bear dwelling on, but we may be allowed to touch lightly on one or two of the plain reasons which enforce it on every man who is not what Proverbs very unpolitely calls ‘a fool.’
That guarding is plainly imposed as necessary, by the very constitution of our manhood. Our nature is evidently not a republic, but a monarchy. It is full of blind impulses, and hungry desires, which take no heed of any law but their own satisfaction. If the reins are thrown on the necks of these untamed horses, they will drag the man to destruction. They are only safe when they are curbed and bitted, and held well in. Then there are tastes and inclinations which need guidance and are plainly meant to be subordinate. The will is to govern all the lower self, and conscience is to govern the will. Unmistakably there are parts of every man’s nature which are meant to serve, and parts which are appointed to rule, and to let the servants usurp the place of the rulers is to bring about as wild a confusion within as the Ecclesiast lamented that he had seen in the anarchic times when he wrote-princes walking and beggars on horseback. As George Herbert has it-
‘Give not thy humours way;
God gave them to thee under lock and key.’
Then, further, that guarding is plainly imperative, because there is an outer world which appeals to our needs and desires, irrespective altogether of right and wrong and of the moral consequences of gratifying these. Put a loaf before a starving man and his impulse will be to clutch and devour it, without regard to whether it is his or no. Show any of our animal propensities its appropriate food, and it asks no questions as to right or wrong, but is stirred to grasp its natural food. And even the higher and nobler parts of our nature are but too apt to seek their gratification without having the license of conscience for doing so, and sometimes in defiance of its plain prohibitions. It is never safe to trust the guidance of life to tastes, inclinations, or to anything but clear reason, set in motion by calm will, and acting under the approbation of ‘the Lord Chief Justice, Conscience.’
But again, seeing that the world has more evil than good in it, the keeping of the heart will always consist rather in repelling solicitations to yielding to evil. In short, the power and the habit of sternly saying ‘No’ to the whole crowd of tempters is always the main secret of a noble life. ‘He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down and without walls.’
II. There is no effectual guarding unless God guards.
The counsel in Proverbs is not mere toothless moral commonplace, but is associated, in the preceding chapter, with fatherly advice to ‘let thine heart keep my commandments’ and to ‘trust in the Lord with all thine heart.’ The heart that so trusts will be safely guarded, and only such a heart will be. The inherent weakness of all attempts at self-keeping is that keeper and kept being one and the same personality, the more we need to be kept the less able we are to effect it. If in the very garrison are traitors, how shall the fortress be defended? If, then, we are to exercise an effectual guard over our characters and control over our natures, we must have an outward standard of right and wrong which shall not be deflected by variations in our temperature. We need a fixed light to steer towards, which is stable on the stable shore, and is not tossing up and down on our decks. We shall cleanse our way only when we ‘take heed thereto, according to Thy word.’ For even God’s viceroy within, the sovereign conscience, can be warped, perverted, silenced, and is not immune from the spreading infection of evil. When it turns to God, as a mirror to the sun, it is irradiated and flashes bright illumination into dark corners, but its power depends on its being thus lit by radiations from the very Light of Life. And if we are ever to have a coercive power over the rebellious powers within, we must have God’s power breathed into us, giving grip and energy to all the good within, quickening every lofty desire, satisfying every aspiration that feels after Him, cowing all our evil and being the very self of ourselves.
We need an outward motive which will stimulate and stir to effort. Our wills are lamed for good, and the world has strong charms that appeal to us. And if we are not to yield to these, there must be somewhere a stronger motive than any that the sorceress world has in its stores, that shall constrainingly draw us to ways that, because they tend upward, and yield no pabulum for the lower self, are difficult for sluggish feet. To the writer of this Book of Proverbs the name of God bore in it such a motive. To us the name of Jesus, which is Love, bears a yet mightier appeal, and the motive which lies in His death for us is strong enough, and it alone is strong enough, to fire our whole selves with enthusiastic, grateful love, which will burn up our sloth, and sweep our evil out of our hearts, and make us swift and glad to do all that may please Him. If there must be fresh reinforcements thrown into the town of Mansoul, as there must be if it is not to be captured, there is one sure way of securing these. Our second text tells us whence the relieving force must come. If we are to keep our hearts with all diligence, we must be ‘kept by the power of God,’ and that power is not merely to make diversion outside the beleaguered fortress which may force the besiegers to retreat and give up their effort, but is to enter in and possess the soul which it wills to defend. It is when the enemy sees that new succours have, in some mysterious way, been introduced, that he gives up his siege. It is God in us that is our security.
