We learn here that, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are born for glory! We have been begotten “again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” The word “begotten again” has the thought of being born from above. This is the same thought the Lord Jesus gave Nicodemus in John 3. There the Lord Jesus not only told Nicodemus “You must be born again”—born from above—but He went on to say, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:5). Then He went on to say, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’” (v. 6–7).

The water mentioned in John 3:5 does not refer to water baptism, but to the Word of God. It is the Word of God empowered by the Spirit of God by which one is born from above. The Word of God has a cleansing power, as mentioned in Ephesians 5:26. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17). Peter later reminds us of “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God” (1 Pet. 1:23–25).

You and I are born for Glory. Our faith is a living faith, which is based on a living Man, the Lord Jesus Christ! Everything connected to the Christian life is alive! We have a living hope, because of the Son of the living God (Mt. 16:16); we are seen as living stones because He is the Living Stone (1 Pet. 2:4–5); and we base it all on the living Word of God (1:23)!