On the events of this week, John Piper noted: All of us have sinned against God, not just against man. This is an outrage ten thousand times worse than the collapse of the 35W bridge. That any human is breathing at this minute on this planet is sheer mercy from God. God makes the sun rise and the rain fall on those who do not treasure him above all else. He causes the heart to beat and the lungs to work for millions of people who deserve his wrath. This is a view of reality that desperately needs to be taught in our churches, so that we are prepared for the calamities of the world.
The meaning of the collapse of this bridge is that I am a sinner and should repent or forfeit his life forever. That means I should turn from the silly preoccupations of my life and focus my mind’s attention and my heart’s affection on God and embrace Jesus Christ as my only hope for the forgiveness of my sins and for the hope of eternal life. That is God’s message in the collapse of this bridge. That is his most merciful message: there is still time to turn from sin and unbelief and destruction for those of us who live. If we could see the eternal calamity from which he is offering escape we would hear this as the most precious message in the world.
The word “bridge” does not occur in the Bible. There may be two reasons. One is that God doesn’t build bridges, He caries through seas. His people must pass through the deadly currents of suffering and death, not simply be removed.
Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you”.
1 Peter 3 18-22 talks about the triumph in suffering. It talks about how Christ has triumphed over death and hell and the message that this suffering has for us. It talks about God’s grace, the triumph illustrated in Baptism, and the salvation found only in the sacrifice of Christ for those who believe.
God urges us to consider four elements of the Lord’s victory: 1) His triumphant sin-bearing, 2) His triumphant sermon, 3) His triumphant salvation, and 4) His triumphant supremacy.
1) HIS TRIUMPHANT SIN-BEARING 1 PETER 3:18a
1 Peter 3:18 [18]For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, (ESV)
This section of scripture has been called by most commentators including historic greats like John Calvin and Martin Luter, as being the most difficult to interpret.
As such I want to confine my illustrations to what is exactly pictured and deal with the weighty subjects alone.
The conjunctions also and for point Peter’s readers back to the previous passage (3:13–17) and remind us that we ought not to be surprised or discouraged by suffering, since Christ triumphed in His suffering even though He died an excruciating death, and that of the most horrific kind—crucifixion.
This week has also seen the death of Korean missionaries. Al and Sue are off to minister to the people of Cuba and preparing a Honduras group. Most believers will not die as martyrs, but even when they do, that death is the wages of their sin
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (ESV)
So Jesus suffered/died for sins in that He was “offered once to bear the sins of many”
Hebrews 9:28 [28]so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. (ESV) (cf. Rom. 8:3; Heb. 10:5–10).
The phrase of Christ suffered once for sins translates the word hapax, which means “of perpetual validity, not requiring repetition.” For the Jews so familiar with their sacrificial system, that was a new concept. To atone for sin, they had slaughtered millions of animals over the centuries. During their annual Passover celebration, as many as a quarter million sheep would be sacrificed. But Jesus Christ’s one sacrificial death ended that insufficient parade of animals to the altar and was sufficient for all time (Heb. 1:3; 7:26–27; 9:24–28; 10:10–12), as He took the punishment due the elect and bore it for them, thus fully satisfying God’s righteous judgment.
Thus, in Christ’s substitutionary death, He suffered the righteous/just for the un righteous/unjust. As the perfect offering for sin, He willingly (John 10:15–18) and in accord with the Father’s redemptive purpose from before the foundation of the world (Acts 2:23; 4:27–28; 13:27–29; cf. 2 Tim. 1:9; Rev. 13:8) took upon Himself the entire penalty due the unrighteous (2:24).
2 Corinthians 5:21 [21]For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (ESV)
The triumph in Christ’s death is expressed in the phrase that He might bring [believers] to God. The divine tearing of the temple veil from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51) symbolically demonstrated the reality that He had opened the way to God. The heavenly Holy of Holies, the “throne of grace” (Heb. 4:16), was made available for immediate access by all true believers. As royal priests (2:9), all believers are welcomed into God’s presence (Heb. 4:16; 10:19–22).
The verb translated He might bring (prosagô) expresses the specific purpose of Jesus’ actions. It often describes someone’s being introduced or given access to another. In classical Greek the noun form refers to the one making the introduction.