III. There is no keeping by God without faith.
Peter was an expert in such matters, for he had had a bitter experience to teach him how soon and surely self-confidence became self-despair. ‘Though all should forsake Thee, yet will not I,’ was said but a few hours before he denied Jesus. His faith failed, and then the divine guard that was keeping his soul passed thence, and, left alone, he fell.
That divine Power is exerted for our keeping on condition of our trusting ourselves to Him and trusting Him for ourselves. And that condition is no arbitrary one, but is prescribed by the very nature of divine help and of human faith. If God could keep our souls without our trust in Him He would. He does so keep them as far as is possible, but for all the choicer blessings of His giving, and especially for that of keeping us free from the domination of our lower selves, there must be in us faith if there is to be in God help. The hand that lays hold on God in Christ must be stretched out and must grasp His warm, gentle, and strong hand, if the tingling touch of it is to infuse strength. If the relieving force is victoriously to enter our hearts, we must throw open the gates and welcome it. Faith is but the open door for God’s entrance. It has no efficacy in itself any more than a door has, but all its blessedness depends on what it admits into the hidden chambers of the heart.
I reiterate what I have tried to show in these poor words. There is no noble life without our guarding our hearts; there is no effectual guarding unless God guards; there is no divine guarding unless through our faith. It is vain to preach self-governing and self-keeping. Unless we can tell the beleaguered heart, ‘The Lord is thy Keeper; He will keep thee from all evil; He will keep thy soul,’ we only add one more impossible command to a man’s burden. And we do not apprehend nor experience the divine keeping in its most blessed and fullest reality, unless we find it in Jesus, who is ‘able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.’
1 Peter
BY, THROUGH, UNTO
1Pe 1:5
The Revised Version substitutes ‘guarded’ for ‘kept,’ and the alteration, though slight, is important, for it not only more accurately preserves the meaning of the word employed, but it retains the military metaphor which is in it. The force of the expression will appear if I refer, in a sentence, to other cases in which it is employed in the New Testament. For instance, we read that the governor of Damascus ‘kept the city with a garrison,’ which is the same word, and in its purely metaphorical usage Paul employs it when he says that ‘the peace of God shall keep’--guard, garrison--’your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.’ We have to think of some defenceless position, some unwalled village out in the open, with a strong force round it, through which no assailant can break, and in the midst of which the weakest can sit secure. Peter thinks that every Christian has assailants whom no Christian by himself can repel, but that he may, if he likes, have an impregnable ring of defence drawn round him, which shall fling back in idle spray the wildest onset of the waves, as a breakwater or a cliff might do.
Then there is another very beautiful and striking point to be made, and that is the connection between the words of my text and those immediately preceding. The Apostle has been speaking about ‘the inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,’ and he says ‘it is reserved in Heaven for you who are kept.’ So, then, the same power is working on both sides of the veil, preserving the inheritance for the heirs, and preserving the heirs for the inheritance. It will not fail them, and they will not miss it. It were of little avail to care for either of the two members separately, but the same hand that is preparing the inheritance and making it ready for the owners is round about the pilgrims, and taking care of them till they get home.
So, then, our Apostle is looking at this keeping in three aspects, suggested by his three words ‘by,’ ‘through,’ ‘unto,’ which respectively express the real cause or power, the condition or occasion on which that power works, and the end or purpose to which it works. So these three little words will do for lines on which to run our thoughts now--’by,’ ‘through,’ ‘for.’
