This week, we return to the pursuit of God’s will and His pleasure.
In recent weeks, this journey has taken us into the realm of suffering, where we have found that His will may well include undeserved suffering, and that He is pleased when we handle these experiences well. His pleasure is not sadistic, but is a Fatherly pride. When we behave this way, we look like one of His children – like His Son.
What are the defining characteristics of this likeness? Well, when treated wrongly, we don’t retaliate, either in word or deed. Instead, we guard our words, speaking no evil and avoiding deceit; we turn away from evil and do good; we seek peace and pursue it.
Why?
So far, we have been given two strong motivations.
First, God called us so that He could bless us with things like life and good days. But those blessings are reserved for those who turn away from evil and do good, who seek peace and pursue it. Our own evil words and deeds cannot be justified in the name of retaliation. We must stand firm in righteous conduct if we want to experience these blessings from God.
A second motivations is the opportunities this kind of response creates to explain the hope that motivates us. Just as Christ’s unjust suffering brought us to God, so our unjust suffering can be instrumental in helping others learn of the hope available through Christ.
This summarizes Peter’s exhortation in 1 Peter 2:11-3:18. But he is not finished. There is one benefit remaining to be explored, perhaps the most significant of all – the benefit that will be ours when we move from the physical to the spiritual realm.
This is a major theme of 1 Peter, and he returns to it in 3:19-22 – a difficult passage.
Having mentioned Jesus’ transition from the physical to spiritual realm in verse 18, he now says that in this spiritual realm, Jesus “went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison” (NAS95S). To understand this final motivation, we need to answer several questions raised by Peter’s words.
Who were these spirits?
Verse 20 identifies them as those who persisted in disobedience in spite of God’s patience, while Noah was constructing the ark. Although some understand these to be fallen angels, there is no indication in Scripture that fallen angels are ever given the opportunity to repent, hence there is no benefit in God demonstrating patience toward them. Only humans benefit from the patience of God, and it seems more reasonable that these spirits are the souls of Noah’s contemporaries. Since Peter is talking about the spiritual realm in contrast to the physical realm, it is fitting that he refer to them as “spirits” rather than “souls.”
How did Jesus “make proclamation” to them?
Peter has already presented the Spirit of Christ as the active agent in the revelation given to the Old Testament prophets (1 Peter 1:11). Although Noah is not identified as a prophet, it seems clear that just as Christ, in the Spirit, delivered messages through the prophets, so, He made proclamation through the actions and words of Noah.
What did He proclaim?
The ark which Noah built was necessary because of God’s decision to judge the earth and destroy all of mankind in a flood as a result of their extreme wickedness. Thus, in the building of the ark, Christ, through the actions of Noah, was proclaiming God’s coming judgment, and with it, the need to repent.
Extra-biblical literature tells us that Noah experienced significant mockery during the 120 years that it took to build the ark. So, just as Peter encourages his readers to “be ready to make a defense for the hope” in them, so Noah, in his building of the ark, would have had opportunity to explain the coming judgment of God, and the hope that he had of deliverance.
The point is that Noah, like Peter’s readers, experienced undeserved suffering. In response, Noah persevered, in aligning himself with God through obedience. As a result, Noah and his family were delivered safely through the water, God’s instrument of judgement. At the time, the opposition would have seemed overwhelming. With the entire world against them, only Noah and seven family members aligned themselves with God. But now, all of those alive in Noah’s day have died, moving from the physical realm to the spiritual realm. Although, at the time, they seemed to have the upper hand, they are now under God’s judgment and imprisoned.
Peter goes on to apply Noah’s example to his readers’ situation (verses 21-22). The flood waters are symbolic of baptism. In Noah’s day, the flood waters brought judgment and death. But Noah and the seven with him, who identified with God through their actions, were protected from the judgment and came out of the water alive. Likewise, all who have identified with Christ Jesus in baptism have entered into His death, and thus, are protected from judgement, so that they might be resurrected with Him, and come out alive (Romans 6:3-5).
But how does this baptism save?
Well, Peter pauses to clarify that it’s not the physical mechanics of baptism, not any sort of external ritual that saves us. Instead, it’s internal – “the pledge of a good conscience toward God” (NIV). A good conscience toward God is an inner sense that not only our conduct, but also our motives, are viewed favorably by Him. In our actions, and in our heart, we are properly aligned with Him. Thus, Peter is saying that baptism is a pledge, a commitment to God, out of a heart properly aligned with Him. We then live out this commitment in our conduct (cf. 2:19; 3:16).
But how does this “save” us?
To understand this, it is important to clarify what aspects of “salvation” are in view. Most discussions of “salvation” are focused solely on justification. We are justified, or declared righteous, based solely on our faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22-24). This a legal declaration that occurs immediately, at the moment of belief (Romans 4:3).
But Peter is taking a much broader view of salvation. To see this, let’s return to the first chapter of 1 Peter.
In verse 3, Peter groups himself and his readers together as those who “have been born again to a living hope.” As such, they have already trusted Jesus Christ, and are justified. Yet in verse 5, they are looking forward to a salvation which will not be revealed until the last time, when Christ returns.
