1 Peter Study #9

“He said what?”

1 Peter 3:17-22

Study #9 in 1 Peter Series

INTRODUCTION:

There are portions of God’s Word that are hard to interpret and hard to understand. The text for today’s study is one such passage. It requires us to carefully examine the text and compare Scripture with Scripture, even as the Bereans of Acts 17 did, “…examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” Some of the gold nuggets of biblical truth are easily accessible, lying right on the surface, available to anyone. But other nuggets are buried deep, encased in granite, requiring effort and dynamite to free them and bring them to the surface. 

Two statements made by Peter in this text have resulted in endless discussions by Bible scholars of all persuasions, and now we must join in the fray to try and make sense of what Peter and the Holy Spirit of God want us to understand.   

TRANSITION:

In our last study we looked at 1 Peter 3:7 where Peter completes his teaching about the need for all believers to practice Christian submission in the family of God, submitting ourselves first to God and then to other people, putting their needs and welfare above our own. He applies that teaching specifically to Christian husbands in verse 7. On the heels of that in verses 8-12 Peter urges all of us to live purposefully and peaceably in the Body of Christ, doing everything possible to bless others, recognizing that we were called by God for this very purpose, that we might be a blessing and that we might inherit blessings from our Heavenly Father.  

Then in verses 13-16 he discusses the need to let our righteous ‘salt and light’ get out into the world where it can touch other people, recognizing that even living righteously might still go unappreciated at best, and be totally misunderstood, rejected, and persecuted at worst. It is important to remember that Jesus was perfect and yet they still hated Him and eventually killed Him. Peter’s point is that, even if the Christian is compelled to suffer unjustly for his faith, he is only walking the path that Jesus has already walked.

Let’s review verses 13-16 to refresh our memories and get us back into the context.

¹³ Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? ¹⁴ But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, ¹⁵ but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a [verbal] defense (i.e., apología) to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; ¹⁶ and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.

NOTES on the Text:

Verse 17: 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.  

• In the context Peter has been talking about Christians suffering unjustly, despite living godly lives and doing and saying all the right things, recognizing that God sometimes allows that to happen to us to fulfill His greater purpose. We might not understand the ‘why’ of it, but we continue to trust Him anyway. And Peter says that it is vastly better that a Christian suffer for welldoing than for evildoing. The one brings glory to God; the other does not.
• However, it is important to be honest and to recognize that sometimes our suffering has nothing to do with suffering for Jesus or the Gospel. Sometimes we bring it down on ourselves and have no one else to blame. It is a fact that we humans, and even Christians, have an amazing ability to talk ourselves into believing things that are not true. Moreover, we almost always give ourselves the benefit of the doubt and believe that our motives are pure and that our actions are totally justified. Regrettably, sometimes Christians are rude, obnoxious, and offensive, and end up suffering for it. They might wish it were unjust persecution for the sake of the Gospel, but really, they are simply suffering for doing evil.
• One more point… Although Peter used the suffering of Christ to encourage and strengthen his readers, he also set Jesus completely apart from all others in His suffering. We suffer for a variety of reasons, but Jesus suffered for us, the Just for the unjust, to redeem us and bring us to God. That made His suffering uniquely different from ours. Peter makes that clear in the next verse.    

Verse 18: 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;

