Bible Study - Blessed be God – 1 Peter 1:3   by Ray Ruppert

in Spirituality / Religion    (submitted 2011-06-18)

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. (NASB)

My first thought is that I could camp out on the first phrase for a
long time, even the first word. I’ve never looked up the word blessed. It sounds
good in this verse but what do I mean when I say God is blessed? In Hebrews 7:7
the writer says that the lesser is blessed by the greater. How can I bless God?
The good old dictionary and the Greek cleared up the confusion for me. The
dictionary has several definitions and the one that fits in verse 3 is “worthy
of adoration, reverence, or worship: the Blessed Trinity.” Checking out the
Greek, the word is eulogetos (yoo-log-ay-tos'); adorable.

Our God is adorable. If I adore my wife, and I do, is this the same
adoration that I have for God? My wife is attractive, delightful and charming –
a definition of adorable. Would I describe God that way? Yes and no. He is much
more than that. Adorable is also being worthy to be adored. Knowing sign
language helps because the same sign is used for adore and worship. From now on,
when I see verses that say “Blessed be God” I will think of how worthy He is of
worship. Worship is the reverent honor and homage paid to God. What is homage? A
dictionary definition is the formal public acknowledgment by which a feudal
tenant or vassal declared himself to be the man or vassal of his lord, owing him
fidelity and service. OK, now we’re getting somewhere. I can only worship God
when I belong to Him.

A vassal was essentially a slave. As a vassal of God, I am owned by
Him and in worship I acknowledge that He has complete authority over me. A
vassal was granted land in return for paying homage to the lord, a portion of
the crops, and even military service. Isn’t that the picture of a Christian? God
gives me life, everything I have on this earth, and an inheritance in heaven. In
return, I give back to Him myself, tithes and offerings, my service to spread
His Word. Living the Christian life is often symbolized as warfare.

I’m glad that I picked the NASB for this verse since the NIV says
“Praise be to God…” I don’t think I would have discovered the richness of
the first four words otherwise. In many verses in the O.T. the NIV uses “praise”
where the NASB uses “bless.” The NIV is much more readable than the NASB, but
that may be only because my vocabulary is limited. The NIV is written to be more
understandable at a lower reading level than the NASB.

The phrase, “God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”
appears only four times in the Bible. (Romans 15:6, 2 Corinthians 1:3, Ephesians
1:3, and 1 Peter 1:3) I sometimes become messed up trying to think of God and
Jesus. So what do I do? I go back to what I know for sure, that Jesus and God
the Father are one. John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. (NASB) This has to be the clearest
declaration of the deity of Jesus and the unity of God and Jesus. The next thing
I do is think about what it means to say Jesus is our Lord. It goes back that
vassal thing above. He owns me and I am His.

Do I worship Jesus in the same way that I worship God the Father?
Yes! Absolutely! How do I know that it is OK to worship Jesus? Well, I’ll start
with what Jesus said. Matthew 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, "Begone, Satan!
For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.'"
(NASB) Clearly, Jesus says by quoting the O.T. that we should only worship
and serve God. John 9:38 Then the man said, "Lord, I believe," and he
worshiped him. (NIV) Of course you then need to read and see how Jesus
responded to worship. Did Jesus rebuke the man for worshiping Him? Not at all,
in fact He used the situation to point out to the Pharisees that they were
spiritually blind. When Thomas first saw Jesus after His resurrection, he
declared that Jesus was his Lord and God. John 20:28-29 Thomas answered and
said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me,
have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed." (NASB)
Did Jesus rebuke Thomas? Well, yes, but not for calling Jesus Lord and God, but
because he had to see Jesus physically first. For us who have not seen Jesus in
the flesh, we are blessed when we believe. This Greek word for blessed is not at
all the same one that was used before. This is makarios (mak-ar'-ee-os)
which means happy. In just a few more verses I’ll see why I should be happy.

One of the reasons that God is worthy of my worship is because of
His great mercy. I just can’t keep away from looking up the Greek since some
versions use the word abundant instead of great. While abundant is much more
descriptive of God’s mercy, the Greek is polus (pol-oos') which means
much or many or large, so great is probably more accurate. Now I’m off on a
rabbit trail because polus sounds a lot like Palouse which is a huge, abundant
wheat producing area in eastern Washington that extends into Idaho and Oregon.
If you’ve ever driven through the area in the spring, it is a beautiful green
and turns to gold when the wheat ripens later in the year. The origin of the
word Palouse is debated but thought to come from French and has nothing to do
with abundance or greatness but it should. God’s abundant and great mercy is
certainly shown by the provision we receive from this part of our nation.

The love of God, His mercy and grace can be seen in the O.T. as
well as the N.T. However, to understand His mercy and grace I also have to
understand that without it, I would be suffering His wrath. The following verses
express His mercy, my guilt, and the consequences if I did not receive His
mercy. Exodus 34:6-7 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed,
"The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and
abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands,
who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the
guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the
grandchildren to the third and fourth generations." (NASB). My sin and
rebellion against God will certainly have far-reaching consequences, not only on
my eternal destiny but also upon my children and those of others. The people I
vote for, the causes I embrace, my attitude toward nature, if not guided by God
are sin and affect many generations.

The greatness of His mercy can be seen in Ephesians 2:4-5 But
because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with
Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been
saved. (NIV) God has taken me out of the realm of the dead and given me
life. Of course, before this happened, I thought I was alive, not realizing that
my spirit was dead because of my sins. That’s the biggest problem in presenting
the Gospel to anyone, convincing a person that he or she is a sinner. My friend,
Larry Kent, has written some tracts that help do this. They have been translated
into many languages. Go to
http://www.on-tract.com to see them.

Now, back to the Bible. One last thing about God’s mercy and love; it isn’t
like my concept of love. I generally love others because they are nice people
and we get along with each other. These are people who are relatively decent
toward others. However, can I say that I love my enemy or those who have
insulted, maligned, or ignored me? Before becoming a Christian I was an enemy of
God whether I knew it or not. Most of us would probably say we were not enemies
of God. Unfortunately, the Bible says that when I love the stuff in the world
which isn’t aligned with God’s plan and direction, I’m His enemy. James 4:4
You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred
toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of
God. (NIV ) So how great is God’s mercy? This is how great it is: Romans 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. (NASB) How about that? Jesus died for me when I
was His enemy.

Yes, God is worthy of worship – blessed – because of His great mercy.

About the Author

Ray Ruppert is the author of three books. 999 Years After Armageddon – The End of the Millennium, Reflections on First and Second Peter, and Revelation: A Layperson’s Reflections. He is a home Bible study leader with his church, Canyon Hills Community Church in Bothell, WA. For more information visit http://rayruppert.com