The first chapter of the Apostle Peter’s first epistle is itself a mini-Bible.  One of the Truths found therein involves the three “births” the salvation seeker must undergo in order to inherit the Lord’s promise of eternal life.  We will study this chapter basically on a verse-by-verse basis with an occasional side-step in order to tie certain segments of the message together.  Let us begin our study of this very important Truth whose understanding and completion is absolutely necessary for salvation.

Verse one: Peter identifies himself as “an apostle (one who is sent) of Christ.”  Having heard the  Lord’s Gospel taught by Jesus Himself and having watched Him live that Gospel, while obeying His Father’s Law, the apostle was prepared to proclaim in voice and print what he had heard and seen to those who would live by his Words and join him and their Savior in the Kingdom of God.  Peter addresses his letter to the “strangers” (dispersed Jews) who had scattered throughout Asia Minor following the founding of the Church of God on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D.  Unbelieving Jews had persecuted them severely, forcing them to leave the Holy Land.  In this way the Gospel soon spread abroad and eventually around the world.  In 2:10,11 and 25 Peter refers to those “strangers” as “dearly beloved” “pilgrims” who, in the past, had wandered away from God.  Of late they had heard His call to them through the apostles and had returned to Him.

Verse two: Peter calls these Jewish converts God’s “elect,” meaning that they were some of His Chosen People–the 12 tribes of Israel.  The people called Jews were the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi.  Those few who had embraced Jesus of Nazareth had been sanctified by the grace of God through His Spirit.  Modern day Jews are the descendants of the three tribes who had been separated from the other tribes (known as Israel) following the national split over a taxation issue.  Read Israel: the Divided Natioin and Who and Where is Israel Today?  Key words– Divided and Who respectively.

Verse three: Peter blesses the Godhead (Father and Son) who had “begotten us (including Peter) AGAIN.”  Those saints, like every human ever born, had been “begotten” by their natural fathers and mothers.  This is the FIRST BIRTH of the three births saints must experience.  “Begotten” is the same meaning as the words “conception” and “fathered.”  Note Matthew 1:2-16 where men are said to have been “begotten” (“fathered”–KJV-ER version) by their biological fathers who had provided the male sperm which fertilized the female egg which had resulted in the offspring named in the passage.

Note the word “again” relative to having been “begotten.”  This is the saint’s SECOND BIRTH.  This begettal refers to having been converted from sinner to saint by having spiritually died to one’s old life of sin, having reversed one’s life course, then having gone in the opposite direction.  This process produces a re-created being in which the “old man” has been put to death and the “new man” has been created by God in His spiritual likeness (Col. 3:9,10/ 2 Cor. 5:17).  The new creation is returned to the same spiritual status as Adam was following his creation in the physical image and spiritual likeness of God.  At that time Adam was without sin–holy.  Recall that Jesus is called the “second Adam,” meaning that the two were spiritually the same–holy.  Only when Adam sinned did his spiritual likeness to Jesus disappear.  Before that time he was as pure, holy and powerful as Jesus would later be.  Read The Unknown Power of God’s Very Elect and “You Walk as Men.”  Key words–Elect and Walk respectively.

Note the word “hope” relative to the saint’s future resurrection.  Read The Three Resurrections.  Key word–Three.  Contrary to universal church opinion, we are not awarded salvation in this life.  In faith we hope for it and, if we endure to the end of our lives or the end of the age in our re-created (new man) condition of holiness, we will receive eternal life upon the return of Christ (Mat. 10:22; 24:13,14/ 1 Pet. 1:5,9).  Read Hope and Salvation.  Key word–Hope.  Verse five affirms this Truth, assuring the true saint that if we hear the voice of God through the indwelling Holy Spirit and obey what we hear we will receive salvation from Jesus Christ at His revealing (Second Advent–return to earth) when He will call both the living and the dead to Him and take them to the Promised Land where He will establish the Kingdom of God.  Read the series by that name.  Key word–Kingdom.  The words “last time” mean the end of the age when Christ returns for His true saints.  This event is referred to as Christ’s “appearing” in verse 7.

Verses six through nine: Here Peter warns all who belong to Christ that theirs would not be an easy life.  There would be great temptations from Satan.  Read Persecution by that name.  There would also be testing from God and much “fire” to be walked through so that God can determine who will stand with Him and withstand Satan’s “fiery darts” as did Jesus.  He did so by using the same Holy Spirit as His true converts have received.  Read Revelation 3:21 and 1 John 2:6. These trials, which are necessary, are precious to the Lord for they serve to separate spiritual sheep from goats, wheat from tares, good fish from bad fish, contenders (for salvation) from pretenders.  God’s true saints rejoice in testing and tribulation, knowing that in the end (the “last (end of) time” vs 5) they will receive salvation.  Romans 5:21 and 6:22 confirm this Truth, noting that the END RESULT OF ONE’S WALK OF HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS WILL BE EVERLASTING LIFE.

In verse 8 Peter notes that the true saint LOVES JESUS CHRIST.  In John 14:15,23 and Matthew 19:17 Jesus says that we must prove our love for Him by obeying His commandments (vs 15), which are His words (vs 23).  His Words comprise His Law which He condensed and codified in stone the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai.  In John 15:10 Jesus says that if we are to remain in God’s love we must obey the commandments (Law), just as He (Jesus) had to obey them in order to remain in God’s love.  Please read those verses carefully and with an open mind.  Simply put: JESUS WAS A MAN LIKE YOU AND ME.  HE HAD TO OBEY GOD IN ORDER TO BECOME HIS MESSIAH.  HE WAS TEMPTED AS WE ARE, “YET WITHOUT SIN.”  THEREFORE HE CAN COMMAND US TO DO THE SAME.  WE HAVE NO EXCUSE.  IF ADAM’S SIN GENE HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED INTO MAN’S SPIRITUAL DNA JESUS WOULD HAVE INHERITED IT FROM MARY.  RECALL THAT GOD CALLED ABEL “RIGHTEOUS.”  OBVIOUSLY HE DID NOT INHERIT HIS FATHER’S SIN GENE.  AND NEITHER HAVE WE.  Read Original Sin.  Key word–Original.

Verses ten through twelve: Here Peter reminds the Jewish Christians that the prophets of old also had the Holy Spirit within them which led them as God gave instructions through the Spirit.  Then, as now, only those who are led by the Holy Spirit abiding within them are true sons of God (Rom. 8:14).  The prophets of old preached about the coming Christ and the persecution He would endure for the sake of those who would follow His example of holiness and righteousness to the end as did He.  Note that the Holy Spirit is called both the Spirit of Christ (vs 11), which was “in Christ” (Rom. 8:2) and the Spirit of the Lord God (Isa. 61:1/Mat. 3:16).  The Holy Spirit is not part of a supposed trinity, but is rather the power of and shared by both God and Christ.  Read The Trinity.  Key word–Trinity.  That same Spirit inhabits the true saint/convert and makes John 14:12 a reality in the life of the Very Elect.  Two “births” down, one to go.  L.J.