By his great mercy he has
given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, and into an inheritance that is
imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of
God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1: 3-5
Going back to the beginning of the letter, Peter is writing to the
Jewish Diaspora. If he were writing to
Gentiles-to us-as Paul did, his introduction would have put Jesus in the center
stage. Consider, for example, Romans 1:
“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set
apart for the glory of God…”
For Peter, God “chose and destined”, God be “blessed” as the
Father of Jesus, by God’s great mercy, God has given us a new birth…
Why is this so important?
Because Peter is seeking a seamless intersection of the Jewish faith
with the coming and presence of Jesus. The
division of church and synagogue will not come until later. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is an
expansion of the Messianic expectation found in the Old Testament. God is sending somebody, someone the Jewish
faith is expecting. Peter says this
person is Jesus.
But God is the author, the protector, and the preserver of all
that has come about. The inheritance is
in heaven, protected by God, accessed through our faith, but preserved to the
final salvation at the end of time. All
of this is from God, because…
In
this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various
trials, so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold
that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and
glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1: 6-7
These words we will consider next.
No comments:
Post a Comment