1 Peter 1:19

1:17-25 Holy confidence in God as a Father, and awful fear of him as a Judge, agree together; and to regard God always as a Judge, makes him dear to us as a Father. If believers do evil, God will visit them with corrections. Then, let Christians not doubt God's faithfulness to his promises, nor give way to enslaving dread of his wrath, but let them reverence his holiness. The fearless professor is defenceless, and Satan takes him captive at his will; the desponding professor has no heart to avail himself of his advantages, and is easily brought to surrender. The price paid for man's redemption was the precious blood of Christ. Not only openly wicked, but unprofitable conversation is highly dangerous, though it may plead custom. It is folly to resolve, I will live and die in such a way, because my forefathers did so. God had purposes of special favour toward his people, long before he made manifest such grace unto them. But the clearness of light, the supports of faith, the power of ordinances, are all much greater since Christ came upon earth, than they were before. The comfort is, that being by faith made one with Christ, his present glory is an assurance that where he is we shall be also, Joh 14:3. The soul must be purified, before it can give up its own desires and indulgences.

And the word of God planted in the heart by the Holy Ghost, is a means of spiritual life, stirring up to our duty, working a total change in the dispositions and affections of the soul, till it brings to eternal life. In contrast with the excellence of the renewed spiritual man, as born again, observe the vanity of the natural man. In his life, and in his fall, he is like grass, the flower of grass, which soon withers and dies away. We should hear, and thus receive and love, the holy, living word, and rather hazard all than lose it; and we must banish all other things from the place due to it. We should lodge it in our hearts as our only treasures here, and the certain pledge of the treasure of glory laid up for believers in heaven.

But with the precious blood of Christ The word Χριστοῦ, of Christ, stands at the end of the sentence, and is emphatic. Render, as Rev., with precious blood as of a lamb, etc., even the blood of Christ. Lamb Peculiarly appropriate from Peter. See John 1:35-42. The reference is to a sacrificial lamb. Without blemish (ἀμώμου) Representing the Old-Testament phrase for absence of physical defect (Exodus 12:5; Leviticus 22:20, Compare Hebrews 9:14). Without spot (ἀσπίλου) Compare 1 Timothy 6:14; James 1:27; 2 Peter 3:14. In each case in a moral sense.

1 Peter 1:19 . Τιμίῳ , precious ) The blood of Christ is incorruptible , 1 Peter 1:18 .— ὡς , as ) This explains the reason[11] for his use of the word precious .— ἀμώμου , without blemish ) Jesus Christ had in Himself ( ἀμώμου ) no taint of evil.— ἀσπίλου , without spot ) Nor did He contract any stain from without ( ἀσπίλου ). [11] This is an instance of the figure Ætiologia, which is used to express the reason why we make use of any particular proposition or assertion.

Precious; because the blood not only of an innocent person, but of the Son of God, Acts 20:28 . As of a lamb; i.e. who was a Lamb. A lamb; the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world, John 1:29 : not only like a lamb, for his innocence and gentleness, Isaiah 53:7 , but the Antitype of the lambs which under the law were offered in the daily sacrifices, and more especially of the paschal lamb; whatever was shadowed out in that, and those other sacrifices, having its accomplishment in Christ. Without blemish; without fault, without defect, in which nothing was wanting that was requisite to its perfection; or, in which nothing could be blamed. The Greek word seems to be derived from the Hebrew Mum, so often used for a blemish; see Leviticus 24:19,20 . And without spot; without any other deformity. The lamb might have no defect, but yet might have some spot; and it was to be perfect, Exodus 12:5 , which implied its having neither the one nor the other. Christ was such a Lamb, perfect in holiness, and free from all sin, John 8:29,46 Heb 7:26 1 Peter 2:22 .

1 Peter 1:19 . The blood of Christ, the true paschal lamb, was the (means or) agent of your redemption. The type contemplated is composite; the lamb is the yearling sheep ( שה πρόβατον , but Targum-Onkelos has אמר lamb and שה is rendered ἀμνός in Leviticus 12:8 ; Numbers 15:11 ; Deuteronomy 14:4 ) prescribed for the Passover ( Exodus 12:5 ). But the description perfect ( τέλειον תמים ) is glossed by ἀμώμου ( cf. Hebrews 12:14 ), which is the common translation of תמים in this connection, and ἀσπίλου which summarises the description of sacrificial victims generally ( v. Leviticus 22:22 , etc.). ἀμωμος would be unintelligible to the Gentile, because it has acquired a peculiar meaning from the Hebrew מום blemish . ἄσπιλος is used by Symmachus in Job 15:15 , for זכך . Hesychius treats ἄσπιλος . ἄμωμος and καθαρός as synonyms.— τιμίῳ is set over against φθαρτοῖς as πολυτιμ . against ἀπολλυμένου ; cf. Psalm 116:15 , τίμιος ἐναντίον Κυρίου ὁ θάνατος τῶν ὁσίων and λίθος … ἔντιμον ( 1 Peter 2:4 ).

