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.
who are kept guarded by [the] power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in [the] last time.
Peter has just described an inheritance kept safe in heaven. Now he turns to the heirs, who still walk through a hostile world: what holds them steady until glory, and what is the salvation still waiting to appear?
The word Peter chose is not a mild one. The ESV reads "guarded"; older versions read "kept," the word the writers below discuss. Either way it is military language — a city ringed with troops.
How blessed it is to consider our security, our eternal security — "kept by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time!" In the original, "kept" is a very strong word. It clearly shows the church as garrisoned, enclosed, guarded, protected by the power of God against all the powers of darkness.
Why is such a guard needed? Because the road itself is dangerous.
But they kept proving their own weakness, men's hostility, and Satan's active malice. So difficulties, trials, afflictions and dangers met them all the time. They needed a guard the whole way through. And so they are — garrisoned by God's power. And if God is for us, who can be against us?
God keeps two things at once, in two different places.
The inheritance is reserved for us in heaven, and we are preserved on earth for it by the power of God operating through faith.
The power is God's, but He uses a means. That means is faith.
Still God has His means; and this the apostle goes on to tell us. It is "through faith." No means for a saint on earth can compare with faith. More than any other means, faith honours God and the word of His grace. It calls for dependence on the good Shepherd by the Holy Spirit. So it is "by God's power," but "through faith." Faith gives God His due place. It keeps us in our place of confidence in Him, according to His word.
But faith itself can waver. So who keeps the faith?
God's power keeps us, but it does so by keeping our faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed.
Peter once thought he could keep himself, and failed. That memory sits behind this verse.
In Peter's letters you can hardly find a verse without a quiet and touching reference to his own path. He had not been kept, because of his own self-confidence; but God will keep you, he says, by His power through faith. I believe that when he wrote that, his heart was turning back. Back to the moment when the Lord told him He had prayed for him, that his faith might not fail. Back to the moment when, full of self-confidence, he had thought he could keep himself.
Peter uses the word "salvation" for something wider than a soul rescued from judgment.
Here we are taught that salvation is ready to be revealed at this moment, for we are, as John tells us, in "the last times." Note that salvation as used here is not limited to the soul's deliverance from hell and ruin. It refers rather to the deliverance of the believer's body from the power of death and corruption. In short, it covers everything linked in any way with the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We already possess the salvation of our souls, as the passage around our verse tells us.
Nothing remains to be arranged. The word "ready" means the whole thing stands finished, waiting only for the moment of display.
This word "ready" is important... Christ Himself is glorified. He has conquered all His enemies and accomplished redemption. He waits for one thing only — that God should make His enemies His footstool... Once God has brought in all who are to share it, nothing is left to wait for. That salvation is the glory in which the redeemed will appear.
- Kept by power. Peter's word is a soldier's word. God's power surrounds the believer and guards him from every hostile force.
- Kept through faith. That power does not bypass us. It works through faith, and it keeps the faith it works through.
- Not kept by self. Peter once trusted his own strength and failed. So he points his readers away from their own strength to God's.
- Kept for an inheritance. God reserves the inheritance in heaven for us, and keeps us on earth for it.
- Kept until it is revealed. The salvation ahead is finished and waiting. It includes the body's deliverance. Only its unveiling at Christ's appearing is left.
Wherein ye exult, for a little while at present, if needed, put to grief by various trials,
Peter writes to believers scattered and under real pressure. In one sentence he sets great rejoicing beside deep grief, and raises three questions: what holds the joy up, why is the grief allowed, and how long will it last?
The joy does not come from circumstances. It rests on what Peter has just described: a salvation kept in reserve, still to be revealed. One writer notes that Peter uses the word "salvation" in more than one sense. Here he means the full and final one:
There is another sense of salvation, and the apostle, as we will soon see, does not ignore it at all; but he qualifies the term. When he refers it to the present, it is the salvation of souls, not of bodies… On the other hand, as here, when salvation is meant plainly and fully, we are pointed forward to the revelation of the last time.
Peter does not tell suffering people that their sorrow is unreal. Both halves of the verse are true at once:
How good to see here that deep sorrow can go together with great joy — a joy that only faith knows, faith in what God has revealed. The sorrow is not made light of, for it is called the grief of many trials of various kinds. But the certainty and blessedness of that salvation, which is near, rises above it.
Older translations say "heaviness" here, which can sound like spiritual flatness. One writer separates the two, and shows Peter lifting his readers' eyes up before bringing them back to earth:
If you are thinking of the scene where Christ is, where you will be with Him; if your hearts rest on that inheritance which He is keeping for you… you will be rejoicing. What else can you do but rejoice with such a prospect? Then he drops down to earth again in this sixth verse, and says, You may be "put to grief" by various trials. But the "heaviness" here is not what we often call heaviness. That means a soul dull and heavy because it is out of communion with the Lord. Here it is the soul under pressure, with the Lord seeing the need for the many trials.
No trial arrives without a reason behind it, and that reason is God's:
It is a fact that we shall never be in heaviness through many trials unless there is a need for it. God does not test us on a whim. He does not delight in our testings and our heaviness, or even in chastening or rebuking or scourging. Hebrews 12 assures us of that. So each of us has to say: if God did not see some spiritual need to meet, I would not be facing this trial and its heavy pressure.
