1 Peter 3:18-22, Christ’s Triumph Through Suffering (Part 2)

Introduction

As we turn our attention to worship together through the preaching of God’s Word, I invite you to open your Bible with me to 1 Peter 3. We are finishing up 1 Peter 3 this morning. More specifically, we are finishing our two week look at these last five verses––1 Peter 3:18-22. This morning, we will simply read those verses. Then we’ll pray and ask the LORD to bless our time in His Word. That, by His grace, we would better understand and faithfully apply His Word to our life and ministry together. Please follow along as I read the passage for us.

READ 1 PETER 3:18-22

[Matthew 4:4 Responsive Reading - “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”]

PRAY

As I already mentioned, we are continuing with part two of our study of this particular passage this morning. If you were not able to be with us last week, I would encourage you to visit our website where you can go back and listen to the first part. Real briefly, for the sake of continuity with our study this morning, I am going to give a very brief review. I think that is important to make sure all the points we are looking at are all the more clear this morning. But, it would serve you well to go back and listen to part 1 if you weren’t able to join us last week.

We noted last week that this passage is and has been one of the more challenging passages in all the New Testament to understand and apply. In spite of its challenges, we are not completely helpless or at a loss for understanding and applying it. Its challenges do not excuse us from doing the hard work of studying it and seeking to understand it. Thankfully, if you are a Christian, you have been given the Holy Spirit, who enables you to do this good work.

Essential to rightly understanding this passage, or any passage for that matter, is its context. We noted the overall context of Scripture and a couple of key principles to keep in mind when studying the Bible. Scripture is overwhelmingly clear. When we come to seemingly difficult passages we need to make sure whatever our interpretation ends up being that it is consistent and supported with the rest of Scripture. In other words, we do well to remember that Scripture interprets Scripture. Scripture never contradicts itself. It is in complete harmony in all its parts.

We also noted that the immediate context of the entire letter helps us understand Peter’s flow of thought. He is not going on some kind of random unrelated tangent to what he has said before this passage and what will follow after. Peter is making a sustained effort to encourage Christians who are suffering for their faith in Christ. Peter has not left that point. Meaning that even these seemingly difficult and confusing phrases contribute in some way to that encouragement. With that, our main point is still the same as it was last week.

MAIN POINT––Endure suffering, remembering that Christ suffered for you and triumphed over all of His enemies.

We see in our text, Christ’s Triumph…

Achieved

Proclaimed

Portrayed

Vindicated

Achieved and Proclaimed

Last week as we looked at verses 18 through 20 we saw Christ’s Triumph Achieved and Proclaimed. In verse 18 we saw that Christ’s Triumph was achieved through suffering. Specifically, His vicarious sufferings in His death on the cross. Vicarious meaning that he suffered in the place of others. His death was one of substitutionary atonement for the sins of His people. Jesus, the righteous One, suffered for the unrighteous. He did so for a purpose. So that He might bring us to God.

We were once alienated and far off from God because of our sin. Because of Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden, all of us who have come after them are born dead in sin. We have a sin nature that is at enmity with God. In that sin nature, we do not seek after Him and are unable come to Him on our own merit. Apart from the substitutionary work of Christ, we cannot come to God. But God, being rich in mercy and because of His great love, made a way for us to be reconciled to Him by faith in the life, death, and resurrection of the LORD Jesus Christ.

We should never tire of thinking about this glorious reality, beloved. When you have a right awareness of your own inherent sinfulness––a nature shared by all of us––coupled with an awareness of God’s infinite holiness, righteousness, and justice, the gospel shines with glorious beauty that will lead us to worship God forever if we are in Christ. It is an incomprehensible kindness that will take all eternity for us to fully grasp, that God in Christ would condescend in human form to suffer the death and judgment we all deserve.

This is how Christ’s triumph was achieved, loved ones. By taking the form of a servant. Coming in the likeness of sinful man. Living the perfect life that none of us could live. Dying the death that we all justly deserved. Then, His just wrath being satisfied, God raised Him from the dead for our justification. So that all who will turn from their sin and believe in the LORD Jesus Christ will be saved for God’s eternal judgment on those who remain in rebellion against Him.

Then, in verses 19 and 20, we considered the first of the more challenging phrases and ideas presented in this passage. We saw that Christ’s Triumph was proclaimed to the spirits in prison. While there have been several interpretations to this, which we reviewed last week, we concluded that Peter is picking up on the well known understanding his original readers would have had of Genesis 6:1-4. The spirits in prison are fallen angels, particularly those who are depicted as the “sons of God” at the beginning of the Noah narrative in Genesis 6.

They had rebelled against God by cohabiting with human women, with whom their offspring were the Nephilim mentioned there in Genesis 6. They were a major source of the deep corruption and pervasive sin that led to God bringing the Flood upon the earth in judgment, saving only eight persons––Noah and his family. Christ’s proclamation to the “spirits in prison” was not a gospel proclamation. Their condemnation was final. It was a proclamation of His triumph over them, achieved through His life, death, and resurrection.

