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1Peter 3:18-22 are notoriously
difficult to
interpret and reminiscent of Peter's statement about Paul's writings
(See note
2 Peter 3:16).
J. M. E. Ross
writes that 1 Peter 3:18 is
one of the shortest and simplest, and yet one of the richest summaries
given in the NT of the meaning of the Cross of Jesus
FOR
CHRIST ALSO DIED (suffered)
FOR SINS ONCE FOR ALL :
hoti kai Christos hapax
peri hamartion epathen (3SAAI): (1Peter
2:21-24;
4:1;
Isa 53:4-6;
Ro 5:6-8;
8:3;
2 Cor 5:21;
Gal 1:4;
3:13;
Titus 2:14;
Heb 9:26,28)
For
(3754)
(hoti) means because, since. For shows us that Peter is beginning to explain why it is
sometimes God's will for us to suffer for doing what is right as he
has just discussed. He wants to remind them not to be surprised nor
discouraged by suffering. Peter offers encouragement to his
suffering readers because any suffering they might endure for Christ
pales in comparison to His glorious suffering in our place, which is
similar to what the writer of Hebrews said to his suffering Jewish
audience...
You have not yet resisted to the
point of shedding blood in your striving against sin (See note
Hebrews 12:4)
So although most
believers will not be martyred, they will be called to suffer
for Christ and can take heart that even as He triumphed over the
suffering of the Cross, they too will eventually triumph over whatever
suffering they might be enduring for His Name.
As Greek scholar
A T Robertson says...
The example of Christ should stir
us to patient endurance.
Wuest
adds that Peter is encouraging his readers...
in their sufferings which they
incurred by the doing of good, for Christ’s example made it clear to
them that they also would receive blessing and reward for suffering
when doing good. The word for is the translation of a Greek
conjunction which means because. The resurrection of Christ and
His consequent glorification in view of His suffering for sinners are
presented as proof of the fact that suffering for well-doing on the
part of Christians is also followed by blessing and reward in their
lives.
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans
or
Logos)
Peter is saying
in essence
Yes you are suffering but He
suffered also. So don't lose hope. Let the truth that follows about
the suffering of Christ serve to encourage you.
He who was
perfect Righteousness willingly suffered for totally unrighteous men.
Obviously, believers can never suffer the way He did (for His was
redemptive suffering), but we can suffer for righteousness because He
suffered and brought us into the kingdom of light which automatically
puts the believer in contact with the kingdom of darkness.
Remember that Peter's intent in this section is to help believers arm
themselves (see note
1 Peter 4 :1) with the faith to suffer for the sake of Christ and
His
kingdom.
Many of those
even in evangelical churches in America do not realize that suffering
is the norm for believers in many (probably most) places of the world.
Christianity in America as we enter the new Millennium is the
exception not the rule. For example, evangelical missionaries entered Cambodia in the 1920's
but were expelled in 1965 at which time there were by best estimates
only about 600 believers.
However from 1965-1975 civil war ravaged Cambodia and yet during that
time the Christian population
soared to an estimated 90,000, clearly indicative of the power of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ to spread and convert the lost. It was an amazing work of God. But when
the Khmer Rouge took control and Pol Pot unleashed his maniacal fury on the
nation, most of the believers in Christ were either martyred or fled the country.
Surely the truths of Peter's first epistle helped them arm themselves
for suffering even as their Lord suffered (see note
1 Peter 4 :1)
Died (3958)
(pascho) describes in its essence what one experiences or
undergoes and virtually always refers to a bad sense. It should be
noted however that pascho suffered is not in the best Greek
texts, which instead have the verb apothnesko or died. The
thought the same in either case because Christ’s death obviously
involved suffering.
For
(peri) sins - Literally reads concerning sins (see
similar use in
Hebrews 5:3 [note])
because the preposition peri means with regard to, with
reference to, in relation to.
Sins (266)
(hamartia) originally conveyed the idea of missing the mark as when
hunting with a bow and arrow then missing or falling short of any
goal, standard, or purpose.