In ancient courts certain officials controlled access to the king. They verified someone’s right to see him and then introduced that person to the monarch.
Christ now performs that function for believers. Christ entered to bring the elect into communion with God (cf. Ps. 110:4; Heb. 2:17–18; 3:1–2; 4:14–15; 5:4–6; 7:17, 21–22, 25; 8:1–2, 6; 9:13–14).
POEM
Jesus! whose blood so freely stream’d
To satisfy the law’s demand;
By Thee from guilt and wrath redeem’d,
Before the Father’s face I stand.
To reconcile offending man,
Make Justice drop her angry rod;
What creature could have form’d the plan,
Or who fulfill it but a God?
No drop remains of all the curse,
For wretches who deserved the whole;
No arrows dipt in wrath to pierce
The guilty, but returning soul.
Peace by such means so dearly bought,
What rebel could have hoped to see?
Peace, by his injured Sovereign wrought,
His Sovereign fasten’d to a tree.
Now, Lord, Thy feeble worm prepare!
For strife with earth, and hell begins;
Confirm and gird me for the war;
They hate the soul that hates his sins.
Let them in horrid league agree!
They may assault, they may distress;
But cannot quench Thy love to me,
Nor rob me of the Lord my peace.
Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York
WE HAVE SEEN CHRIST’S:
1) TRIUMPHANT SIN-BEARING 1 PETER 3:18a
2) CHRIST’S TRIUMPHANT SERMON 1 PETER 3:18b–20a
1 Peter 3:18-20 [18]For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, [19]in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, [20]because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. (ESV)
The phrase having been put to death in the flesh leaves no doubt that on the cross Jesus’ physical life ceased.
-The most debated section in the Apostles Creed of Christ “descended to the Dead” particularly reflection is complete death.
-The revision of him “descended to Hell” is a latter change trying to reflect the time between his death and resurrection.
The phrase made alive in (the) spirit is a reference to Jesus’ eternal inner person. The Greek text omits the definite article, which suggests Peter was not referring to the Holy Spirit, but that the Lord was spiritually alive, contrasting the condition of Christ’s flesh (body) with that of His spirit. His eternal spirit has always been alive, although His earthly body was then dead; but three days later His body was resurrected in a transformed and eternal state.
In which refers to what occurred with His living spirit while His dead physical body lay in the tomb (concerning His burial, see Matt. 27:57–60; John 19:38–42). He went (poreuomai) denotes going from one place to another (see also v. 22, where the word is used concerning the ascension). When the text says Christ made proclamation to the spirits in prison, it is indicating that He purposefully went to an actual place to make a triumphant announcement to captive beings before He arose on the third day.
The verb rendered proclaimed (kçrussô) means that Christ “preached” or “heralded” His triumph. In the ancient world, heralds would come to town as representatives of the rulers to make public announcements or precede generals and kings in the processions celebrating military triumphs, announcing victories won in battle. This verb is not saying that Jesus went to preach the gospel, otherwise Peter would likely have used a form of the verb euangelizô (“to evangelize”). Christ went to proclaim His victory to the enemy by announcing His triumph over sin (cf. Rom. 5:18–19; 6:5–6), death (cf. Rom. 6:9–10; 1 Cor. 15:54–55), hell, demons, and Satan (cf. Gen. 3:15; Col. 2:15; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8).
-This is a message consistent with scripture and has a tremendous bearing on what we say about the Work of Christ.
-We need to make it clear that there is no opportunity for salvation after death.
-For those who reject Christ in this life, they shall hear a similar herald in Judgement.
In the description of Events in 1 Peter 3:19 Christ directed His proclamation to the spirits, not human beings, otherwise he would have used psuchai (“souls”) instead of pneumasin, a word the New Testament never uses to refer to people except when qualified by a genitive (e.g., Heb. 12:23; “the spirits of the righteous”). The demonic spirits Christ was to address were now in prison (phulakç; an actual place of imprisonment, not merely a condition).
Scripture teaches that God has sovereignly chosen to incarcerate certain demons in that pit of punishment. Second Peter 2:4 says
2 Peter 2:4 [4]For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; (ESV)
He was not preaching to demons a message of salvation, since demons cannot be saved, but are damned forever:
Hebrews 2:16 [16]For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. (ESV)
The phrase “cast them into hell” is a participle derived from the Greek noun Tartarus. Just as Jesus used a term for hell derived from the Jewish vernacular (Gehenna; cf. Matt. 5:22), so Peter chose a term from Greek mythology with which his readers would be familiar.
Jude describes some of them as:
Jude 1:6-7 [6]And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day-- [7]just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. (ESV)
That passage describes certain fallen angels who left the angelic domain to indulge in sexual sin with humans, just as the men of Sodom and Gomorrah attempted to engage in perverted sex with angels (Gen. 19:1, 4–5). This is possible only if they dwell in human bodies, as angels can and have done (cf. Gen. 18:1–2, 8; 19:1, 5; Heb. 13:2). Those demons entered men’s bodies (a phenomenon frequently encountered by Christ and the apostles in the Gospel record), as is clear from the children who were born from those unions (Gen. 6:4). Though the children were human, there was a pervasive influence on them from the demons.
The “spirits (now) in prison” described in 1 Peter 3:19 are in the abyss are those “who once were disobedient … in the days of Noah.” They are the demons who cohabited with human women in Satan’s failed attempt to corrupt the human race … (Gen. 6:1–4).
Please turn to 2 Peter 2
Peter further identifies the demons to whom Christ preached His triumphant sermon as those who formerly did not obey/once were disobedient. As the reason that God bound them permanently in the place of imprisonment, that disobedience is specifically related to something that happened in the time of Noah.
In his second letter, Peter also briefly refers to the bound demons’ sin:
2 Peter 2:4-6 [4]For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; [5]if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; [6]if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; (ESV).
Those wicked spirits were sent to the abyss because they overstepped the boundaries of God’s tolerance. They filled the earth with their wretchedness to such an extent that not even 120 years of Noah’s preaching convinced anyone beyond his family to repent, believe in God, and escape His judgment.
-The clear implication for today, is the warning that there is a limit to God’s patience. The call to repent needs to be responded to in order to avoid judgement.
WE HAVE SEEN CHRIST’S:
1) TRIUMPHANT SIN-BEARING 1 PETER 3:18a 2) CHRIST’S TRIUMPHANT SERMON 1 PETER 3:18b–20a
3) HIS TRIUMPHANT SALVATION 1 PETER 3:20b–21
1 Peter 3:20-21 [20]because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. [21]Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, (ESV)
The biblical account of when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, before sending the Flood, Peter saw as an analogy for the triumphant salvation provided through Jesus Christ. God was patient with the corrupt world, as Genesis 6:3 states:
Genesis 6:3 [3]Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years." (ESV)
During that 120-year grace period Noah was “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5) who announced judgment but also offered the way of deliverance. The members of Noah’s family were the only eight persons on earth to heed the divine warning and escape the coming catastrophe of a worldwide flood. Hence only Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives were brought safely through the water while the rest of mankind was drowned in God’s act of judgment (Gen. 6:9–8:22).
During the grace period, people witnessed the ark was being prepared/Constructed by Noah and his sons. While its purpose was to rescue Noah and his family from the Flood, the ark also was a vivid object lesson to unbelievers of God’s impending judgment on the world. The lack of responsiveness to the “sermon of the ark” reveals the profound wickedness in Noah’s day:
Genesis 6:5 [5]The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (ESV)
Peter mentioned that Baptism corresponds to this.
Corresponds contains the word antitupon, which means “copy,” “counterpart,” or “figure pointing to” to make the transition to the salvation in Christ. That word yielded the theological term antitype, which in the New Testament describes an earthly expression of a heavenly reality—a symbol or analogy of a spiritual truth (cf. John 3:14–16; Heb. 4:1–10; 8:2, 5). The preservation in the ark of those who believed God is analogous to the salvation believers have in Christ. Noah and his children are a genuine type of the salvation in Jesus Christ, which preserves believers safely through God’s judgment on sinners.
Certain theological traditions misinterpret Peter’s statement baptism now saves you to refer to spiritual salvation by water baptism (i.e., baptismal regeneration). But baptism (from baptizô) simply means “to immerse,” and not just in water. Peter here uses baptism to refer to a figurative immersion into Christ as the ark of safety that will sail over the holocaust of judgment on the wicked.
