1 Peter 1:20-21 meaning

In the previous section, Peter challenged believers to live with fear, placing the highest priority on God’s future evaluation of their work for Christ during their stay on earth. He also challenged believers to live in gratitude, knowing the high value of the blood of Christ that paid for their redemption. Now Peter explains For He, Christ, was foreknown, meaning God had the complete knowledge ahead of time of the reality of who Christ is and what He would do on earth (v. 20).

This is the same word Peter used to indicate God’s knowledge ahead of time of what believers will do on earth, describing them as those “who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God.” (1 Peter 1:1-2). Now in verse 20, this past action of God knowing beforehand, occurred even before the foundation of the world (v. 20), an expression used to describe time before God’s creation of planet earth (Matthew 25:34, Luke 11:50, John 17:24, Ephesians 1:4, Hebrews 4:3, 9:26, Revelation 13:8, 17:8).

Christ existed before God’s creation of planet earth. Jesus was and is God, and was the agent of creation (Colossians 1:16-17). Peter continues, but has appeared, referring to Christ coming physically and visibly to earth (Hebrews 9:26, 1 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 1:10).

This appearance of Christ coming to earth happened in these last times (v. 20). This is an expression indicating a period of time starting with Christ’s first coming to earth at His birth and ending with Christ’s Second Coming to earth to set up His Kingdom (2 Timothy 3:1, James 5:3, Hebrews 1:2, 1 Peter 1:5, 2 Peter 3:3). Paul calls this last age the “fullness of the Gentiles” (Romans 11:25).

The purpose of Christ’s first coming to earth is for the sake of you (v. 20), describing the believing readers of Peter’s letter. If Christ had not come to earth and died for their sins, they would be dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1). Jesus’s advent to earth provided redemption for the world. It gave Peter’s readers the opportunity to believe in Christ to go to heaven. It gave them the power of the Spirit to live faithfully and make their life on earth count for eternity.

Peter further identifies the readers of this letter as those who through Him are believers in God (v. 21). This indicates that Jesus Christ is not only the object of their faith, but also the means or agency of their belief in God. These Jewish believers would have professed belief in God prior to believing in Jesus. It would seem now that their belief in Jesus has allowed them to see God as He is and believe in Him in a new way that is real and true.

Christ’s work of dying on the cross redeemed them from their sins (Ephesians 2:16, Colossians 1:20: Hebrews 10:10). They now are believers in God, they are ones who are trusting God. They can trust God who is the one who raised Him (Christ) from the dead (v. 21), ending Christ’s suffering by resurrecting Him from the dead.

Further, it is God who gave Him glory (v. 21). The Greek word translated glory (“doxa”) refers to the true nature of something being observed by others. For example, the sun and moon have different kinds of glory because they have different natures (1 Corinthians 15:41). The nature of Jesus was clearly revealed as the Son of all creation (Hebrews 1:5, 15). Through Jesus, the God-man, God redeemed the glory He originally created humans with, to reign as stewards in the earth (Hebrews 2:5-9).

Jesus was given all authority over heaven and earth as a human. This was a result of His obedience even to death on the cross (Matthew 28:18, Philippians 2:8). Jesus gained the honor and recognition he deserved for His obedience (Hebrews 2:7, 9, 1 Peter 1:7, 2 Peter 1:17). God also restored to Christ all of the glory that was His before He came to earth (1 Peter 1:7, 11, 5:1, 4, 10, 2 Peter 1:17, John 1:14, 17:5). He is therefore glorified both as God and as a human.

The result of his readers trusting in God and hoping in Him who was raised from the dead is so that your faith and hope are in God (v. 21).

Peter speaks of your faith, meaning the state of believing on the basis of the reliability of the one trusted. Hebrews defines faith as evidence of things not seen and possession of something still hoped for (Hebrews 11:1). Peter includes and hope. Hope is the confident expectation of future blessings based on God’s promises. To hope in faith is to act as though the things God promises are as certain as if they had already occurred.

This faith and hope are in God. God is the ultimate Person in whom believers trust. Hebrews states that it is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6). Peter desires his followers to live in such a way as to please God. In doing so, they will gain the most for themselves, as God’s promises vastly exceed any substitute reward the world can offer.