Portrayed

Thirdly, continuing on from last week as we now look at verse 21, we see Christ’s Triumph portrayed. You can be encouraged amidst suffering for your faith, loved ones, because of your baptism. It is a portrayal of your union with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, and ultimate triumph over sin, death, and the grave. That’s what I want us to see now as we look afresh at verse 21 together. Look there again with me:

1Pet. 3:21 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,

This particular verse has been the source of significant differences in our understanding and application of Christian baptism throughout church history. With that, I again must reiterate that the difficulty of interpretation is no excuse to not dig in to understand and apply this text. And, as I said before with every part of this passage and the entire Bible, context is key to our understanding.

Peter is not contradicting other clear teachings of Scripture regarding baptism and salvation by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Nor is he inserting a random instruction or command about our baptismal practices that is unrelated to the main point of encouraging Christians who are suffering for their faith in Christ. So, we will best understand this passage by studying it in context with all that Peter has said here and all that is taught in Scripture, as we have with everything else we study.

First, note with me the relationship between this verse and the one that comes before it. Peter refers to Baptism and says, “which corresponds to this”. That word translated “corresponds” in the ESV is a word that carries the idea of type or pattern. In other words, baptism is a type or pattern––a portrayal of something. It is a picture of something and serves as a portrayal and reminder of something for us.

This of course, when you really think about it, is the purpose of pictures. We all likely have pictures on our walls or in scrapbooks. A major purpose of the pictures we take and keep is so that we will remember something or someone. We keep pictures of our family, friends, and loved ones that serve to help us remember them, especially after they are gone They help us to remember them and the good memories we have with them.

We may have pictures that remind us of days gone by and particular moments and times with those family and friends. Such pictures remind us of those times that were significant in shaping who we are and guiding us to where we are today. In times that we look back and reflect on those pictures, we are warmed by the memories and the nostalgia of it all. It encourages us when we are hurting and missing those loved ones and those particular times. Similarly, baptism serves as a portrayal of our union with Christ and His ultimate triumph––and encourages us.

First, let’s deal with the immediate correlation Peter gives and then we’ll come back to the ultimate portrayal that Peter describes for us. What’s the “this” to which baptism corresponds or is a type or picture? It’s what he was just talking about in the example of Noah and the ark. Peter is drawing a comparison between salvation in the ark for Noah and his family and baptism. What’s the correlation being made? In both instances, believers are saved through the waters of judgment.

In the OT water is often represented as something that brings about great suffering. Though it is necessary for life, we know this to be true as well. We’ve seen the destructive effects of flooding even recently in the news in places like Texas and New Mexico. We’ve seen the destructive effects of tsunamis that sweep in from the ocean and wreak havoc on coastal lands. I remember our family living in Hawaii a number of years ago and when the waves were up I remember standing there in awe of the ocean’s display of destructive power.

With regard to the Flood in Noah’s day, it was God’s judgment poured out on a world in hardened rebellion against Him. He destroyed all the world and all life with flood waters of judgment. Noah and his family, as they held up in the ark, passed through the waters of judgment. Like Noah and the small minority that were saved with him, passing through the waters of judgment in the ark, believers today pass through the waters of judgment in their union with Christ as portrayed in Christian baptism. That’s the correlation being made.

Now, let’s work to understand what Peter is saying as far as Baptism and its relationship to salvation in Christ alone. This is how we will better understand the portrayal of Christ’s triumph in our baptism. Peter says, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.” This is what has tripped up many who have studied this passage. Some have taken and applied it in such a way as to understand that the ritual and mechanical act of baptism is what saves a person. I think that must be rejected for a couple of reasons.

First, we don’t even have to leave this verse in order to see that is not what Peter is teaching here. I’ve said this before so I’m going to start saying it and perhaps one of you will finish the sentence for me. Whenever you are reading your Bible and you come upon something that seems confusing and contradictory, what do you do? You keep reading. That is essential here in this verse because, as we keep reading, we notice that Peter very plainly and clearly clarifies what he means by this statement.

Look at Peter’s own words here––“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.” Let’s unpack all of this. It’s amazing how clear this actually is when you do so. Baptism now saves you “not as a removal of dirt from the body.” The word translated body here is the Greek word for “flesh”, referring to our sin nature. Peter is speaking here of a cleansing from sin––clearly saying that Baptism does not achieve that in itself.

Baptism saves, Peter says, “as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” Loved ones, baptism saves only in so far as it is rooted and grounded in true faith in the finished work of Christ and His resurrection. In that public profession we make an appeal to God for a clean conscience. It’s why every Christian can joyfully sing “I need no other argument, I need no other plea, It is enough that Jesus died, And that he died for me.”

Your guilt before God is washed away and your conscience is cleansed not by the waters of baptism, but by faith in the life, death, and resurrection of the LORD Jesus Christ. And that cleansing is portrayed as we are immersed under the waters of judgment, but raised to new life in Christ through the power of God who raised Jesus from the dead.

