Grace Means Suffering: Reasons For (Part 2)
Grace Means Suffering: Reasons For (Part 2)
1 Peter 3:17-22
This morning, we come to a passage some commentators mark as “one of the most difficult to interpret” (Kistemaker). There are a lot of various interpretations concerning what Peter is saying in these verses primarily because 1) Theologians have a tendency to force passages to fit into their pre-determined theology instead of adjusting their theology to fit the Scriptures, and 2) these verses are too often interpreted apart from their context.
In this passage Peter continues to address the suffering that Peter knows can arise because the Christian’s allegiance is to God over any human authority. As a Christian pursues righteousness, there can be a negative reaction to that by those who are worldly and / or evil. While that vast majority of people will treat you decently if you are zealous for what is good, there will be those who are of such character that they will harm you for doing what is right before God. We are not to fear them, be intimidated by them or allow ourselves to be agitated by them. We are to instead fear God by sanctifying Christ as Lord in our hearts. This is demonstrated by:
1) giving a defense, a personal explanation of your hope and faith in Christ, in a gentle and respectful manner to anyone that may ask or question it, and
2) keeping a clear conscience in our good behavior. That should put to shame those who revile you for it.
Peter points to the power of suffering according to God’s will for doing good with Jesus Christ as the example. The suffering of Christ was God’s means of His victory over sin and death. If it is kept in mind the clauses and sentences in this passage are related to that truth, then they are not as hard to understand.
Peter states it is better and it is an advantage to suffer for doing good rather than doing bad. There is nothing commendable about suffering for doing wrong. That should be expected as part of justice. But suffering for doing right and responding in godliness and maintaining a good conscience is commendable because it demonstrates trust that God in His wisdom has a plan for what is happening. It may be God’s will as part of your spiritual growth and refinement. It may be the means of bringing an understanding of the gospel to a non-believer.
Peter points to Jesus’ suffering as the example for us to follow when we suffer for righteousness. While His death was the culmination of Jesus’ suffering, it also includes everything leading up to that. This would include the betrayal, the arrest, being forsaken by His friends, His trial and physical abuse and the insults & crucifixion.
Jesus’ suffering brought about the atonement, the sacrificial payment that covered sin, and its extent was “once for all”. The author of Hebrews places a major emphasis on this fact because it is such a contrast to the sacrificial system in which each sin required a blood sacrifice with none of those animal sacrifices being sufficient. Even the sacrifice made on the Day of Atonement by the High Priest was insufficient because it had to be made year by year. By contrast Jesus, “through His own blood, and not through the blood of goats and calves, entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). This is what allows us to have such confidence that all our sins are paid for so that we can be forgiven and made righteous before God.
The purpose of Jesus’ atonement for our sin was “so that He might bring us to God.” It is sin that blocks us from being able to be in God’s presence as Peter already pointed out in his quote of Psalm 34:15 (in 3:12), “For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil”. Jesus substituted His own life for our lives in payment of the penalty of sin and then assigning to us His righteousness on the basis of faith (2 Cor. 5:18; Col. 1:20; Romans 4).
Peter puts the time period of the disobedience of these spirits during the days of Noah. Genesis 6:5 describes the evil of those days; “The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” That grieved God resulting in Him determining to destroy mankind with a flood. Yet, God extended grace to Noah and his family instructing them to build an ark in which they and a pair of all the kinds of land-dwelling animals could survive.
From the reference in Genesis, it is generally accepted that it took about one hundred and twenty years for the ark to be built, and during that time God was patient with evil man and also made Noah “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). There was plenty of time for people to hear and heed the warnings of Noah, yet, when it came time to enter the ark, only Noah and his family, a total of eight people, did so. The rest of mankind refused, and once the door was shut it was too late. The flood came and washed away all of the ungodly.
Why does Peter bring up Noah? It is because Noah is another example of a righteous man who suffered according to the will of God and was blessed for it.
