^ This is one of the unique phrases of the Christian vocabulary. It is not to be found in systems of thought which are alien from the Christian religion. It is not to be found in the vocabulary of any of the modern schools which are severed from the facts and forces of the Christian faith. The emphasis of their teaching gathers round about terms of quite a different order, such as culture, training, discipline, education, evolution. The Christian religion has also much to say about the process of evolution. It dwells at length upon the ministries of " growth," " training," " increasing," " putting on," " perfecting." But while it emphasizes " growth," it directs our attention to " birth." While it magnifies the necessity of wise culture, it proclaims the necessity of good seed. So while the Bible lags behind no school in urging the importance of liberal culture, it stands alone in proclaiming the necessity of right germs. You cannot by culture develop the thorn-bush into a laden vine. You cannot by the most exquisite discipline evolve the " natural " man into the " measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." If we had to do merely with perverted growths, then the trainer and pruner might twist the crooked straight. But we are confronted with more than perverted ^ H. A. Birkfl, Studies in the Life and Character of St. Peter, 226.
40 A LIVING HOPE
growths, we have to do with the corrupt and rotting seed. And so the Christian religion raises the previous question. It begins its ministry at a stage prior to the process of evolution. It dis- courses on births and generations, on seeds and germs, and proclaims as its primary postulate, " Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Now, man is not enamoured of that dogmatic postulate. It smites his pride in the forehead. It lays himself and his counsels in the dust. It expresses itself in an alien speech. Men are familiar with the word " educate," the alien word is " regenerate." Political controversy has familiarized them with the word "reform," the alien word is " transfigure." They have made a commonplace of the word " organize," the alien word is " vitalize." They have made almost a fetish of the phrase " moral growth," the alien word is " new birth." i
2. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. — The resurrection of Jesus Christ stands in the forefront of all St. Peter's preaching in the Acts. It stands in the forefront of his Epistle here. No one had richer experience of the abundant mercy of God upon the Eesurrection Day than St. Peter himself, and no one more needed a birth and quickening to new hope upon that day. Hope that had died living again through the resurrec- tion of Christ exactly illustrates his own experience.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the closing and culminat- ing act of the redemption that He wrought. If the work had not thereby been completed, it would have been of no avail. The Spirit, through St. Paul, has clearly borne witness that unless the Eedeemer's work had been crowned by His resurrection, our hopes would have been vain (1 Cor. xv. 17). The meaning is, that the completed work of Christ saves Hispeople from sin, and gives them a right to the eternal inheritance. Those who are born again rise with Him into resurrection life. The life that they now live in the flesh, they live by the faith of the Son of God. Earth becomes to these heirs the vestibule of heaven.
^ The writers of the New Testament believed that Christ was the Firstborn from the dead ; and we see how this altered the whole face of the world and life. It enlarged almost infinitely the interest even of this present mortal life on earth by giving it a meaning and a future ; but it transferred the scene of man's
1 J. H. Jowett.
I PETER I. 3 41
true and free perfect existence to a sphere far beyond this, far beyond the swift passage of the seventy years with their weakness and sorrow, far beyond that transitory but laborious stage, when every day, as it came and went, brought its trial, its temptation, its choice, perhaps its fall — to the sphere where all was eternal and all was accomplished. And it did this, it opened this great moral hope, as never had been done before ; not for the great and elect souls of the race only, but for the obscure and down-trodden crowds, the multitudes that none can number — the slave, the lost, the abject, the miserable. For in His own person, Son of God and Son of Man, He had made the step from old things to new ; and He had made it for all His brethren .^
O'er the dead King low in the dust
No ray supernal gleams ; While hope in hearts by sorrow crushed
Dies with the waning beams.
The third day dawns ; hush ! 'tis the beat
Of quiv'ring angel- wings; And hark ! a strain, glad, clear, and sweet
High through the welkin rings.
" Hail ! Victor, hail ! through direful strife The Grave, Death, Hell o'ercome;
Crowned with the might of Eisen Life To draw Thy wand'rers home."