"A New Father" - 1 Peter 1:17-19

[17] And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile*, [18] knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, [19] but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. (1 Peter 1:17-19 ESV [footnote added])

      The Father in Heaven is a righteous judge and He knows each of our deeds.  He is able to keep a perfect tally of just what we are owed as a result of them.  Peter here counsels to be mindful of the price on our heads, and approach our Lord humbly, with fear, or "reverential awe" as I think it is better translated.  Once we recognize how great of a debt we owe, we can recognize how greatly we have been forgiven, for in the following verses we are given a promise of absolution.
      The main message here is the contrast between our former and future stock in eternity.  Peter makes reference to two vastly different inheritances, and the means of our transference from one to the other.  The "futile ways of our forefathers" from verse 18 is the first inheritance.  It's our birthright and lot in life- every son of Adam will inherit the struggle of sin and the promise of Death.  I read "futile ways" as our attempts to deal with this sin on our own, and since human power alone is never enough to defeat sin and Death, it is indeed an exercise in futility.  Even the Levitical sacrificial system was not enough to absolve man forever, it merely existed to point the way to the future solution, to give man a frame of reference with which to recognize it's appearance.
      Peter speaks of that solution in Christ's blood, using Levitical sacrificial imagery equating Christ with the passover lamb which must always be "without blemish or spot."  (This section is yet another strong case for the argument that Peter's intended readers were jews.)  In the sacrifice of Christ we are ransomed to a new inheritance.  There is a transference of ownership.  No longer are we bound to sin and Death (I speak of Death here as the Death of the soul in Hell forever, as we will all still succumb to the earthly grave, but it no longer has the power to hold us thereafter as it once did.)  Our inheritance now is life everlasting and the Holy Spirit, and hope and freedom from sin's death-grip on our lives.
      And so you see, from our forefathers we once stood to inherit Death, but now, from our Heavenly Father, we are set to inherit Life Eternal.  It is a story of adoption.  We have a new inheritance because we have a new Father.

*v17: It is worth noting that the phrase "the time of your exile" is understood to be used metaphorically as "your time of stay on earth," "your life," etc. and how it in many ways parallels a journey and is not intended as a direct reference to Jewish Diaspora.