Praise God the Father, God The Son, God The Holy Spirit

Exegesis

THE mention of God in verse two is followed by the Bene-diction of the Name, as Jewish piety prescribed. God the Father is the central figure in verses 3-5, God the Son, in verses 6-9, and God the Holy Spirit, in verses 10-12. The word "blessed" is the translation of eulogetos from which we get our words "eulogize" and "eulogy." The Greek word means "to praise, to celebrate with praises." The word is a compound of eu which means "well" and is used in such expressions as "well done" or "to do well," and logeo which has the same root as logos," a word," and is associated with lego, "to speak." Thus, the word means "to bless" someone in the sense of speaking well of him. Another Greek word, makarios, meaning in secular Greek "prosperous" and in the New Testament "spiritually prosperous," the idea of "spiritually" coming from its usage in its context, is found in Matthew 5:3-11. That is, the meek are spiritually prosperous. Our Lord said, "There is more spiritual prosperity in the act of constantly giving than in the act of constantly receiving" (Acts 20:35). All of which goes to say that a Christian grows faster spiritually by giving sacrificially of himself in the Lord's service than in receiving the spiritual ministrations of others.

The latter is perfectly proper and is needed, but a sponge-like absorption alone is not conducive to a healthy growth in the Christian life. Christian character is developed, not by one's knowledge of the Word of God, but by putting into practice what one knows of the Word of God. Spiritual prosperity is not dependent upon what one takes in of the Word, but upon what one gives out of himself in the service of the Lord Jesus as one obeys the Word. The word Peter uses (eulogetos) is one in which he blesses God in the sense that he eulogizes, speaks well of, praises Him. Peter, a Jew with an Old Testament Jewish background, writing to Christian Jews of the same background, speaks of the God of Israel as the "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," thus recognizing the latter in His human relationship to God the Father, for our Lord in His incarnate humanity worshipped God and recognized Him as His Father. Yet he also takes into account His deity in the name "Jesus" which means "Jehovah-Saviour," and also in the name "Christ" which means "the Anointed One." The word "which" is from a masculine article in the Greek text, and should therefore be rendered "who," referring as it does to God who is a person. "According to" is from kata whose root meaning is "down." From this we get the idea of domination, thus not "according to the measure of His abundant mercy," but "impelled by His abundant mercy." It was the compelling constraint in the merciful heart of God that made inevitable the atonement for sinners. "Hath begotten" is from an aorist participle, and refers, merely to the past fact of begetting, "begat us." "Again" is from the preposition ana prefixed to the participle, the preposition meaning in composition with another word, "renewal, new again." Thus, regeneration is spoken of here, the act of the Holy Spirit imparting to us a new life, making us partakers of the divine nature and thus children of God, a begetting anew. The word "unto" is from eis, a preposition speaking of result in this context. Alford translates "so that we have." The hope here is not only an objective thing, but a subjective hope on the part of the believer. It is a lively hope, that is, not only living, but actively alive, an energizing principle of divine life in the believer, a Christian hopefulness and optimism produced in the believer yielded to the indwelling Holy Spirit. It is both an attitude of expectancy as the Christian looks forward to the inheritance awaiting him in heaven, and a hopefulness of present blessing from God in this life in view of the eternal blessedness of the believer in the next life. A child of God has no right to look on the dark side of things, and to look for the worst to happen to him. As the object of God's care and love, he has the right to look for the best to come to him and to look on the bright side of things. "The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble" (Prov. 4:18, 19). This lively hope is made possible by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus in that it is through the believer's identification with Him in the resurrection that he is given a new life in regeneration, and thus will also be able to enjoy the heavenly inheritance into which he has been born. The word "from" is not from apo which means "from the edge of," but from ek which means "out from within." Our Lord was raised out from among the rest of the dead. He as the Man Christ Jesus went to the part of Hades reserved for the righteous dead, and His body lay in Joseph's tomb. But when He was raised from the dead, the rest of those in Hades stayed there, and their bodies remained in the earth. But He left that place, and reunited with His body glorified, appeared alive again after three days. That is what the expression "out from among the dead" means. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament - Volume 2.