In bringing up Noah and his family as a type of salvation in being brought safely through the water of the flood, Peter brings up Baptism as something that corresponds to it in salvation. Peter uses God’s salvation of Noah and his family via the ark from the waters as the flood as the type and baptism. Or to put it another way, Peter uses God’s salvation of Noah as an example of salvation in baptism. What is the relationship between baptism and salvation?
What Peter refers to by “baptism now saves you” has nothing to do with the water itself. Noah was saved because he was in the ark that rode above and through the water of the flood. The water was the danger to Noah’s life and not the means of his salvation.
Note the word baptism means to dip or immerse, and for that reason it was used with reference to washing things or dying fabric. You dip what is dirty in water to remove the dirt. You immerse fabric into dye in order for it to take on the color qualities of the dye. Both of those ideas have a symbolic meaning in Christian baptism, but Peter directly states here that this baptism that saves is “not the removal of dirt from the flesh.” So, Peter is not talking about the physical aspects of religious baptism, he is talking about something else.
Peter states that the baptism that now saves you is “an appeal to God for a good conscience – through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” That also shows Peter is talking about a spiritual reality beyond any physical religious ritual and ties it to verses 15 and 16 in sanctifying Christ as Lord in your heart by giving a defense of the hope within you and keeping a good conscience. The word appeal can also be translated as “pledge”. It is a technical term used in making contracts related to affirming the acceptance of the conditions of the contract. The condition of salvation is belief in the person and work of the Jesus which Peter marks here as the resurrection of Jesus Christ. To believe in Jesus requires repentance, a change of mind about sin, self and the savior, in order to turn to believe and trust Him.
Paul states in regards to the word of faith, the gospel which he was preaching, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation,” (Romans 10:9-10). The sinner humbly seeks God for cleansing of the heart as David does in Psalm 51. That is the source of a good conscience.
Noah found grace in the eyes of God and Noah believed God so, he built the ark which kept him and his family safe from the waters of the flood which brought death to the rest of wicked mankind. God’s grace is extended to mankind to save from sin all who will believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are baptized with the Holy Spirit and radically changed to become new creations in Christ to walk in newness of life with a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith.
There is no question that the ritual of water baptism is important to Christians since Jesus commanded in the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 that those who would be His disciples were to be baptized. It was the immediate practice on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 and throughout the rest of Acts. No epistle has to encourage Christians to get baptized since that was not a problem. Early church history does not record any problem of believers refusing to be baptized or of even putting it off. That is a more recent phenomenon.
Certainly, part of a good conscience for a Christian will be found in obeying the commands of Jesus which includes being baptized. However, as important as Christian baptism is, it must be emphasized that baptism is a result of salvation and not a means so as not to put faith as part of the ritual instead of the reason for it.
After Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost, many were pierced to the heart and asked what they should do. Peter answered, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
Baptism is extremely important in life as a Christian and should be one of the first acts of obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. However, salvation comes only by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ and not by any works or righteousness we have done. It is in Jesus Christ alone that we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin.
Peter concludes this passage with a return to the victories of Jesus as the example of the power of suffering for righteousness when it is according to the will of God.
Victory Over Death is the first he mentions since the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is a core belief of salvation. Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 15, without the resurrection of Jesus, there is no hope for the Christian or anyone else. There is no gospel.
Victory in Position of Authority is the second point Peter makes. Jesus “is at the right hand of God, having gone to heaven.” As recorded in Act 1, Peter was present along with the rest of the apostles to see Jesus physically ascend into the clouds of heaven and had the angel then tell them “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
Victory In Subjugation of Enemies. Jesus is “at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”
What Peter says is in complete agreement with what Paul states in Ephesians 1:19-21. ” . . . These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”
Do not be dismayed if it is within God’s will that you suffer for the sake of righteousness. God has a plan for it even if you do not yet know what that is. Peter points to Jesus as the supreme example of the blessing God can bring about even from the midst of suffering. The cross became the place of triumph, not defeat.