The Triumph of Christ's Suffering
5-4-25
The main focus of the Apostle Peter's first letter was to help his readers deal with and be victorious over the suffering they were experiencing for their faith in Christ. Not only were many of his readers already suffering simply because of their love for the Lord, but things were going to get worse under the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero. Peter was writing to give his readers some tools to help them not only survive, but to thrive in the midst of whatever Satan and the world had to throw at them.
The last section of his letter that we have been looking at lately focused specifically on how to respond when one was suffering unjustly. Peter culminated that section with a great piece of encouragement. We can triumph in the midst of suffering because Jesus triumphed during His unjust suffering. At the heart of the gospel is the fact that Jesus Christ, who was perfectly righteous, died for people who were utterly unrighteous. The Lord triumphed over that undeserved suffering by providing redemption for the world. What he accomplished for us is what gets us through the difficult times of life.
What also helps get us through the difficult times of life is the understanding that God is absolutely sovereign over all of His creation. His sovereignty took Christ's unjust suffering and used it to accomplish His glorious saving purpose. His sovereignty also works to get us through anything and everything that we go through in life. That fact alone should give us as believers hope and confidence knowing that God will accomplish His purposes in our lives, no matter what it is that we are going through. In this morning's passage from 1 Peter, we're going to see where Peter gives his readers a number of reasons why they can be certain of triumph in their lives over unjust suffering. Let's now read 1 Peter 3:18-22.
Peter starts out in verse 18 getting right to the heart of the matter. It's a truth Peter has already established, but believers can triumph over unjust suffering because Jesus overcame the ultimate unjust suffering.
Christ suffered the ultimate unjust suffering by willingly going to the cross to pay the penalty for sins on behalf of all who will be saved. It was unjust because He didn't deserve to die; He was perfectly sinless. He never had a single thought, word or action that did not fully please God. His behavior in every respect was perfectly holy. 2 Cor. 5:21.
Peter's readers could overcome what they were going through in order to accomplish a greater good because Jesus overcame what He went through in order to accomplish a greater good. The greater good Jesus accomplished was the redemption of our souls. The greater good Peter's readers accomplished was being an effective witness for the Lord and making a difference in the lives of others as they victoriously experienced whatever persecution they were dealing with.
It's the same for us. We can overcome suffering because Jesus overcame suffering. But that doesn't mean life as a Christian is easy or trouble free. Jesus suffered and we should expect to suffer for our faith as well. For the most part, believers in America today will not die as martyrs. They do estimate that there are roughly 100,000 people every year all around the world who do die as martyrs for their faith.
But we don't face that same threat here. That's partly because we have unique freedoms as Americans. I think it's also partly because too many believers don't really live for the Lord. For way too many people, Jesus is more of a Sunday morning only thing that we give lip service to once a week. Living like that won't cause any persecution. But when we do live for the Lord we will suffer in some form. The early church did live for the Lord and their love for Jesus resulted in persecution and some even lost their lives. We need to expect that and we can know that we will be triumphant because Jesus has overcome and already won the victory for us.
We can triumph over unjust suffering because Jesus made a way for us to be in relationship with God. Jesus was the sinless sacrifice needed to atone for sins. The need for that goes all the way back to the OT sacrificial system. God required animal sacrifices to symbolize the need to atone for sin by the death of an innocent substitute. Jesus is the innocent substitute who paid for sin.
To atone for sin, the Jews had slaughtered millions of animals over the centuries. During their annual Passover celebration, as many as a quarter million sheep would be sacrificed. But Jesus' sacrifice was once for all. His one sacrificial death ended that inefficient parade of animals to the altar. What He did was sufficient for all and for all time. Jesus took the punishment due the elect and bore it for them, thus fully satisfying God's righteous judgment and providing us with forgiveness for our sins and salvation for our souls. That truth should be very encouraging to believers who suffer unjustly.
Because of Christ's triumph on the cross, we now have direct access to God. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. That tearing symbolically demonstrated the reality that Jesus had opened the way to God. God's throne of grace is now available for immediate access by all true believers. All believers are welcome into God's presence. Heb. 4:16; 10:22. We can triumph in our faith in the midst of suffering because as believers, we are in an intimate relationship with Almighty God.
We can triumph because Jesus died. Peter says at the end of verse 18 that Jesus was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. The essence of the triumph we have is that Jesus did die on the cross. That is a biblical and historical fact. Roman soldiers knew what they were doing when they crucified someone and no one came off a cross who wasn't guaranteed dead. To hasten the deaths of the two thieves, the soldiers broke their legs so they could no longer push themselves up to breath. They didn't need to break the legs of Jesus because they knew He was already dead. Confirming that fact, one of the soldiers then also pierced His side with a spear, causing water and blood to flow out, proof that His body was dead.
His body died on the cross but His eternal inner person remained alive. His eternal inner spirit has always been alive, even though His earthly body was dead for a short time. Three days after dying on the cross, He arose bodily from the grave in a transformed and eternal state.
He did experience a kind of spiritual death. While on the cross, Jesus was fully conscience as He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" That cry reflected His sense of alienation from the Father when Jesus took on the sins of the world and God turned away from Him as His full wrath was placed on the Son. We can triumph over our suffering because Jesus died.
