Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3
We are never told why the Pharisee Nicodemus came to see the Lord Jesus by night, only that he came. But it was a wonderful meeting that produced amazing results. The meeting resulted in Nicodemus becoming a faithful and devoted follower of the Lord Jesus. He proved that by defending Jesus in the Sanhedrin’s debate before the trial of Jesus and by his participation in the burial of Jesus. And the dialogue between the Jewish spiritual leader and the itinerant Preacher from Galilee produced some of the greatest Gospel texts in our Bible. Apart from that meeting, for example, we would not have John 3:16 that we all can quote by heart. From that meeting came the all-important declaration ‘Ye must be born again’ (John 3:3,7). The new birth delivers us from hell, assures us of forgiveness and an eternity in Heaven, and establishes our relationship with God. Apart from the new birth we have and are nothing; with the new birth we have everything. And in our text today, we see the new birth again being discussed with all that it brings us into.
Notice that our text tells us that God has ‘begotten us again’. It’s the same term as used in John 3, the new birth. And it reminds us that it is God who has given us this new birth, it is not something that we have achieved on our own. It reminds us of the great declaration that the prophet Jonah made from the belly of the whale: ‘Salvation is of the Lord’ (Jonah 2:9). And if God has given us our Salvation, there is nothing that anyone can do to take it away from us. Jesus declared, ‘My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand’ (John 10:29). And it is all possible because of another term in our text: ‘His abundant mercy’.
Ethan the Ezrahite knew about and sang about God’s abundant mercy: ‘I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations’ (Psalm 89:1). The Psalms are especially filled with mentions of God’s mercy, in particular His abundant mercy. The word abundant reminds us that there is no limit nor restriction on God’s mercy. We can never exhaust it nor weary God of His willingness to dispense it. And it is because of this abundant mercy that we have access to another precious term in our text, our lively hope.
This term can also be rendered living hope or vibrant hope. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we have the assurance of everlasting life. This hope is not just some long-term expectation that we will one day see fulfilled. No, it is a hope for today, a hope that fills us with joyful expectation, a hope that gives us the energy and excitement to carry on with our Christian testimony here and now.
Our hope in Christ should make us lively Christians. God’s abundant mercy should make us thankful Christians. -Jim MacIntosh