2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
I read through today’s passage, 1 PET 3: 18-22, and see it as a most remarkable culmination to what Peter has been saying about suffering for doing right. We often think of our suffering as overwhelming, but it can hardly be compared to what Christ suffered for our sake. “For Christ died for sins once and for all, a good man on behalf of sinners, in order to lead you to God. He was put to death physically, but made alive spiritually, and in His spiritual existence He went and preached to the imprisoned spirits. These were the spirits of those who had not obeyed God when He waited patiently during the days that Noah was building his boat. The few people in the boat-eight in all-were saved by the water, which was a symbol pointing to baptism, which now saves you. It is not the washing off of bodily dirt, but the promise made to God from a good conscience. It saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone to heaven and is at the right side of God, ruling over all angels and heavenly authorities and powers.”
There are some features of Christ’s suffering that set it apart from all other suffering that are inherent in (18). 1) It freed believers from punishment of their sins. 2) It was a once-for-all sufficient sacrifice that settled the sin question for eternity. 3) A just Man was substituted for the unjust. IS 53: 6, “All of us were like sheep that were astray, each of us going his own way. But the Lord made the punishment fall on Him, the punishment all of us deserved.” 4) It removed us from alienation from God, bringing us to reconciliation with Him. RO 5: 10-11, “We were God’s enemies, but He made us His friends through the death of His Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life! But that is not all; we rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has now made us God’s friends.” 5) It was violent, carried out by execution by crucifixion on the cross. 6) It was climaxed by resurrection made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In (19) Peter asserts about Christ “in His spiritual existence He went and preached to the imprisoned spirits.” There are two theories which can explain this. In the first one, Christ went to Hades in spirit between His death and resurrection. There He proclaimed the triumph of his magnificent work on the cross. EPH 4: 9 tells us that before rising to life, Christ “went down into the lowest depths of the earth.” The Apostle’s Creed uses the description, “He descended into Hell..” The second theory is that Peter is describing what happened in the days of Noah. It was the Spirit of Christ who was preaching through Noah to an unbelieving generation before the flood. These were living disembodied spirits who rejected Noah’s warning before the flood and were destroyed by it. Now they were in the prison of Hades. In 2 PET 2: 5, Noah is described as “preaching righteousness.” More people favor this second explanation than the first one. I recommend taking it to the Lord in prayer for your own direction.
In (20) I admit that a red flag went up in my mind with the statement, “…-eight in all-were saved by the water…” The reason for this is that I firmly believe water never saved anybody. This sent me to the Believer’s Commentary, which has gotten me out of such scrapes in the past. It made the point that what is meant here is that the water was the judgment through which God brought them to safety. JN 14: 6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” In other words, FAITH +NOTHING=SALVATION. When we commit to the Lord as our only Savior, we become identified with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection. In a real sense, we been crucified with Him. GA 2: 19-20, “So far as the Law is concerned, however, I am dead-killed by the Law itself-in order that I might live for God. I have been put to death with Christ on His cross, so that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ Who lives in me. This life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave His life for me.” We have also been buried with Him and brought from death to life with Him. RO 6: 4, “By our baptism, then, we were buried with Him and shared His death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.”
In verse 21, Peter reveals that Christ’s death was not in vain. It did real work and blessed all those who believe. The formerly traditional Jews to whom Peter was writing were not to confuse this with the washing of physical dirt from their bodies in the mikvah before entering the Temple. It was a “promise made to God from a good conscience,” which identifies a person with the resurrection of Christ.
Careful consideration of what Peter was saying in (22) finds it most revealing. Several messages are sent to us by the words, “Who has gone to heaven and is at the right side of God…” Christ spoke of this in MT 26: 64, and Paul did so in 1 COR 15: 51-57, which I hope you will read. Here are the implications: 1) power [MT 26: 64]; 2) honor-“exalted at the right hand of God” [AC 2: 33 & 5: 31]; 3) rest-“He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High” [HE 1: 3, 8:1, and 10:12]; 4) pre-eminence-“far above all..” [EPH 1: 20-21]; 5) dominion-“I will make your enemies Your footstool” [HE 1: 13]. What Peter meant by “angels, heavenly authorities, and powers” is all ranks of heavenly beings-servants of the risen, glorified Christ. If we suffer for righteousness, we too will one day be glorified as He was. Our suffering now is not worthy to be compared to the glory that awaits us. RO 8: 17-18, “God’s Spirit joins Himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children. Since we are His children, we will possess the blessings He keeps for His people, and we will possess with Christ what God has kept for Him; for if we share Christ’s suffering, we will also share His glory.” 2 COR 4: 17, “And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble.”
PRAYER: O Lord, through Your Son and the others cited today, You give us a far better perspective on our suffering than we could ever have on our own. When questions as to the meanings of words said in messages You inspire others to write come up, You help us to answer them by letting Scripture interpret Scripture. My experience in writing today’s message provides ample evidence of that. Neither this way to understand what You say, nor its faith-building and hope-giving content would have been made available to us if You weren’t the loving Abba that You are. We are truly a blessed people when we have faith in You! Your gift of salvation through faith in Your Son motivates us to want to live righteous, holy lives. We eagerly await that Day when we hear the sound of the last shofar (trumpet) and are drawn up to meet Him in the air. We dedicate ourselves to enduring the suffering we must, putting our trust in You, and following Your commands in the spirit in which they are given. We humbly offer You our reverence, obedience, praise, worship, service, and loyalty. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at the power we have to alter our lives when we come to obedient faith, the power of the Gospel, as Peter spoke about it in 1 PET 4: 1-6. Anyone who reads the messages I write knows that I am seeing evidence of the compassionate, patient, profound love that our Abba has for His people. That is why I consider it a great blessing to have the faith in Him that I do. I hope you too are also discovering the same evidence of His love and can see how through studying His word, He is sending it to you. My husband, Peter, and I keep each of you in our daily prayers and send our love.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn