Study of First Peter Lesson 4
Review:
1:3 Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
This phrase does 2
things for us; 1st, it
tells us who is the "Blessed" and secondly deals with the
relationship of the Father to the Son.
- "Blessed = euvloghto,j; verbal adjective; indicates one who is worthy
of blessing, based on their character!
-
This word is only, and I stress only,
used of God, of deity!
God is not only the source of blessing as we will find but He is
the only one who is worthy of ascribing praise, honor to.
- As believers we are blessed by God NOT on the
basis of our personal merit;
but on the basis of our position IN CHRIST and our application of
the full knowledge of Christ from the word!
"Blessed [be] the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ,"
- What relationship is meant when Jesus is
spoken of as having a God and Father? That God is both His God and Father?
-
But what about Father? God being referred to as His Father?
Note carefully what it says in Jn 20:17.
-
The point that He is making is that there is a unique relationship that I have
with the Father that you do not have! Its a distinct, different relationship!
-
For Jesus to call God His Father was a claim to deity.
-
There is another aspect, the designation of Father points
to the establishment of order in the Trinity.
The Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit exist as co-equal in nature, but there is a subordination in the Godhead as to function.
This in no way is a depletion of equality, of character at all,
it is equality with leadership!
who according to His great mercy has
caused us to be born again
Peter
at this point is emphasizing the extent to which God went to redeem us and to
provide us with our salvation. He describes it as God's great mercy!!
- mercy =
refers to God's grace in action, here includes everything related to the
1st Advent of Jesus Christ and the provision of Salvation.
- In the flow of the context it indicates the emphasis
Peter is making on the provision for the removal of the barrier that stands
between God and an unbelieving mankind, that of man's physical birth.
Some Observations
1. Everyone is born physically alive but spiritually dead
separated from God. Eph 2:1
2.
This results from the imputation of Adam's original sin to its genetically
prepared home, the sin nature at the point of physical birth. Rom
- Need to think in
terms of cause and effect;
sin
nature à Imputation of Adam's original sin (IAOS)
IAOS à Spiritual
death
3. We have on our own absolutely no ability to
acquire spiritual life which is required to have a relationship with God. 1 Cor
4. God's integrity, that is, His holiness will
not permit Him to have a relationship with unrighteousness,
that is sin and evil. Hab. 1:13
5. For mankind to acquire and maintain a
relationship with God we must acquire God's life which is both spiritual and
eternal.
6. At the point of faith in Christ, that is
salvation, we acquire a human spirit plus the ministry of the Holy Spirit who
now indwells to enable us to have fellowship with God.
7. At the same time, that is the point of
salvation, we also acquire eternal life
which enables us to have fellowship with God for eternity.
8. We should note that spiritual life and
eternal life can only be imparted by one who possesses this life. John 1:12-13
9. Many attempts to avoid or reject the problem
of our being born in Adam and the ramifications of the barrier it raises
between God and man.
a. the
idea of the brotherhood of man, we're all children of God. Argument of the
Pharisees in John 8:31-59
b. have the substitute of religion, that is ritual for
spiritual life.
c. have
today the rise of cults, mysticism and other Satanic counterfeits with all
there attendant solutions to the problem of the barrier of human birth. (human works)
10. God's simple solution to the problem of our
physical birth is regeneration, being born again.
has caused us to be born again
This takes us to the
work of the Holy Spirit in Salvation.
So Peter here is
describing salvation as a new birth, a second birth! It's a spiritual birth. Ties to being a new creation in Christ 2 Cor 5:17.