I. In the first place, what are we guarded for?
‘Guarded ... unto salvation.’ Now that great word ‘salvation’ was a new and strange one to Peter’s readers--so new and strange that probably they did not understand it in its full nobleness and sweep. Our understanding of it, or, at least, our impression of it, is weakened by precisely the opposite cause. It has become so tarnished and smooth-rubbed that it creates very little definite impression. Like a bit of seaweed lifted out of the sunny waves which opened its fronds and brightened its delicate colours, it has become dry and hard and sapless and dim. But let me try for one moment to freshen it for our conceptions and our hearts. Salvation has in it the double idea of being made safe, and being made sound. Peril threatening to slay, and sickness unto death, are the implications of the conditions which this great word presupposes. The man that needs to be saved needs to be rescued from peril and needs to be healed of a disease. And if you do not know and feel that that is you, then you have not learned the first letters of the alphabet which are necessary to spell ‘salvation.’ You, I, every man, we are all sick unto death, because the poison of self-will and sin is running hot through all our veins, and we are all in deadly peril because of that poison-peril of death, peril arising from the weight of guilt that presses upon us, peril from our inevitable collision with the Divine law and government which make for righteousness.
And so salvation means, negatively, the deliverance from all the evils, whether they be evils of sorrow or evils of sin, which can affect a man, and which do affect us all in some measure. But it means far more than that, for God’s salvation is no half-and-half thing, contented, as some benevolent man might be, in a widespread flood or disaster, with rescuing the victims and putting them high up enough for the water not to reach them, and leaving them there shivering cold and starving. But when God begins by taking away evils, it is in order that He may clear a path for flooding us with good. And so salvation is not merely what some of you think it is, the escape from a hell, nor only what some of you more nobly take it to be, a deliverance from the power of sin in your hearts; but it is the investiture of each of us with every good and glory, whether of happiness or of purity, which it is possible for a man to receive and for God to give. It is the great word of the New Testament, and they do a very questionable service to humanity who weaken the grandeur and the greatness of the Scriptural conception of salvation, by weakening the darkness and the terribleness of the Scriptural conception of the dangers and the sicknesses from which it delivers.
But, then, there is another point that I would suggest raised by the words of my text in their connection. Peter is here evidently speaking about a future manifestation of absolute exemption from all the ills that flesh and spirit are heir to, and radiant investure with all the good that humanity can put on, which lies beyond the great barrier of this mortal life. And that complete salvation, in its double aspect, is obviously the end for which all that guarding of life is lavished upon us, as it is the end for which all the discipline of life is given to us, and as it is the end for which the bitter agony and pain of the Christ on the Cross were freely rendered. But that ultimate and superlative perfection has its roots and its beginning here. And so in Scripture you find salvation sometimes regarded as a thing in the past experience of every Christian man which he received at the very beginning of his course, and sometimes you have it treated as being progressive, running on continually through all his days; and sometimes you have it treated, as in my text, as laid up yonder, and only to be reached when life is done with. But just a verse or two after my text we read that the Christian man here, on condition of his loving Jesus Christ and believing in Him, rejoices because he here and now ‘receives the end of his faith, even the salvation of his soul.’ And so there are the two things--the incipient germ to-day, the full-foliaged fruit-bearing tree planted in the higher house of the Lord.
These two things are inseparably intertwined. The Christian life in its imperfection here, the partial salvation of to-day demands, unless the universe is a chaos and there is no personal God the centre of it, a future life, in which all that is here tendency shall be realised possession, and in which all that here but puts up a pale and feeble shoot above the ground, shall grow and blossom and bear fruit unto life eternal. ‘Like the new moon with a ragged edge, e’en in its imperfections beautiful,’ all the characteristics of Christian life on earth prophesy that the orb is crescent, and will one day round itself into its pure silvery completeness. If you see a great wall in some palace, with slabs of polished marble for most of its length, and here and there stretches of course rubble shoved in, you would know that that was not the final condition, that the rubble had to be cased over, or taken out and replaced by the lucent slab that reflected the light, and showed, by its reflecting, its own mottled beauty. Thus the very inconsistencies, the thwarted desires, the broken resolutions, the aspiration that never can clothe themselves in the flesh of reality, which belong to the Christian life, declare that this is but the first stage of the structure, and point onwards to the time when the imperfections shall be swept away, ‘and for brass He will bring gold, for iron He will bring silver,’ and then the windows shall be set ‘in agates, and the gates in carbuncles, and all the borders in pleasant stones.’ Perfect salvation is obviously the only issue of the present imperfect salvation.
