Baptismal Regeneration 3

Another important New Birth text is 1 Peter 1:3ff. Here is a snippet of it:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (NASB)

• God has caused us to be born again.
• Born again is a metaphor.
• It is a family metaphor -- new birth qualifies one for an inheritance.
• Children are heirs.
• New birth is status language -- it describes the movement of God making one an heir of salvation. (Probably similar to the way St. Paul uses adoption language, cf. Romans 8)
• Here salvation is eschatological. The new birth sets one in place to receive the inheritance that will come at the eschaton, or what Peter calls, "A salvation ready to be revealed at the last time."
• The text itself does not speak of new birth as inward renewal.

More later....