December 10: Hope That Lives (1 Peter 1:3-13, 18-21)
1 Peter 1:3
Literal Translation: Blest (be) the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one according to the much mercy of his re-begetting us unto a living hope through (the) resurrection of Jesus Christ out (from among the) dead.
Interpretive Paraphrase: May God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be always praised and revered. He is the very one who gave us a new, rebirth into a confidence based upon the fact and power that Jesus Christ was actually raised from the dead.
In the NT original language of Greek, "hope" has more of the idea of confident expectation in contrast to our English word, "hope," that involves more of wishful thinking, this Greek word is closer to the word for "faith, believe," such as where in 1 Pet. 3:5 its verbal form is translated "trusted" in the NKJV/KJV. See verse 21.
1:3-12 - A Descriptive Sweep of Our Salvation: Past, Present, & Future
v.3 - Past - Salvation of our Soul from eternal damnation (with its focus on Justification):
At Regeneration - Saved from the Penalty of Sin:
Christ redeemed us (Eph.2:8).
vv.4-5 - Future - Salvation of our Body from corruption (with its focus on Glorification):
At The Resurrection - Saved from the Presence of Sin;
Christ returns for us (1 Cor. 15:42-44; Phil. 3:20-21; Rom. 8:23; 13:11).
vv.6-9 - Present - Salvation of our Present Life from dead works (with its focus on Sanctification):
At The Running of Life - the Christian Walk - Saved from the Power and Pollution of Sin;
Christ resides in us (Gal. 1:4; 2:19-20; Phil. 1:6; 2:12-13; Col. 1:10-14; Heb. 13-20-21)
One can illustrate our past rebirth and future resurrection in the Harpage/Rapture, as being like two ends of a clothesline tied securely, so that our present life is like the things hanging along the clothesline secured by these two doctrines - our regeneration in the redemption of the soul and our resurrection in the redemption of the body. If we are not born again, or if we have no hope in a future, secured resurrection and heave, everything on and along our present life "clothesline" will fall!
1:4 - LT: toward an inheritance uncorrupt and undefiled and unfading having been kept in [the] heavens for you [all]
IP: so that you might have eternal life guaranteed and secured by God both here and in heaven.
1:5 - LT: the ones being garrisoned in the power of God through [the channel of] faith toward a salvation ready to be revealed in the last season.
IP: You have this eternal life fortified by God because of your faith in Him. This eternal life will ultimately found in the resurrection and Millennial Kingdom, as well as in the New Heaven and New Earth and New Jerusalem.
1:6 - LT: in which [season] you were glad, a little now, if necessity is, being grieved in various temptations
IP: You will find great gladness in the Eschaton, but in the meantime during this life on earth you will have all kinds of difficulties according to God's mysterious and eternal plan.
1:7 - LT: In order that your genuineness of faith, [a genuineness] much more precious than gold, the [kind] being destroyed, but through fire being tested, might be found for [the] praise and honor and for [the] glory in [the] revelation of Jesus Christ,
IP: These various difficulties and trials will show you the kind of stuff that your faith is really made of. This genuine faith is more valuable than anything physical can be and will have God receiving all the credit, even ultimately when Jesus Christ returns back to earth.
Tested faith can be trusted.
1:8 - LT: Whom never having seen [at anytime] you love [or are loving], in whom still yet not seeing but believing you rejoice with joy unspeakable and having been glorified,
IP: Now Jesus is someone that you have never seen but still you love him, even though you have never had a good look at him but simply have put your total faith in him with an excitement beyond words giving Him the greatest of reputations of all times.
1:9 - LT: receiving the end [or goal] of your faith, salvation of souls [or psyches].
IP: The ultimate result of this faith of yours is that many people will be saved.
By this your faith in Jesus Christ will bring you and others with you to the final results of eternal life in heaven forever. The end result or goal of personal faith is the eternal salvation of the one having that faith and the salvation of others find that faith through the witness of such ones.
1:10 - LT: Concerning which salvation [the] prophets sought out and searched out, the ones prophesying concerning the grace for you.
IP: Now about this salvation, the writers of the Old Testament want to know, as much as they could, and kept trying to find out more about this unmerited favor shown in salvation.