Once for all
(530)
(hapax) means of perpetual validity, not requiring repetition.
Spurgeon...
One thing I know: Christ thinks
more of our sins than he does of our righteousness, for He gave
himself for our sins. I never heard that he gave Himself for our
righteousness.
No soul ever ate a morsel more dainty than this one—substitution.
I do think that this is the grandest truth in heaven and earth—Jesus
Christ the just one died for the unjust, that He might
bring us to God. It is meat to my soul. I can feed on it every day,
and all the day.
Christ suffered for doing what is right. He is our example
(see note
1 Peter 2:21)
and we are to follow closely in His steps. Peter emphasizes Christ's example, because Peter
learned (denying Him 3x when faced with the possibility of suffering
for His Name's sake) that keeping a good conscience (see
note
1 Peter 3:16)
and suffering
even though one does what is right (see note
1 Peter 3:17) is not something
which frail, sinful flesh can accomplish in its own strength but can
only be accomplished in Christ's strength (filled with, controlled by,
empowered by His Spirit, see Acts 1:8, 2:2ff,
Ephesians 5:18 [note]).
And Peter a
Spirit transformed and controlled man practiced what he is preaching
in this section, willingly suffering for Christ and not
shrinking back as summarized in passages from Dr Luke's record...
And when they had summoned them,
they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
But Peter and John answered and said to them, "Whether it is right in
the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the
judge for we cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard." (Acts
4:18-20)
But an angel of the Lord during the
night opened the gates of the prison, and taking them out he said, "Go
your way, stand and speak to the people in the temple the whole
message of this Life." (Acs 5:19,20)
"We (Jewish rulers, the Council,
the Sanhedrin) gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in this
name, and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and
intend to bring this man's blood upon us." But Peter and the
apostles answered and said, "We must obey God rather than men. (Acts
5:28, 29)
And they took his advice; and after
calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them to speak
no more in the name of Jesus, and then released them. So they went on
their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had
been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name. (Acts 5:40, 41)
And in the end
as indicated by the traditional account Peter apparently received his
desire to be crucified upside down for His Lord. In short, Peter is
fully qualified to speak about suffering and enduring for His Name's
sake!
As alluded to
above, it is notable how completely Peter's
heart had changed after He received the Holy Spirit on the Day
of Pentecost. The old Peter filled with a very different
spirit strongly objected to the idea that Christ might have to suffer
And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "God forbid
it, Lord! This shall never happen to You." But He turned and
said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me;
for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's." (Mt 16:22, 23)!
Now Peter was sitting outside in
the courtyard, and a certain servant-girl came to him and said, "You
too were with Jesus the Galilean." But he denied it before them all,
saying, "I do not know what you are talking about." (Mt 26:69-70)
What a
difference a Day made
And they were all filled with
the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit
was giving them utterance. (Acts 2:4).
And beloved we
too must yield to the Spirit's Who will enable us to suffer for His
sake as more than conquerors.
THE JUST FOR THE UNJUST IN ORDER THAT HE MIGHT
BRING US TO GOD: peri hamartion dikaios huper (instead of, as
substitute for) adikon hina humas prosagage (3SAAS) to theo: (Zechariah 9:9;
Mt 27:19,24;
Acts 3:14;
22:14;
Js 5:6;
1 John 1:9)
(Ephesians 2:16-18)
Just
(1342)(dikaios
from dike
= right, just) (Click
word study on
dikaios) defines that which is in accordance
with high standards of rectitude. It is that which is in right
relation to another and so in reference to persons defines the one who
is morally and ethically righteous, upright or just
Unjust
(94)
(adikos from a = without + díke = justice) means
falling short of the righteousness required by divine laws.
In order that
(2443)
(hina) introduces the purpose for which the perfect
Righteous One suffered and died for unrighteous sinners.
Bring us to
(4317)
(prosago from pros = toward, facing + ago = to
go) is used of a person who brings another into the presence of a
third party. (Click
study of related noun
prosagoge) describes someone’s
being introduced or given access to another. In classical Greek the
noun form
prosagoge
refers to the one making the introduction. In ancient
courts certain officials controlled access to the king. They verified
someone’s right to see him and then introduced that person to the
monarch. Christ now performs that function for believers. He opened
the way of access to God.
