1 Peter 1:3-12; Hope (1)

Peter was from Galilee, an area that prejudiced people thought produced very little in the way of scholarly thinking (John 1:46).  He was a fisherman, not the kind of person to have spent significant time in school (Acts 4:13).  Now you fishermen, hear me out.  This is the way it was in those days.  And my point is this: Peter’s epistles show the marks of someone whose understand of spiritual things runs incredibly deep.  While some say the Greek is a bit rough, there is no question that Peter’s description of our blessings in Christ are profound, as you should have noted in today’s passage.

The reason for this is, of course, that Peter had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).  Jesus had promised the Twelve that the Holy Spirit would remind them of His teachings after He was gone back to heaven (John 16:12-15).  This is the kind of thing that, as the Psalmist noted, makes you wiser and smarter than your enemies, your teachers, and the ancients (Psalm 119:98-100).

Peter a secretary, Silvanus (1 Peter 5:12) but a secretary is not the one who determines what is said.  He only makes it read better.  When you read Peter’s letters I hear a lot of Paul (2 Peter 3:14-16).  Now you may say that it is because they had the same Holy Spirit teaching them the things of Christ and that is true.  But it is also true that to Paul was given the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3:1-7).  It is also true that on one occasion Paul had to reprove Peter on the issue of Jews and Gentiles being one in the Body of Christ (Gal. 2:11-21).  The aforementioned passage from 2 Peter makes it clear that Peter did not take offence at Paul’s reproof but that he took it graciously.  

One of those connections between Peter and Paul is in 1 Peter 1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (a blessing used two other times in the New Testament, by Paul, in Eph. 1:3 and 2 Cor. 1:3).  In each case it is a title applied to God that is connected with our own blessings.  In Ephesians He is the source of every spiritual blessing in Christ; in 2 Corinthians He is the source of compassion and mercy; and in 1 Peter He is the source of hope.  The source of hope is not Christ; He is the means by which it all happens (through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, v3).  It is not the Holy Spirit; He is the agent through whom this hope encourages our hearts.  

So stop and consider this.  This title declares both the equality of the Father and Son as well as the submission of the Son to God.  The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the One who cast the sinners from the Garden of Eden.  He is the One we have offended.  He has properly judged all men as sinners and worthy of eternal death.  He is the One with abundant mercy whose gracious plan for sinners was to send His One and Only Son to the cross to take the offence upon Himself.  Only the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ could do that because He is the only One to whom the Son fully submitted Himself when He laid aside His majesty and took on the likeness of man.  In death the Son entrusted Himself to His God and Father (Luke 23:46; 1 Peter 2:23).  The result was that He, the Son, broke the chains of death by His powerful resurrection.  And the result of that is that we, hopeless sinners, have a living hope!  Truly we should agree with Peter (and with Paul): Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  We should glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 15:6).