1 Peter 1: 3-4

 (1 Peter 1: 3-4)

 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

 

 “hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection” Because of Jesus' resurrection, those who are in Christ are born again. Many church people think of the new birth as a mental state. So they think they have to do something hard to reach the holy state. If you think so, you will only build up your own righteousness. But being born again means that the physical things received as parents are crucified with Jesus on the cross, it is to obtain spiritual life from heaven. To be born again is a mysterious body from God.

 

This body becomes the spirit body in 1 Corinthians (15:44). We cannot be born again unless we are united with the death of Jesus. You cannot live on resurrection life unless you are buried with Jesus. If there is no resurrection life, the Spirit, the image given by God, remains dead. Soul is the master. So Jesus told people to deny them. The word ” in Christ “ does not apply unless it is buried with Jesus. Nothing happens.

 

Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. (James 1:18) Truth means Jesus. It is Jesus who died first on the cross and was buried and resurrected in three days. This means to die with Jesus Christ and be born again in Christ. Thus, by the word of truth, we are born again into new life.

 

Before Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God said, "Be fruitful and multiply.“ After they sinned and was driven out of the garden of Eden, prickly thistle came out of the earth. How is the world different from the garden of Eden? The first human Adam was created in the world. God put him into the garden of Eden.

 

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (Genesis 2: 7-8) Eve was made in Eastern Eden, there, Eve was tempted by Satan, ate the fruit of good and evil, and was taken out of the garden of Eden. Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. (Genesis 3:23)

 

But in the garden of Eden there was a tree of knowledge of good and evil. Even the ancient serpent (Satan) appears.

The ancient serpent was one of the archangels in the kingdom of God called Lucifer(Hellel in Hebrew)that he wanted to be like God. Why is Satan in the garden of Eden? The Garden of Eden existed in this world,  but the garden of Eden is a place in the world that explains the events of the kingdom of God.

 

And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:21) Adam and Eve were removed from the garden of Eden because they disobeyed God's command. They must had repented to return to the kingdom of God. The sinner cannot go to the kingdom of God, nor can he meet God. Repentance is to accept the judgment of sin. The judgment is death. That death is death with Jesus on the cross. For Adam and Eve's sinfulness is inherited from generation to generation. That is the reason why the flesh received from parents dies.

 

God told Moses at Mount Sinai that if the people would come up then die. God is afraid of sinners. God loves man in the Garden of Eden, in the Ark, in the Canaan, In Jesus. Those outside are the object of God's judgment. God gave the sanctuary and taught us how to return to the kingdom of God. God has revealed that sinners must die. So he killed the animals instead. The dead animal and the sinner become one.

So the sinner believes that he is dead. So he must be free from sin. He becomes God's people, and he fights evil. Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. (Romans 6: 6-7) God is afraid. Those who are not crucified with Jesus are judged by God.

Christ dying on the cross revealed the righteousness of God. All have sinned, and without bloodshed there is no remission. Sinners must shed blood to receive forgiveness from God. If you do not bleed, you still have to meet him in the law of the Old Testament. God is the Judge in the law. If you break any of the provisions of the law, the sinner will be judged. In the sanctuary, a model of the kingdom of God in the Old Testament, the blood of the beast was shed. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was shed. This shows the righteousness of God. The cross is the revelation of God's righteousness. When righteousness is manifested, God's love is applied. God's righteousness is the covenant that sinners must die. God acknowledges that  sinners died on the cross when they were united with Christ who died on the cross. Righteousness from God leads to God's love.

 

Before speaking God's righteousness, speaking God's love first is contradictory. It is a fake gospel. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17) The belief that the old man must die  leads that he is born again as a new man. If we repent to God and become like dead, we are righteous. Salvation is to repent and remove the clothes of the old-man. Otherwise, you have never actually repented. Confession of sin cannot be said to be complete repentance. Only they become repenter in Christ who died on the cross by taking off the clothes of the old-man. Many church people believe that the invitation to the royal wedding is all about salvation. Anyone is invited to a wedding feast, but if they don't wear a dress, they are thrown out into a dark place.