1 Peter, 3:18-22

As we mentioned, this is probably one of the more challenging passages out of all of 1 Peter. And so that's why Jean and Brad didn't step forward and volunteer for this one. But that's fine. It's fun. You're supposed to earn that wonderful salary. I see. OK. All right. Yeah. This is what the bulletproof vest is for. OK.

Yeah, this is a tough one. It is a passage about which there are a number of different points of different interpretation. It's a passage about which those interpretations end up varying widely. What we're going to do this morning, rather than get caught up in all sorts of interpretive idiosyncrasies, is we're going to go ahead and plow through it, quickly noting what some of the varying interpretations are. And I have a handout, a few copies of a handout here, 14 pages, that explains one of the key interpretive questions. If somebody is interested in that, if we run out, let me know, I'll get more. But let's go ahead and step through it. There's some bullets on the top part of page one, and that'll kind of give us the big picture.

Verse 18, in summary, Christ suffered to bring us salvation as the prime example of suffering. Interesting, in Philippians, where the Apostle Paul is writing, he gives four examples in Philippians. It is the first of those that is Christ as the example. Here in 1 Peter, what does 1 Peter do? He introduces the subject of suffering, and what does he talk about? Christ is the first example.

So interesting pattern between the two of them. What fascinates me is Peter and Paul, so far as we know, only spent at most a few weeks together with each other. And yet I am continuously amazed at either the overlap in what they say, even choosing sometimes on the same subject, the same words, the exact same words, even the same verb form. Or if not saying exactly the same thing, what they say is very complementary. We found that going through 1 Peter 3, 1-7.

So, alright, verses 19-20, In the end, God will deliver the believer victorious through suffering, and those who are evil will receive justice, as He did with Christ and with Noah in His day. Verse 21, baptism is an illustration of how God will indeed deliver you as He did Christ who suffered. And verse 22, Christ's suffering ended up with an eternally good outcome, and after suffering, He was exalted by God in the heavenlies. Alright, so those are the quick summaries.

Let's take a look at 1 Peter 3.18. For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit." Here in this one verse, Peter lays down some key biblical truth, truth about salvation. And this word for provides us with the basis for prior teachings, the ones we studied in 1 Peter 3, 13 through 17.

In other words, he's making the connection between this passage here and the one prior. Christ died for the sins of the whole world of humanity, satisfying God's infinite and changeless character. This is 1 John 2, 1 and 2. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. That is, sin habitually.

And if anyone does sin, commits an act of sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. Or as it's laid out a few times in the book of Acts, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. The singular Righteous One. the one who is qualified. And He Himself is the propitiation. It has nothing to do with pitch. The propitiation, the satisfaction of God's infinite and changeless character for our sins. And not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. What that means is Jesus Christ paid the price for all the sins of everyone on the planet. So everyone is saved, right? No. Okay. What does it mean is the price has been paid for every single person, but the analogy we've used previously is this.

If you were in a situation where you were not going to be released unless you paid your $4 trillion debt, you'd think, well, I guess I'm stuck here because there's no way I'm coming up with $4 trillion. And somebody walks in and says, hey, Someone else has paid your debt. Here's the check, it's made out to you, the entire amount. All you have to do is believe it. Turn it over, sign it, and turn it in, you walk out free. That's the way it works. Every single person on the planet has that check handed to them.

Do you believe it? Do you take the check and say, no way man, this is crazy. Do you take the check and just drop it on the floor as worthless? Do you take the check and just shred it in anger? Or do you say, whoopee, I'm getting out of here? Turn it over, sign it, and hand it off to the guard as you leave the door. What do you pick?

That's really what he's saying here. Everyone's got that check fully made out. The money's in the account. It's all been paid. All you got to do is believe it. And nothing more, nothing less. Okay. The atheist says there is no check. Good way to put it. The atheist, you hand him the check and he says, what check? From who? All you've got to do is sign it. Sign what?

