Begotten Again

According to His Abundant Mercy

Written Sermon · Ophel

In This Sermon

• The Scattered Discover Where They Really Belong
• The Redeemed Discover What God Has Done to Make Them His Own
• The Helpless Discover Why God Gave Them Life
• The Living Discover Why Their Hope Can Never Die
• Blessed Be God

1 Peter 1:1–3 · KJV

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 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,”

There are passages of Scripture where the truth is so concentrated that we need to slow down before moving through it. The opening words of 1 Peter are like that.

Peter is writing to people he calls “strangers scattered.” Before this letter is finished, he will speak to them about suffering, holiness, submission, relationships, spiritual warfare, and the glory that is yet to come. There will be commands to obey. There will be paths to walk. But Peter does not begin with what they must do. He begins with what God has done. Before the command comes the gospel.

Before Peter speaks about their suffering, he speaks about their salvation. Before he calls them to holiness, he speaks of the sanctifying work of the Spirit. Before he calls them to obedience, he speaks of the blood of Jesus Christ. Before he tells them how to live in this world, he reminds them that God, according to His abundant mercy, has begotten them again.

Peter begins by lifting the eyes of scattered people away from themselves and toward God. And by verse 3, something happens. Explanation becomes worship. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…”

Peter has looked at what God has done, and he can no longer merely describe it. He must bless the God who did it.

Perhaps that is where these verses are meant to bring us as well. Not first to ourselves. Not first to our circumstances. Not even first to what we need to do. But to God. To His mercy. To Christ’s blood. To the resurrection. To the wonder that God gives life to those who had none.

And when we have seen it, perhaps we too will understand why Peter says: “Blessed be God.”

The Scattered Discover Where They Really Belong

Peter knows exactly where these believers live. He names the places. Pontus. Galatia. Cappadocia. Asia. Bithynia. They are scattered across a vast region. Yet Peter calls them: “strangers.” They live there, but those places do not finally define them.

Peter will use the language again: “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims…” —1 Peter 2:11

They work here. They raise their families here. They experience joy here. They suffer here. But ultimately they belong somewhere else.

And there is something wonderfully comforting about the way Peter begins. They are scattered, but they are not lost. They are strangers in the world, but they are not strangers to God. Because Peter immediately says: “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…”

Before Peter tells them anything about what they are experiencing, he tells them something about the God who knows them. Their scattering has not placed them beyond His sight. Their circumstances have not removed them from His purpose.

Their earthly condition does not determine their heavenly identity. The world sees scattered strangers. God sees His people.

And when Peter reaches the final words of this letter, he will say: “Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.” —1 Peter 5:14

There is a beautiful movement from the first verse of the letter to the last. At the beginning: “strangers scattered.” At the end: “in Christ Jesus.” Their earthly locations are many. Their deepest location is one. They are in Christ.

That matters because circumstances have a way of becoming so large that they begin telling us who we are. A trial becomes large. A disappointment becomes large. A loss becomes large. An uncertainty becomes large. And before long, we begin interpreting God through what is happening around us.

Peter reverses that. He teaches these believers to interpret what is happening around them through what God has revealed concerning them. They are strangers. Yes. They are scattered. Yes. But they are known by God.

Christian, your circumstances do not tell the whole story. If you belong to Jesus Christ, your deepest identity is not found in where you are. It is found in Whose you are.

And Peter is only beginning. Because the God who knows His people is the God who has acted to make them His own.

The Redeemed Discover What God Has Done to Make Them His Own

Slow down and listen to Peter. God the Father. The Spirit. Jesus Christ. The Father foreknows. The Spirit sanctifies. The blood of Jesus Christ is sprinkled. The entire Godhead stands before us in one verse.

Before Peter ever speaks about what these believers are going to do for God, he speaks about what God has done for them. Salvation is God’s work. Jonah confessed: “Salvation is of the LORD.” —Jonah 2:9

Peter’s words seem almost to unfold that declaration. The Father’s purpose. The Spirit’s sanctifying work. The Son’s precious blood. There is nowhere for human boasting to stand. All glory belongs to God.

