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From: 1 Peter 1:18-25

The Blood of Christ Is Our Ransom

[18] You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fa-
thers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, [19] but with the precious
blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. [20] He was destined
before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times
for your sake. [21] Through him you have confidence in God, who raised him from
the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Brotherly Love

[22] Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of
the brethren, love one another earnestly from the heart. [23] You have been born
anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding
word of God; [24] for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers, and the flower falls, [25] but the word of the Lord abides forever.”
That word is the good news which was preached to you.

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Commentary:

17-21. The Christian has attained the honor of being a son or daughter of God.
The sacred writer summarizes God’s plan for man’s salvation, which comes a-
bout in Christ: from all eternity, it was God’s design to save men through Christ;
this design was made manifest “at the end of the times”, when our Lord offered
himself as an expiation for the sins of men, and then rose from the dead and was
glorified. This is a further reason why Christians should grow in their desire for
holiness.

“You were ransomed” (v. 18): the image of ransoming used here to explain Re-
demption is probably taken from sacred manumission (common at the time in
Asia Minor and Greece) whereby slaves were set free through a sum of money
being deposited in the temple. When exhorting Christians not to return to their
former sins, St Paul also stresses the great size of the ransom (cf. 1 Cor 6:20
and note). The amount of the ransom, St Ambrose points out, “was not rec-
koned in terms of money but in terms of blood, for Christ died for us; he has
set us free with his precious blood, as St Peter also reminds us in his letter
[...]; precious because it is the blood of a spotless Lamb, the blood of the Son
of God, who has ransomed us not only from the curse of the Law, but also from
that never-ending death which impiety implies” (”Expositio Evangelii sec. Lu-
cam”, 7, 117).

“The blood of Christs like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (v. 19): in the
sacrifice of Jesus was fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah about the Messiah’s expia-
tory suffering; and it also finally completed the liberation of the Israelite first-born
in Egypt through the blood of the paschal lamb (Ex 12; cf. Introduction to this let-
ter). So, when in the New Testament the figure of the Lamb is applied to Christ,
this is a way of referring to the atoning sacrifice of the Cross and, also, the spot-
less innocence of the Redeemer (cf. note on Jn 1:29).

21. The resurrection of Jesus is the basis of Christian faith and hope and is the
main proof of Jesus’ divinity and his divine mission (cf., e.g., 1 Cor 15 and notes
on same). The Apostles were, first and foremost, witnesses of our Lord’s resur-
rection (cf. Acts 1:22; 2:32; etc.), and the proclamation of the Resurrection was
the core of apostolic catechesis (cf. the discourses of St Peter and St Paul in
the Acts of the Apostles).

Jesus Christ rose from the dead by his own power, the power of his divine person
(cf. “Creed of the People of God”, 12); the “St Pius V Catechism” points out that
“we sometimes, it is true, read in Scripture that he was raised by the Father; but
this refers to him as man, just as those passages, on the other hand, which say
that he rose by his own power relate to him as God” (I, 6, 8).

22-25. Fraternal love is one of the main signs of holiness. Jesus said that this
love would be the distinguishing mark of Christians, and the Apostles often repeat
this teaching in the instruction they impart (cf., e.g., 1 Cor 13; Jas 2:8; 1 Jn). The
new people of God, Vatican II says, “are reborn, not from a corruptible seed, but
from an incorruptible one through the word of the living God (cf. 1 Pet 1:23); the
law of this people is the new commandment to love as Christ loved us (cf. Jn
13:34)” (”Lumen Gentium”, 9).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.