That is what you are ‘kept’ for. That is what Christ died to bring you. That is what God, like a patient workman bringing out the pattern in his loom by many a throw of a sharp-pointed shuttle, and much twisting of the threads into patterns, is trying to make of you, and that is what Christ on the Cross has died to effect. Brethren, let us think more than we do, not only of the partial beginnings here, but of that perfect salvation for which Christian men are being ‘kept’ and guarded, and which, if you and I will observe the conditions, is as sure to come as that X, Y, Z follow A, B, C. That is what we are kept for.
II. Notice what we are guarded by.
‘The power of God,’ says Peter, laying hold of the most general expression that he can find, not caring to define ways and means, but pointing to the one great force that is sure to do it.
Now if we were to translate with perfect literality, we should read, not by the power of God, but in the power of God. And whilst it is quite probable that what Peter meant was ‘by,’ I think it adds great force and beauty to the passage, and is entirely accordant with the military metaphor, which I have already pointed out, if we keep the simple local sense of the word, and read, ‘guarded in the power of God.’ And that suggests a whole stream of Scriptural representations, both in the Old and in the New Testament. Let me recall one or two. ‘The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and is safe.’ ‘He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.’ ‘Israel shall dwell safely,’ says one of the old prophets, ‘in unwalled villages, for I will be a wall of fire round about her.’ The psalmist said, ‘The Angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him.’ And all these representations concur in this one thought, that we are safe, enclosed in God, and that He, by His power, compasses us about. And so no foe can get at us who cannot break down or climb over the encircling wall of defence. An army in an enemy’s country will march in hollow square, and put its most precious treasures, or its weaker members, its sick, its women, its children, its footsore, into the middle there, and with a line of lances on either side, and stalwart arms to wield them, the feeblest need fear no foe. We ‘are kept in the power of God unto salvation.’
But do not forget how, far beyond the psalmist and prophet, and in something far more sublime and wonderful than a poetic figure, the New Testament catches up the same phrase, and gives us, as the condition of vitality, as the condition of fertility, as the condition of tranquillity, as the condition of security, the same thing--’in Christ.’ Remember His very last words prior to His great intercessory prayer, in which He spoke about keeping those that were given Him in His name. And just before that He said to them, ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in Me ye shall have peace.’ Kept, guarded as behind the battlements of some great fort, which has in its centre a quiet, armoured chamber into which no noise of battle, nor shout of foeman, can ever come. ‘In Christ,’ though the world is all in arms without, ‘ye shall have peace.’ ‘Guarded in the power of God unto salvation.’
III. Lastly, what we are kept through.
‘Through faith.’ Now there we come across another of the words which we know so well that we do not understand them. You all think that it is the right thing for me to preach about ‘faith.’ I daresay some of you have never tried to apprehend what it means. And I daresay there are a great many of you to whom the utterance of the word suggests that I am plunging into the bathos and commonplaces of the pulpit. Perhaps, if you would try to understand it, you would find it was a bigger thing than you fancied. What is faith? I will give you another expression that has not so many theological accretions sticking to it, and which means precisely the same thing--trust. And we all know that we do not trust with our heads, but with our hearts and wills. You may believe undoubtedly, and have no faith at all, for it is the heart and the will that go forth, and clutch at the thing trusted; or, as I should rather say, at the person trusted; for, at bottom, what we trust is always a person, and even when we ‘trust to nature,’ it is because, more or less clearly, we feel that somehow or other at the back of nature there is a Will and an Intelligence that are working and trustworthy. However, that is a subject that I do not need to touch upon here. Faith is trust, trust in a Person, trust that, like the fabled goddess rising, radiant and aspiring to the heavens, out of the roll of the tempestuous ocean, springs from the depths of absolute self-distrust and diffidence. There is a spurious kind of faith which has no good in it, just because it did not begin with going down into the depths of one’s own heart, and finding out how rotten and hopeless everything was there. My friend, no man has a vigorous Christian faith who has not been very near utter despair. ‘Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee.’ The zenith, which is the highest point in the sky above us, is always just as far aloft as the nadir, which is the lowest point in the sky at the Antipodes, is beneath us. Your faith is measured by your self-despair.
