1 Peter 1:18-19

Peter then compares their past and present lives. In the past, they did not know how to live for God (see verse 14). People taught them wrong things. Nobody in their society knew the right way to live.

‘God has bought you’. Sometimes a person pays money so that a slave or a person in prison can have freedom. God paid so that people can have freedom from their life of *sin and death. He did not pay with money, but with the precious blood of his only Son, Jesus. Leviticus 17:14 says that the life of an animal is in its blood. So, the ‘precious blood of Christ’ refers to his death on the cross. To be ‘precious’ means to have great value and honour. Romans 6:23 says, ‘The wages of *sin is death’. Jesus died to forgive *sins. Christians will now live for ever and their spirit will never die.

Long ago the *Jews were slaves in the country of Egypt. When the king of Egypt refused to let them go, God punished some of the people of Egypt. He sent an *angel to kill them. God told the *Jews to kill a lamb (young sheep) and put its blood on their doors. When the *angel saw the blood, he did not kill anyone in that house. The blood saved the *Jews from death. The lamb had to be perfect and have nothing wrong with its body. You can read about this in Exodus 12. Jesus lived a perfect life and never did anything wrong. So, when he died on the cross, he was like a perfect lamb.