But the work of God has direction. Peter says: “through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience…” The Spirit sets apart: “unto obedience.” God does not redeem a people merely to leave them where He found them. He sets them apart for Himself.

Peter will return to this thought: “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:” —1 Peter 1:14 And again: “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit…” —1 Peter 1:22 A thread has begun. Obedience.

But notice the order. Obedience does not produce the saving work of the Spirit. The Spirit’s sanctifying work produces a people unto obedience. We do not obey so that God will redeem us. We obey because we have been brought to Him and now belong to Him.

Peter himself knew that Christian obedience did not mean sinless perfection. The man writing these words once stood beside a fire and three times denied that he knew Jesus Christ. Yet the risen Christ sought Peter. Christ restored Peter. Christ commissioned Peter. And now that same Peter writes: “unto obedience.”

The Christian life is not the record of perfect people proving how well they can perform. It is the life of redeemed people who now belong to Another. His Word matters differently. His will matters differently. His glory matters differently. Sin remains, but it is no longer the rightful master. There is a new allegiance.

And Peter does not leave obedience standing alone. He says: “unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.”

Those words carry us backward in Scripture. At Sinai, Moses read the covenant before Israel, and the people said: “All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be

obedient.” —Exodus 24:7 Then: “And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant…” —Exodus 24:8

Obedience. Blood. Sprinkling. And now Peter brings those words together again. But the blood is different. “the blood of Jesus Christ.”

Peter will return to it: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold…” —1 Peter 1:18 Then: “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:” — 1 Peter 1:19

Precious blood. We have heard those words so often that we can pass over them too quickly. But stop and consider them. The blood of Jesus Christ.

The eternal Son of God took flesh. He lived among men without sin. He went willingly to Calvary. Peter will later say: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree…” —1 Peter 2:24 And again: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God…” —1 Peter 3:18

The Just suffered for the unjust. Why? “that he might bring us to God.”

We could not bring ourselves. Our righteousness could not bring us. Our religion could not bring us. Our obedience could not bring us. Christ did.

He bore our sins. He shed His blood. He died. He was buried. He rose again. And He did it: “that he might bring us to God.”

Now obedience begins to look different. It is no longer merely, “What must I do?” The gospel asks something deeper: How can the life He purchased continue to be lived merely for itself?

Paul said: “For the love of Christ constraineth us…” —2 Corinthians 5:14 And then: “And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.” —2 Corinthians 5:15

Christ died. Christ rose. And: “they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves.”

The gospel does not merely tell the sinner how to be saved. It continually reminds the saved man why his life no longer belongs to himself.

The Helpless Discover Why God Gave Them Life

Doctrine has become doxology. Truth has reached Peter’s heart. He cannot merely explain what God has done. He must bless the God who did it.

And then Peter tells us why God acted: “which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again…”

There is the fountain. Mercy. Not our merit. Not our goodness. Not our worthiness. Not something God found within us that obligated Him to save. “According to his abundant mercy.”

Paul speaks similarly: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us…” —Ephesians 2:4 Paul says: “rich in mercy.” Peter says: “abundant mercy.”

Perhaps we should stay there for a moment. Why am I here at all? Mercy. Why would God act toward a sinner who could not save himself? Mercy.

Why did the Father send the Son? Why did Christ bear sin? Why does the Spirit work? Why has life come where there was death? Peter does not direct us inward for the answer. He directs us upward. “According to his abundant mercy.”

And what has this merciful God done? “hath begotten us again.” That is far greater than improvement. God gives life.

Jesus told Nicodemus: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” —John 3:3 And again: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” —John 3:7

Peter says: “hath begotten us again.” Christianity is not merely an improved version of the old life. It is not simply better habits. It is not merely increased religious interest. There must be life from God.

Peter will return to it before the chapter ends: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God…” —1 Peter 1:23

Verse 3: “begotten us again.” Verse 23: “being born again.” There is another thread running through the chapter. God has done something only God could do. He has given life.