Further, why is it that I must have faith in order to get God’s power at work in me? Many people seem to think that faith is appointed by God as the condition of salvation out of mere arbitrary selection and caprice. Not at all. If God could save you without your faith, He would do it. He does not, because He cannot. Why must I have faith in order that God’s power may keep me? Why must you open your window in order to let the fresh air in? Why must you pull up the blind in order to let the light in? Why must you take your medicine or your food if you want to be cured or nourished? Why must you pull the trigger if your revolver is to go off? Unless I trust God, distrusting myself, and the spark of faith is struck out of the rock of my heart by the sharp steel in the midst of the darkness of despair, God cannot pour out upon me His power. There is nothing arbitrary about it. It is inseparable from the very nature of the case. If you do not want Him, you cannot have Him. If you do not know that you need Him, you cannot have Him. If you do not trust that He will come to you and help you, you will not have Him.
So then, brother, your faith, my faith, anybody’s faith is nothing of itself. It is only the valve that opens and lets the steam rush in. It is only the tap you turn to let Thirlmere come into your basins. It is not you that saves yourself. It is not your faith that keeps you, any more than it is the outstretched hand with which a man, ready to stumble, grasps the hand of a stalwart, steadfast man on the pavement by his side that keeps him up. It is the other man’s hand that holds you up, but it is your hand that lays hold of him. It is God that saves, it is God that guards, it is God that is able to keep us from falling, and to give us an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. He will do it if we turn to Him, and ask and expect Him to do it. If you will comply with the conditions and not else, He will fulfil His promise and accomplish His purpose. But my unbelief can thwart Omnipotence, and hinder Christ’s all-loving purpose, just as on earth we read that ‘He could there do no mighty works because of their unbelief.’ I am sure that there are people here who all their lives long have been thus hampering Omnipotence and neutralising the love of Christ, and making His sacrifice impotent and His wish to save them vain. Stretch out your hands as this very Peter once did, crying, ‘Lord, save, or I perish’; and He will answer, not by word only, but by act: ‘According to thy faith be it unto thee.’ Salvation, here and hereafter, is God’s work alone. It cannot be exercised towards a man who has not faith. It will certainly be exercised towards any man who has.
Help us, O Lord, we beseech Thee, to live the lives which we live in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God. And may we know what it is to be in him, strengthened within the might of His spirit.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v3 A Praise of God for His Manifold Blessings.
A Praise of God for His Manifold Blessings.
The wonderful gifts of God’s grace:
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v. 3. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
v. 4. to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you,
v. 5. who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
v. 6. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations,
v. 7. that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ;
v. 8. whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory;
v. 9. receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
The apostle knew that the Christians to whom he was writing needed encouragement. But there is no better way of cheering up faint-hearted Christians than by singing the praises of Him to whose goodness and mercy we owe such an overwhelming debt of mercy: Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, He who, according to His great mercy, has born us anew unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The apostle gives all blessing, all praise, to God alone, since He is the Author and Finisher of our salvation, reserving none whatever for himself, for his own merits and works. We Christians have reasons for praising God with such full abandon of our hearts and minds, because He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus is our Savior, our Brother, and therefore God, being His God, is now also our God, being His Father, also our Father. This the apostle explains by saying that God has born us anew, that He has made us His spiritual children, and again, not by reason of any merit or worthiness in us, but simply according to His great, His abundant mercy, according to the riches of His love in Jesus Christ. The result, then, of this spiritual begetting should be that there be imparted to us, and that we possess, a living hope, a hope that has sound basis, a hope that is sure to be rewarded. The entire life of regeneration is a life of hope, which looks forward to the precious gifts of the future. With faith there is naturally combined the hope of a future, perfect salvation in eternity, for to the reconciled sinner heaven itself is standing open. This live, this vigorous hope exists in our hearts through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; for this fact has given us the guarantee that our hope will surely be fulfilled. Christ, having risen from the dead and having entered into the state of His glorification, will certainly make good His promise and bring us also into the life of glory.