To sin is to miss the mark, that is to deviate from God's infinitely holy and infinitely perfect moral character. To miss out on that. And this isn't just miss like miss a little bit and it's the next ring out of the bullseye. This is miss like there's a very narrow road in a incredibly deep and monumental drop down to the bottom and you miss the edge of the road. It's that kind of a miss. Christ died for all the sins for all of mankind.

Not only the ones up to the point where I did believe, but even the ones after. All of them. Every single one. No exception. His death was for the satisfaction of all of God's infinitely holy, righteous, just, gracious, merciful, and loving character. All of it. God is completely satisfied. Okay, page two. Now, how about that once for all?

There's a key word here. It's an easy word. It's called hapax. It's in there in bolded italics, just hapax. It's a word that shows up in several critical places in the New Testament. It's good to take note of. This is the one in Jude, verse 3. It is the once for all faith that was delivered to the saints, once given, perpetually valid. This is that same word, Christ died once for all. It's not a, you know, He died once for all the people. It's a He died once, and it's completely done, perpetually valid.

You don't need to repeat it. You don't need to do it again. There is no need, and so that's why here in John 19, Christ finished off what was done on the cross with, it is finished. And he used the perfect tense, the perfect tense implies permanence and completeness. So when he said it's finished, it isn't mostly finished. It isn't almost finished, it's finished finished. He also used a word that actually was an accounting term. Isn't it interesting, the last thing he says on the cross is an accounting term?

The debt's all paid. Isn't that something? So when he said it's finished, it's this big red paid stamp on this thing. Bang! It's big, it's red, it's final, it's done. Any question about the debt? BAM! Down goes the red page stamp. It's all done. He died once for all, completely. It's finished. Now, the just for the unjust. A few things to point out there.

We have it in most of our English translations, definite articles. In the Greek, there are no definite articles there. It's done to sort of smooth out the English, but there are no definite articles. What that means? In the Greek, when the definite article has been left out, it means it points to character. So what does that mean here?

The word just also means righteous, and so unjust means unrighteous. The character of being righteous or just. The character of being unrighteous. And this for means in place of. One could expand this phrase to convey the meaning of the Greek, one having righteous character, having died, once for all, having died in the place of those having unrighteous character.

That's what he said. It's that simple. What's amazing to me is how succinct this is and how profound it is. He says a whole bunch in just this one verse and it's wonderful stuff. Christ died and it's taken care of completely. The one who is completely righteous and righteous by basic character died for all of us who until we believed were of unrighteous character. Done deal. 100% complete. Totally, finally done, all the way across the board. Died for every single one, no exceptions. It's profound in its simplicity.

So that he might bring us to God. What does this bring us to God mean? What's that all about? Why is that important? Ah, we are reconciled, okay? This is a key thing because the problem with sins and the sin problem that human beings have, apart from Christ's cross work, is we're alienated from God, we're separated from God.

Nahum, chapter 1, verse 2, puts focus on this. There's one other thing. It is reconciled, but it's actually, it's reconciled plus, because this word that he used for to bring us is a word that was used in the royal courts to introduce somebody to someone who is of royalty. We get a privileged royal introduction. It goes beyond reconciliation. Does it include it? Yes. But it goes beyond reconciliation.

And that's wonderful. Okay? We're not only just reconciled to God, but as Ephesians chapter 2 puts it, we get a privileged introduction by Jesus Christ to the Father. A royal introduction. As you may recall from the book of Esther, in biblical times, just walking into the king's court without proper introduction, unless the king gave you special grace, and he did this just with a hand signal, a scepter, you could be killed right on the spot. But here, what does he do? We get this reconciliation that goes beyond just, we're not enemies anymore, as wonderful as that is.

But we get a privileged royal introduction by Jesus Christ through the Father. We can just walk right into the heavenly throne room and say, Hi Pop, Hi Daddy, That's Abba Father. Twice Paul writes that. It's Papa. How about that? That incredible intimacy just because the Lord did it and we believe. It's that simple. Wow! That is really cool. Now, next part.

Having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit. Let's think about what this means. What is spiritual death? Separation. This is a key thing to remember. So when he says, made alive in the spirit, that's a reversal of the separation. Made spiritually alive. So he's not talking about Christ's bodily resurrection as true and as important as that is. This is being made spiritually alive, a reversal of the separation.

