Comfort in the vindication of Christ: 1 Peter 3:18-22

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, 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. 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, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

-1 Peter 3:18-22

These verses are some of the most difficult to understand in all of Scripture. I have no doubt that Peter’s original audience understood what he meant by his writing. But we, separated by language, culture, millennia, and a personal relationship with Peter, have some difficulty understanding him here. This incredible passage raises many questions and speculations that do not have easy nor uniform answers. This passage is just difficult. In a strange way, it’s comforting to know that difficulty understanding this passage is nothing new. Five hundred years ago Martin Luther wrote of this same passage,

‘A wonderful text is this, and a more obscure passage perhaps than any others in the Testament, so that I do not know for a certainty just what Peter means… I cannot understand and I cannot explain it. And there has been no one who has explained it.’

I can appreciate Luther’s honesty but allow me to disagree at one point—scholars have explained it… and then some reexplained it from a different angle. And then others have explained it again in a different way. Explanations abound! It’s finding a commonly agreed upon explanation that is the problem (even amongst trusted scholars). When we start digging in, we find that there are many explanations of this difficult passage. One commentator writes of it,

‘The exegetical questions basically come down to these: Where did Christ go? When did he go? To whom did he speak? What did he say? Different answers to each of these questions can be found, resulting in a labyrinth of exegetical options, each of which has no clearly overwhelming claim to certainty, (with one) calculating 180 different exegetical combinations, in theory.’

So, what do we do? Should we give up when we come to difficult passages such as these? Certainly not! None of that should dissuade us from studying Scripture. But the remarkable truth is, passages such as these are extremely rare. Scripture is self-attesting and meticulously self-supporting to such an extent that it must be divinely inspired. For its’ clarity to be attributed to human luck is utterly impossible. We should not be dissuaded from the study of Scripture when we come across difficult passages such as these, but we should also never consider the study of Scripture an easy task that requires no rigor whatsoever. This is, after all, the Word of God. If his ways are truly higher than our ways, then some of it might go over our heads. And in that is a beautiful comfort to children, like us, who rest in the capable hands of our God. God’s Word is, as Augustin put it, ‘deep enough for an elephant to swim, yet shallow enough for a babe to drink.’

Letting the main thing be the main thing

But for all of that comfort, there is still a question on the table—what should we do with this passage? We still need Scripture to do what God has promised it would do—to be living and active, revealing us and then teaching us, reproving us, correcting us, and training us in righteousness. For that to happen, we need to understand what it is saying. The good news is, though there are lingering questions and multiple answers about certain components of Peter’s argument, his main point in this passage is utterly clear—we are called to be encouraged to endure by Christ’s victory.

We have seen in the previous verses that we are called to endure in our faith, even when we suffer. Peter has just encouraged us to be zealous for what is good, even when it has a personal cost for us, looking to God’s future blessing as our hope. Our faith in that future hope is a fuel to our ongoing ability to walk with the Lord, even in our suffering for obedience to God in this world. That’s fuel for the long journey before us. But Peter solidifies that encouragement for our journey in these challenging verses. Peter’s purpose is to point us to the truth that Christ was vindicated in the resurrection (18), that he has vindicated those who have trusted him in the past (20), and that he will vindicate us too (21-22). Therefore, because Christ is victorious, our suffering does not have the final say.

Christ was vindicated in the resurrection

In verse 18 Peter tells us that Christ suffered the most complete injustice in history, the righteous suffering for sin. Jesus is the only man who can claim perfect righteousness and yet he suffered the complete punishment for sin, even going to his death to pay for it. Peter tells us that Jesus did it all as a substitute for us, ‘the righteous for the unrighteous.’ Christ died in our place, suffering for us. That’s a kind gesture, but if that alone was the basis for our faith, we would have a precarious hope. But he did not stay dead. Peter writes that though he was ‘put to death in the flesh’ he was ‘made alive in the spirit.’ Christ was resurrected and so we have a living hope. The center of our worship died for us but is alive again.

Therefore, since he suffered in death and was resurrected ‘that he might bring us to God,’ we have a secure hope that when we suffer because of our obedience, through faith in him, his truthfulness has already been proven, and we cannot lose. Christ’s resurrection proves our suffering is not wasted because his was not wasted.

Christ vindicated those who trusted him in the past

What’s more, Christ has a proven track record of vindicating those who suffer, by faith in him, for his namesake. Peter turns his attention to Noah and his family in vs 20. We remember God’s salvation of Noah and his family in the ark when God flooded the earth. But Peter seems to allude to the fact that Noah was a true sufferer for faith in Christ as well. This is not hard to imagine. Scripture tells us that in the days of Noah there was no rain on the earth and Noah was commanded by God to build a boat to rescue his family. For 120 years Noah built his boat on dry ground and preached the wrath of God that was to come to an evil world. To those who were walking in the flesh, Noah must have seemed foolish. He must have suffered ridicule at the very least and probably more.

In the end, though, Noah and his family endured, trusting Christ while they were maligned by the world around them. Verse 20 tells us that those eight who suffered, by faith, saw vindication in the end. They alone were brought through the waters and saved. Christ would not let them perish, but, instead, proved them faithful in the end.

Our union with Christ is our encouragement that we too will be vindicated

What a hope for God’s people, then! If Christ suffered, was dead and buried but was vindicated in resurrection, won’t we who suffer for our faith in Christ be vindicated too? And if Christ has already proven that he vindicates his own in Noah, are we not doubly blessed with the knowledge of Christ’s fulfilling work? Verse 21 serves to remind us that we are united to Christ in our own baptism, just as Noah and his family displayed that baptism that saved them. We have been buried with Christ and raised to life spiritually. The baptism Peter is talking about here is not our physical baptism, it is the immersion of our life in the grave that is now raised with Christ. This is our hope; that we are now united to Christ by faith. And if linked to Christ by that faith, we too will be raised as Christ has been raised.

Therefore, we can trust ourselves to God in suffering for obedience to him because Christ, in his resurrection, has proven that it is not wasted. We can trust ourselves to God in suffering for obedience to him because Christ has shown that he raises those to life who trust in him. By faith we are united to Christ, so we have a strong confidence that though we suffer for our faith in Christ, we have hope in the resurrection. As Peter concludes, ‘through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.’ All things are subjected to Christ now, so let us not give up living by faith, even in the face of suffering.

So, swim with the elephants in the depth of Scripture. Certainly, there is doctrine worth wrestling with in Peter’s argument in these verses. Enjoy contemplating it and seeking to understand it. Be blessed in your work. It’s worth it. But in the process do not neglect drinking from the pool of Scripture, whereby your soul is nourished. Rest in the vindication of Christ that is to be your encouragement as you journey in this world.

Questions for personal reflection and application:

1.     What is your response when you come to passages you don’t understand in Scripture? Is misunderstanding a problem with Scripture or with us? How does reflecting on Scripture as God’s intended means of communication with his people encourage you in this area?

2.     Jesus has already defeated our enemy and proven it in the resurrection. How does that truth give you hope in your own suffering? How does it motivate you toward obedience?

3.     We are united to Christ in the gospel. How does that truth give you hope in your own suffering? How does it motivate you toward obedience?