The beauty and glory of this gift is such as to provoke the apostle to a veritable burst of exultant praise: To an inheritance imperishable and undefiled and unfading, reserved in heaven with a view to you. That is the aim, the object, of God’s regeneration, that is what He wants to give and impart to us. Heaven and all its glory are our inheritance, for we are children of God and joint-heirs with Christ. This heavenly inheritance is imperishable; it cannot perish, cannot decay, cannot be corrupted, cannot lose in beauty and value. Earthly possessions will pass away and become subject to corruption, but the heavenly possession is of a nature that will never deteriorate, It is an unsoiled, undefiled inheritance. Earthly goods and riches are soiled and defiled and violated by reason of unrighteousness, covetousness, avarice, sin. But the salvation which Christ earned for us is pure, unspotted by any sin; it is the inheritance of the saints in the holy light that emanates from the throne of God. Earthly happiness, earthly fortune and glory, is like the flower of the field, which, indeed, shoots up quickly and blossoms soon, but just as quickly loses its beauty and fades away. The heavenly inheritance is unfading, standing before us in everlasting, unchanging beauty. The first indescribable exultation that will take hold of our hearts upon entering the heavenly mansions will never be reduced, will never grow cold. This inheritance is laid up, reserved, for us in heaven. There is no possibility that it may yet be lost to us, since God’s promise is holding it out to us, since it is assured and applied and imparted to us by faith.
And lest someone hesitatingly refer to the possibility of growing weak and of losing hope, which, indeed, is ever present on account of the many temptations which beset us, the apostle adds: Who are protected by the power of God through faith unto the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. The Christians are like a house or fortress which is besieged by Satan in many forms of temptation. But they are guarded and protected by God’s almighty power. This is not exhibited in absolute majesty, but through faith, which is the hand that receives the gift of salvation, which clings to the certainty of the everlasting mercy. Thus the keeping of the believers unto salvation is accomplished, namely, to a salvation which was appointed before the beginning of time for the believers, in order that it might be revealed and made known in the last time, at the end of the world. The exact time is not known to the author, nor does the fact of his being ignorant of this date in any way interfere with his faith. Sufficient for him is the fact, as it should be for every believer, that God is keeping watch, that his soul’s salvation is well taken care of in the hands of the heavenly Father. Apostasy is indeed man’s fault all alone, but the opposite condition, the reason for steadfastness of faith, is in no way a better conduct or attitude in man, but it is the work of God all alone. What a wonderful comfort when weakness of faith and doubt tend to assail our hearts!
This it is that causes the apostle to write: in which you greatly rejoice, although now for a little you may be obliged to be grieved in various trials. That is the true attitude of the Christian’s heart, full of joy, exultation, jubilation, even here in time, to be completed, however, with inexpressible happiness, throughout eternity. The believers having the guarantee even now that they are chosen sojourners, incidentally have the assurance that God will preserve for them eternal joy and salvation. Therefore this anticipation cannot be influenced by the fact that the believers are here, for a passing moment, exposed to outward grief on account of their being beset by various trials; their life may make the impression, as if they were subject to nothing but disheartening experiences and never had a glad hour.