Think about this for a minute. Jesus was on the cross. What was happening on the cross? Tell me, what was happening on the cross? Pardon? He was dying physically on the cross. Good. What else? I'm sorry, what? Dying for our sins? Okay. He was taking our sins, all of ours, everyone here, You could have said, you know, he died for Vern's sins. Okay? And you could put your name in there just as well.

He died for all of our sins. He was taking those upon Himself, every single one on the planet, even those who have not been born yet. There's two. And that was worse than dying. Yes. Okay? He took those upon Himself. And what did that do in the relationship between Himself and the Father? Separation. Separation. Spiritual death. Okay?

Then, what did He do? Did He say, gee, this doesn't feel so good? How did He explain that? How did He explain it? What did He say on the cross? He said that at the end, and we'll get to that. Thank you. My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me? A quote from Psalm 22 verse 1. And he said it in Aramaic. He was up there, and people didn't understand him, but he was quoting in Aramaic, Psalm 22, verse 1. Eloi! Eloi! Lama sabachthani! And so he screamed this out.

But the Father's forsaken him. Why? Because he took upon himself all of our sins. But before the end, when he said it's finished, Before the end, he says, he gave his spirit to the Father. The separation was over. He was made alive in the Spirit. And he was able, before the last breaths, to say, it's finished. It's done. The separation is over. It's done.

His spirit was given to the Father. That is really, really cool. Because he was made alive in the Spirit. You see that? The separation from death that took place because He took the sins of us upon Himself, the separation from death was reversed. He was made alive, restoring relationship with the Father. And that's a wonderful thing, because then He is there to, as Peter just said, to give us the privileged royal introduction, because He's no longer separated from the Father. having fully paid the price. Does this make sense?

Oh, this is neat stuff. This is wonderful stuff. Okay. Now, next part. Verse 19. In which also he went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Oh boy. Okay.

Here's where we get the fun part. This is where the challenging part begins. Who are the spirits in prison? Some high schoolers will say that that's them, but don't believe them. Okay. And where and what is the prison and why is Noah involved in this?

Putting together these passages, Genesis 6, 1 through 4, which includes, that's things in the days of Noah, 1 Peter 3, 19 and 20, We're looking at here, 2 Peter 2, 4, 5, 9, 10, and Jude 6 and 7. Here's the picture we get. And I will point out a few things that are in your footnotes here. In the days of Noah, before the flood, and while Noah was building the ark, and I'll say here, fallen angels, angels are sometimes referred to as spirits in scripture.

Example, Hebrews 1.14, right? They're called ministering spirits in that passage. Then, the next part there is embodied themselves as men. Angels who were faithful to the Lord embodied themselves as men, that is human males, in Genesis 19, 1-22, but with godly purpose. Also the passage right before that in Genesis 18, Judges 13, 15-23, those were all instances.

I should also point out that some of the alternate interpretations, just so you'll be aware of that, are that these are human royalty or otherwise powerful men, that those are the sons of God, some hold to that, or that they were of the godly line of Seth and that their intermarrying here was with the line of Cain. That's another interpretation.

It's interesting. I, after looking at it in fair amount of detail, concluded what I'm presenting to you here. And I checked with Hal and he'd already concluded the same thing independently. And I checked with the guys at RMCF, the Rocky Mountain Creation Fellowship that meets here. They'll meet here this next Friday night. And they've also concluded the same thing. So at any rate, if you are interested in more detail, I have several 14 page handout, so you're welcome to take and run out. Feel free to give a holler, I'll get some more to you.

But they took upon themselves human women producing oversized offspring, half angelic, half human. In Genesis 6, 1-4, Now it came about when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God, the Greek Old Testament translates this as Angelos, angels, saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took wives for themselves, whomever they choose. Then the Lord said, My spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh. Nevertheless, His days shall be 120 years, and the Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterwards, when the sons of God, Angelos in the Greek Old Testament, came to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. These children, or later mighty men, were the oversized offspring. Nephilim is the word later used for giants. The second Peter passage here that we also refer to, 2 Peter 2, 4 and 5, and then 9 and 10.

