Ransomed with Christ’s Precious Blood—Lectionary Reflection for Easter 3A (1 Peter 1:17-23)

1 Peter 1:17-23 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁷ If you invoke as Father the one who judges impartially according to each person’s work, live in fear during the time of your exile. ¹⁸ You know that you were ransomed from the futile conduct inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish. ²⁰ He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. ²¹ Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your trust and hope are in God.

²² Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual affection, love one another deeply from the heart. ²³ You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.

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                We might be traveling through the season of Easter (the Gospel reading comes from Luke 24:13-35, the story of Jesus’ appearance to the travelers on the road to Emmaus), but as we celebrate the resurrection, we haven’t left the cross behind. Atonement theories abound, each offering a possible explanation for what the death and resurrection of Jesus mean to our lives. Some are more attractive than others. In this reading from 1 Peter, we have before us a word about God’s impartial justice, which should put the fear of God in us. After all, in the verse that precedes our reading, Peter reminds the reader that it is written “You shall be holy for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). The good news in this is that because of Jesus’ death, his precious blood ransoms us “from the futile conduct inherited from your ancestors.” The ultimate message of this passage is that because of what Jesus has done on our behalf, we have been “born anew” through imperishable seed.  

                While there is more to this reading than an atonement theory, I have been contemplating the various atonement theories and the question of salvation in recent days,  because my co-author on two other books, Ron Allen, and I are thinking about proposing new “Second Thoughts” books about both the death of Jesus and salvation. While penal substitution has been a popular atonement theory in Protestant circles for a long time, it has its problems. Here in 1 Peter, we have this word about a ransom (or perhaps redemption). The question that the so-called “ransom theory” of the atonement has raised concerns the identity of the one to whom the ransom is being paid. Is it God? Is it Satan? Is it someone or something else? Different discussions of the theory offer different possibilities. In this case, the ransom is connected with what Peter (we don’t know the identity of the author, so I’ll just use Peter as shorthand) understands to be “the futile conduct of your ancestors.” I envision this to be a reference to Gentile Christians, people who have been redeemed by Christ from their old ways. They are, according to Peter, also exiles. By that, I sense that Peter has in mind their new identity, having been born anew, but estranged from their old realities. The good news, however, is that while they stood under divine judgment because of their former identity, now things have changed because they have been ransomed/redeemed by the “precious blood of Christ.”

                We know that conversion from one faith to another can disrupt familial and friendship lines. It would also have removed people from their former social and cultural circles, as well as abandoning cultural expectations of giving allegiance to both the local gods and the Roman imperial ones. We tend to forget that offering sacrifices to the Roman gods was for them what saying the pledge of allegiance to the flag is to Americans. It was a civic duty that followers of Jesus could not do without embracing idolatry (early on, when they were seen as simply a branch of Judaism, Christians could get away with ignoring the civic cultic duties. However, when Christianity became more Gentile, they could no longer hide behind their Jewish origins).

                When it comes to Peter’s vision of redemption in Christ, such that the recipients of the letter had been ransomed from their old, futile life, such that they were now exiles or strangers in a strange land. Peter sets this conversation in a cosmic framework, such that they had been redeemed not with silver or gold, but Christ’s precious blood. Looking back to Jewish sacrificial practices, Jesus served as a lamb without defect or blemish. According to Peter, Jesus had been destined for this work from before the foundation of the world. The role Jesus plays in the redemption of Peter’s audience (and of all believers) wasn’t an afterthought but is part of God’s vision for creation. This suggests, of course, Christ’s pre-existence. It doesn’t offer proof of Christ’s divinity because Arius might deny Christ’s divinity but embrace his pre-existence as God’s first created being. However, this does undergird Peter’s cosmic vision of Christ’s work, which was only revealed at the end of the age. While we start with a warning about God’s impartial judgment, which suggests the need for a healthy fear/awe of God, because we have been redeemed through Christ’s precious blood, we can move from fear to trust in the God who raised Christ from the dead. Here we have a word about the resurrection, which fits nicely with our Easter journey. Therefore, we can set our faith and hope in God. The word about the unblemished lamb speaks more of the covenantal relationship God created with Israel and now with the followers of Jesus than it does about propitiating God’s wrath due to our sin.  

                As we move forward in our text, we hear a word about being purified. Peter suggests that this happens because of one’s obedience to the truth, which leads to genuine mutual love. This is not a word about developing a purity culture that is focused on rules and regulations (especially for women), but creating the opportunity for the existence of mutual love within the community. It is wise to remember that love is not always an emotion; we’re not speaking here of romance. Rather, Peter has in mind the need to develop mutual commitment to one another, such that the community of Jesus’ followers might flourish.       

                To reinforce this idea of having been redeemed/ransomed from one’s old futile life, Peter moves on to the concept of new birth. Peter writes in a way that seems to parallel what we find in the Gospel of John, where Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born from above or born again (John 3:1-10) through water and the Spirit so that he can enter the kingdom of God. John likely has baptism in mind as the medium by which one is born from above, or as Peter puts it, “born anew.” This new birth comes through imperishable, not perishable seed. For Peter, this imperishable seed is “the living and enduring word of God.” While this has often been viewed as a reference to scripture, perhaps Peter is following in the footsteps of the Gospel of John, such that Jesus is the logos of God, made flesh (Jn. 1:14).

                Although the assigned reading by the creators of the Revised Common Lectionary ends in verse 23, with this declaration concerning being born anew of imperishable seed, the chapter concludes with verses 24-25, which offers us a quotation from Isaiah 40:6-8. For Peter, this means that the imperishable seed by which we are born anew is unlike the grass or flowers that wither and fade with time, but rather like the word of the Lord that endures forever. Peter concludes the thought by declaring that this “word is the good news that was announced to you” (1 Peter 1:25). Yes, we have been born anew through the imperishable word of God that brings us good news.  With this in mind,

 I will close with this extended quotation from Joel Green’s commentary on 1 Peter:

If the seed from which they were begotten was perishable, then their fate would surely be that of the grass and its flower, which withers and falls off. But if the word of God, the good news, is living and everlasting, and if believers have been given new birth through his word, then the life into which they have been reborn is unending and their love for one another can endure as well. In short, the word of God, the good news, is efficacious in generating, cultivating, and sustaining new life. [Green. 1 Peter (Two Horizons New Testament Commentary) (Kindle Locations 761-764).]

So, recognizing that we face God’s impartial judgment, while also recognizing that we have been redeemed through Christ’s costly offering of his life for us, we can embrace God’s gift of love and life, and share that love with one another in celebration of the resurrection.