What Does 1 Peter 1:19 Mean?

(19) **With the precious blood of Christ.**—“Precious” means, not “much prized by us,” but *costly, *precious in itself; opposed to the perishableness of gold and silver. Notice that it is not “Jesus,” but “Christ,” *i.e., *the Messiah. No price short of the “blood,” *i.e., *the death, of the Messiah could free the Jews from the thraldom of their “vain conversation.” (Comp. 1Peter 1:2 and Note.) How Christ’s death freed them from it is not explained here; but we may give a twofold explanation, as we did of His resurrection being our regeneration, in 1Peter 1:3. Historically it did so, because when they came to realise that their Messiah could only reach His glories through suffering it gave them a new insight into the whole meaning of the system under which they had been brought up. It did also, however, doubtless, in a more mysterious way, such as we cannot imagine, procure in God’s sight their emancipation; and the following verses show that again St. Peter is thinking more of the theological than of the phenomenal side of the occurrence. **As of a lamb without blemish and without spot**.—We might roughly paraphrase it by, “as of a sacrificial victim, to the sufficiency of whose offering no exception can be taken.” The word “as” shows that in St. Peter’s mind the notion of a “sacrifice,” in reference to the atonement, was only a simile, or metaphor, just as it was with the notion of “ransom.” Once more observe that the sacrifice was offered to effect a redemption which for the readers had already taken place. (Comp. Hebrews 9:14.) The primary thought in mentioning a “lamb” is, of course, that of sacrifice; but when we come to consider why that particular sacrificial animal was named rather than another, it is, no doubt, for two reasons. First, because of the whiteness, the helplessness, the youth, the innocence, and patience, which make it a natural symbol of our Lord. (Comp. *Ecce Homo, *p. 6, ed. 3.) The second reason is to be found in St. Peter’s own life. The first thing that we know in his history was a putting together of those two words—Messiah, and the Lamb (John 1:36; John 1:40-41). Neither he nor St. John (see Revelation 5:6, *et al.*) ever forgot that cry of the Baptist. They, no doubt, understood that cry to refer, not primarily to the Paschal, or any other sacrifice, but to Isaiah 53:7, and perhaps to Genesis 22:8. A word in the next verse will make it clearer that St. Peter really had the Baptist consciously before his mind when he thus wrote.