April 2, 2017

All Scripture from NIV unless otherwise documented

For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed 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, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also–not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand–with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.” 1 Peter 3: 18 – 22

As we get into today’s lesson, let us be reminded that Peter was writing to believers who had been suffering persecution. He gave guidelines as to how believers are to respond to government officials, to people in authority over them, to wives with unbelieving husbands, how to live in harmony with one another, not repaying evil with evil or insult with insult, and last week, suffering for doing good. As we come to verses 18 – 22, Peter reminds us of the suffering of Christ, the righteous for the unrighteous, and how through His death, we are saved. In verse 18 Peter wrote, “For Christ died for sins once for all.” As we approach Holy week and Easter, the focus of our faith will be on Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.

We are all familiar with the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf, for those of us who have made a confession of faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. What I want you to see from verse 18 is the expanse of that sacrifice. Peter said that Christ died how many times? Once! In contrast to the daily sacrifices in the Old Testament and the annual Day of Atonement required for all the people, Christ died once. And for whom did Christ die for? For all! For all of mankind. He didn’t just die for the Israelites, He didn’t just die for those who might be considered righteous, He died for all. He died for those who are good according to man’s standards and He died for the vilest of sinners. Jesus went to the cross to pay the penalty of all mankind.

In Hebrews 10: 12 – 14, the author speaking of Jesus as a priest after the order of Melchizedek said; “But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. . . because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.”

By Jesus one sacrifice of Himself, He has made you forever holy. I’m not this morning going to explain the process of sanctification to you again because I have recently done that. If you have questions about that, come see me later this week in my office. Let’s just say that Scripture teaches us that sanctification is a threefold process. So no, you haven’t reached perfection, but when God looks at you through the blood of Jesus sacrifice, He sees you as a perfect and holy child of God. Christ died, Peter said, “to bring you to God.” Adam’s sin alienated all of mankind from God through spiritual death. I believe that the story of Adam and Eve getting kicked out of the garden represents the spiritual separation that exists
between man and God because of sin. And the only thing that could appease God’s wrath toward man was the obedience of His Son Jesus offering Himself as a payment for sin. 1 John 4: 10 says: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” These words “atoning sacrifice” are translated “propitiation” in the KJV and they mean “to appease.”

Christ died to appease God’s wrath so you and I could once again come into His presence as His children through faith in the atoning work of Christ.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on verse 19 because there are various interpretations as to what Peter was saying here. I read that it may be the most difficult verse in all of the Bible to explain. But we do have to keep in mind that in the context of this passage we know that it deals with suffering.

Noah and his family are mentioned as ones who were “saved” from the flood because of their obedience. Everyone else, those who were disobedient perished. Peter said that Jesus was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit (His spirit didn’t die) and that during His time in the grave that He preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago. This is where the controversy rages. Was Peter talking about the masses who’s, according to Genesis 6: 5 “every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” Or was Peter talking about the Nephilim also mentioned in chapter 6:4, who some believe were fallen angels that co-habited with women and produced giants for fall from heaven? Peter did mention these angels in 2 Peter 2: 4 where he wrote: “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment.”

Some believe that the place Jesus spirit went during His time in the cave is the place He told about in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Lazarus was in a good place called Abraham’s bosom while the rich man was in an agonizing place of suffering. Did Jesus preach freedom to those who, like the great men and women of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11, were people of faith, and at the same time did Jesus preach judgment to those who were in Hades? That’s what I tend to believe. Peter also ties baptism to this story of Noah and judgment. Noah and his family believed God, built a boat, acted on their faith and got into the boat and were saved from the flood. This, Peter said, symbolizes baptism. Now before you get too excited one way or another about what Peter is saying here about baptism saving you, a doctrine today called water regeneration, you need to consider the whole counsel of the New Testament. There are those today who believe, and many from the Christian church, that baptism is what saves you, and if you are not
baptized you are doomed to hell.

But Peter I believe makes it clear here when he said, “not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.” I think what Peter was saying here is that baptism is an outward sign or pledge of your inner faith. Now don’t get me wrong. I believe that baptism is an important ordinance of the church. I don’t understand how anyone can say that a person doesn’t need to be baptized when it is clearly a command of this same Apostle Peter in Acts 2:38.

It was also the example of Jesus and the example of all who believed in the New Testament. Jesus mentioned baptism as a part of the Great Commission and Paul clearly said that it is an identification with Christ’s death, burial and resurrection as pictured in Romans 6. And yet, baptism without first having “confessed with your mouth, Jesus as Lord and believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” is simply getting dunked in the water.

Peter called baptism the “pledge of a good conscience toward God.” And he went further to say that you are saved by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s the gospel message Paul preached in 1 Corinthians 15 and it’s the same message that has been preached for these 2,000 years since the resurrection. That is the message that we will celebrate two weeks from now on Easter Sunday.

Christ Jesus, the one and only Son, sent from God became the sacrificial lamb and offered Himself to God to pay the penalty of our sin in order to appease God’s wrath. It wasn’t a plan that He devised after the incarnation. It was set in motion according to Ephesians 1, before the creation of the world. When Jesus, on the cross said, “It is finished”, he used a Greek word that meant paid in full. Jesus one sacrifice paid the penalty for all man’s sin. He died once for all. That means that He has already paid the price for your sin. Salvation is a free gift offered to anyone who would believe, that’s where the all comes in. He died for all, He died for you. Won’t you accept Him as Lord of your life today and get rid of the burden of sin that you have in your life?