For if God did not spare the angels, angelos, when they sinned, but cast them into hell. This is something we'll need to make note of. It's not the usual word for hell. As a matter of fact, this is the only place this word occurs in the whole New Testament. And it's actually a verb. cast them into hell. Tartarao, it's the verb form of Tartarus, which is the place of the dead, but we'll see it has an equivalent form here of Abyssos, the abyss. That's a more common word that shows up in, for example, the Book of Revelation.

And committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah. There's a reference to Noah again. A preacher of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. Then in verse nine, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. And especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. So here's Jude 6 and 7, and the angels, here's the Angelos again, who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

Now, what about Christ's proclamation to the spirits there? What did Peter convey with this reference to the feet in the ark going safely through the water? Things like that. Okay. Christ, between his physical death on the cross and his bodily resurrection, proclaimed that those angelic beings who attempted to thwart his birth from the woman, this is Genesis 3.15, and death for all of mankind had not succeeded.

There may be some other aspect also of judgment that is involved. Notice that in Revelation chapter 20, verses 11 through 15, this is where it references the white throne judgment. Notice that there's not just a, you know, you're going to hell and that's it. But there is a time of, here's the truth. Here's what's true of you in looking at the book of works, looking at the book of life and seeing what's true.

This may also be a part of this saying, look, what you guys tried to accomplish didn't happen. It didn't come off, guys. And that may be part of the judgment. Here's what's interesting. Paul tells the church of Corinth that we will judge angels. So we may have some involvement in this in the end. not ultimately clear exactly how that's going to come off. But it's interesting. We may have a part in judging these beings that are described here.

So, the eight brought safely through the water, that is, Noah, his wife, three sons, and their wives, and the ark sets the age, should be sets the stage, for Peter's reference to baptism in the next verse. In both the flood of Noah's day and the salvation illustrated by baptism, the environment before and after are totally different.

Here with the flood, what was the world like before the flood? There was this canopy around the earth. The matter of moisture coming was different. Only good, right? What else was different before the flood than after? There wasn't any rain, so that part of the environment was different. The people lived longer. What about the diet? Yeah, it went from a vegetable diet entirely, at least that's what God had authorized, to an allowance for eating meat after the flood. It was also, here the flood was brought, and what did the Lord say would never happen again? Pardon?

It doesn't say so, but there may also be some environmental things having to do with changes before and afterwards. Yeah, radiation effects. So those may be impacted as well. There were a number of radical changes from before the flood and after. Peter uses that change also as a part of the picture of baptism that he's going to refer to, because what happens, the before and after of baptism is a slight change, a radical change.

Okay. Yes. Oh, you're talking about the polarized caps and things of that sort. Yeah. Yeah, there were a number of, and scripture doesn't say so explicitly, but I would say likely or logical consequences, and one of those would be if things were globally, as was described in Genesis, it would have a global climate change, including change from before and afterwards, even including the polarized caps. And again, that's not stated in scripture, but it seems a logical extension based on scientific reasoning.

Yeah, no, no deserts. Yeah. A radically different world. Imagine here's here's Noah and the families walking out of the ark and boy, things are going to just change big time. When we were getting out of the airport. We came across... Now, of course, the scientists have done this for an extremely long time. They've done this for about six to five million years. that would have indicated that the land here was very much like the land around Lake Pumpkin. Yeah, there have been a great number of huge climate changes evident. Years ago before I switched to engineering, I was majoring in geology and did a lot of field trips. throughout the West and it's astounding what's in various places.

Here in Nevada, not far from Carson City where I lived, they found fossil rhinoceros, fossil giraffe, just astounding. I mean, who would expect that? And here it is right on the backside of the Sierras where here's the snow and all that. There's a layer of palm tree material that's buried there. So fascinating stuff. Pardon? Oh yeah, here's mountainous areas with seashells in them.

