The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 22

in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ is exerting its living power, cleansing him daily nnd hourly from every stain of sin. Thus we may well pray that the grace of our Lord Jesus Obrist, nrnl the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost may be with us e.11, and that for evermore; for the love of God first oalled us into e. st11te of salvation, the communion of the Holy Ghost is the only source of that holiness without which we cannot see God, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ alone can cleanse ns from our sins e.nd keep us in the way of obedience. III. TrIE SALUTATION. 1. Grace. It is the favour of God, the source of every blessing, the origin of our salvation: "By grace are ye saved." It comes frona God; it is not earned by any merit of ours; we pray for it for ourselves and for our t'Mmds; we can ask for nothing better. 2. Peace. When the grace of God abideth on a soul there is peace within the heart; he must be at peace with God and with himself who lives in the light of grace. Peace is twofold: (1) admission into covenant with God through the atoning blood; and (2) the rest of the believing soul in God's love and mercy (see homiletics on Phil. i. 2). 3. St. Peters addition. "Grace and peace" is St. Paul's ordinary form of salutation; St. Peter adds the prayer that it may be multi- plied. "The path of the just is as the shining light, shining more and more unto the perfect day." 'fhe grace of God is a power; it draws the Christian onward "from grace to grace." As he grows in grace, the gift of peace becomes fuller and more blessed, passing all understanding. 'l'he life of faith is a progress; we cannot stand still; if we are not advancing, we must be receding. Our prayer must be to increase more and more. LESSONS. 1. Christ's people are strangers here; they must lift up their hearts to their everlasting home. 2. 'l'hey are the elect of God; they shall be his when he maketh up his jewels. 3. They must live a confecrated life, keeping themselves, by the grace of God, within the sphere of the blessed Spirit's influence. 4. They must walk always in the path of holy obedience; so shall the blood of sprinkling continually cleanse them from their sin. Vers. 3-12.-Thanksgiving. I. FoR THE HOPE OF THE CHRISTIAN. 1. The ground of that hope. It is the mercy of God. We need to pray constantly, "Have mercy upon us, miserable sinners;" for, indeed, we are sinners, and sinners must be miserable, unless God is pleased to forgive them and to reconcile them to himself. But God did more than forgive; in his mercy he begat us again. The heavenly inheritance is ours by right of the new birth; we hope for it because we are children of God. We were by nature children of wrath (Eph. ii. 3), but God begat us again; and, if we are chil- dren, then are we heirs, heirs of God. 2. The character of that hope. It is a livi□ g hope. It is the hope of life, and it is full of life; it is bright, active, cheerful; it springs up ever fresh and clear in the Christian's heart, giving calm peace and inner joy even in the midst of troubles. And it dieth not; worldly hopes perish and die; they mock us with a deluding expectation, but they end in disappointment, and leave us sad and hopeless. "The hope of unjust men perisheth" (Prov. xi. 7), often while they live, always when they die. But "the righteous bath hope in his death" (Prov. xiv. 32); for his hope liveth even in death. "The world," says Archbishop Leighton, "dares say no more for its device than Dum spiro spero; but the children of God can add by virtue of this living hope, Dum exspiro spero." 3. The means by which we are begotten again into that hope. It was by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 'l'he new birth is sometimes ascribed, says Archbishop Leighton, "to the sub- ordinate means-to baptism, called therefore the !aver of regeneration (Titus iii. 5); to the Word of God (Jas. i. 18); to the ministers of this Word, as 1 Cor. iv. 15, 'For though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus have I begotten you through the gospel." - But these subordinate means derive their efficacy from the mercy of God saving us through the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the only begotten Son. His resurrection was in some sense a birth into a new life of mediation and intercession. Compare St. Paul's application of P!, ii. 7, 'Thou art my Son; this dlly have I begotten thee,' to our Lord's resur- rection (Acts xiii. 33). And it is the cause of our new birth. St. Paul speaks of riijing with Obrist in baptism (Col. ii. 12); but we can only rise with Christ through his resurrection. That resurrection is 'not only the exemplar, but the e5icient cause'  16 THE FIRST EPISTLE GENERAL OF PE'l'ER. [oa. 1. 1-25.