What is Old Hat For Us Was New To Peter’s Readers.

1 Peter 1:21

Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.

My faith and hope are set on God because God raised Jesus from the dead, because God gave Jesus glory-raising Jesus up to the throne of Glory in heaven, which happened because, through Jesus, I have come to trust in God.  Sounds like the circle of faith firmly closed around itself.

The Trinity celebrates God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Looks like, as we read this, that God the Father-or just God-is the one who raised the Son, Jesus, to the throne of glory.  In the gospel of John, Jesus expounds on this relationship, of how God has given the Throne of Judgement to Jesus.  The Father is making the Son into God. 

Great scholars have gotten twisted around discussions of trying to figure out the divine relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  THAT IS NOT THE POINT.

The point is that our faith and hope are set on God.  We believe in God.  God is the hope of things to come.  That comes through the resurrection and the glorification of Jesus.  We take the story of Jesus for granted, but understand that the readers of Peter’s letter are trying to wrap their heads around this concept, that God has closed the distance between humanity and Godself, a distance that was opened at the advent of Original Sin.  It fulfills the purpose of their faith!

“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”  Jesus loves them, so they are told, because Peter tells them so.  And Peter doesn’t have the gospels to back him up.  They are being written as he writes.  The stories are out there, but the narrative has not yet arrived.

I’ve been steeped in the gospel my whole life.  It is easy to get jaded.  These guys are getting the message of salvation for the first time, and it is blowing them away.  I feel some of the adrenalin as I try to put myself in their shoes.