1 Peter 1:18-21 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Forasmuch as ye know, &c. That is, be holy in your whole behaviour, because ye know what an immense price your redemption cost; that you were not redeemed with corruptible things Such as all visible and temporal things are; even silver and gold Highly as they are prized, and eagerly as they are sought; from your vain conversation Your foolish, sinful way of life, a way wholly unprofitable to yourselves, and dishonourable to God; received by traditions from your fathers Which you had been engaged in by the instruction or example of your forefathers. The Jews derived from their fathers that implicit regard for the traditions of the elders, by which they made the law of God of none effect, with a variety of other corrupt principles and practices. In like manner the Gentiles derived their idolatry, and other abominable vices, from the teaching and example of their fathers; for, in general, as Whitby justly remarks, the strongest arguments for false religions, as well as for errors in the true, is that men have received them from their fathers. But with the precious blood of Christ Blood of immense value, being the blood of the only-begotten Son of God, who had glory with the Father before the world was; as of a lamb without blemish and without spot See on Leviticus 22:21-22. The sacrifice of himself, which Christ offered to God without spot, being here likened to the sacrifice of the paschal lamb, and of the lambs daily offered as sin-offerings for the whole nation, we are thereby taught that the shedding of Christ's blood is a real atonement for the sins of the world. Hence John the Baptist called him the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. And to show the extent of the efficacy of his sacrifice, that it reaches backward to the fall of man, as well as forward to the end of time, he is said (Rev 13:8) to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Who verily was foreordained Προεγνωσμενου, foreknown, before the foundation of the world Before God called the universe into being; but was manifested Namely, in the flesh, Joh 1:14; 1 John 3:8; in these last times Of the Mosaic economy, or in the times of the gospel, the last dispensation of divine mercy; see note on Hebrews 1:2; for you Jews or Gentiles; who by him Through the virtue of his sacrifice, and the efficacy of his grace; do believe in God In the one living and true God, as your Friend and Father; that raised him up from the dead Thereby confirming his doctrine, showing the efficacy of his atonement, procuring for you the Holy Spirit, and assuring you of your resurrection; see on 1 Peter 1:3; and gave him glory Placed him at his own right hand, and invested him with all power in heaven and on earth, for the salvation of his followers, and the destruction of his and their enemies. See Hebrews 10:13. That your faith and hope might be in God That you might be encouraged to believe in God as reconciled to you through Christ, that you might hope on good grounds that he will glorify you as he hath done Christ your Head; or, that your faith and hope might terminate in God the Father, or be ultimately fixed on him through the mediation of his Son.