Fearlessly, Radically Righteous: Our Example, Christ

Living our Witness and Testimony in Fearlessly, Radically Righteous Ways (3:13-17)

Last week, looking at the previous verses (1 Peter 3:13-17), we saw how Christians in the first century Roman Empire stood out starkly against their culture’s normal experiences and worldview. We read how Peter was writing to Christians spread out because of persecution, encouraging them to stand firm in THE faith, not a fake, outward show that could not withstand persecution and would be rightly rejected by unbelievers around them.

The whole message of Peter’s first letter is really his encouraging them to:

Live lives worthy of Christ

Order their lives in such a way that reflected the gospel’s transforming power in:

Their households

Jobs

Their communities

Suffer well

That last point, to suffering well, is perhaps the clearest indication that we belong to God, that our lives are so evidently in opposition to the world and its evil around us, that it is unmistakable whose we are, and why we are the way we are. It also gives us occasion to remember how and why Christ suffered.

No one enjoys suffering. Jesus Himself, hours away from crucifixion so dreaded the cross, the shame, the separation from the Father, the crushing weight of our sin that we cannot even begin to imagine, being placed upon Him, (to say nothing of the physical torture of such an agonizing death,) that He sweat blood. Praying three times, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me” (Luke 22:42).

Luke 22:42 (NASB95)

...“Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me...”

Suffering is horrible, no one in their right mind enjoys suffering or looks forward to it, or misses it when it’s gone. Peter was not attempting to diminish the suffering these brothers and sisters were facing, but he was putting it into perspective, an eternal perspective.

Some may suffer more than others with any number of afflictions and trials. We must never forget, any suffering we endure here is temporary. We must never forget, our God is bigger than the most seemingly insurmountable challenge. Suffering was not part of His original plan for us. Rebellion, rejection, and sin have cursed our world and suffering results.

Let us then hold fast to suffering well should a time arise when our faith is challenged. Our suffering — godly suffering resulting from doing what is right — is not meaningless; it has worth and value, a greater meaning than we can see, and a greater purpose because God allows it and uses it for His glory and for our good and for the good of others. Because God allows it, suffering has worth, meaning, and purpose.

That brings us to 1 Peter 3:17-4:1, starting with v. 17.

Read 3:17

1 Peter 3:17–4:1a (NASB95)

For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,

who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.

Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose...

God Gives Suffering Worth

In context of this verse, suffering has two origins. On the one hand, we may suffer because of our own sin. Consequences may follow a decision that we have made in pursuing what we knew God would not want for us, and those consequences could be utterly catastrophic. In that case, no one could argue we deserved the suffering, we openly invited the pain, the loss, the hurt, whatever the case because our prideful, sinful hearts rejected what would have been better for us.

On the other hand, we may be suffering for doing the very thing God would have us do. Here, we suffer for what Peter says, “for doing what is right.” Here, God may very well be allowing the suffering, the persecution, the trial, the situation we would rather not be in, but allows it for a greater purpose. We may not even know what that purpose is or how it can be used by God for our good.

In those times, we may be tempted to accuse God of being unfair. How many times has a question like, “Why me, Lord” crossed our minds? To be curt, why not you? Why do you think yourself worthy to be excused from pain or suffering or loss or hurt or disappointment? Or, why would you expect God to be obligated to answer? Why not ask, “Lord, how have I grieved You in this?” Or, confessing, “Lord, I hate this situation, but I know You can use it for my good and for Your glory because You are good.” Let our heart be comforted in the peace that knows God is sovereign and that He knows our suffering and will have it settled, forever.

That is not say the Father delights in our discomfort, or is somehow unmoved by our tears and our hurt. What a demeaning view of the Almighty. We must be diligent to purge that poisonous thought thoroughly whenever we would be tempted to think along those lines.

Further, we must never conclude that God is powerless to stop it. He certainly can. Sometimes He does. On the other hand, situations may arise that force us beyond our resources, forces us to seek God and trust in Him to provide. Sometimes, He may be using this situation to prepare us for some work we are being equipped to do. Consider Joseph as a slave, a prisoner and finally prime minister of the greatest nation of his time. Or Moses or David, living the hardships of a shepherd’s life, preparing them both to shepherd God’s chosen people.

Because God wills it, suffering intrinsically has worth. In fact, it has exceedingly great value because it shows us that out of His abundant grace that He lavishes on His people, that He would think so much, so highly about us and our value to Him, that He would provide these distinct measures to teach us something about who He is and who we are. Only God could redeem something meant for evil and turn that into a work for our good and for His glory.

Like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, we may plead with God to remove the suffering from us, but we must have the same view Christ had, “Yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). Be ready, be willing to be shaped by whatever it is the Lord is allowing to affect your life.

Luke 22:42 (NASB95)

“...yet not My will, but Yours be done.”

Not only does God give suffering worth, but

God Gives Suffering Meaning

Why did we need someone to bring us to God? It is because of our sin, we are separated from God whose holiness demands sin be recognized for what it is, an offense against that holiness, an offense against God Himself. Not only recognized, but it must be atoned for. Blood must be shed.

Hebrews 9:22 (NASB95)

And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Our sin is an offense and therefore must be dealt with, graphically, explicitly. If God simply ignored our sin, we would have to question His holiness.

First, as Christ suffered, our supreme and abiding example of what it means to live a fearlessly, radically righteous life, His sacrifice, was a substitutionary sacrifice. Here was no greater a case of injustice ever conceived than at the cross of Christ. The sinless Son of God, dying for sins He never commited, the only one who was ever truly just, righteous, wholly perfect and holy, took on our guilt, our shame...my sin, my guilt, my shame.

Nothing else, nothing but the perfect sacrifice could ever settle, once and for all, our need for redemption. Christ’s death was a substitution. God’s holiness and justice were satisfied and now we can have fellowship with God through the shed blood of Christ.

Adrian Rogers said it well, “Only the damned in hell can begin to know what christ suffered on that cross.” Christ’s sacrifice was a suffering sacrifice.

Now, you may be here right now, unsure that your sins are forever forgiven, settled once and for all, fully and completely. You stand in your sins separated from a holy God. If you do not allow Him to be that substitute, you will have an eternal hell of your own making having rejected and refused the One who died in your place, willingly suffered an agony the human imagination is woefully unable to fathom.

1 Peter 3:19–20 (NASB95)

in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison,

who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

Here, we face a couple of verses that need to be addressed. When Jesus was taken off the cross and laid in a tomb, though His earthly body was restrained in the bounds of physical death, His spirit was released, quickened as it were by the Holy Spirit and preached a message. To whom did He preach? He preached to spirits in prison. Who are theses spirits in prison and what did Jesus preach?

1 Peter 3:21–22 (NASB95)

Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.

Continuing this theme of the flood, Peter continues to draw an illustration of baptism. Again, if it wasn’t for the balance of Scriptures to make abundantly clear that it is faith alone through grace alone by which we are saved, we would have to conclude as many do in error, that baptism is necessary for salvation. Or, the even more deeply flawed error that baptism saves apart from any faith at all.

God Gives Suffering Purpose

1 Peter 4:1 (NASB95)

Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose...

We are here, right here, called to have the same purpose in mind as Christ had. Jesus’ willingness to endure whatever the Father willed for Him, should also mark our lives. Back to v. 17, it is better to suffer for doing what is right. If we are going to suffer, let it because we were found faithful in obedience to the gospel.