Thankful for a Living Hope

During the 1950s, Curt Richter, a Denver native, Harvard Graduate and scientist with John Hopkins University, conducted a profound (and by today’s standards incredibly cruel) experiment on rats. Dr. Richter placed rats into buckets of water and timed their ability to swim. Rats, who are apparently known for their strong swimming skills, lasted an average of 15 minutes before drowning. In a second experiment, Richter rescued the rats when he saw them begin to stop swimming and sink. When he took them out, he dried them off and gave them a short period of rest (I like to picture him doing this with a mini, yet plush, rat-size towel). And then, just as they were dry and rested, Richter put them back into the water. However, this time Richter identified a substantial behavioral change. The rescued rats swam longer than 15 minutes. In fact, they swam for nearly 60 hours.

The Reason for his Mercy

The first reason we have to be thankful is because of God's great mercy.

The word for mercy is a judicial word. The Greek word is ἔλεος and it plays a great part in the administration of justice. As a judge sits on the judgement seek, the accused must seek to arouse the ἔλεος of the judge. The Judge is called to administer judgement, but the accused is to beg for Mercy.

But that's not what Paul says here. God is merciful, and his merciful is not merited by us. There is nothing in this verse that points to us as a reason for his mercy. No, the judge is not swayed by our appeal to our goodness, or our righteousness or our rightness. But look at what Paul says

"according to HIS GREAT MERCY."

The judge is appeased by his own good mercy, and for that we ought to be thankful

The REACH of his Mercy

It is according to this mercy, this eleos, that God the Father has caused us to be born again.

Before we glory in the reality of this statement, let us note again, the force of the Verb. It is a singular verb, and thus, the subject of the rebirth is not us. It's not saying we have rebirthed ourselves, but He has caused us to be born again.

In this we find the blessedness of God's mercy. God in his mercy has acted upon us to rebirth us. And who is this us? Who are those who Christ has died and given this rebirth? We find this in v. 1-2, those "who are chosen, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sactifying work of the Spirit, to the obedience of Jesus Christ and the sprinkling of his blood!"

It is those who have called upon the name of the Lord and are saved. Praise be to God! We have much to be thankful for.

The RESULT of His Mercy

The result is that we are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Notice it's a living hope. It's not dead hope, but a living one. Right now, the same Jesus who walked with the men on the Road to Emmaus, and who ate fish by the sea with Peter. The same Jesus whose side Thomas stuck his hand in. The same Jesus who appeared to Paul on the Road to Damascus, that same Jesus is sitting, bodily at the right hand of the father, living and reigning forever!

The truth of the cross is the promise of the resurrection. Because Jesus lives I can know that I will li