Peter's letter is overwhelmingly concerned with the practicalities of the Christian life, and the starting point for how to live life as a Christian is praise to God. For He has given us new birth into a living hope by raising Christ from the dead. We should realise how much this personally meant to Peter. In His greatest hour of need, and despite all Peter's declarations of undying commitment to Christ, Peter had let Jesus down by denying Him three times. He had followed Christ for three years, Peter had failed, and with Jesus dead on the cross it all seemed as though it was for nothing. In reality it was all for everything. For God raised Christ from the dead, and Peter found new life. Note that this is a living hope, it is not just about what happens when we die, but also about life here and now. We can make two crucial mistakes about Christian hope. One is to think it is all about what happens when we die, and that is arguably the prevalent view in the West. Tom Wright argues effectively against this in his excellent book Surprised by Hope. The other error is to think it is all about now. This is equally unbiblical (see 1 Corinthians 15:19), and the truth is that unless Christ returns in our lifetime (which He may well do) we will all die. We need to know that death is not the end, but eternal life starts now. We are to start to live a new life from the moment we are born again, and to grow increasingly in that new life every day.
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