1 Peter 1:18

_ _ Another motive to reverential, vigilant fear (1 Peter 1:17) of displeasing God, the consideration of the costly price of our redemption from sin. Observe, it is we who are bought by the blood of Christ, not heaven. The blood of Christ is not in Scripture said to buy heaven for us: heaven is the “inheritance” (1 Peter 1:4) given to us as sons, by the promise of God.

_ _ corruptible — Compare 1 Peter 1:7, “gold that perisheth,” 1 Peter 1:23.

_ _ silver and gold — Greek, “or.” Compare Peter’s own words, Acts 3:6 : an undesigned coincidence.

_ _ redeemed — Gold and silver being liable to corruption themselves, can free no one from spiritual and bodily death; they are therefore of too little value. Contrast 1 Peter 1:19, Christ’s “precious blood.” The Israelites were ransomed with half a shekel each, which went towards purchasing the lamb for the daily sacrifice (Exodus 30:12-16; compare Numbers 3:44-51). But the Lamb who redeems the spiritual Israelites does so “without money or price.” Devoted by sin to the justice of God, the Church of the first-born is redeemed from sin and the curse with Christ’s precious blood (Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 2:14; Revelation 5:9). In all these passages there is the idea of substitution, the giving of one for another by way of a ransom or equivalent. Man is “sold under sin” as a slave; shut up under condemnation and the curse. The ransom was, therefore, paid to the righteously incensed Judge, and was accepted as a vicarious satisfaction for our sin by God, inasmuch as it was His own love as well as righteousness which appointed it. An Israelite sold as a bond-servant for debt might be redeemed by one of his brethren. As, therefore, we could not redeem ourselves, Christ assumed our nature in order to become our nearest of kin and brother, and so our God or Redeemer. Holiness is the natural fruit of redemption “from our vain conversation”; for He by whom we are redeemed is also He for whom we are redeemed. “Without the righteous abolition of the curse, either there could be found no deliverance, or, what is impossible, the grace and righteousness of God must have come in collision” [Steiger]; but now, Christ having borne the curse of our sin, frees from it those who are made God’s children by His Spirit.

_ _ vain — self-deceiving, unreal, and unprofitable: promising good which it does not perform. Compare as to the Gentiles, Acts 14:15; Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:17; as to human philosophers, 1 Corinthians 3:20; as to the disobedient Jews, Jeremiah 4:14.

_ _ conversation — course of life. To know what our sin is we must know what it cost.

_ _ received by tradition from your fathers — The Jews’ traditions. “Human piety is a vain blasphemy, and the greatest sin that a man can commit” [Luther]. There is only one Father to be imitated, 1 Peter 1:17; compare Matthew 23:9, the same antithesis [Bengel].