Thrive Over The Enemy

1 Peter 3:13–22 (NIV)

13 Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” 15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. 17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. 19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

The point?

Chiasm communicates a clear point (Chiasm aids memory, communicates rhetorical sophistication, and sometimes serves to highlight, link, or contrast points):

Your Slanderers will be ashamed (3:16)

Suffer though innocent, in God’s will (3:17)

For Christ suffered for the unjust (3:18)

He triumphed over hostile spirits (3:19)

Noah was saved through water (3:20)

You are saved through water (3:21)

Christ triumphed over hostile spirits (3:22)

For Christ suffered (4:1a)

Suffer in God’s will (4:1b-2)

Your slanderers will be ashamed (4:3-5)

This would have been very encouraging to Christians who were unjustly treated and persecuted for their faith. This will serve to remind them that, ultimately, they win. They will be vindicated and those who are their enemies will be ashamed.

Whatever comes your way - you will be victorious because of Jesus’ resurrection and great victory over evil - that will be your victory.

Baptism saves us?

Peter makes it clear in this verse that it is not the ritual itself that saves, but the fact that we are united with Christ in His resurrection through faith, “the pledge of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”

Water has no ability to cleanse someone’s conscience. Water Baptism, however, is the counterpart to repentance and faith or as Peter says here: “Pledge of a clear conscience toward God” which does cleanse us.

If God preserved Noah when he stood in opposition to the whole world, he will also save his people, even though they are now being persecuted.

As the waters were the means of judgment against wickedness yet was also the salvation for Noah and his family, Peter is using this as a type for the believer that passes out of judgment cleansed, forgiven, righteous, to a new day, a new creation, judgement has passed.

Water Baptism, then, is the outward testimony / enactment of the believer’s inward faith and new birth.

Peter says that it is at baptism that we pledge:

Pledge: one pledges or promises to abide by the terms of the contract and the stipulations found therein. In this case, the pledge/promise made at baptism. A pledge to live for the glory of God, a pledge to live for his Will.

Another view, believers at baptism ask God - on the basis of the death and resurrection of Christ - to cleanse their consciences and forgive their sins. Similar to Heb. 10:22. Here Peter is not focusing on the promises believers make when baptized but the saving work of Christ and his resurrection. Believers at baptism can be confident on the basis of the work of the crucified and risen Lord that their appeal to have a good conscience will be answered.

What do these verses mean?

After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—20 to those who were disobedient long ago

Luther wrote, “A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means.”

There are 4 major interpretations of these verses.

Augustine’s view and many other since (most evangelicals): Christ’s preaching through Noah to those who lived while Noah was building the ark. The spirits were not literally in prison but refer to those who were snared in sin during Noah’s day.

The reference to Christ “going” in v. 19 demonstrates the implausibility of the this view since it is difficult to understand how Christ needs to “go anywhere” if he speaks only through the Holy Spirit.

Additionally, spirits, fits much more plausibly with a reference to angels instead of humans. The plural form is almost exclusively used in the NT to refer to angels (only Heb. 12:23 is not but there it is conditioned with the adjective “righteous” clearly humans)

Thirdly, “prison” (phylake) is never used to denote the place of punishment for human beings after death. The term is used to denote the place where humans are held on earth and in Rev. 20:7 for Satan’s imprisonment for one thousand years.

Finally, it doesn’t make sense what relation preaching through Noah would have to this text.

2nd, some have understood Peter as referring to Old Testament saints who died and were liberated by Christ between his death and resurrection.

Third, other understand the imprisoned spirits to refer, as in 4:6 to the sinful human beings who perished during Noah’s flood. Christ appeared to them offering them the opportunity to repent and be saved.

One of the main interpretive issues with this is when they connect this text to 1 Peter 4:6, where no necessary connection is formed by Peter, they are two distinct and different things.