So some radical changes have taken place. Well, I would say that there's room to consider both. that he's asking the question about rare animals that are animals that seem to go extinct, things of that sort. It could be either one and it may be a mixed explanation if you're to try to state it in summary. Some of them didn't make it through the flood or some didn't survive the period afterwards. Yeah.

Well, actually, if you go to the Museum of Natural History, it's amazing because they'll show you how the ground was Oh, yeah Yeah, that is it is astounding okay, let's what's that Okay Yeah, I don't believe it after this last few weeks I don't believe it, okay All right verse 21 Corresponding to that, now notice when he says corresponding to that, so he's pointing back to the passage he just talked about. Notice when Peter writes, he often does that. Previously, he started this verse 18 with 4, in other words, he's connecting to the prior passage. Now, he uses this corresponding to that, so he's pointing back to this passage there.

Baptism now saves you, which should make you drop your teeth. Okay. Not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is one of these passages like, whoa, what does that mean? Right? So I have here, what? Baptism now saves you? What is Peter saying? Oh, no. I don't see anybody panicked. Matter of fact, Winnie's grinning.

I don't know what she knows that I don't, but anyway. Let's answer these questions and try to clarify Peter's point here. We'll use this expanded and explained approach. By the way, I use this expanded and explained approach from time to time. Throughout the book of Philippians, we did it for every verse, and so we actually have that online on the church website. All of Philippians expanded and explained. Thank you, by the way, the Lockwoods suggested that. but here we'll use it because what it is is a combination of explanation and translation. So here's how it goes. Your own baptism now illustrates your own salvation, just like that of Noah. Here's the reference to Noah's experience there at the flood. Being brought through the flood was an illustration.

It does not do anything to this human body to save it. That's Peter's clarification, not for removal of dirt from this thing. So, it does not do anything to this human body to save it or make it cleaner, but is a declaration to God that we are clean and spiritually alive before Him. Interesting, baptism is a declaration and a testimony to people and it's also a declaration to God. Isn't that something? The baptism that we do.

God does not... Well, in a way, you look at it, what does God need? God's not needy. But this is instead something that glorifies Him. It's a declaration to God that we are clean and spiritually alive before Him. It might even be said that we need the declaring. Not that He needs it, but that we do that before the Lord.

That spiritual life being accomplished through identification with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to which Peter himself was a witness. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Did Peter see Christ resurrected? Yup. It was first brought to the disciples that Jesus had been resurrected.

Who went there first to take a look at the tomb? First the women sought, and then it was reported, and who are the apostles that ran? Peter and John ran to the tomb to see, wow, the stones rolled away, and there's some grave clothes there, but they're empty. And he didn't unwrap them, they're just right there laying out as if he just left them. Peter saw it. And then Peter saw the Lord resurrected a number of times.

So, baptism is an illustration of your salvation through Christ and a declaration of your spiritual cleansing before God accomplished by and through Christ. That's what it's talking about. Not that baptism is going to save you. Baptism does not qualify as a saving work. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, where by grace are you saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves. The salvation is not of yourselves. It's God's doing. We can't go and get in water in the baptistry behind there and do something spiritually to people. It's a declaration of what has spiritually already happened. Tom? Right. Right. And that's notice he uses the word both before this is corresponding to that. The figure is the word used. I use the word illustration or illustrates. He uses that before he says this baptism saving. And then afterwards, immediately jumping, so people don't get the wrong conclusion, to point out, you know, it's not about removing anything. The water doesn't do anything to you, okay? The water doesn't fix anything.

But instead, it's a spiritual declaration to God, as he puts it, and with reference to the resurrection of Christ. Peter himself is a witness. Yes? Yes, it is. This is one of the places where if you do not look closely at the wording here and you overlook the passages that say pure, plain and simple, and that's the majority of passages is belief. OK, belief. That's the that's the point.

Yeah, and it's funny, you don't find any of this rushing to get somebody wet in Scripture. Oh no, we've got to get him wet, quick, before he croaks. They baptized right after salvation as a standard practice. but not because anybody was saved. And Peter used language both before this line of reference here and afterwards to make sure people didn't get the wrong idea.