These prophets would have been those writing and quoted in the OT describing God's Grace that would come in the Messiah - Jesus Christ, full of Grace and Truth according to John 1:14. However, it would be a misinterpretation to dub the OT as all "law" and the NT as all "grace" - much grace can be found in the OT and much moral law can be found in the NT. [Although a line of demarcation would be precisely drawn at Acts 2 than at Mat.1, since the real shift came from Gods focus on Israel to His focus on The Church beginning at Acts 2. Much of the Gospels describe God's working with Israel which parallels that of the OT, especially from Gen. 12 on.]
1:11 - LT: searching for what or what kind of time [the] spirit of Christ in them pre-testifying the sufferings regarding Christ and the glory after these things was indicating,
IP: They kept studying the revelation of God the Holy Spirit about how and when Jesus would come to earth and die for the sins of the world, after which he would be gloriously resurrected.
The OT gave specific and exacting details of Jesus' coming in Dan. 9:24-27; Is. 52; 53; Ps.22.
1:12 - LT: "to whom [OT prophets and believers] was revealed that not for themselves but for you [in the Church] were they ministering these things [details of Jesus Christs life, ministry, propitiation, resurrection, and plan of salvation] which now were announced to you through the ones evangelizing you in the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, which angels earnestly desire [set their hearts upon] to look intently into [or to lean forward and peep into something, as spectators in the stands]."
IP: God explained to these believers during the days of the Old Testament the details of the coming of their Messiah who would minister to all people by His death on the cross and resurrection. This is the message by which you can be saved by His Holy Spirit's regeneration in His baptism. Angels are very interested in these very things, as they watched these Old Testament prophets and us being saved today.
1) The OT prophets had an understanding of ministering to those of their day, but they also at times understood that their prophesying was Messianic in what is to be presently understood as Jesus Christ's First and Second Comings and the Seven-Year Tribulation in between, referred to as "The Day of the Lord."
2) Angels have never known nor will ever know forgiveness and salvation and are watching with much interest how we as earth-bound human beings live with these. God is using us to teach something of this to angels. It may have been a motivation to thwart this Messianic plan of salvation [Gen. 3:15] by Satan and some of his fallen angels, by their hideous fornication with human women in Gen. 6:2 with the producing "the mighty men, who were of old, men of renown" [½ human & ½ angelic].
3) 1 Cor. 11:10 - "Because of this ought the woman to have [a symbol of] authority upon the head because of the angels" - There is something that God has for angels to observe and learn, as they watch husbands and wives on earth and the issue of a husbands authority symbolized by her long hair. Angels do not participate in any kind of covenant-marriage (see Mat.22:30), so some authority-dynamic in the covenant of marriage has some purpose for angels to learn of this relationship within the Trinity between the Father and the Son (1 Cor. 11:3), angels are watching us to learn of this. This may have been a part of what Paul meant in Eph.3:10 of how the Church is to make known God's wisdom to angelic "principalities and powers."
1:13 - LT: Wherefore tying up the waist of your thinking, being sober, ultimately hoping upon the grace being carried to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ.
IP: So then by mentally focusing with much self-control put your earnest expectation on God's unmerited favor in salvation which will ultimately be consummated at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to earth.
1:18 - LT: knowing that not by perishable things, silver or gold, were you redeemed out of your emptiness of a conduct of a fatherly tradition,
IP: Remember that Christ saved you from this world's aimless existence passed on from generation to generation not by anything special in this physical world
1:19 - LT: but by the honored [precious] blood, as of a lamb blameless and spotless, of Christ,
IP: Christ saved you by his atoning physical and spiritual death of a sinless life.
This is our motivation to live holy lives.
1:20 - LT: On the one hand, having been foreknown before the foundation of the world, but on the other hand being made apparent at the last of the times because of you.
IP: Jesus Christ, as God the Son, was known by God the Father from eternity past before anything was created and now has been recently incarnated in space and time, as Jesus of Nazareth, for your sakes.
1:21 - LT: the ones through him believing in God, the one raising him from among the dead ones and giving glory to him, in order for your faith and (anticipatory) hope to be in God.
IP: You are the ones trusting God through the inter-mediator, Jesus Christ, the very God who resurrected Jesus Christ from the grave and showered upon him the highest of repute. The purpose of all of this was that not only your trust but that you confident expectation might be in God the Father.