But really this interpretation makes no sense considering the theme of his letter is for the righteous to persevere and endure suffering. Why would then Peter be teaching that the wicked have a second chance after death. All motivation to endure would vanish is Peter now offered a second opportunity after death.

Fourth, the majority view among scholars today is that the text describes Christ’s proclamation of victory and judgment over the evil angels. Gen. 6:1-4. The point is not that Christ descended into hell but, as in 3:22, his victory over evil angelic powers.

Genesis 6:1–6“1 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. 5 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. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.”

Who were the “sons of God”?

Sethite interpretation: they are human beings from the line of Seth. These verses are presumably describing forbidden intermarriage between the godly men of Seth’s lineage and the ungodly women of Cain’s lineage. In this way, the bible distinguished the godly from the ungodly.

There are at least 5 strong arguments against this view (which has been the consensus since the 4th century) The Sethite view of the text is only supported from things not present in the text, which is the opposite of sound exegesis.

Yet when we look at Peter and Jude, we see them describe this same Gen. 6 event and called the “sons of God” angels.

Additionally, both Peter and Jude expound on the punishment of these “angels” that is not recorded anywhere in Scripture. Where did they gain such knowledge?

Much of this story comes from the extra biblical material of 1 Enoch among many others. They had no problem referencing content found in 1 Enoch and other Jewish books to articulate their theology.

To get inside the mind of a first century Jew, it is important to understand what shaped their worldview. What did they read? What was their understanding of the world and the condition it found itself in?

How would they answer the question: Why is the world and all humanity so thoroughly wicked?

We have been conditioned to say the fall. However, to a Jew living in the Second Temple Period, they would say that the Watchers are to blame for the proliferation of evil on the earth. While human rebellion first appeared in Eden, it is the actions of the Watchers that served as a catalyst to spread wickedness among humanity like a virus.

Jesus reversed the effects of (the sin of the Watchers) Mt. Hermon and conquered the wickedness and we are partakers of that through salvation and its counterpart - baptism.

Gates of Hell

Mt. Hermon in the Bashan Mountain range, is also called Mount Bashan by scholars - the location at which the Watchers bound themselves with an oath to corrupt humanity - 1 Enoch 6 describes this and explicitly connects it with Genesis 6.

To the Jews in Old Testament times, the whole region of Bashan was associated with giants and evil spirits - the spawn of the Watchers.

The backdrop was that demons are the spirits of dead giants, it was the place of the underworld where they dwelt.

The Gates of Hell, Matthew 16:13-20. Located at Caesarea Philippi, a city located in the northern part of what was Bashan at the foot of Mt. Hermon. This was the place where King Jereboam built an idolatrous worship center (1 Kings 12), and the city adopted the worship of Baal. In Jesus’ day it was also called Panias, having been dedicated to the worship of Pan.

When considering all this, the scene takes place on geography considered the gates of hell in OT times, the domain of Baal, the lord of the dead, and at the very mountain where the plot of the Watchers was hatched.

This is a cosmic confrontation with Jesus challenging the authority of the lord of the dead.

The Gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church.

We often think of this phrase as though God’s people are in a posture of having to bravely fend off Satan and his demons. This simply isn’t correct. Gates are defensive structures, not offensive weapons. The kingdom of God is the aggressor. Jesus goes to ground zero in biblical demonic geography to announce that Bashan will be defeated. It is the gates of hell that is under assault and they will not hold up against the church. Hell has no claim on those who align themselves with Jesus. He will reverse the curse of death and His own will rise on account of Him.

Transfiguration

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all have the next event in the ministry of Jesus after Peter’s confession as the Transfiguration.

Traditionally since the late fourth century A.D., this was Mount Tabor. The Gospels themselves give no name for the mountain. Some still hold to Tabor, however, many have come to agree that the close proximity to Caesera Philippi, the necessary height of the mountain and the symbolic associations make Mount hermon the logical choice.

Consider this: Jesus picks Mount Hermon to reveal who He is, the embodied glory-essence of God, the divine Name made visible by incarnation.

