"..we are reborn to experience a living, energetic hope.." 1 Peter 1:3 (TPT)

Get excited!  Be totally present and aware that the Father loves us to such a degree that we have been shown extravagant mercies, which will never be matched by anything else.  

What are those extravagant mercies you say?  It comes down to the phrase “new life” in the text.

The Greek word used here for “new life” is unique to the entire new testament and only occurs twice, once in John 3:3 and is here is 1 Peter 1:3, it is the Greek word “ä-nä-gen-nä'-ō”.

So why is this word so important?  This word shows us that it is God Himself is the one who gives us new birth as newborn believers filled with the life of Christ. God is truly our Father, who gives us new life through his living mercy.  As a husband and wife procreate and produce new life in the form of a child, so God provides the seed (which is His word) which penetrates our minds and begins the process of creating new life (the definition is we are born from above). 

The word “anagennao,” which comes from “gennao,” means “to beget or (by extension) bear (again).” Peter makes it quite clear that he considers those he is writing to as already being born, rather than unborn and within a womb. 

We were spiritually dead in sin with no hope of being revived, as we hear the word of God, we are impregnated by the seed of the Father.  As the seed grows and matures in us it eventually gives birth in our minds, and what is produced is Christ in us, we are changed (transformed). 

This transformation goes to work within our minds, our thinking, and our perspectives change which reveals to us a higher life, which is the work of the Father. We begin the process of restoration of what we were originally designed for, to be brought back into an intimate relationship with the Father and welcomed back into the family of God.

Peter says in this passage “we are reborn to experience a living, energetic hope…”, hope is an expectation or desire of something happening, in this case, Peter says it is a living, energetic or vital hope.  This means that when we are reborn we encounter this new life with a new dynamic, and powerful expectation of God being lively and energetic working within us.  

We begin to see with new eyes, we begin to sense and feel with a new love and compassion for others.  There is an awareness that we are changed into something new, something different, much like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly we become a totally new creature.

How is this all possible?  Peter explains: “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  This is how everything about the Christian life is made possible, and why Christianity has survived for so many generations.  No other religion on earth can claim resurrection from the dead other than Christianity which is what makes it so different than any other belief system out there.  Others may claim social justice or some type of programmatic order or law, but none compare to the claims of Christianity or possess its power and vitality.

The message of the cross of Christ is a simple one, Jesus said: “take up your cross and follow me”, (Luke 9:23) which means embrace death, and sacrifice of your life for the sake of the gospel so that you may have life. Recognize that "as they persecuted me, they will persecute you". (John 15:20).  

Jesus didn’t die on a cross just to save us from sin, He died and suffered on a cross to restore us back to the purpose for which we were originally created to become sons unto the Father, and not just sons but co-heirs with Christ Jesus sharing with Him everything that He had with the Father before He was ever born.  

We have a royal inheritance which is beyond imagining, it is our birthright in Christ Jesus.  But you have to see it to actually see it.  It is a perspective we see with our spiritual eyes because it is living, active, and energetic but invisible to the natural eyes. It is the living hope that Peter was speaking of.

The eyes are the “window to the soul”, but if the eye is clouded or corrupted and has trouble seeing, then maybe a tweek is required to the eye to change our perspective.  

The Christian life is all about perspective, not about physical observances of spiritual things.  

May we grow into a deeper relationship with Christ Jesus to reflect back to the Father who we were intended to be, we were intended to be lovers as God loves us, and to reflect that love to others so that His love might fill the entire earth through us.

Now that is extravagant mercy, and something to get excited about!

Be Blessed;

Stephen Barnett