1 Peter 1:3–12

1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Our lives are filled with hope.
What happens when hopes die?

The Bible is quite prepared to talk about certain hope, which in English just doesn’t make any sense. We have this anticipation of the future. It’s still hope, but it is as certain as Christ’s tearing down the veil and entering into the very presence of God, and being accepted by him and all of his life and death on our behalf.

God Provides a Sure Hope for Us
Through the Resurrection of Jesus

1 Peter 1:3 He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The kingdom dawns, eternal life comes to us already, and we anticipate resurrection bodies, a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So we live in hope, because Christ’s resurrection is the “down payment” of the fullness of what will one day be ours. Already we participate in this by the new birth. That’s why the new birth theme recurs at the end of the chapter.

God Sustains Our Hope Through Faith

Verse 4 tells us the object of this hope. We have moved from hope to hope’s object: inheritance. There is a certain inheritance reserved, we are told, in heaven.

All of Peter’s description of our inheritance emerges from this God-ordained Old Testament model of inheritance. We too are aliens and pilgrims, which is the way Peter addresses the believers in the first two verses.

There is contrast also with the Old Testament inheritance. Our inheritance, we’re told, can never perish, spoil, or fade (verse 4). This inheritance is kept in heaven for us, and we are kept for it.

1 Peter 1:5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

This is God’s means of keeping us. So God prepares this inheritance for which we hope, which we long for, and He preserves us in perseverance, in faith. He actually is shielding us, such that we exercise our faith in his Word, in His promise, and so we persevere. We persevere in hope, because we believe that is coming. Which is precisely why there is not much hope where there is not much faith.

The prospect of the future leads us to persevere in faith now. Thus also, in hope, right through the difficulties of life, including the most appalling suffering brought about by persecution. We live in hope, because we have faith that the same God who raised Jesus from the dead will also bring us with Him on the last day. We live in the light of eternity. So this hope, then, God sustains by faith.

God Nourishes Our Hope Until the Consummation

1 Peter 1: 6: In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.

That is, both the anticipation of what is coming has been introduced, and the substance, goal, object of this hope, the thing hoped for, has only been introduced. But more is coming. Peter provides several reasons why Christians actually rejoice in this hope that God has introduced to them. This is true even though they find themselves facing grief and trials of various kinds.

We Can Rejoice…
Because the suffering is temporary. In our trials because the tension between present pressures and the ultimate glory to come is precisely what strengthens our faith. In our suffering because the rewards are spectacular in heaven, but they begin now!

One of the things that will bring praise and glory to God on the last day is our enduring hope, grounded in faith, which shields us and makes us press on and prove faithful.

The faithful are building up glory for God through Jesus Christ on the last day.
So that even all of God’s preservation of His grace in our lives so that we persevere, all of the grace that teaches us already to love Him though we do not see Him, is in anticipation of the praise and glory to God in Jesus Christ.

God Planned Hope for our Delight and Good

This hope had been predicted by God through the Old Testament prophets.

The Old Testament prophets did not always grasp very clearly the facts or the time of this remarkable sequence. They did not get to see it all come to pass, but we live this side of the cross, so we can see more. We not only see it, we know that It is also a model for us. If we suffer with Him, we will reign with Him.

“Even angels long to look into these things.”  is immensely suggestive.
Do we realize that there has arisen a Redeemer for fallen human beings, but not for fallen angels? Angels look at the salvation that we’ve received and marvel, probe, and wonder.

How fortunate are true believers, even above angels. We can live out a hope that God has for us, right now, culminating in us with Him, for eternity.