The message is clear: He is putting the hostile powers of the unseen world on notice. I have come to earth to take back what is mine, the Kingdom is here and you will lose big time.

Psalm 68:18 “18 When you ascended on high, you took many captives; you received gifts from people, even from the rebellious— that you, Lord God, might dwell there.” is in reference to Mount Bashan and his conquest over his enemies. Ephesians 4:8 “8 This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.””

Colossians 2:15 “15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

The gifts Jesus has given to the Church are a result of his conquest. The booty being distributed after victory.

The point of this is that Jesus was claiming it for the Kingdom of God. And as the scholars point out - this event in the Gospel chronologies, is what provoked his death, the very means to victory and ensuring the defeat of the powers of darkness.

Legion

The exorcism of Legion is therefore more than a strange tale of suicidal swine. It’s about theological messaging. Legion recognizes that Jesus is rightful Lord of the country of the Gerasenes - old Bashan now under Gentile occupation.

These familiar episodes in the ministry of Jesus occur int he darkest, most spiritually sinister places known to Old Testament Israelites and Jewish readers of the Old Testament. Bashan and Hermon were ground zero for spiritual evil and, in particular, the Watchers of 1 Enoch. The spiritual corruption of humanity would be healed by the atonement of the cross. His resurrection meant that no member of the kingdom of God would share living space with the Watchers in the underworld Abyss, the realm of the dead. Even an army of Watchers was over matched by the Son of the Most High. They would be lords of nothing.

Jesus’ divinely ordained mission, accomplished birth from a woman is contrasted with the rebellion of Angels entering women. Both texts bring heaven and earth together through divine sons involved with human women.

After the initial judgment of the Flood, the disembodied spirits of their illegitimate sons enter humans to attack them, causing disease, blindness, and destruction. The Watcher’s fall is so severe, that they must ask the human Enoch to serve as their intercessor. They no longer have access to God in prayer. In parallel contrast, Jesus as the Son of God faithfully gives himself to rescue humanity from the “present evil age”. After his exaltation in resurrection, the spirit of God’s son is sent into the hearts of believers so that they can share in his sonship giving them direct access to God in prayer. In both narratives the cosmos is altered and humanity affected.

1 Peter 3

Jesus Proclaimed (Herald) to the fallen angels: Preached (ekryxen) usually refers to preaching the gospel, however, it can be used in a neutral sense. Context is the determining factor. In this instance Jesus is not “heralding” the Gospel but rather his absolute victory over demonic powers.

In the Enoch story, the Watchers appealed their sentence and asked Enoch, to intercede with God for them. God rejected their petition and Enoch returned to give them the bad news.

He goes / descends to tell them they are still defeated, their sentence still stands and the crucifixion actually meant victory over every demonic force opposed to God.

Baptism

In effect, baptism in New Testament theology is a loyalty oath, a public avowal of who is on the Lord’s side in the cosmic war between good and evil. But in addition to that, it is also a visceral reminder to the defeated fallen sons of God, Enoch’s Watchers.

Every baptism is therefore a reiteration of the past judgment and future doom of the Watchers in the wake of the gospel and the kingdom of God. Early Christians understood the typology of this passage and its link back to 1 Enoch and Genesis 6:1–4. This is why early baptismal formulas included a renunciation of Satan and his angels. Baptism was anything but routine. It was a symbol of spiritual warfare.

The Great Commission - “Baptize them in the name...”

Right before this Peter tells us we must know apologetics. We must be prepared with a defense of the our hope for why we live the way we live.

This is the church on the offensive. Spiritual Warfare. And what did Jesus say in the Great Commission? All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth. The enemy has been defeated. Jesus is at Gods right hand. His work of redemption completed. He is worthy of all our praise. And those who believe and are baptized will rule and reign with Him forevermore.

We need not ever fear any kind of demonic power and be ready to exercise spiritual authority in the name of Jesus against any demonic force that rises to oppose us.