Now we come to one of the most difficult passages in all of Scripture to try to understand. There are a lot of different interpretations as to what Peter was getting at in verses 19 and 20. A lot of really smart scholars who are way smarter than me, have a number of different theories about what was going on during this time. We'll see if we can make some sense of it.
To really understand what is going on here, we need to go back to the very beginning. There was a time when Lucifer's pride got the best of him and he not only wanted to be God, he took steps to overthrow God and take control of creation himself. In response to that, God kicked Satan and a third of the angels out of heaven for their rebellion and insubordination. Ever since that time, there has been an ongoing cosmic conflict between the angelic forces of good and evil. That ongoing battle has centered on humans. Man was made in God's image and the devil is constantly seeking to do all he can to corrupt the human race. Early on, the devil achieved an apparent victory when he incited Adam and Eve to fall into sin. One result of that was that God promised to destroy the evil one through the Messiah.
Satan therefore turned his attention to doing what he could to make sure that didn't happen. He tried to kill all of the Jews during the time of Esther; he sought to destroy the Messianic line itself during the time of Joash; he tried to kill the infant Messiah after He was born; he also tried to tempt Christ Himself to abandon His mission and forsake the cross. Later he was able to provoke the Jewish leaders and the people to manipulate Rome and have Jesus crucified.
In between Satan kicked out of heaven and Jesus dying on the cross, another significant event took place. We read about that in Gen. 6:1-4. A lot of scholars believe what is described here is that fallen angels acted perversely and overstepped the boundary of their realm. They defied God by leaving their spirit world and entering the human race by possessing men. This is the first biblical account of demon-possession of a person.
The demon-possessed, wicked men married human women and procreated a generation that was nothing but corrupt, inside and out. Gen. 6:5. The offspring of these unholy unions, though demonized, were only human beings. The children born were like the Nephilim, mighty men of renown and powerful warriors. All of those offspring, with the rest of the unrighteous world, except for Noah and his family, were drowned in the flood.
Those wicked spirits are the most wicked, vile and perverse of all of the fallen angels. Because of what they did during the days of Noah, they were sent bound and imprisoned to the abyss. If they knew what happened on the cross, they may have been celebrating their apparent victory over the Messiah. But when Jesus died, He appeared in their midst and proclaimed His triumph over Satan, sin, death and hell.
The way this is worded in the Greek, Jesus went from one specific physical place to another. While His dead physical body lay in the tomb, His living Spirit purposefully went to an actual place to make a triumphant announcement to captive beings before He arose again on the third day.
The phrase "made a proclamation" means that Jesus preached or heralded His triumph. He did not go to preach the gospel message. He went to proclaim His victory to the enemy by announcing His triumph over them.
Believers can triumph in the midst of suffering because God delivers us. Even though Peter uses the phrase "baptism now saves you" in verse 21, that is not true. Baptism does not save you, never has and never will. The word baptism means to immerse. It can refer to immersing someone in water; immersing a piece of cloth in water or a dye; or any number of other things. The only baptism that saves is a spiritual one into the death and resurrection of Christ. Peter uses the word baptism to refer to a figurative immersion into Christ. Baptism is important. It is a public profession of our faith and a symbol for what Christ has done for us spiritually, but it has nothing to do with our salvation experience. We are baptized because we are saved, not in order to be saved.
Peter saw God's patience waiting in the days of Noah as an analogy for the triumphant salvation provided by Jesus. During that 120 year period, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. He announced judgment but also offered the way of deliverance. Only Noah and his family heeded the warning, all of the rest were drowned in God's act of judgment. They experienced a resurrection of sorts when they exited the ark to a new post flood world.
Then Peter connected the ark to Jesus. Jesus was also a preacher of righteousness. He announced judgment and also offered a way of deliverance. Only true believers heed the warning, all of the rest will suffer judgment for their sins. We will also experience a resurrection some day when we are in heaven with our Lord. Rom. 6:3-4.
Just as the flood immersed all people in the judgment of God, yet those in the ark passed through safely, so God's final judgment will involve everyone, but those who are in Christ will pass through safely. We can triumph in life no matter what we're dealing with, because we know and can have complete assurance that God not only delivers us from some of the temporal issues we deal with in life, but also because He has guaranteed that we will be delivered eternally when we get to heaven.
Lastly, we can be triumphant because Jesus is praying for us. Peter ends this passage and this chapter, by saying that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. The right hand of God is a place of prestige and power; it is the preeminent place of honor and authority for all eternity. That is where Christ went after He finished His work of redemption; that is where He rules from today. From His position as heavenly High Priest, Jesus continually intercedes for believers. Heb. 7:25. His intercession allows us to triumph over the difficulties of life.
Believers still do suffer for the sake of righteousness; people today still go through difficulties and persecutions simply for doing what is right. All suffering believers can be encouraged that such suffering is not a disaster, but rather the path to spiritual victory. The unequalled example of such triumph is the Lord Himself, who suffered unjustly and through that suffering conquered sin and the demons of hell. We are triumphant because God uses unjust persecution and all circumstances in our lives for His holy purposes.