Prosago
is used repeatedly in the
Septuagint (LXX)
for the sin
offering. For example Moses records...
Leviticus 5:8 'And he shall
bring (prosago) them to the priest, who shall offer first that
which is for the sin offering and shall nip its head at the front of
its neck, but he shall not sever it.
This verb prosago
conveys several pictures, all illustrating some aspect of this
profound truth...
(1) Presentation of a sacrifice for reconciliation with God.
(2) The entry of the Levitical high priest into the Holy of Holies on
the Day of Atonement.
(3). The presentation before the Judge in a court of law.
(4). The bringing in of an individual for an audience with a King.
(5). The bringing in of the initiate before the savior-god in the
mystery cults (truth always has a counterfeit!).
The meaning here
is the aim of Christ's work to bring about man's reconciliation with
God so that the cleansed sinner can be brought into the presence of
the King by Christ, our Redeemer.
To bring
us to God was Christ's mission
For even the Son of Man did not
come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for
many." (Mk 10:45).
Jesus was always
a man on the Mission, declaring to His disciples who were worried
about physical food..
My food is to do the will of Him
who sent Me, and to accomplish His work. (Jn 4:34).
Later just
before His suffering and crucifixion He once again reaffirmed His
mission in His prayer to His Father declaring...
I glorified Thee on the earth,
having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do. (John
17:4)
The divine
tearing of the temple veil from top to bottom symbolically
demonstrated the reality that He had opened the way to God. Matthew
recorded this momentous event writing that just as Jesus cried out and
yielded up His Spirit...
behold, the veil of the temple was
torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook; and the rocks
were split (Mt 27:51)
The writer of
Hebrews exampled that the temple veil tearing was but a picture of the
tearing of our Lord's writing that now believers in His sacrificial,
fully atoning death on the Cross...
have confidence to enter the holy
place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He
inaugurated for us through the veil (of the Temple, separating man
from the presence of God in the Holy of holies), that is, His flesh
(alluding to crucifixion) and since we have a great priest over the
house of God (see notes
Hebrews 10:19;
20;
21)
Because of
the work of Christ on the cross He became our "Forerunner"
and High Priest
This hope we have as an anchor of
the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within
the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having
become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
(See notes
Hebrews 6:19;
20)
As a result of
His death in our place, believers have been "brought to God" and have
continual access to the Throne room of God, Paul explaining that...
through Him we both (believing Jews
and Gentiles) have our access in one Spirit to the Father. (See
note
Ephesians 2:18)
in whom we have boldness and
confident access through faith in Him. (See note
Ephesians 3:12)
In Romans Paul
explains that because of His death, burial and resurrection, we are
how justified by faith, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ...
through Whom also we have obtained
our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we
exult in hope of the glory of God. (See note
Romans 5:2)
NT believers may
now come boldly to His throne...
For we do not have a high priest
who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been
tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore
draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive
mercy and may find grace to help in time of need. (See notes
Hebrews 4:15;
16)
In summary, 1
Peter 3:18 is one of the riches summaries in the Scriptures of the
meaning of the Cross of Christ.
HAVING BEEN PUT TO DEATH IN
THE FLESH: thanatotheis (APPMSN) men sarki: (1Peter
4:1;
Da 9:26;
Ro 4:25;
2 Cor 1:24;
13:4;
Col 1:21,22)
Put to death
(2289)
(thanatoo) means to kill or cause to be put to death and leaves no doubt that on the
Cross Jesus’ physical life ceased. The
passive voice
(speaks of action that comes to the subject from an outside source)
indicates the total culpability of His executioners and stresses what
man did to Him.
Flesh (4561)
(sarx)
refers to Jesus' physical body, His "flesh and blood" body.
