The Blessing of the Father

Some words are meant to be read and then read again, but aloud.  Some words require not just the eyes, but the ears as well.  Some words read like music, or high praise, or something akin to angelic sounds.  Such a word comes early in the Apostle Peter's letter to the church.  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  By His great mercy He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of the dead..."  (I Peter1:3)  Right away Peter points those who read his words to the One who is responsible for all the glorious and mysterious truths he is about to proclaim.  He takes away any reason for wondering who is responsible.  

The giver of the wonderful life giving spiritual gifts is God.    What is given is a new birth, but it is not a new birth pointing toward an event in the past, but one which points toward the new which is constantly unfolding because resurrection power has been unleashed in the world.  Because of the defeated cross and the empty tomb, we are born into hope.  There are blessings for us which are too full for words and too rich with spiritual power for us to get our minds around them.   

The Apostle Paul would write another stanza to this hymn of praise Peter is shouting forth as he wrote to the Ephesian Christians, "Remember...you were at that time without Christ...having no hope and without God in the world...But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ...So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and members of the household of God..." (Ephesians 2:11-19)  In a similar vein Peter speaks of the way we have been born into something new, "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people...(I Peter 2:19)  Such is the life into which we have been born through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  "Blessed be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ."