1 Peter 1:21

Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) Who by him do believe in God.—The sentence is joined on to the foregoing verse just as in 1Peter 1:5, “Who are kept.” The “who” might be rendered by “and you;” and the clause adds a kind of proof of the foregoing statement, drawn from the result of God’s manifestation of Christ to them. “This Christian doctrine is no innovation, nothing to lead you away from the God of our fathers. That same God had had the scheme in His thoughts from the beginning, and it is in that same God that you have been led thereby to believe.” There is a better supported and more forcible reading, Who through Him are faithful towards God, which combines the ideas of believing, i.e., putting the whole trust in God, and of loyal inward observance of Him. And if any one asks whether it be possible to say that Hebrew men only came to believe in God through the revelation of Christ, we must answer by pointing to the whole scope of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and especially to Hebrews 3:12, where it is not faith in Christ, but faith in a living God, which they are warned not to abandon: and to Hebrews 6:1, where faith toward God is part of the “word of the beginning of Christ.”

That raised him up.—These clauses give the historical facts which had led them, “through Christ,” to a living faith in God. Though the thought is common with St. Paul (e.g., Romans 1:2-4), St. Peter was familiar with it years before St. Paul’s conversion. See this in Acts 2:23-24; and Acts 2:33-36 of the same chapter will show what he means by “gave Him glory”—not to be confined to the Ascension, though that is the prominent thought; the glory was already partly given in the Resurrection. Comp. John 17:1, where there is the same reciprocal glorification of the Father and the Son, as here.

That your faith . . . might . . .—An inexact rendering which obscures the connection. Literally it is, so that your faith and hope is in (or, toward) God; that is to say, “Your faith and hope does not stop short in Jesus.” Hammond seems, to be quite right in paraphrasing, “Who by believing on Him (Jesus Christ) are far from departing from the God of Israel, but do, indeed, the more firmly believe and depend on Him as that omnipotent God who hath raised Christ from the dead.” The co-equal Son is less than the Father (John 14:28); and we should terribly mistake the meaning of the gospel were we content to rest in the love of Christ Himself without accepting His revelation of the Father. This is the “living hope” of 1Peter 1:3, brought about by Christ’s resurrection. Some of the German commentators translate, “So that your faith may be also hope in God;” which has nothing ungrammatical in it, but does not suit the context so well.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Who by him do believe in God - Faith is sometimes represented particularly as exercised in God, and sometimes in Christ. It is always a characteristic of true religion that a man has faith in God. Compare the notes at Mark 11:22.

That raised him up from the dead - See the Acts 2:24; Acts 3:15, Acts 3:26; Acts 4:10; Acts 5:30; Acts 13:30 notes; Romans 4:24; Romans 6:4 notes; 1 Corinthians 15:15 note.

And gave him glory - By exalting him at his own right hand in heaven, Philippians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; Ephesians 1:20-21.

That your faith and hope might be in God - That is, by raising up the Lord Jesus, and exalting him to heaven, he has laid the foundation of confidence in his promises, and of the hope of eternal life. Compare the notes at 1 Peter 1:3. Compare 1 Corinthians 15; Colossians 1:27; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Timothy 1:1.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. by him—Compare "the faith which is by Him," Ac 3:16. Through Christ: His Spirit, obtained for us in His resurrection and ascension, enabling us to believe. This verse excludes all who do not "by Him believe in God," and includes all of every age and clime that do. Literally, "are believers in God." "To believe IN (Greek, 'eis') God" expresses an internal trust: "by believing to love God, going INTO Him, and cleaving to Him, incorporated into His members. By this faith the ungodly is justified, so that thenceforth faith itself begins to work by love" [P. Lombard]. To believe ON (Greek, "epi," or dative case) God expresses the confidence, which grounds itself on God, reposing on Him. "Faith IN (Greek, 'en') His blood" (Ro 3:25) implies that His blood is the element IN which faith has its proper and abiding place. Compare with this verse, Ac 20:21, "Repentance toward (Greek, 'eis,' 'into,' turning towards and going into) God and faith toward (Greek, 'eis,' 'into') Christ": where, as there is but one article to both repentance and faith, the two are inseparably joined as together forming one truth; where "repentance" is, there "faith" is; when one knows God the Father spiritually, then he must know the Son by whom alone we can come to the Father. In Christ we have life: if we have not the doctrine of Christ, we have not God. The only living way to God is through Christ and His sacrifice.

that raised him—The raising of Jesus by God is the special ground of our "believing": (1) because by it God declared openly His acceptance of Him as our righteous substitute; (2) because by it and His glorification He received power, namely, the Holy Spirit, to impart to His elect "faith": the same power enabling us to believe as raised Him from the dead. Our faith must not only be IN Christ, but BY and THROUGH Christ. "Since in Christ's resurrection and consequent dominion our safety is grounded, there 'faith' and 'hope' find their stay" [Calvin].

that your faith and hope might be in God—the object and effect of God's raising Christ. He states what was the actual result and fact, not an exhortation, except indirectly. Your faith flows from His resurrection; your hope from God's having "given Him glory" (compare 1Pe 1:11, "glories"). Remember God's having raised and glorified Jesus as the anchor of your faith and hope in God, and so keep alive these graces. Apart from Christ we could have only feared, not believed and hoped in God. Compare 1Pe 1:3, 7-9, 13, on hope in connection with faith; love is introduced in 1Pe 1:22.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Who by him do believe in God; both as revealing God to you, Matthew 11:27 John 1:14; and making way for you to God, who, out of Christ, is a consuming fire, so that there is no coming to him but by Christ, John 14:6 Ephesians 2:18 3:12 Hebrews 7:25.

Gave him glory; viz. in his resurrection, ascension, sitting at the right hand of God, &c., Philippians 2:9-11 Hebrews 2:9,10.

That your faith and hope might be in God; that seeing Christ raised and glorified, ye might be fully confirmed in the belief of a thorough satisfaction made to Divine justice for sin, and perfect reconciliation wrought (for had not Christ fully paid the price of redemption, his Father would never have let him out of the prison of the grave, in which his justice had shut him up); from which faith ariseth a hope, which looks to the resurrection of Christ your Head, as the certain pledge and earnest of your resurrection to life and glory. Christ’s resurrection and glory are the great grounds of faith, 1 Peter 3:21 Acts 2:32,33 5:31 10:40 Romans 4:24,25 1 Corinthians 15:14,17.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Who by him do believe in God,.... Christ, as God, is the object of faith; as Mediator, he is the way to the Father, by which men come to him, believe in him and lay hold upon him, as their covenant God and Father; and is also the author of that faith by which they believe in him; and all their encouragement to believe is taken from him; and such who do come to God by Christ, and stay themselves upon him, trusting in him, may know, and comfortably conclude, that Christ, who was foreordained from all eternity to be the Redeemer of his people, was manifest in the flesh for their sakes, and to obtain eternal redemption for them, which he was sent to do, by him

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Geneva Study Bible

Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Peter 1:21. τοὺς διʼ αὐτοῦ (i.e. Χριστοῦ) πιστεύοντας (or πιστοὺς) εἰς Θεόν] τούς: the same clausal connection as in 1 Peter 1:4-5.

The construction πιστεύειν εἰς is very frequent in the N. T., especially in John; Christ is for the most part named as the object; God, as here, in John 12:44; John 14:1.

This adjunct, by giving prominence to the fact that the readers are brought to faith in God by Christ, confirms the thought previously expressed by διʼ ὑμᾶς.[96] Nor should it ever have been denied that by it the readers may be recognised as having been heathens formerly.

ΤῸΝ ἘΓΕΊΡΑΝΤΑ ΑὐΤῸΝ ἘΚ ΝΕΚΡῶΝ ΚΑῚ ΔΌΞΑΝ ΑὐΤῷ ΔΌΝΤΑ]

[97] not subjoined aimlessly as an accidental predicate applied by the apostle to God; but, closely linked on to Θεόν, the words serve to describe Θεόν more nearly as the object of the Christian faith. The conviction that God has raised and glorified Christ the Crucified belongs essentially to the Christian faith in God; with the first half of this clause, cf. Romans 4:24; Romans 8:11; 2 Corinthians 4:14; Galatians 1:1; with the second, John 17:5; John 17:22; and with the whole thought, Ephesians 1:20; Acts 2:32 f. This adjunct, defining Θεόν more nearly, is not meant to declare “how far Christ by His revelation has produced faith in God” (Wiesinger),—the whole structure of the clause is opposed to this,—but what is the faith to which through Christ the readers have attained.