In His flesh points out that He was no docetic phantom (Docetists deny
that the incarnation and the true human life of Christ ever took
place) Who only appeared to have a human body, as "flesh" refers to
the humanity Christ assumed at the incarnation (Jn 1:14, 1Ti 3:16). Used
without an article "flesh" is qualitative and characterizes Him as a
human being, a man among men here on earth.
BUT MADE ALIVE IN THE
SPIRIT: zoopoietheis (APPMSN) de pneumati:
(Ro 1:4;
8:11)
Made alive
(2227)
(zoopoieo from zoos = alive + poieo = to make)
literally means to make alive. This verb is in the
passive voice
which indicates that
there is operation of power from an outside source, the Spirit of...
But if the Spirit of Him Who raised
Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the
dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who
indwells you (See note
Romans 8:11)
In the spirit (4151)
(pneuma) is a
reference to Jesus’ eternal inner person. Christ's eternal spirit has
always been alive, although His earthly body was then dead; but three
days later His body was resurrected in a transformed and eternal
state.
John MacArthur writes that...
The phrase made alive in the
spirit refers to the life of Jesus' spirit--not to the Holy
Spirit. There's no article in the Greek text indicates that Peter was
referring to the Holy Spirit. Rather, he seems to be contrasting what
happened to the flesh (or body) of Jesus with what happened to His
spirit. His spirit was alive but His flesh was dead.
Some think made alive in the spirit refers to Christ's
resurrection, but that would necessitate a statement like, He was put to death in
the flesh but made alive in the flesh. The resurrection was a
spiritual and physical occurrence. Thus Peter's point has to be that
though Christ was physically dead, His spirit was still alive.
Though in spirit Christ was alive, He did experience spiritual
death--not cessation of existence but separation from God. On the
cross He said
My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? (Mt
27:46)
That shows the separation He temporarily experienced from the
Father when He was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). Similarly,
unbelievers experience spiritual death (separation from God) in this
life and eternal death in the next, but they never cease to exist.
The separation between Christ and the Father was over quickly, for
shortly after our Lord's lament He said,
Father, into Thy hands I
commit My spirit (Luke 23:46)
That shows His spirit was alive
again--no longer separated from God--and could be committed to the
Father. (See full message
Triumph of Christ's Suffering -2)
C H Spurgeon wrote...
One thing I know: Christ thinks
more of our sins than he does of our righteousness, for he gave
himself for our sins. I never heard that he gave himself for our
righteousness.
---
No soul ever ate a morsel more
dainty than this one—substitution. I do think that this is the
grandest truth in heaven and earth—Jesus Christ the just one died for
the unjust, that he might bring us to God. It is meat to my soul. I
can feed on it every day, and all the day.
---
"The just for the unjust" I can
understand. But the "just dying for the just" would be a double
injustice—an injustice that the just should be punished at all, and
another injustice that the just should be punished for them. Oh, no!
If Christ died, it must be because there was a penalty to be paid for
sin committed. Hence he must have died for those who had committed the
sin.
The Judge's Compassion
- During his years as mayor of New
York City, Fiorello La Guardia sometimes presided as judge in a night
court. In one case, a man was found guilty of stealing a loaf of
bread. He pleaded that he had committed that theft to feed his
starving family. "The law is the law," La Guardia declared. "I must
therefore fine you $10." When the man sadly confessed that he had no
money, the judge took $10 out of his wallet and paid the fine. He also
asked each person in the courtroom to contribute 50 cents to help the
man.
At the heart of the gospel stands the cross of Jesus Christ. Its
message is so plain that even a child can understand it: Jesus took my
place and died instead of me. But its truth is so awesome that the
wisest of humans can't fully fathom its meaning. The Bible says,
"Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He
might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). It also says, "When we were
still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly"
(see note
Romans 5:6).
As we look at the judge's compassion, we catch at least a glimpse of
God's measureless grace. The demands of the law were satisfied. The
judge himself paid the fine. The lawbreaker was set free and even
blessed with an undeserved gift. What a profound picture of our
Savior! —Vernon C Grounds (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
There's a wideness in God's mercy
Like the wideness of the sea;
There's a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty. —Faber
The way to face Christ as Judge is to know Him as your Savior. |