So, if they have already been justified, what is this salvation that they are looking forward to?
He goes on in verse 6. While they are awaiting the revelation of this salvation, they are being distressed by various trials – including the unjust suffering of chapters 2 and 3. These trials have a purpose – to test the faith of believers. When faced with unjust suffering, will they trust God and do what is right (4:19), or will they fail the test, returning evil for evil and insult for insult (3:9)?
However, at this point, Peter does not anticipate the failure of their faith. Instead, he envisions that it will be proven genuine through their sufferings. The value of this proof will be seen when Christ returns. At that point, He will reward believers with praise and glory and honor based on this proven faith (verse 7).
This is the salvation of which Peter speaks (verse 9). It is based in justification, but ultimately encompasses our complete triumph in Christ and the recovery to all that gives meaning to our existence.
So, baptism saves us in that, through it, we publicly pledge to align ourselves with Christ, Who, in the spiritual realm has already been resurrected and is ultimately victorious over all opponents. This pledge is then lived out in our conduct. We align ourselves with Him, not only through the act of baptism, but in living according to His character and His commands. The prospect of undeserved suffering does not cause us to take matters into our own hands. Instead, we entrust the situation to Him, obeying His instructions even though it may cost us dearly now. We do so in the confidence that, in the spiritual realm, our identification with Him will bring us reward far surpassing any suffering that we could ever experience in this life (cf. Romans 8:18).
How have rewards motivated you in your spiritual journey?
I am going to take a stab at something here Garth. This whole idea of rewards and how to properly understand them has been a very slow process for me. In an effort to try to capture this issue I vvould say first and foremost rewards was not even on my radar for the longest time as a believer. The “reward” for me for so long was eternal life. But I have come to understand that eternal life is not a reward in this context, but rather God’s gift to me born out of His grace.
After working through this first misconception/misunderstadning of rewards, the next “phase” was in a sense worse than the first. The whole concept of rewards was more than I could handle at one level because now we are dealing with motives and the reward system has a tendency to refocus my attention from Christ (my need for Him, walk with Him, etc.,), to my motives and the introspection that comes with that can get heavy and involved to an unhealthy degree.
SRewards are starting to take shape in my life as a means to lead me further/deeper in my walk (life) with Christ, and they have a way of causing me to recognize areas of responsibility that I must consider. Let me contrast this for a moment with an observation. There is a natural tendency within me to be spastic, and over the years I have slowly come to realize that sometimes I need to let that tendency play itself out within me (while at the same time exercising self control) to observe and understand before reacting. Another way to say this is to say that I need to know what I am really feeling before I “judge it,” condemn it and try to take remove it from my life.
I am going to take a stab at something here Garth. This whole idea of rewards and how to properly understand them has been a very slow process for me. In an effort to try to capture this issue I would say first and foremost rewards was not even on my radar for the longest time as a believer. The “reward” for me for so long was eternal life, and that was all I was concerned about. All of the other talk of rewards among Christians was more than I could seriously consider at any level so I pretty much ignored that talk. But I have come to understand that eternal life is not a reward in this context, but rather God’s gift to me born out of His grace. And so I started to think in terms of “what is the purpose for rewards?”
In one sense, this next “phase” of how to think about rewards was worse than the first. The whole concept of rewards started to bring into question my motives, and that had a tendency to refocus my attention from Christ (my need for Him, walking with Him, etc.,), to consideration of my motives. The introspection that comes with that can get heavy and involved to an unhealthy degree, so I decided this is not a topic I am ready to understand.
So the next phase for me was to push the concept away, and keep it at arms length while it is simmering in the back of my brain, thinking that in time a better, clearer understanding will come. And I think it has/is coming. As I observe my life, I think rewards are starting to take shape as a means to lead me further/deeper in my walk (life) with Christ. They have a way of causing me to recognize areas of responsibility that I must consider. They are becoming a healthy motivating force in my life when I recognize I have a decision to make. This perspective is just starting to creep up on my horizon so I still have a lot to learn, but my sense is that rewards are beginning to shape those places in me that have a tendency not to be anchored. What I mean by that is that I am beginning to see and understand the purpose for the rewards as a mechanism for bringing more order in my life, which ends up bringing more peace into deeper and broader places. It is becoming a guide for me in making deliberate decisions, as if to say it takes me further down the road to everything has a proper place and purpose. It is like I have finally grown up to the understanding that my choices as a believer have far reaching consequences that are going to impact my life after my time on this earth, and so they serve to motivate me to choose the higher ground when altruism (for lack of a better word) is not enough. So in once sense God’s reward system is serving to refine my thinking (i.e., what does altruism have to do with God), and is bringing me into greater harmony with Him.
So, I can see that rewards can make my life better by serving as a truly positive motivating force in my decision making (as compared to a match under my natural tendency to be greedy!). It has taken me 36 years as a believer to get to this point, and it feels young/new to me. As I reflect on that observation, I must acknowledge that it is taking me a lifetime to learn what it means to be spiritually healthy.