• “For Christ also died for sins once for all” – This verse is a real slap in the face of Roman Catholic teaching about the Mass. They claim that Jesus dies again and again to provide us with His body and blood which are necessary for salvation. But Peter says that Christ died once, and that was the only sacrifice needed because Jesus was the perfect sinless Lamb of God. In the words of the old hymn, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.” And His last words on the cross were, “It is finished!” No other sacrifice or atonement can please God other than what Jesus provided at the cross. Even our own suffering will not pay for our sins. The debt has already been paid. The writer of Hebrews makes this clear in several passages but let’s just look at Hebrews 10:10-14, “By this [sacrifice] will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. ¹¹ Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; ¹² but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³ waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet. ¹⁴ For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” (See also Hebrews 7:27 and 9:28)
• “…the Just [One] for the unjust” – In Greek the word for just is δίκαιος (díkaios). It is also the word for righteous. These two English words are pretty much interchangeable, and they both really only apply to Jesus, at least in their absolute sense. By that I mean, of all mankind, Jesus is the only one who has ever been truly Just and truly Righteous. Jesus is “the Righteous One,” the sinless Son of God, the only truly Just man who has ever lived. All others are mere shadows of the justice and righteousness of Jesus. In the New Testament, the title “The Righteous One” is only applied to Jesus Christ. Acts 3:14 records Peter’s sermon at Pentecost where he said, “You rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be released to you.” He was clearly identifying Jesus as “The Righteous One,” emphasizing His innocence and the injustice of His crucifixion. Later, in Acts 7:52 in Stephen’s apología before the Sanhedrin he said, “Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered Him.” Only Jesus is Just. The rest of us are unjust in our natural state.
• “…so that He might bring us to God” – The purpose of Christ’s sacrifice was to bring us to God, to bring us to salvation so that we might be with the Lord forever in Heaven. That was the plan and purpose of the Father, and Jesus came to carry out the work of the Father and make it a reality. In our sin we could not approach God, but through the blood of Christ we have been cleansed and made holy so that we might draw near to Him.    
• “…having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;” – “Put to death in the flesh” means that Jesus died physically. His earthly body really died, completely, 100% deceased. He was not “only mostly dead” like what Miracle Max said about Westley in The Princess Bride movie. No, Jesus was certifiably dead. The Roman soldiers killed Him. And the Romans were good at killing people. They knew what they were doing. They had a lot of practice doing it.
• “…but made alive in the spirit;” – Peter affirms that Jesus did die in His body, but He was raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit. Here, the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. In Romans 6:4 we are told that the Father raised Jesus from the dead. And in John 2:18-22 the apostle says that Jesus raised Himself from the dead. All this leads us to the conclusion that the resurrection was the work of the Triune God operating in concert.
• In the interest of full disclosure, the last part of verse 18 poses a bit of a problem for scholars because the Greek text literally says, “…having been put to death in flesh, but made alive in spirit.” It doesn’t say “in the flesh” nor “in the Spirit.” In the best Greek manuscripts, there are no definite articles with the nouns. Despite this, most of the versions translate the phrase as though they were there, opting to translate the phrase with the sense that Jesus was raised “by the Holy Spirit.” It may or may not make any difference. I will leave that for you to sort out.

Verses 19-20: …in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, ²⁰ 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 encounter the first of the two massive eye-popping statements that Peter makes in this text. We might even wish that we could remove verses 19-21 entirely so that we don’t have to deal with them but that is not possible because of our view of inspiration, so let’s dive in.
• “…in spirit; in which also He went and…” – So, by this Peter is simply saying that this occurred in the spiritual realm, not in the physical realm.
• “…made proclamation [preached] to the spirits now in prison,” – Before Christ’s resurrection Hades was the place of the dead, both of the righteous dead and of the wicked. From the time of Noah right up until the death of Jesus the soul of every person who ever died was kept in Hades. In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in which He described Hades as a place of torment for the rich man and a comfort for Lazarus. From the description there in Luke 16 apparently Hades was divided into two parts: (1) Abraham’s Bosom, the place of the righteous dead, a place of peace and joy, and (2) Hades or Sheol or Gehenna, the side where the souls of the wicked were kept, which is described as a place of torment for those awaiting their final judgment and assignment to Hell. In verse 26 we learn that the two parts were separated by a great chasm, a great gulf, so that no one could pass from one side to the other. I believe that between Jesus’ death and His resurrection, He descended to Hades where He proclaimed His victory over sin and death to the souls there. This would have been great good news to the righteous, and very bad news for the wicked because it meant that their doom was sure. Jesus’ message was clearly not evangelistic because there are no second chances for the wicked. I believe that Jesus preached a message of judgment and final condemnation in light of His finished work on the cross to these disobedient spirits.   
• “…who were once disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark,” – Peter doesn’t mention the righteous but only the wicked. He focuses especially on those who had lived during the time of Noah and had loudly and proudly rejected God’s offer of physical and spiritual salvation, the message of which Noah preached for many years, giving all of them ample time to repent and believe and live.
• “…in which a few, that is, eight persons [lit. souls], were brought safely through (lit. “by means of”) the water.” – Out of all those on the earth only eight people (lit. souls, ψυχή, psuchē) were saved: namely, Noah and his family. The rest perished in the flood waters. For the wicked it was a baptism of death. For those on the Ark it was a baptism of life. They came through the water in the Ark and so were saved by means of the water despite the flood around them.
• This brings us to the second eye-popping statement that Peter makes in this passage, and to understand it we must examine it in its context.     