The word "various" shows why comparing sufferings never works, and why God means us to feel the pressure:
Your difficulty is not mine, very likely. You may look at me with an envious eye and say, It is all very well for you. Well, is it? I may have testings you know nothing of. Trials come in many kinds, and we are often weighed down by them. We feel it. The weight of them comes down upon us and we cannot escape the weight, and, let me tell you this, we are not intended to. We are intended to feel these things, so that we are tested by them.
The same phrase marks the world's pleasures too:
Thank God for those words, "for a season." … In Hebrews 11 we find Moses making his immortal choice. He says: Give me the reproach of Christ, with the glory that follows. Let me not walk in the track of the pleasures of sin — they last only for a season. The pleasures of the world and the trials and afflictions of God's people last only for the same short time — "for a season." The heaviness of many trials is only for a season. When the worldly man's pleasures die out inside him, the heaviness of God's people will end too.
- Cause — The joy does not come from circumstances. It rests on a salvation kept for the revelation of the last time.
- Coexistence — The sorrow is real, not denied or made small. Faith does not erase the grief. It outweighs it with the salvation that is near.
- Character — The heaviness is pressure on the soul, not the dullness of a believer out of touch with the Lord.
- Care — "If need be" rules out whim. God takes no pleasure in afflicting; where there is no need, there is no trial.
- Clock — The world's pleasures and the believer's trials both run "for a little while." Only the rejoicing outlasts the season.
that the proving of your faith, much more precious than of gold which perishes, though it be proved by fire, be found to praise and glory and honour in [the] revelation of Jesus Christ
Peter has just spoken of grief and many kinds of trials, and here he gives the reason for them: God tests faith the way a refiner tests gold. He values that faith far above gold, and He has fixed a day when its worth will be shown.
Peter says the grief comes only when there is a need for it. One writer finds comfort in that, and turns it into a question each of us should ask.
It is a fact that we will never be weighed down by many kinds of trials unless there is a need for it. God does not test us on a whim. He does not enjoy our testings and our sorrow, or even correcting us, rebuking us or disciplining us. Hebrews 12 assures us of that. So each of us has to say, If God did not see some spiritual need to be met, I would not be facing this trial and feeling its heavy pressure.
Gold lasts, yet Peter calls it "gold that perishes." One writer takes that word seriously and asks what it makes faith worth.
Gold does not perish easily. No. When they dug up poor old Tutankhamen, they found him surrounded by splendid things. There were objects of papyrus and fine linen from Egypt, brown with age, crumbling at a touch. But there were also objects of gold, and they were barely marked compared with everything else in that famous tomb. Gold lasts a long time, yet it perishes. The clear implication is that faith does not. Faith is much more precious than gold that perishes. God treasures your faith, and "precious" is the word He uses for it. In God's sight, faith is something of very, very great price.
Testing is not an accident that may or may not fall on a believer. Another writer states it as a rule with no exceptions.
Faith's place is on earth, and God tests it. He never gives faith without testing it. That testing produces fruit, and the fruit will be seen later, when everything is brought to light at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Fire sounds destructive. A refiner's fire is not. He lights it because the metal is worth saving, and one writer applies that to the believer.
Why does the goldsmith take such trouble and spend so long over the pot where he refines his gold? Because the gold is so valuable. He wants to remove the impurities and leave it at its finest. God allows His people to go into that pot, and He tests them, even by fire. He does it because in His view faith is worth so much... The truth is this: if we Christians suffer no testing, we will never be more than weaklings in spiritual terms. The testing itself is what makes us strong.
Peter's word is "found." That meets a real feeling in long illness or suffering: the sense that the time is wasted.
We tend to think that a time of deep trial is all wasted time, because it may keep us out of active service for the Lord. No, says God, it will be "found to praise" at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Who receives the praise, glory and honor? The verse does not say, and commentators read it in two ways. Some take it as glory brought to Christ. (Both writers below quote an older translation, which reads "praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.")
It says, it "shall be found to praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." The thing that seemed to be lost is going to be found. What a finding it will be when that hour comes! It will be found to praise and honour and glory. Whose? That of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the hour when He appears in glory, He will have His own glory, the glory of the Father, and the glory of the holy angels. Even so, He will not be too great to wear a little glory brought to Him by these things we thought were lost.
Others read it as the believer's reward. They rest the point on the word Peter chooses: not the Lord's coming to take His own, but His revelation.
Note again that praise, honour, and glory are connected with Christ's revelation. His coming to receive us and take us to the Father's house is supreme grace. At His revelation He will weigh our faithfulness and reward it. Both will certainly come true, but God's righteous government is quite different from His sovereign grace.
- Needed. Grief never comes on a whim. It comes because God sees a need in you that must be met.
- Valued. The fire falls on faith because God prizes it. Gold survived a pharaoh's tomb, yet gold perishes; faith does not.
- Refined. Untested faith stays weak. The refiner's fire burns off the impurities and makes a believer strong.
- Found. Time that looked wasted, and service you could not give, is not lost. God will find it and turn it to praise.
- Displayed. The finding happens when Jesus Christ is revealed. Some read the praise, glory and honor as brought to Him; others as reward given to the faithful.