And where God gives life, life begins to show itself. Not instant maturity. Not sinless perfection. But life. There will be hunger. There will be growth. There will be repentance. There will be chastening. There will be obedience. There will be stumbling and rising. There will be a growing desire for Christ. Those things do not purchase life. They appear because life is there.

But even now, Peter will not allow us to become occupied with ourselves. Why did God give that life? “According to his abundant mercy.”

Christian, you will never understand your salvation by staring at yourself long enough. Look at His mercy. Look at Christ. Look at His blood. Look at what God has done. And when Peter looks long enough, he says: “Blessed be God.”

The Living Discover Why Their Hope Can Never Die

Notice the movement. Verse 2: “unto obedience.” Verse 3: “unto a lively hope.”

The life God gives has direction. It changes how we live: unto obedience. And it changes what we are looking toward: unto a living hope.

Peter does not tell these scattered believers merely to remain optimistic. Their hope is not alive because they possess naturally hopeful personalities. Their hope

lives because something happened outside of them: “the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” Our hope lives because Christ lives.

Peter is writing to people who will suffer. Their circumstances may become harder rather than easier. Some things may never be restored in this life. But their hope cannot die because their hope does not live by circumstances. It lives by resurrection.

Think about the man writing those words. Peter watched Jesus die. He knew the body had been placed in a tomb. For a brief time, everything must have appeared finished. Then came resurrection morning. Peter ran to the tomb. And afterward Peter saw Him. Alive.

The man writing: “a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” had seen the risen Christ. Death had met Jesus Christ. And death could not hold Him.

Peter preached: “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” —Acts 2:24 It was not possible.

Death does not get the final word. The grave does not get the final word. Suffering does not get the final word. Christ does. Because Christ lives.

And Peter will continue this thread. Later in this chapter: “the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” —1 Peter 1:11

Near the end of the letter: “But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while…” —1 Peter 5:10

Suffering. Then glory. Christ walked that road first. And those who belong to Him must never interpret present suffering as though suffering were the end of the story. There is resurrection. There is glory. There is a living Christ. Therefore there is a living hope.

Christian, your hope is not alive because you are strong enough to keep it alive. Your hope lives because Jesus Christ lives.

Blessed Be God

Look at what God has placed before us in only three verses. We were strangers. Yet God knew us. The Father purposed. The Spirit sanctified. Christ shed His blood. We were brought unto obedience. Mercy abounded. God begat us again. Hope came alive. Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

And after looking at all of it, Peter does not give us a clever conclusion. He worships. “Blessed be God.”

If you are here without Christ, everything Peter has described tells you where salvation is found. Not in yourself. Not in your righteousness. Not in your ability to make yourself worthy.

Christ, the Just One, suffered for the unjust. He bore sin in His own body upon the tree. He shed His precious blood. He died. He was buried. He rose again.

And Scripture calls you to: “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” —Acts 20:21

Come to Christ. Rest upon Him. The One who died lives. And He saves.

If you have never been born again, hear this invitation personally. You have sinned against a holy God, and you cannot wash away your guilt or give yourself new life. But Jesus Christ died for sinners and rose again. Turn to God in repentance. Lay down your excuses and your confidence in your own goodness, and place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Rest your soul upon what He has done for you.

Will you come to Him today? You do not have to make yourself worthy before you come. Come as a sinner who needs His mercy. Jesus said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” —John 6:37. His promise gives you every reason to come and trust Him.

Do not merely admire the salvation Peter describes. Come to the Saviour Himself. The blood of Christ is sufficient. The risen Christ is able to save. Turn to Him now, and trust Him to do what you could never do for yourself.

But Christian, perhaps these verses call us to something just as necessary. Look again.

We can become so familiar with salvation that words such as blood, mercy, new birth, and resurrection pass through our ears without arresting our hearts. Look again.

You were not redeemed with silver and gold. Precious blood.

Why did God give life? Abundant mercy.

What did He do? Begotten us again.

What do we possess? A living hope.