On the one hand, it was He who has [always] been known from before the founding of the cosmos who, on the other hand, was made known in these last days for your sakes, you who are the ones believing in God who raised Him from death, and giving Him such exalted status, in order that your faith and hope might indeed be in God.
Since, therefore, your cleansing has come about by [such childlike] attentiveness to the truth, give yourselves earnestly to loving one another without any hidden reservations and all because you have been re-born, not by seed which fails, but by that which is unfailing, the living word of God that endures on and on. Indeed [this is as it is written] all flesh is as grass, and all its reputation is from its flower; the grass dries out and the flower falls. But what the Lord speaks endures from henceforth. And this is the spoken utterance that has been the announced-as-good-news to you.
This lamb, "without stain or defect", has been revealed as the long-hoped-for Messiah. For those who believe in Christ Jesus the full weight of this revelation now includes the awful truth that their Resurrected Lord had, in His death by crucifixion, been abandoned. That, says Peter, was part and parcel of your ransom. And who was it that was left alone in such indescribable suffering? It was none other than the One who has been set apart, especially identified for the task since before God began to set up His Creation. This One was designated Heir, the One to complete all of God's purposes!
Peter writes from a conviction that God's work will not be thwarted; the "amazing grace" is not only that He has been made known in these last days, but His being raised and exalted at God's right hand is so that your faith and hope in God may have its proper foundation - that's how the love of Your Father in Heaven for His children has now come to expression.
The argument effectively goes like this: because He suffered complete abandonment as the "lamb of God" - and as one from whom men hid their faces so we reckoned not with his true status (Isaiah 53) - those who believe can live with completely abandoning the life they lived before they believed. This is their new beginning. That message, says Peter, you have greeted with your faith and hope. So attend to it as it truly is, the good news which reminds you of nothing less than who you truly are - God's forgiven and adopted children. You now have the family task of embracing without reservation your brothers and sisters in the Lord's family, wherever they may be found. That is because of the spiritual regeneration that has become evident in your life. God's grace does not fail.
So as
you consider the lilies of the field, watching how the flowers rise and fade in
their own glorious way, as the grass lives out its own lifetime, remember that
your glory is not at all like that! The spoken utterance of the Lord God has come
to your notice. This word (utterance - ρήμα) has breathed
new life into you. This new life is indeed His gift to you. Live it. You are
the children restored by the exaltation of the Messiah's status at God's right
hand. You therefore now share in this exaltation. That is what your life here
and now is all about. That is what the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus
Christ brings to life in people such as yourselves who believe.
And this, by sharing in the exalted status of
the person Jesus, the Messiah, you live showing God's mercy and compassion. His
grace is freely available.