1 Peter 1:3
“According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Modern evangelicalism has taught people that they are born again by praying the sinner’s prayer. While the manner by which we are regenerated cannot be confined to a single formula, Peter tells us how we are born again to a living hope.
Mercy Alone
We are not born again because of our confession. We confess that Jesus is Lord and Savior as a result of God’s mercy. We have experienced God’s mercy and compassion firsthand. There is nothing in us that can affect God’s mercy. He has shown us mercy only because that is his nature. He is a merciful God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. As a response to his character, we confess with our lips that Jesus is indeed Lord and worthy of worship.
Mercy does not come to us because we seek it. It is neither God’s response to our sincerity. Left to ourselves, we would never seek God as we ought. Our hearts are never neutral but are inclined away from the Creator. No one is ever in a position for mercy. God’s mercy came to us because we are undeserving, unaware, and resistant.
This is what makes mercy, mercy. We cannot cause God to give it to us. We cannot trigger mercy by a prayer, a decision, or a moment of revelation. It flows from God’s very heart. Before we ever decided to speak His name, He had already set His mercy upon us. Before we ever turned to Him, He had already turned toward us.
As genuine as our confession is, it cannot stand as the cause of our new birth. It can only be the evidence of it. Our lips confess because our hearts have already been touched. Our eyes see only because mercy has already been given to us.
And this mercy is not shallow or temporary. It is not a passing kindness. It is a deep, initiating mercy that reaches into the very condition of our souls. It does not merely offer help. It brings life. It does not simply invite us closer. It makes us alive so that we can come. This is why all boasting is silenced. Because even the first movement toward God is not ours. It is mercy that moved first.
God Alone
Not only is it by mercy alone. It is by God alone. It is by God’s doing that we are born again. He is the one who has caused us to experience this regeneration, this new birth. We were once blind, but now we see, and it is God who has caused that light to illuminate our souls so that now our eyes are open. We are no longer bound to the darkness of sin and death.
We have been groping in darkness for too long, but something—no—someone has done a miraculous thing that has caused our vision to come upon us. He did not just flick a switch so that there is light around us. Light has been there all along. God has been there all along. But because of our blindness as a result of sin, we have been prisoners of darkness.
Truth was present, but we could not perceive it. Beauty surrounded us, but we could not recognise it. Even when confronted with what is good and true, our hearts resisted because our nature was still bound to what we once were.
And then God said, “Let there be light.” No. God did not just improve our eyesight. He created in us the capacity to see.
It is not that the light became brighter. It is that our eyes were finally opened.
And we didn’t have any part to play in this process. It was God alone who did it.
Resurrection Alone
Our new birth is made possible through the resurrection of Jesus. Just as the nation of Israel is forgiven for their sins only when the High Priest has successfully come out alive from the Holy of Holies and not been struck down in God’s presence, so are we forgiven of all our sins only because Jesus has come out of the grave.
As the Apostle Paul had written, if Christ did not resurrect from the dead, we would still be in our sins, and our faith would be unavailing. That Jesus rose from the grave is not merely a sign that death has been defeated, but a confirmation that the work of Christ has been accepted. If Jesus had remained in the tomb, there would be no assurance that sin had been fully dealt with.
But praise be to God, Jesus did not remain in the tomb. He rose, and in rising, He declared that the penalty for sin has been paid. Justice has been satisfied. New life is now secured for us, His people. This is the exact reason our hope is called a living hope. It is not a dead hope. It is not anchored in an idea or a mere memory. It is anchored in a living Person, and that person is Jesus Christ—God Himself. The One who died now lives. Because He lives, the life we receive is neither temporary nor fragile. It is enduring, alive in the same exact way that Jesus is alive.
This new birth that we now enjoy has been made possible only through the resurrection of Christ. That is the exact reason we rejoice today. Our life flows from it. When Christ rose, He did not rise as a private individual. He rose as our representative. What happened to Him now defines what happens to us and to all who belong to Him. His victory is our victory. His life is our life.
Christ is risen! Hallelujah!
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