Now, some have used this to teach that baptism is a means by which the work of regeneration (new birth) and faith are applied, or passed on to you, for instance in some traditions that practice infant baptism. The problem with that is the Bible never teaches that idea. Faith does not come through the waters of baptism. Faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ––the gospel.

We hear the gospel message. We believe that gospel message and make a conscious decision to wholly cast ourselves by faith upon the mercies of God in Christ. It entails confessing with our mouths that Jesus is LORD and believing in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead. Then, having believed the gospel message we profess that faith publicly as believers through the waters of baptism as a public portrayal of our union with Christ in His death and resurrection. We publicly identify with Him and His people.

This is what we see repeatedly throughout the NT. First, the word baptize literally means immerse. This is widely agreed upon by pastors and theologians on both sides of the baptism debate throughout church history. Ironically, even Martin Luther acknowledged this and said, “I would have those who are to be baptized completely immersed in the water as the word says and as the mystery indicates…This is doubtless the way in which it was instituted by Christ.” This is how Jesus Himself was baptized and all who believed in Him throughout the NT.

We also see that baptism was only ever applied to those who professed faith in Christ. We see this over and over again throughout the book of Acts. Those who received the word (that is the gospel message) were baptized and added to the church. People heard the gospel. Faith came through the hearing. That faith was publicly professed through the waters of baptism. This accords well with the imagery that Peter is giving us here and what is demonstrated elsewhere in the NT. Consider Paul’s words on baptism in Romans 6:3-5:

Rom. 6:3-5 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We also see it depicted in Pauls words to the Colossians:

Col. 2:12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Here’s how all of this applies to us today, loved ones. If you are a Christian and have been baptized as a believer by immersion, your baptism is a tremendous reminder and encouragement for you amidst suffering in this life. Especially suffering for your faith in Christ. An encouragement because, as you look back and remember your baptism or see others baptized here among us, Christ’s triumph over sin death and the grave is portrayed. It is a visible and tangible reminder that Christ suffered for you and arose triumphant for you.

For those of you who have believed and are believing in the LORD Jesus Christ, but have not been baptized in this way prescribed by the Scriptures, I hope you will consider your need to follow the LORD Jesus Christ in this way. That you too would publicly profess your faith and union with Christ in the waters of baptism here with us. That you too would have the great joy of this portrayal of Christ’s triumph in your own life. That your own faith would be strengthened and encouraged through this ordinary means of grace given and commanded by the LORD Jesus.

Vindicated

Finally, we see Christ’s triumph vindicated. Look at verse 21 with me––“who [referring to Jesus] has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.” Here we return the clearly made main point of this entire passage––the point Peter has been making all along––Christ’s triumph over his enemies.

This point is closely related to what we saw in verse 19 regarding Christ’s triumph proclaimed over the “spirits in prison.” Peter is in some way returning to that great victory, but he comes at it on a different point. He is picking up on Christ’s ascension following His resurrection. When Christ ascended He did so to the right hand of the Father in fulfillment of Psalm 110. That particular Psalm is referenced repeatedly throughout the New Testament declaring the ultimate authority and pervasive rule and reign of King Jesus over all.

At the Father’s right hand, the LORD Jesus Christ is highly exalted above all rule and authority. It is the seat from which He rules over all His enemies who have been subject to Him. This is a rule and authority over all the universe. But Peter here is drawing our attention specifically to Christ’s triumphant rule over the spiritual realm––angels, authorities, and powers. We are reminded that Paul referred to these as well in Ephesians 6 where he exhorts believers to put on the whole armor of God…

Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Loved ones, here’s the point of encouragement for us in the midst of suffering for our faith. When you are reviled, mocked, isolated, alienated, or anything else for the sake of your faith in Christ, you can be encouraged remembering Christ’s triumph over the spiritual forces of evil who wage war against you. If Christ has already triumphed over the entire unseen realm that seeks to devour you, but can’t, why would we fear man in whose nostrils is mere breath? We ultimately have no reason to fear and have every reason to press on encouraged.

Conclusion

A day is coming in which every knee will bow and every tongue will confess, willingly or unwillingly, that Jesus Christ is LORD. Knowing that, we can rejoice and endure amidst any circumstances if we are united to Christ by faith.This is the point Peter is making to his readers who were facing immense pressure and suffering for their faith in Christ. They can endure because of Christ’s triumph over all his enemies.

That main point is anchored in the reality of how Christ achieved this triumph––through suffering.Anchored in His own proclamation of that triumph to those whom He triumphed over. Anchored in its portrayal through the waters of baptism for every believer in our union with Him. Thus, as we see Christ’s triumph vindicated in His ascension to the right hand of the Father with all in subjection to Him, we can have great hope and be encouraged as we endure suffering because of our union with Christ in not just His suffering, but His triumph over all.

Endure suffering, remembering that Christ suffered for you and triumphed over all of His enemies.