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Peter’s first letter encourages believers to live faithfully as God’s chosen people in a world where trials and suffering are certain. He begins by reminding us of the hope we have through the resurrection of Yeshua and the imperishable inheritance that awaits us. We are called to holiness in our daily lives, humility in our relationships, submission to authority, and persevering in suffering. Through it all, our focus is on Messiah, who suffered for us, secured our salvation, and left an example for us to follow.
Verse 18: For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with perishable things like gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Messiah, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake.
For you know that God paid a ransom to save you. A ransom is the price paid to free slaves or captives. Peter uses that illustration to show what God did for us. Because we joined the rebellion of the fallen angels, we came under the control of the fallen angels. We were part of their dark kingdom. We were also under the control of sin and the sin nature. And death held us in its power.
Question: Who did God pay this ransom to? Not to Satan. He has no rightful claim on us. Not to sin or the sin nature or death. The answer is He paid a ransom to Himself – to satisfy His justice. God’s holiness demands that sin be punished. But His mercy motivates Him to redeem us. At the cross, God’s justice and mercy met. God is both Judge and Redeemer: He demands the price and then pays it Himself through the death of His Son.
God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. The “empty life” refers to life lived apart from God, even if it looks religious or respectable or successful. For the Jewish people Peter is writing to, this meant man-made traditions and rituals that were passed down that could not bring salvation. For Gentiles, living at that time, it meant idolatry and immorality and materialism.
Most people inherit values, patterns of behavior, traditions and goals that are empty. Many pursue career, wealth, or pleasure – but those things too are empty. Only Messiah can give people a life with truth, meaning, purpose and real satisfaction.
Imagine someone who inherits what he thinks is a fortune in cash, gold and jewels, but it turns out to be counterfeit money, fool’s gold (pyrite) and costume jewelry. That’s like the “empty life” we inherit from the world – impressive at first but useless in the end. Salvation and eternal life are the true treasure – genuine wealth that never perishes.
God paid a ransom to save you … it was not paid with perishable things like gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Messiah, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. Gold and silver are the best kinds of money – as more and more people are figuring out. One of the reasons why gold and silver are the best money is because they are so stable, so solid, so enduring. However, even though they are two of the least perishable metals, they are still perishable. They can be destroyed.
The best kinds of money couldn’t redeem us from our captivity to Satan, sin, the sin nature and death. Our ransom was paid with something much more valuable – the precious blood of the Lamb of God. His blood is precious because of who He is – the Messiah and the Son of God – perfect, sinless, spotless, blameless.
The imagery comes from Passover: Israel was spared from the judgment of the death of the firstborn son when the blood of an unblemished lamb was applied to the door of our houses. Yeshua is the greater Passover Lamb, whose sacrifice provides eternal redemption.
Salvation can’t be paid for by anything we do. And it doesn’t need to be. It was paid for with the highest price and then freely given to us. Salvation can only be humbly received by faith – faith in Messiah.
Our salvation required the highest redemption price – the precious blood of the sinless Messiah. Gratitude for the high price it cost the Son of God to redeem us should cause us to no longer live as slaves to the fallen angels, slaves to sin, but as those freed to live for God.
And since God gave His Son’s blood to save us, that means He loves us very very much and is committed to care for us and protect us. This should bring us great confidence and assurance – even in times of trials, hardship, persecution, suffering.
God chose Him as your ransom long before the world began. In eternity past, before the universe was created, God the Father knew He would create humanity, and humanity would fall and join the rebellion of the fallen angels and be taken captive by them. He knew this and planned the way of redemption through His Son.
God’s plan to save a chosen remnant of humanity by the death of His Son is eternal, wise and undefeatable. Therefore we can be confident that we are safe and secure when we are part of that plan.
God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake. The prophets longed to see Messiah’s arrival. Now, in these “last days,” the time of fulfillment has arrived. “Last days” means the time between Messiah’s first and second comings. God’s plan to redeem Jews and Gentiles, hidden for ages, has now been revealed with the arrival of Messiah. We live in the privileged age where God’s plan has been fully revealed. What an amazing thing!
Peter lets us know that all this was done “for our sake” – to benefit us. God chose to sacrifice His Son and then reveal Him so we could hear the truth, believe the Good News about Yeshua, be saved and live forever. Since God planned and accomplished this great salvation for our sake, shouldn’t every day be full of gratitude and thanksgiving?
Through Messiah you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Messiah from the dead and gave him great glory.
Through Messiah you have come to trust in God. Moses and the prophets taught us about God. But Messiah Yeshua taught us much more about God. Because He is the Son of God, and perfectly reflects God, because of Yeshua’s incarnation, and his perfect life, His great teachings, His miracles, His sacrificial death on the cross, and His resurrection – we are now able to really see and know God – how good and wise and loving He is – and we are able to trust Him. Through Messiah you have come to trust in God.
And that was my experience. I grew up in a Jewish family and went to synagogue but I didn’t know God and I didn’t trust in God. It was only after I started reading the New Testament and learned about Yeshua and knew that He is the Messiah and the Son of God and risen from the dead that I really began to trust in God. It was through Messiah that I came to trust in God
So, even when life is confusing or difficult, we’re able to trust this wise and good God who loves us so much, who is so committed to help us now and save us with a great future salvation – and that trust in God brings us peace.
And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Messiah from the dead and gave him great glory. Faith means having confidence in what God said about the past and the present. Hope is faith about God’s promises about the future.
