1 Peter 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Peter 1:3

"he has caused us to be born again". Being "born again" is the action. The action is being performed by "he", who is God. And the action is being performed on "us", those who are Christians and thus have been "born again". As I'm reading, I often get quite confused and mixed up with complex words and sentence structures. It is important to keep in mind the core idea or main point of a passage. Here, let's remember and keep in mind that we are talking about being "born again". God has caused us to be born again.

Now that we've got the main point, let's start back at the beginning. Peter begins with praise. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ". He is thankful. For what? Did you forget? The core is of course "he has caused us to be born again".

Moving on, being born again is "according to his great mercy". Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Everyone is a sinner (Rom 3:23). Sinners deserve punishment for their sins (Rom 6:23). What mercy looks like is not getting the punishment that you deserve. What does that look like? Being saved, being born again. It is because God is so merciful that he does this. His mercy is so great that in a sense it "allows" him to cause us to be born again. I guess that would mean if he didn't have mercy or had too little mercy, then he wouldn't cause us to be born again.

I'd like to add one more thing with regards to being born again. It is written here that "he has caused us to be born again". But, even the act of being born indicates something that is being acted upon you. In other words, you cannot cause your own birth. When it comes to being born, people do not act upon or do anything to bring this about. Instead, the act of being born is a result of what other people are doing and not yourself.

Next, we see what we are being born again "to", or "because" (NLT). Christians are born again to a "living hope". First of all, this is certainly living. It is alive and not dead. Jesus is raised! And that's exactly why we have hope. Jesus is alive and he defeated death. This is why we have hope. This is also why it is "through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead".

Wow, that's a lot in a single verse. Peter doesn't let up. So many of these verses are jam packed! Let us remember what he has done to cause us Christians to be born again.

1 Peter 1:2

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

1 Peter 1:2

Okay. So we've got a bunch of different things being said here. Before we break it down, let's step back for a second and remind ourselves what's going on. Well, we're at the beginning of the letter and we know it's written by Peter and written to "elect exiles of the Dispersion" (1:1). As we begin verse 2, "according to" is referring back to these people Peter is addressing in his letter. And so, let's keep in mind who or what is being referred to.

On another note, we also see that the construction of the two verses together flow naturally from "chosen" in NASB.

To those who reside as strangers, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

1 Peter 1:1-2 (NASB)

In any case, let's start looking at these different parts of verse 2...

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father

If we follow the structure of NASB, it seems as though we are referring to these people being chosen when speaking about the foreknowledge of God the Father. First of all, this is obviously something that is being attributed to God the Father. It's not as if this foreknowledge is from Peter or from the Christians or anyone else. God the Father is the one who has this foreknowledge. Okay, so what is it? What is foreknowledge? Is it simply just knowing about it ahead of time? Did God simply know who would be chosen or elect beforehand? Some people may think that's all it means, but I suspect it's something more. However, let's come back to that later and move on for now.

in the sanctification of the Spirit

Okay, so we're talking about being chosen, and that is tied to foreknowledge. Continuing on that train of though, we now come to sanctification. Sanctification, being tied to being chosen, is something that is of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit does it's work in us, and that work is sanctification. What is sanctification? It is the process of us being holy and set apart. Specifically, we see the work as the setting us apart from sin.

for obedience to Jesus Christ

Along with sanctification, we get obedience. I guess you could call both sanctification and obedience goals or results of being chosen. 

and for sprinkling with his blood

What's up with this? Do we get sprinkled with his blood? This is a picture of what Moses did.

And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

Exodus 24:8

Moses sprinkled the blood on the people as a symbol sealing their covenant. Similarly, the shedding of Christ's blood is necessary for the new covenant.

So What?

So what? I don't know what. At the very least, Peter is telling us who he's writing to and going on about who they are. Who are they? They've been dispersed. As we will read in this letter, they don't have it easy and have a lot of troubles. Are they beaten down? Are they poor? Are they the lowest of society? Well, when it comes to the only identity that matters, they are foreknown by the Father, sanctified by the Spirit, for obedience to Christ. And, of course, brought about by Jesus's blood.

1 Peter 1:1

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

1 Peter 1:1

Author: Peter

This is Peter. You know him. He confessed Jesus as the Christ (Mt 16:16, Mk 8:29, Lk 9:20). He also denied Jesus three times (Mt 26, Lk 22, Mk 14, Jn 18). He got second place in a foot race (Jn 20:4). This is the same Peter who writes this letter.

Recipients: Elect exiles of the Dispersion

Elect

This, referring to those chosen or elected. More specifically, it is referring to those chosen or elected by God. God is the one who performs this action and he does this choosing individuals for salvation. Thus, these are Christians.

Exiles

Exiles are people forced to live away from their country. They are strangers in the land they live. They may have been forced out of their homelands due to their identity as Christians. This parallels the idea that all Christians are exiles in a way. They are people who do not have their true citizenship on this earth.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Philippian 3:20

As citizens of heaven, all Christians are living as strangers or foreigners in this land that is not truly our forever home.

Dispersion

The word refers to the scattering of Jews from Israel throughout the world. But these are not necessarily Jews. In fact, they are most likely Gentiles. So, here it is not referring to "dispersion" as the scattering of the Jews. Instead, these are Christians who have been dispersed spiritually. This meaning is similar to the word for Exile. Why did they have both words? I'm not sure. Perhaps to invoke a bit of the meaning and ideas from the scattering of the Jews.