ὥστε] not: ἵνα (Oecumenius, Luther: “in order that;” thus also the Syr., Vulg., Beza, etc.), nor is it: itaque, as if a “δεῖ” or a “χρή” were to be supplied to εἶναι (Aretius); but: “so that,” it denotes the fruit which faith in God, who raised up Christ from the dead, has brought forth in the readers, which supplies the confirmation that Christ has appeared for their sake (διʼ αὐτούς).

τὴν πίστιν ὑμῶν καὶ ἐλπίδα εἶναι εἰς Θεόν] Most interpreters translate: “so that your faith and your hope are directed to God;” Weiss, on the other hand (p. 43), Brückner, Schott, Fronmüller, Hofmann, take it: “so that your faith is at the same time hope toward God.” The position of the words seems to favour this last translation, since the genitive ὑμῶν stands between the two substantives, whilst otherwise either ὑμῶν τὴν πίστιν καὶ ἐλπίδα (or τὴν ὑμῶν πίστ.), cf. Romans 1:20, Php 1:25, 1 Thessalonians 2:12, or τὴν π. κ. ἐλπ. ὑμῶν, cf. Php 1:20, 1 Thessalonians 3:7, would have been expected;—but this is not decisive, inasmuch as in Ephesians 3:5 τοῖς ἁγίοις ἀποστόλοις αὐτοῦ καὶ προφήταις occurs. On the other hand, the connection of thought gives the preference to the latter view; for, in the former case, not only is it noticeable that “the result is exactly the same as that denoted by τοὺς πιστούς (Weiss), but in it ἐλπίδα seems to be nothing more than an accidental appendage, whilst in reality it is the point aimed at in the whole deduction; that is to say, the truth and livingness of faith (in the resurrection and glorification of Christ) are manifested in this, that it is also an hope; cf. 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 1:6; 1 Peter 1:9; 1 Peter 1:13.[98] Schott is wrong in thinking that εἰς Θεόν has reference not only to ἐλπίδα, but at the same time to τὴν πίστιν; for though by πίστις here only πίστις εἰς Θεόν can be understood, yet it is grammatically impossible to connect the final εἰς Θεόν, which is closely linked on to ἐλπίδα, likewise with τὴν πίστιν ὑμῶν.

The object of hope is specified in the words τὸν ἐγείραντα αὐτὸν κ.τ.λ.; it is the resurrection and attainment of the δόξα which is given to Christ; cf. Romans 8:11; Romans 8:17.

[96] Hofmann: “The assertion that Christ was foreordained and made manifest for their sake is actually justified in this, that they have faith in God through Him.”

[97] Weiss (p. 243) lays stress on δόντα in order to prove the low plane of Peter’s conception of the person of Christ; yet Christ also says in the Gospel of John, that God had given Him ζωή, κρίσις, ἐξουσία πάσης σαρκός, δόξα, etc. Paul, too, asserts that God exalted Christ and gifted Him (ἐχαρίσατο) with the ὄνομα τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶν ὄνομα; there is a similar passage too in Hebrews, that God has appointed or made Him κληρόνομος τάντων.

