“Who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God” (I Peter 1:21).

In the first chapter of Peter’s first epistle are three beautiful references to our blessed hope in Christ. Our hope finds its birth in the resurrection of Christ, its fulfillment in the revelation of Christ, and its eternal assurance in the redemption of Christ.

First of all, we note that He has “begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3). We “were dead in trespasses and sins . . . having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:1,12), but then the Lord Jesus Christ “was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification,” so that now we can “rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 4:25; 5:2).

In this present life, secondly, we must seek to live in the light of His grace, and then “hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (I Peter 1:13). We already know His grace in salvation, but then we shall know the exceeding riches of His grace, and “every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure” (I John 3:3).

Finally, we know that we “were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold. . . . But with the precious blood of Christ . . . foreordained before the foundation of the world . . . that your faith and hope might be in God” (I Peter 1:18–21). “By His own blood” He has “obtained eternal redemption for us,” and this glorious “hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast” (Hebrews 9:12; 6:19). Redeemed, revealed, and resurrected—by Him we believe in God, with faith and hope. HMM