1 Peter 1:3

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,”

Lets start at the end of the verse and work toward the beginning. Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. Peter saw the empty tomb and the risen Christ with his own eyes. (I wonder what that must have been like…) Because Christ was dead, and now lives – those who follow Him have a living hope.

Here’s how: Death is the cause of, and payment for sin. Those who sin are doomed to die separate from the Holy God. But the perfect Christ died for the sins of all – so all now have access to forgiveness and relationship with God through the sacrifice of Jesus. For those who follow Christ – we have a living hope – a hope of life with Christ today and a hope for life eternal with the Father to come.

We die to the world and our old selfish and sinful ways and are reborn into a new life. A life where God is the most important thing in our lives – a life where God lives within us, transforming us into the image of Christ, a life that cares more for others than for ourselves. We cannot live this life on our own, the Spirit of God resides within us, changing us into the type of people who can live this way.

As birth into the world is a fundamental change from life in the womb, birth from the world into Christ is transforming event. At our core, we are no longer what we were: selfish, prideful, lustful, angry, hateful, and spiteful; we are new creations: loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, gentle, and self-controlled.

If you are like me, maybe you have asked, “I look a lot more like that first list than the second list…how am I a new creation?” You have been changed, but you are still human and the Spirit hasn’t completed His work of sanctification. I look at it like this: the war is over; God has triumphed and we are completely His. But the news hasn’t reached everywhere yet, so there are still battles raging.

The Spirit travels from place to place with the news: It is finished – God rules here! Some areas of your life rejoice and fall in line quickly. Others want to keep fighting God’s rule – those take longer. But when you shake out everything and get to each believer’s heart – we are God’s new creation, not the sin-wracked creations we used to be. Even if and when we sin…we are God’s children and He is working on us. He is transforming us into the image of Christ through the work of His Spirit in our lives. Praise be to God for His mercy!

No wonder Peter began his letter with those words…