1 Peter 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... The fountainhead of all blessing and salvation is God himself; and by these words Peter showed that Christianity was in no sense a departure from the God of Israel and of the Hebrew patriarchs, but was still a worship of that same God through the acceptance of God's only begotten Son; for the same God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the very one who has begotten us.

According to his great mercy ... Every hope of eternal life, of forgiveness of sins, of every conceivable measure of salvation - all hope springs ultimately from the unmerited favor and mercy of an almighty God.

Begat us again unto a living hope ... This makes God the Father of every Christian, the means by which that hope is conveyed to them being the new birth, of which Peter will shortly speak again.

By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead ... This does not deny that Christians are born again through obeying the word of God (1 Peter 1:22), but refers to the source of that word, Jesus Christ, and the mighty act wrought by God in his resurrection of our Saviour from the tomb, the same being the enabling charter, the vast achievement which made the salvation of people possible. Thus it is quite correct to say that Christians are born again by the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

Furthermore, it is most appropriate that the apostle Peter would have focused upon the resurrection at the very outset; because, as Hunter said, "The resurrection had made all new in Peter's life, had turned tragedy into triumph; so it is altogether fitting that his epistle should begin with this paean of it."[10]

The word "blessed" as used of God in this verse is a special word, "consecrated to God alone in the New Testament";[11] and it is utterly different from the term "blessed" as used in the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. Kelcy informs us that the word reserved for God is [@eulogetos]; and the other one is [@makarios],[12] both of which, however, are translated "blessed" in the common versions.

[10] Archibald M. Hunter, op. cit., p. 92.

[11] A. J. Mason, op. cit., p. 388.

[12] Raymond C. Kelcy, op. cit., p. 20.