[98] Weiss is wrong in saying that, according to Peter’s view, faith is but the preparatory step to hope, since it rather includes the latter.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Peter 1:21. διʼ ὑμᾶς, for the sake of you Gentiles, i.e., ἵνα ὑμᾶς προσαγάγῃ τῷ θεῷ, 1 Peter 3:18. The resurrection of Jesus and His glorification are the basis of their faith in God and inspire not merely faith but hope.—διʼ αὐτοῦ. Compare for form Acts 3:16, ἡ πίστις ἡ διʼ αὐτοῦ and for thought Romans 5:2; Ephesians 2:18—πιστοὺς εἰς θεόν. This construction occurs not infrequently in the Bezan text and is simply equivalent to π. with the Dative (Acts 16:15) corresponding to נאמן ל֙. But π. keeping construction has changed its meaning. Already it is semi-technical = believing, sc. in Jesus and here πίστιν … εἰς θεόν follows immediately. So the verb πιστεύοντας is a true gloss; the addition of εἰς θεόν corrects the common conception of faith, which ultimately gave rise to a distinction between belief in Christ and belief in God.—δόξαν αὐτῷ δόντα, so e.g., the prophecy (Isaiah 52:13) ὁ παῖς μου … δοξασθήσεται σφόδρα was fulfilled when the lame man was healed by St. Peter and St. John; ὁ θεὸς Ἁβραὰμ … ἐδόξασεν τὸν παῖδα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν (Acts 3:13). But the glory is primarily and generally the glorious resurrection and ascension, in which state Jesus sent the Holy Spirit (ἦν τὸ πνεῦμα ὅτι οὔπω ἐδοξάσθη, John).—ὥστε … θεόν. καὶ ἐλπίδα may be part of the subject of εἶναι εἰς θεόν, so that your faith and hope are in God, or predicate so that your faith is also hope in God. In either case ἐλπίς is rather confidence than hope, in accordance with LXX usage (= בטחה), and supplies an adequate climax—patient faith leads up to the appropriation of the Hope of Israel.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. who by him do believe in God …] Literally, who through him are faithful (or believing) towards God; the adjective expressing a permanent attribute of character rather than the mere act which would be expressed by the participle in Greek, and the present indicative in English.

that raised him up from the dead …] The prominence given to the Resurrection as the ground of Faith and Hope is eminently characteristic of St Peter (Acts 2:32-36; Acts 3:15; Acts 4:10). The redemptive act was completed in the shedding of the “precious blood,” but the Resurrection and the “glory” of the Ascension were the foundation of man’s confidence that the work had been completed. The “in God” expresses the Credo in Deum rather than Credo Deo; faith and hope were to find their object in God, be directed towards Him.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Peter 1:21. Δἰ αὐτοῦ, by Him) by Christ, in whose resurrection all the argument and efficacy of faith and hope centre.—[πιστεύοντας, who believe) by the power of that manifestation.—V. g.]—ὥστε) that so.—πίστιν ὑμῶν καὶ ἐλπίδα, your faith and hope) These two are most intimately joined together, and yet they differ with respect to the present and the future. [Faith is derived from the resurrection of Christ: hope from His glorification.—V. g.]—εἰς Θεόν, in God) alone, ch. 1 Peter 3:5, who hath exalted Jesus, and prepared an anchor for us; Hebrews 6:19; Romans 8:34; whereas, apart from Christ, we could but have feared Him. Now we clearly believe and hope.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - Who by him do believe in God; or, according to two of the most ancient manuscripts, who through him are faithful towards God. Through himself, not only through his incarnation and atoning death, but through his grace and abiding presence. He was manifested for your sake who through him are faithful; for all the faithful, whether Jews or Gentiles; "for your glory," St. Paul says (1 Corinthians 2:7). The thought shows the greatness of God's love for his elect. The eternal Son was manifested for their sake; it gives an additional stimulus for Christian effort. That raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory. St. Peter returns to the "after-glories," which he had mentioned in ver. 11. The death of Christ is the atonement for sin; his resurrection and ascension are the grounds of our confidence and hope. They throw back a halo of Divine glory upon the awful cross; they bring out the beauty and the dignity of the atoning sacrifice; they show that it is accepted, that the work of our redemption is complete. The Resurrection held a very prominent place in the preaching of St. Peter, and, indeed, of all the apostles (Acts 2:32-36; Acts 3:15; Acts 4:10; comp. also Acts 4:33; Romans 1:4, etc.). That your faith and hope might be in God; rather, so that your faith and hope are in God - directed towards God (εἰς Θεόν); or perhaps, as Weiss, Huther, and others, "so that your faith is at the same time hope towards God." The resurrection and the glory of Christ not only inspire the Christian with confidence in God, but they also give his faith the character of hope; they fill it with hope. Christ had promised that where he is there should his servant be; he had prayed that those whom the Father had given him should be with him where he is, to behold his glory. He is in heaven, on the right hand of God. Thus the Christian's faith assumes the attitude of hope; he hopes to be where Christ is, to see him as he is, to be made like unto him. This is "the hope of glory" for which we offer our thanksgivings. St. Peter is the apostle of hope. 1 Peter 1:21

Vincent's Word Studies

Which raised

Compare Romans 4:24.

That your faith and hope might be in God

Some render, that your faith should also be hope toward God.