Please turn to Romans 6
Peter made clear that he did not want readers to think he was referring to water baptism when he specifically said not as a removal of dirt from the body. That he was actually referring to a spiritual reality when he wrote baptism now saves is also clear from the phrase, an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Those who trust Christ for eternal life enjoy newness of life that culminates one day with the resurrection to eternal life. Paul instructed the Romans:
Romans 6:3-4 [3]Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4]We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (ESV)(cf. 1 Cor. 6:17; 10:2; 12:13; Gal. 3:27; Eph. 4:5)
Therefore, God provides salvation because a sinner, by faith, is immersed into Christ’s death and resurrection and becomes Jesus’ own through that spiritual union. Salvation does not occur by means of any rite, including water baptism (the removal of dirt from the body), but by an appeal to God for a good conscience. Appeal (eperôtçma) is a technical term that was used in making contracts. Here it refers to agreeing to meet certain divinely-required conditions before God places one into the ark of safety (Christ). Anyone who would be saved must first come to God with a desire to obtain a good (cleansed) conscience and a willingness to meet the conditions (repentance and faith) necessary to obtain it.
Water baptism is intended to be a public profession of an inward reality.
It does not save; it is the Holy Spirit’s baptizing the sinner safely into Jesus Christ—the elect’s only ark of salvation—that forever rescues the sinner from hell and brings him securely to heaven. This is the ultimate triumph of Christ’s suffering for them, and the pledge of triumph in their own unjust suffering.
Quote: J.C. Ryle in Foundations of Faith said:
Who can estimate the value of God’s gift, when He gave to the world His only begotten Son! It is something unspeakable and incomprehensible. It passes man’s understanding. Two things there are which man has no arithmetic to reckon, and no line to measure. One of these things is the extent of that man’s loss who loses his own soul. The other is the extent of God’s gift when he gave Christ to sinners…Sin must indeed be exceeding sinful, when the Father must needs give His only Son to be the sinner’s Friend!
WE HAVE SEEN CHRIST’S:
1)TRIUMPHANT SIN-BEARING 1 PETER 3:18a 2) TRIUMPHANT SERMON 1 PETER 3:18b–20a 3) TRIUMPHANT SALVATION 1 PETER 3:20b–21 and Finally:
4) HIS TRIUMPHANT SUPREMACY 1 PETER 3:22
1 Peter 3:22 [22]who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. (ESV)
Please turn to Ephesians 1
Peter concludes this passage with a glorious final note concerning Jesus Christ’s triumphant suffering. Both the Old and New Testaments affirm the right hand as a place of prestige and power (Gen. 48:18; 1 Chron. 6:39; Pss. 16:8; 45:9; 80:17; 110:1; Mark 16:19; Acts 2:33; 5:31; Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Heb. 12:2). The right hand of God is the preeminent place of honour and authority for all eternity (Ex. 15:6; Deut. 33:2; Pss. 16:11; 18:35; 45:4; 48:10; 89:13; 98:1; 118:15–16; Matt. 26:64; Acts 7:55–56; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; Rev. 5:7; cf. Rev. 2:1). That is where Christ went after He finished His work of redemption, and that is where He rules from today.
The position and work of Christ is Stated in Eph. 1:
Ephesians 1:19-21 [19]and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might [20]that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, [21]far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. (ESV)
Christ assumed His position of supremacy over angels, authorities, and powers (angelic beings, including Satan and his demons; see Gen. 19:1; 28:12; Pss. 78:49; 148:2; Matt. 4:11; 13:41; 25:31; Luke 2:15; 15:10; Rom. 8:38; Eph. 3:10; 6:12; Col. 1:16; 2:18; Jude 6; Rev. 5:11; 8:2) after they had been subjected to Him by the Cross, which fact He proclaimed to the demons in prison.
The word rendered had been subjected (from hupotassô, “to line up in rank under”) describes the present status of all spiritual beings in relation to Christ. He is supreme over all (Phil. 2:9–11).
2 Corinthians 2:14 [14]But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. (ESV)
