1 Peter 1: 18-19 What Did Jesus Do For Us?

You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.

What makes his readers different from those who surround them?  What is the change wrought among them by Jesus?  Peter has just spoken of the ‘reverent fear’ they must live in the ‘exile’ that they are enduring.  What has happened to them to bring about this thing?  When they invoked the Father, what happened?  In this sentence, Peter answers that question, speaking of The Event, the life, death, and new life of Jesus, spoken of in the context of the Jewish law.

You know that you were ransomed:  How do we understand the events of the cross?  Peter refers back to what he has taught them about Jesus at the cross.

from the futile ways inherited from your ancestors,:  There was a way of doing things as was done from of old, but it is in contradistinction from the new way taught in Christ.

not with perishable things like silver or gold,:  What is the measure of true value in creation?  Not with the most precious things we believe we find in creation.

but with the precious blood of Christ,: It is human sacrifice, but in a way that carries on and fulfills what was commanded in the Old Testament.

like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.: This was the lamb called for in the sacrifice of the Old Testament, putting the death of Jesus in the line of the entire law as handed down from Moses to this time in which Peter and his readers are living.