Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, He begins, like Paul, in opening his letters, with giving thanks to God for the great salvation: he looks forward:
(1) into the future (1 Peter 1:3-9);
(2) backward into the past (1 Peter 1:10-12) (Alford).
Blessed - absolutely, His blessedness being self-derived, and our blessing Him being only an ascription to Him of what is His own. х Eulogeetos (G2128) in the New Testament is restricted to God; eulogeemenos (G2127) (blessed with blessing from the outside) is said of man, and even of the Messiah as man (Matthew 21:9; Matthew 25:34: cf. John 12:13; Luke 1:28; Luke 1:42); baarak (H1288), literally, to kneel.] To bless any, without reference to God as the original source of blessing, is idolatry (Psalms 103:22; Revelation 5:12).
Father. This whole letter agrees with the Lord's prayer: "Father," 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 1:14; 1 Peter 1:17; 1 Peter 1:23; 1 Peter 2:2; "our," 1 Peter 1:4, end; "in heaven," 1 Peter 1:4; "hallowed be thy name," 1 Peter 1:15-16; 1 Peter 3:15; "thy kingdom come," 1 Peter 2:9; "thy will be done," 1 Peter 2:15; 1 Peter 3:17; 1 Peter 4:2; 1 Peter 4:19; "daily bread," 1 Peter 5:7; "forgiveness of sins," 1 Peter 4:8; "temptation," 1 Peter 4:12; "deliverance," 1 Peter 4:18 (Bengel): cf. 1 Peter 3:7; 1 Peter 4:7, for allusions to prayer.
Abundant, х polu (G4183)] - 'much.' That God's "mercy" should reach us guilty enemies, proves its fullness. "Mercy" met our misery, "grace" our guilt.
Begotten us again - of the Spirit by the Word (1 Peter 1:23); children of wrath, naturally dead in sins.
Unto - so that we have.
Lively, х zoosan (G2198)] - 'living.' It has in itself, gives, and looks for, life (DeWette). Living is a favourite expression of Peter (1 Peter 1:23; 1 Peter 2:4-5). He delights in contemplating life overcoming death. Faith and love follow hope (1 Peter 1:8; 1 Peter 1:21-22). "(Unto) a lively hope" is explained by "(to) an inheritance incorruptible ... fadeth not away," and "(unto) salvation ... ready to be revealed in the last time." Join х elpida (G1680) zoosan (G2198) di' (G1223) anastaseoos (G386)] 'unto a hope living (possessing vitality) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.' Faith, the subjective means of the soul's spiritual resurrection, is worked by the same power whereby Christ was raised (Eph. 19:20). Baptism is an objective means (1 Peter 3:21). Its moral fruit is a new life. The connection of our sonship with the resurrection appears in Luke 20:36; Acts 13:33. Christ's resurrection is:
(1) the efficient cause of ours (1 Corinthians 15:22);
(2) the exemplary Cause: all the saints shall rise after the similitude of His resurrection (Philippians 3:21).
Our "hope" is, Christ rising ordained the power, and is the pattern of the believer's resurrection. The soul, born again from nature into grace, is also born again unto the life of glory. Matthew 19:28, "The regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory;" the resurrection of our bodies is a coming out of the womb of the earth, a nativity into an immortal life (Dr. Pearson). Our private adoption is now (Galatians 4:6); our public, at the coming resurrection. The four causes of salvation are:
(1) the primary, God's mercy; (2) the proximate, Christ's death and resurrection;
(3) the formal, our regeneration;
(4) the final, our eternal bliss.
John is the disciple of love; Paul, of faith; Peter, of hope. Hence, Peter, most of all the apostles, urges the resurrection of Christ: an undesigned coincidence between the history and the letter (cf. 'Introduction'), so a proof of genuineness. Christ's resurrection was the occasion of his own restoration by Christ after his fall (Mark 16:7).