This morning our text is 1 Peter 3:18-22. It's only considered to be one of the most difficult passages in the Bible. But no worries! I'm going to give you the secret for understanding this text. Before we dive in, I want you to consider the four lies that have been around forever. They each began in the Garden of Eden. They were evident during the days of Noah, and they've persisted ever since.
The first lie is that the spiritual doesn't matter. In 1 Timothy 1:17 (ESV) Paul describes God as, "The King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever." In John 4:24 (ESV) Jesus told the woman at the well that, "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." We don't approach the invisible God physically. Therefore, the more oriented we are to the physical world, material things, and our flesh, the less attuned we are to God, who is Spirit. Satan's deception was to persuade Adam and Eve to live according to the flesh. He urged them to live according to what was pleasing to the eye and good to eat.
The second lie is that time doesn't matter. God told Adam and Eve that if they sinned, they would die. But Satan came along and said in Genesis 3:4 (ESV), "You will not surely die." So when Adam and Eve sinned, and they didn't instantaneously die, it looked as if God had lied about or greatly exaggerated the danger. Adam and Eve concluded that they could continue sinning without impunity, absorb any consequences, and probably end up happier.
The third lie is that conscience doesn't matter. Initially, Eve questioned Satan's suggestion to disobey God. But Satan persisted, and Eve violated her conscience. Think how many times in life you were about to sin, your conscience convicted you, but then you acted anyway. You thought that thing, said that thing, did that thing, or cheated that person. You took that drink, that puff, that needle, exploited that situation, stole that dollar, lied about that situation, broke that law, or compromised your character. Our conscience becomes nothing more than a gnat that we shoo away.
The fourth lie is that submission doesn't matter. Satan persuaded Adam and Eve by making statements that implied, "You don't have to submit to God or trust his judgments. You can be like God, knowing good and evil. You can be your own king. You can judge for yourselves right versus wrong, and good versus evil."
These are dangerous lies that only escalated from the time of Adam and Eve to the time of Noah. Genesis 6:5-6 (ESV) describes how, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart." All flesh, no consequences, no conscience, no submission.
But there was a man named Noah who found favor with God. Genesis 6:9 (ESV) tells us that, "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God." What an oddity. Here was a spiritual man walking with God in a world radically oriented toward the flesh. Noah was a man who made himself accountable to God, heeded his conscience, and was fully yielded to God. In 2 Peter 2:5 (ESV) we're told Noah was a, "... herald (preacher) of righteousness!" 2 Peter 1:21 (ESV) describes how men like Noah prophesied and preached, "... as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
You can imagine how utterly ridiculous Noah must have been. Here is a spiritual man whose life is oriented to God's Spirit in a fleshly world. Here is a guy building a gigantic ark, gathering animals and supplies, while warning that every living thing in all the earth is about to die. Here is a man of godly, holy, pure conscience speaking to men whose thoughts were only inclined toward evil all the time. Here is a man so fully submitted to God that he is building a gigantic ark where no water is to be found. Did anyone say fool? Zealot? Fanatic? Laughingstock? And that's exactly what any man or woman of God becomes who challenges the lies of Satan.
Now I think we're ready to hear our text, 1 Peter 3:18-22. In the fullness of time, along comes Christ who was declaring himself to be the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus challenged every lie and every stronghold of Satan. His life reveals the gravity (not the levity but the gravity) of living according to God.
First, Jesus showed the gravity of spiritual living.
1 Peter 3:18 (ESV) says, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit..." Aha! The flesh doesn't count for everything. Jesus suffered and died in the flesh in order to bring us into fellowship with the one true God, who is Spirit. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, baptized by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, and raised from the dead by the Spirit. And Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born of water and the Spirit to have eternal life. And he told the woman at the well that she must worship and approach God in the Spirit. The flesh doesn't count for anything.
Second, Jesus showed the gravity of eternal judgment.
1 Peter 3:18-20 (ESV) says, "... being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water."
Peter is describing spirits who are now captive in prison. These are spirits that formerly lived in the flesh during the days of Noah, and were disobedient. And Peter is describing how whatever perception of time these people once had (while they lived in the flesh and their wickedness increased) they were only allowed to carry on because of God's patience.
The secret to understand 1 Peter 3 is to read 2 Peter 3. People didn't understand what Peter meant in 1 Peter 3, so he wrote 2 Peter 3! 2 Peter 3:8-10 (ESV) explains, "But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is now slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and then the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the work that are done on it will be exposed."
Here's Peter's point. The people living in the days of Noah were being given the gift of time so that they might repent and turn to God. But they didn't heed what the Spirit of Christ, speaking through Noah, was warning them about. They continued in the flesh, taking time for granted, presuming that God's threat of justice would never materialize. In Noah's day, only eight people were saved. All the presumptuous people and all the procrastinators were wiped out! The day of the Lord will soon come again, so how should we live now in light of his final judgment?
Jesus showed the gravity of personal deliverance.
1 Peter 3:21 (ESV) says, "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."
Conscience does indeed matter! What God is seeking from us is an appeal, a pledge, and an oath that we'll live according to God's Spirit and not according to the flesh. This is why Peter turns right around in 1 Peter 4:2-6 (ESV) and says, "... so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; but they will give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does." Sadly they heard the sermon but said, "No way."
There is no hope of salvation for those whose every thought and inclination is hostile to God. Should we suppose that we'll be saved even though we continually violate our consciences with seeming impunity? That's ridiculous. To be delivered from death, you have to make a personal, conscientious oath to God like what happens in baptism. Baptism is a pledge, an oath, and an appeal to God by way of Christ's resurrection. It says that we are fully God's, and that our thoughts and consciences are inclined toward God.
Jesus showed the gravity of a fully-yielded life.
1 Peter 3:22 (ESV) says of Christ, "...who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him."
Another passage, Philippians 2:8-11 (ESV) describes how Christ, "... humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." You know, there was no limit to the extent to which Christ would yield his life to God the Father. Submission is the very essence of life in Christ. It's not some optional component. Submission is at the core of what it means to belong to God.
Throughout the ages, from the time of Christ, baptism has been a symbol of the Christian life. If you've been at Lakeside any amount of time, you've probably seen a baptism. What is baptism? Baptism is spiritual warfare. It's a full-on assault against the lies of the evil one and his strongholds. The Bible teaches that four things happen during baptism.
(1) We die. Our old body of flesh which is ruled by sin, is crucified with Christ. After baptism, the life we begin to live is toward God, according to his Spirit.
(2) We accept God's gracious provision for our sin. We accept that a righteous man, Jesus Christ, stood in our place. He took upon his flesh the judgment of God that we deserved, in order that we can be forgiven and live for God.
(3) We make a personal pledge, an appeal, an oath to God. It isn't the priest's oath. It isn't our parents' oath. It's our personal pledge to live before God with a cooperative and clear conscience.
(4) We indicate our submission to Christ by submitting to Christ's baptism. We show ourselves to be subject along with all the angels, authorities, and powers, to Christ the King.
In the Bible, when people personally understood the power of God to radically reorient their souls from flesh to Spirit, from evil to good, from certain judgment to abundant mercy, and from rebellion to surrender, they would be baptized. The apostles would say to a person, "Now what are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized! Decide for yourselves this day whether you'll yield your life to God or to the flesh."
And when people stubbornly refused, the apostles pleaded, "Save yourselves from the coming wrath." Save yourselves? Yes, your choice has tremendous gravity. And only you can make it.