Verse 21: 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,

• “Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you” – Taken at face value this statement is jarring, but in the context, it makes sense if we can follow Peter’s logic. Peter is creating a word picture, using the OT story of Noah’s physical salvation in the Ark as a picture of what happens through baptism. What Peter says is that baptism is an antitype of Noah and his people in the ark. To help explain this concept I am going to call on William Barclay’s Commentary on 1 Peter:

There are two closely connected words. There is tupos (τύπος), type, which means a seal, and there is antítupos (ἀντίτυπος), antitype, which means the impression of the seal. Clearly, between the seal and its impression there is the closest possible correspondence. So, there are people and events and customs in the Old Testament which are types, and which find their antitypes in the New Testament. The Old Testament event or person is like the seal; the New Testament event or person is like the impression; the two answer to each other. We might put it that the Old Testament event symbolically represents and foreshadows the New Testament event. The science of finding types and antitypes in the Old and the New Testaments is very highly developed. But to take very simple and obvious examples, the Passover Lamb and the scapegoat, who bore the sins of the people, are types of Jesus; and the work of the High Priest in making sacrifice for the sins of the people is a type of His saving work. Here Peter sees the bringing safely through the waters of Noah and his family as a type of baptism.

• “…not the removal of dirt from the flesh,” – Peter is not talking about bathing with soap to get off the dirt and grime. Water baptism doesn’t save anyone, and it doesn’t wash away sins. Only the blood of Jesus can do that. But Peter is pointing out that the water of the flood in Noah’s day washed away sin and wickedness and brought a new world with a fresh start before God. And baptism pictures the same thing, illustrating a passage from the old life to the new. Of course, the saving by baptism which Peter here mentions is only symbolic (a metaphor or picture as in Romans 6:2-6), not actual, as Peter is quick to explain. It isn’t the actual water washing of baptism that saves us, but the spiritual reality behind the immersion in water. In baptism our sin dies with Christ.
• “…but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” – What really saves us is the answer of a good conscience toward God, a conscience made good through the completed work of Jesus by His death, burial, and resurrection and His blood applied to us. Baptism, Peter explains, does not wash away the filth of the flesh either in a literal sense, as a bath for the body, or in a metaphorical sense of the filth of the soul. No ceremonies can affect the conscience, but “only the blood of Christ the blood of Christ can cleanse our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (cf. Hebrews 9:13-14). Peter here expressly denies that the rite of baptism results in the remission of sin.  

Verse 22: …who is at the right hand of God, having gone into Heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.  

• “…who is at the right hand of God, having gone into Heaven,” – The “who” obviously refers to Jesus Christ mentioned of at the end of verse 21. Having completed the work He came to do He ascended back to Heaven telling His disciples that He was going back home to prepare a place for them. The Lord’s 33+ year sojourn on earth was just a temporary assignment from God the Father. At the cross, some of Jesus’ last words were, “IT IS FINISHED!” He had completed the work of redemption, conquered sin and death, established His Church, left a trained staff in charge to carry on under the direction of the Holy Spirit, and fulfilled the Law and all the prophecies about Him. After the resurrection He showed Himself publicly for 40 days then ascended back to Heaven, having accomplished everything He was sent to do.
• “…after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.” – I believe that when Jesus came to earth all the evil powers of Hell lined up to oppose Him at every step. Satan tried his best to sabotage the work of redemption. All the demons of the abyss redoubled their efforts to stop Jesus at every turn. They used every sneaky trick in their wicked playbook. But they could not thwart the plans and purposes of God, nor could they stop Jesus. He died according to the Scriptures, was buried, rose from the grave on the third day according to the Scriptures and all the holy angels in Heaven rejoiced. When Jesus returned to Heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Most High, He proved His superiority over Lucifer, the fallen angels, and all the powers of Hell. In Ephesians 6 Paul speaks about our constant daily struggle against the forces of evil: “¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.” These are the same forces that lined up against Jesus during His time on earth and He conquered every one of them in the power of the Spirit and by the authority of the Word of God. In doing that He showed us that we too can walk in victory over the devil and his forces because God has put the very same resources at our disposal for our use. Jesus proved that they are a defeated enemy and we have no need to fear them. Praise God! 

CONCLUSION:

11 precious Bible verses about Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father:

1. Mark 16:19 – “So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into Heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.” 

2. Acts 7:55 – “But being full of the Holy Spirit, he [Stephen] gazed intently into Heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”

3. Romans 8:34 – “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” 

4. Ephesians 1:20 – “Which He [the Father] brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.”

5. Colossians 3:1 – “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”

6. Hebrews 1:3 – “And He [Christ] is the radiance of His [the Father’s] glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He [Christ] had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” 

7. Hebrews 8:1 – “Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a High Priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.”

8. Hebrews 10:12 – “But He [Christ], having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.”

9. 1 Peter 3:22 – “Who is at the right hand of God, having gone into Heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.” 

10. Revelation 3:21 – “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

11. Revelation 22:1 – “Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”