But appearances, in this case, are very deceiving; for the apostle continues: That the testing of your faith may (show it to) be much more precious than perishable gold, which is also proved by fire, found unto praise and honor and glory in the revelation of Jesus Christ. Those very trials which a Christian must undergo are at bottom not a cause of sorrow to him, since they redound to his advantage. For if his faith stands the test to which it is subjected, it is thereby proved to be more precious and valuable than any corruptible gold, whose quality is likewise tested by fire, just as faith is tested in trials. And the result, if the believer stand the test properly, will be that he attains to praise and glory and honor. Through the fiery trial of suffering we not only realize the vanity and evanescence of all earthly things and our own helplessness in spiritual matters, but we are also prepared for the final acknowledgment of our faith, for its crowning and glorifying in the bliss of eternal salvation. On the day of the final revelation of Christ’s glory He will, out of His boundless mercy, permit us to share in this glory and to live and triumph with Him throughout eternity.
This happiness is pictured by the apostle: Whom, without seeing, you love, in whom you now, although you do not see Him, yet believing, you exult with unspeakable and glorious joy, obtaining the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. The readers, just like the Christians of the present time, had not seen Christ in the flesh, had not been witnesses of His miracles nor heard His wonderful parables and discourses. And yet their love, growing out of the faith in the Gospel-message, had taken root and was firmly established. Even now, when they expect His return to Judgment, their faith in Him is unmoved, although they are still without sight of Him. And with their faith their joy, their happiness, their exultation over their redemption and over their final deliverance, continues. In this way the present joy of the believers leads up to its future culmination, when, in the enjoyment of the heavenly glories, their joy will transcend all human language, the most glowing description which human tongue could give, being beyond the conception of even the most daring speculation on glory which human beings have ever succeeded in bringing forward. Thus will the believers obtain, carry off as a prize, the end, the goal, of their faith; they will go from believing to possessing; they will have and hold forever the salvation of their souls. Thus justifying faith is also saving faith, and by the fact of its having accepted the promises of the Gospel it works deliverance from this earthly life with its misery and affliction, and will finally seal to us this deliverance, world without end.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v3 General Information:
General Information:
Peter begins to talk about the believers' salvation and faith. Here he elaborates on a metaphor in which what God promises to do for all believers is spoken of as if it were an inheritance that he passes on to them.
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our Lord Jesus Christ ... has given us new birth
The words "our" and "us" refer to Peter and those to whom he is writing. (See: Inclusive "We")
he has given us new birth
"he has caused us to be born again"
This is for an inheritance
You can translate this using a verb. AT: "We confidently expect to receive an inheritance" (See: Abstract Nouns)
inheritance
Receiving what God has promised believers is spoken of as if it were inheriting property and wealth from a family member. (See: Metaphor)
will not perish, will not become stained, and will not fade away
Peter uses three similar phrases to describe the inheritance as something that is perfect and eternal. (See: Metaphor)
It is reserved in heaven for you
This can be stated in active form. AT: "God is reserving it in heaven for you" (See: Active or Passive)
You are protected by God's power
This can be stated in active form. AT: "God is protecting you" (See: Active or Passive)
by God's power
Here "power" is a way of saying that God is strong and able to protect believers. (See: Abstract Nouns)
through faith
Here "faith" refers to the fact that the believers trust in Christ. AT: "because of your faith" (See: Abstract Nouns)
that is ready to be revealed
This can be stated in active form. AT: "that God is ready to reveal" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
God
lord
bless
mercy
born again
confidence
inherit
resurrection
die
perish
heaven
power
faith
save
reveal
last day
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv3–5 1:3-9 In most New Testament letters, the greeting is…
1:3-9 In most New Testament letters, the greeting is followed by a section of thanksgiving or praise. Peter praises God that his mercy brings new spiritual life, which produces confident expectation about the future despite sufferings in the meantime.
1:3 born again: New birth is a way of describing Christian conversion (cp. John 3:1-13; Jas 1:18; 1 Jn 2:29; 3:9; 4:7; 5:1, 4, 18). This Greek word, which occurs again in 1 Pet 1:23, brackets the message of 1:1-25.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.