Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through [the] resurrection of Jesus Christ from among [the] dead,
Peter opens his letter with praise, not instruction: he blesses God for a new birth and a hope no grave can touch. Two questions follow: what makes a hope "living," and why does everything rest on the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
Peter praises God by a name that Israel and the fathers did not know Him by.
It is not as Jehovah for Israel, nor as Almighty God for the fathers. For us Christians God worked more deeply for His glory and for those who believe... But now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ worked in a more triumphant way in Him. As sin-bearer He entered the dark gates of the grave which closed on all others. He glorified God so fully that God had to raise Him from among the dead. So God, as revealed here, begot us again through Christ's resurrection out of the dead. No one could speak of this or know it until that mighty witness of redemption. It was not true, and could not be, until Christ was raised in this way.
Peter traces the new birth to mercy, not to anything in those who receive it.
Every other spiritual blessing would have been useless if God's mercy did not beget us again. That is what our letter declares. No blessing is more necessary for a sinner who is lost and ruined. His old life is corrupted by inborn evil, habitual self-will, and incurable alienation from God.
Mercy also reaches people one by one, not just a nation.
Israel had been begotten first as a nation. Now people had been born again. Mercy met them where they were, and there awakened a living hope in their souls, because the Lord Jesus had been raised from the dead.
Where the ESV says God "caused us to be born again," older translations read "begotten again." Either way, the words point to something that has already happened. One writer presses this against those who make it only a hope of life.
Should not "begotten again" have shown you that life — new life — was received, not hoped for? So, using this same word, he tells us Christ is a living stone. And we have become living stones built up on that great foundation. That is, the apostle's teaching is the exact opposite of what you make him say. He says they are living stones, as Christ is a living stone; you tell us they only have a hope of life.
For the first Jewish believers the change was dramatic.
They had believed in Jesus as their promised, national Messiah. Their hope was in Him... They hoped He would be King and take the throne of His father David. Then He who was their hope died on the shameful cross, and hope died. But the third day came and Christ rose from among the dead. Hope revived — yes, they were begotten again to a living hope. His resurrection was a begetting again to a living hope, no longer the hope of the earthly kingdom.
Why call the hope "living"? Because of the One it rests on.
His resurrection brings in a whole new hope for the believer. The shadow of death can never fall on it. Risen from the dead, He dies no more; death has no more dominion over Him.
Remove the resurrection and this verse collapses. One writer shows how much rests on it.
Had His body remained in the tomb, what assurance could we have had that He had redeemed us? More than that, had He been held by death, we would have had no Saviour and no salvation. The resurrection of Christ is, therefore, the foundational truth of the gospel. To take away the truth of the Lord's resurrection is to remove all hope — to leave the soul without hope.
Peter writes as a man whose own hope had once collapsed.
He could hardly have thought that within a few weeks he would be able to say, "you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows!"... One thing, as a result, is certain: his despairing soul was begotten again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This he tells us, and for this he blesses God.
- Mercy starts it. Nothing in a ruined sinner supplies the cause; the new birth rests on God's abundant mercy alone.
- Birth, not wishing. "Begotten again" points to life already given — believers are living stones, not people hoping to live.
- Resurrection secures it. Take away the empty tomb and there is no Saviour, no salvation, and no hope left standing.
- The hope lives. It centres on One who dies no more, so no shadow of death can ever fall across it.
- Praise ends it. God is now known as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — and the man who once denied Him is the first to bless Him for it.
to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance, reserved in [the] heavens for you,
Peter has just blessed God for a new birth into a living hope, and this verse names what that hope leads to: property. But this property is strange: three things can never happen to it, and it is kept at an address no one on earth can reach.
Peter's readers knew what an inheritance was. Their nation had once received one. The three words here reverse everything that happened to that earlier gift.
Every Israelite knew what it was to have an inheritance. Nationally, their inheritance was the land of Canaan (Num. 26:53). They received this inheritance (Josh. 11:23). But sadly, it was later corrupted, and became only a shadow of what it was meant to be. It was defiled by idolatry. And it was lost — first at the time of the captivity, and then in AD 70, soon after Peter wrote this letter. Their Christian inheritance is just the opposite: "incorruptible and undefiled and unfading".
The failure was not in the land. It was in the people left responsible for it.
The land itself was all that a land should be. Still, it could be corrupted. So those who inherited it soon defiled it, because they were left to their own responsibility. Bit by bit they forfeited it, and it faded away.
Where older translations say "incorruptible", the ESV says "imperishable". Each word rules out one way earthly things are lost: decay, stain, and fading.
Earthly things are corruptible; the heavenly inheritance is incorruptible. Earthly things are defiled. Pollution clings to the finest and the best. The coming inheritance is undefiled. Sin and its curse can never stain it. It is pure forever. Here on earth everything fades. Every beautiful flower has its roots in a grave. All is passing away. But the inheritance we will receive never fades. It is always fresh and beautiful.
Why is it safe? Because of where it is. Scripture keeps telling of people who lost their place. Heaven is the one place the enemy never broke into.
Adam was driven out of Eden. Israel was about to be driven out of their inheritance. But the inheritance of the children of God was secure. It was in heaven, not in Eden or in Canaan. Israel had corrupted and defiled their inheritance with their idols. The Christian's portion is in a land Satan cannot enter, as he entered Eden. It is a land where man, left to his own responsibility, cannot fail and defile it.
The keeping runs both ways. Commentators set the two halves side by side.
It is preserved by God… "Reserved… for you who are kept." The inheritance is kept for you in heaven. You are kept on earth waiting for it. He will keep you for the inheritance and the inheritance for you. It is then not a question of my perseverance, but of God's faithfulness.
Being kept does not mean being spared the journey.
This treasure is in heaven. I have nothing to fear, it is in perfect safety. But this is what I fear about myself: temptations, all sorts of difficulties, for I am not in heaven. This is true. But our full security is not that we escape trial or temptation. It is that we are kept in the trial here below, just as the inheritance is kept in heaven for us.
The inheritance of verse 4 hangs on the resurrection named in verse 3. Remove that, and it is only a wish.
The hope of the Jew was earthly and, for the time, was closed by the death of Christ… Every hope of the believer rests upon Christ risen. Our hope is a sure and certain hope because He is risen. It is a living hope because Christ is living. This heavenly inheritance, unlike the earthly one, is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, and it is reserved for the believer.
The New Testament shows this inheritance from two angles. Peter takes the one that fits a traveller.
There are two ways of looking at the inheritance. In Peter and Hebrews, I am a man walking in this world in trials and difficulties, looking out for an inheritance reserved in heaven. Then in Ephesians I have entered the inheritance. There I am seen as seated in heavenly places, and as going to inherit all that Christ has.
- Kept by resurrection. The hope is living because Christ is living. A risen Saviour makes the inheritance certain, not just wished for.
- Kept from decay. Imperishable, undefiled, unfading. Three words shut the three doors by which earthly things are lost.
- Kept where Eden and Canaan were not. Adam lost a garden and Israel lost a land. This portion sits where neither Satan nor human failure can reach.
- Kept both ways. God keeps the inheritance in heaven for us, and keeps us on earth for it. It rests on His faithfulness, not our staying power.
- Kept for pilgrims. Peter writes to people still in the trials, not spared them. The treasure ahead carries a stranger along the road.