We can place our faith and hope in God because of what He did with Messiah. He raised Messiah from the dead and gave him great glory. God, speaking through the prophets, told us that He would raise Messiah from the dead. The Son of God told us that He would be raised from the dead. And He was! Yeshua’s resurrection is God’s great demonstration that He keeps His word, that He fulfills His promises, that all of God’s word and all of God’s promises can be trusted.
Because of that, we can trust all of God’s word and all of His promises for our lives, like: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from everything that we’ve done wrong; that His Spirit will always live in us, guiding us and protecting us and getting us safely to the goal; that those who believe in Messiah will, like Messiah, be raised from the dead and receive great glory.
Because we know this, we can live with confidence in the present and with hope for the future. Because of this, we can endure trials, resist sin, have joy and live with eternal priorities.
You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. When we obey the truth – by responding to the Good News with faith and repentance, we are cleansed from our sins.
Sin makes us dirty, impure, unclean. Sin corrupts us – our hearts, our nature, our relationships. Sin makes us selfish. It causes us to not care about others, take advantage of others, use people for our own benefit. But when we are cleansed from our sins, we receive a new, godly nature, a nature which is like God’s nature, a nature that’s able to love others – especially our fellow believers.
When we are cleansed from our sins, instead of exploiting people, we are able to love people, care for people, do what is best for people. When we are cleansed from our sins, and have that new nature, we are able to love each other the way God wants us to – as members of a family, as brothers and sisters.
Being cleansed from our sins changes the way we relate to people. If we’ve truly been cleansed, the evidence is that we no longer live selfishly but love sincerely – especially our brothers and sisters in Messiah’s Community. Love is the proof of cleansing, because only those with a new, godly nature can love deeply with all their heart.
The ability to love comes from being born again. And to be born again, we must hear and respond to the Word of God. And hearing and responding to the Word of God, which is eternal, results in eternal life. For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. As the Scriptures say, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.” And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.
For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Human beings are short-lived. We age and we die. But most people don’t want to age and die. They want to live forever. And there are efforts underway to make that happen: repairing DNA damage or lengthening telomeres to slow aging; stem cell therapies; replacing old blood components and worn‑out tissues and organs with those from younger donors; developing artificial organs; deploying nanobots to repair cells, clean arteries, and reverse molecular damage. However, none of these techniques will enable people to overcome aging and death.
But there is a way to live forever. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. The source of our new life does not come from science or technology biology or human effort. It comes from the eternal, living word of God.
God’s Word contains information but it’s so much more than a book of information. It’s living and active and powerful and life‑giving. Something powerful and life-giving happens when a human being believes the Word of God. The Word of God produces new life in us, life that’s not temporary, but life that’s eternal.
Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. Of course, we know that God is eternal. But Peter is teaching us that God’s Word is also eternal – and it produces eternal life in us. In what sense is the Word of God eternal? How is God’s Word eternal?
The words of people are not eternal. They’re temporary. For example, politicians will say something one day and then say something else the next day. Politicians will promise that if we vote for them, they will turn around the economy so we can have a better life – only to be proven wrong. Their words, their promises, don’t last.
On the other hand, what God says will happen, will happen. His words, His promises, aren’t temporary. They’re eternal because they flow from God’s eternal nature.
“Heaven and Earth will pass away,” said Messiah, “but my words will never pass away.”
If God promises that all those who are saved by grace through faith will live forever in His eternal kingdom – we must live forever, we will live forever in His eternal kingdom.
Peter reinforces what he is teaching with a quote from the prophet Isaiah: As the Scriptures say, “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.” Think of grass and beautiful flowers growing in spring. The grass is green and lush and the flowers bloom brightly for a few weeks, but by the fall the grass withers and the flowers fade. Human life is like grass – weak and short‑lived. Human beauty and accomplishments are like flowers – lovely for a moment but soon gone. In contrast, God’s Word is like a redwood tree or a bristlecone pine which can live for thousands of years.
Human life and its beauty and achievements fade quickly, but God’s word never withers, never fades and never loses its power. It lasts forever – as do those who embrace God’s word. So, instead of chasing what is temporary, let’s invest our time, talents and treasures in God’s word – reading it, studying it, knowing it, living it out, and sharing it with others.
“People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.” And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.
Peter lets us know that the eternal word that gives us life is very specific. It’s the Gospel, the Good News, the message about Messiah that the Lord’s representatives, the apostles, preached to us. Faith, which results in salvation, comes by hearing, and specifically by hearing the Good News about Yeshua’s life, death and resurrection. When we hear and understand and believe those truths – something amazing happens. God acts. God’s eternal word plants eternal life in us. We are born again. We have new life. God gives us a new nature that will live forever. The Spirit of God takes up residence in us, living in us, dwelling in us – now and forever.
Our earthly life is fragile and temporary like grass and flowers, but our new life in Messiah is eternal. That means we don’t need to be controlled by fear of trials, hardship, difficulties, aging or death. Our security, our hope rests in God’s eternal word – not in the passing things of this world.
Let’s pray:
Father in Heaven, thank You for reminding us today of the living hope we have through the resurrection of Your Son. Thank You for paying the ransom for our lives – not with gold or silver but with the precious blood of the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
Thank You that Your justice and mercy met at the cross, and that through Messiah we are forgiven, cleansed, and born again to a life that will never end.
Thank You for raising Your Son from the dead and giving Him great glory, and because we are joined to Him by faith, You will raise us from the dead and give us honor and glory.
Let our gratitude for such a great salvation move us to live for You fully, completely, devotedly.
Help us love one another sincerely and deeply, showing the reality of our new nature.
Father, Your Word is eternal and life‑giving. Teach us to treasure it, build our lives on it, and share it with others. May we live not for what fades, but for what endures forever. Amen.