God has given us a new life because of Christ
1 This letter is from me, Peter. I am an apostle of Jesus Christ.
I am writing to you, God's own people that he has chosen. You are now living in many different places, in the regions called Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. You are living in these foreign places as strangers. 2 God, the Father, already decided that you should be his people. God's Spirit has made you special people who would obey Jesus Christ. God chose you so that Jesus Christ's blood would make you really clean.
1:1Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia were all parts of the country that we now call Turkey. There was too much trouble for the Christians to live safely in their own land.
1:2Jesus died as a sacrifice so that God would forgive us for our sins. The blood of his sacrifice makes us clean. Our sins do not make us unclean any more because God has forgiven us.
I pray that God will help you and give you peace in your minds more and more.
3 We praise God, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He is very kind to us, so that he has given us new life. This is possible because God raised Jesus Christ to new life after his death. Now, as we live, we are sure that we will receive good things from God. 4 We wait to receive all the good things that he has prepared for us. Nobody can ever destroy those things. Nothing can spoil them. They will never become old or less beautiful. God is keeping those things in heaven for you. 5 God is using his great power to keep you safe, because you trust him. He will continue to keep you safe until the last day, when Christ will return. Then you will know that God has saved you completely from sin and from death.
6 All this causes you to be very happy, even when you have troubles. For a short time now, different kinds of troubles may make you sad. 7 The purpose of these troubles is to show whether you really trust God. When you believe in Jesus, that is more valuable even than gold. People put gold into a hot fire to see if it is really good. And even gold will come to an end one day. But if you continue to trust God in your troubles, he will be very happy. On the day when Jesus Christ returns and appears to everyone, God will praise you. He will say that you have done well. That will be great!
8 You have never seen Jesus, but still you love him. You do not see him now, but you believe in him. As a result, you are very happy. There are no words to describe how happy you are. 9 You are happy now because God is saving you from sin. You believe in Jesus, and you know that God saves you because of that.
1:9God tells us that Jesus died to save us from our sin. If we believe in Jesus, sin no longer has power over us. Also, God will not punish us for our sins because he has punished Jesus instead, on the cross.
10 A long time ago, God's prophets spoke about this. They said that God would be very kind to you, his people. They studied carefully to learn how God would save people. 11 They wanted to know when God's special Messiah would come and who he would be. Christ's Spirit showed those prophets that the Messiah would receive much trouble and pain. After that, God would show how great the Messiah is. 12 God showed his prophets that his messages about these things were not really to help them. Instead, God sent his message to the prophets to help you. That message is the good news about Jesus Christ which you have now heard. God sent his Holy Spirit from heaven to help people to tell the good news to you. Even the angels would like to understand more about these things.