19. precious—of inestimable value. The Greek order is, "With precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish (in itself) and without spot (contracted by contact with others), (even the blood) of Christ." Though very man, He remained pure in Himself ("without blemish"), and uninfected by any impression of sin from without ("without spot"), which would have unfitted Him for being our atoning Redeemer: so the passover lamb, and every sacrificial victim; so too, the Church, the Bride, by her union with Him. As Israel's redemption from Egypt required the blood of the paschal lamb, so our redemption from sin and the curse required the blood of Christ; "foreordained" (1Pe 1:20) from eternity, as the passover lamb was taken up on the tenth day of the month.

19 . but with the precious blood of Christ ] The order of the Greek, and the absence of the article before “blood,” somewhat modify the meaning. Better, with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot , [even that] of Christ . That blood, the life which it represented, poured out upon the cross, took its place among the things that were not corruptible, and is contrasted accordingly with the “silver” and the “gold.” With the exception of the substitution of the “blood which is the life” for the life itself, the thought is identical with that of the two passages ( Matthew 20:28 , Mark 10:45 ) already referred to. The minds of the disciples had been directed to the “blood” thus understood, as connected with remission of sins, in what we know as the words of institution at the Last Supper ( Matthew 26:28 , Mark 14:24 , Luke 22:20 ). In the blood being that of a “lamb,” we trace the impression made on the mind of the Apostle by the words which the Baptist had spoken in the hearing of St John ( John 1:29 ), and which are reproduced with so much vividness in the Apocalypse ( Revelation 5:6 ; Revelation 5:12 ). The question meets us, and is not easy to answer, To what special sacrifice ordained in the law of Moses do they refer? The epithet “without blemish” seems to point to the Paschal lamb ( Exodus 12:5 ), but neither of the adjectives which St Peter uses is found in the LXX. version in connexion with the Passover.

As connected with the deliverance of Israel both from the angel of death and from their bondage in Egypt, the blood so shed might well come to be thought of as the instrument of redemption. Had a lamb been sacrificed on the day of Atonement, that would have seemed the natural type of the death of Christ, but there the victim was a goat ( Leviticus 16:7 ); the daily morning and evening sacrifice of a lamb ( Exodus 29:38 ) fails as being unconnected with any special act of redeeming love. On the whole, perhaps, it is best to think of the comparison, suggested originally by the Baptist’s words, as pointing to the fact that whatever typical significance had attached to the lamb in any part of the complex ritual of the law had now been realised in Christ.

Verse 19. - But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot ; rather, as in the Revised Version, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot , ( even the blood ) of Christ . Precious , as opposed to the "corruptible things" of ver. 18; it is precious, because it is the blood of Christ. Christ's holy body saw not corruption; gold and silver must perish at last; the precious blood in its virtue and efficacy abideth evermore. The blood of Christ is compared with that of a lamb. The lambs and other animals offered as sacrifices were to be without blemish ( Exodus 12:5 ; Leviticus 22:19, 20, 21 ); Christ was without sin, pure, harmless, undefiled. The blood of animals could never take away sin; yet it is written, "The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul" ( Leviticus 17:11 ). That blood prefigured the precious blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin. The sacrifices of the Law directed the faith of the pious Israelite to the one great Sacrifice, the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world. Probably St.

Peter derived the comparison from the well-remembered words of the Baptist, reported by his brother Andrew, "Behold the Lamb of God!" The reference may be to the Paschal lamb ("Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us," 1 Corinthians 5:7 ) - the blood of that lamb cannot, indeed, be regarded as a ransom from Egyptian bondage, but it saved the Israelites from the destroying angel - or to any sacrificial lamb. The apostle seems to be passing from the idea of ransom or price to that of expiation. The verb "ye were redeemed," the silver and gold, direct the thoughts to price; the blood and the lamb, to expiation. The two ideas are closely connected; the two illustrations combined give a fuller view of the blessed meaning of the Savior's death than either of them alone could do. 1 Peter 1:19