But you're correct. There are a great number of groups within Christendom, I'll use the term, Christendom, who lay some claim to this thing, you got to get somebody wet. that somehow that does it. Yeah. Yeah. Last rites, whatever that is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you're right.

There's everything from Roman Catholicism, the Orthodox churches, and by that I mean Russian, Serbian, you know, Syrian, Greek, etc. Those churches, a lot of the churches that broke off from Catholicism held to that in some way. The Lutheran reformed churches on into the Methodist churches and Anglican held on to that in some way, not understanding that it's by faith that you are saved, not of works, including getting yourself wet, including somebody else getting you wet. None of that's going to work. It's believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's 1631. It's as simple as that. And so thanks for pointing that out, Doug, because that's a key one. Is that? Yeah. Nope. Yep. Yep. They certainly couldn't have immersed Him that day, and the best they could have done is throw a bucket of water on Him, and that just wouldn't have worked. Yes, drip some sour wine on Him.

Now, verse 22. This Jesus Christ, the one resurrected, we see in verse 21, says, Who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him? And we summarize under there, Christ's suffering resulted in an unfathomable benefit for each one who believes and also resulted in ultimate spiritual exaltation for Christ. Did Christ suffer greatly for your sins and mine? Did he go through suffering? Yes, immensely. Even to the point of what I did in acting out or imitating what he said in Aramaic. to call out, my God, my God.

Pardon? That was worse, having the Father turn away. Yeah. It wasn't the nails that hurt so much. It was the Father's rejection of Christ and separation, death of separation, that spiritual death of separation from the Father, which until that moment had never, ever happened before in history and would never happen again.

But that was the profound moment. For you and me, he did that. For the joy set before him. Notice that he didn't leave it unsaid. He declared it openly that the separation was there. Yeah, Monique? I get so emotional about it because... Me too. It is astounding. Through my mind, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. What?

Oh, no, it was an executive decision by God loving us. It wasn't because we were lovable. Yeah, yeah. For the joy said before him, not because we're so cuddly and cute. Yeah. But what happened is that the Lord looked at it not because we're cuddly and cute, not because it's, oh, those are awfully nice folks. Okay? No. Why, we were yet sinners Christ died for us. So it's not because there was something innately attractive.

But there was yet in the Lord's perspective, because He's looking at things timelessly, and the Lord, looking at things, said, for the joy set before Him, not for the joy of being on that cross, but the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, looking past the shame. Fixing our eyes on Him who died for us, the One who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, even to the point of being willing to say, knowing what it meant in advance, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That separation took place.

Did he suffer righteously? Is this not the greatest example of suffering righteously? Did he suffer because of his own sins? No. Righteously, he did take the sins of the unrighteous upon him, mine. He took those sins upon him, but he himself was righteous. He is the righteous one, the unblemished lamb. That one is the one that took the sins upon him. He suffered righteously, and that's why Peter picks him as a prime example, a starting point example in this passage as he talks about suffering. Yeah.

Yeah, Tom's point is here, Christ died rather suddenly. Usually death was strung out. There were particular circumstances that day that they wanted to get all the bodies taken care of because it was coming upon a holy day. But, Christ was already dead. So that death, however, did Christ die because that's just the external circumstances that pressed upon him and made him die?

No. What happened? He gave up his spirit. He gave up his spirit. So this is an interesting thing too. Not only did he voluntarily go on the cross, but his death was not one where he fought it and fought it and fought it and finally was overcome by circumstances. He gave up his spirit of his own doing and will.

Is that something? Yeah, yeah. He died and so Pilate was surprised. Is he dead so quick? Let me check with the centurion. Yeah, he is. Pardon? He was stabbed, but he was already dead when they stabbed him. Because remember, the water and blood came out already separated, which is only the case after the point of death. Let's take a look there.

Was the more lasting view of his suffering with good outcome? Was the suffering good? No. Did it have a good outcome? Oh yeah. A good outcome, and this is an amazing thing, a good outcome for him, that's what Peter lays out here, and an incredibly good outcome for us. The righteous one suffered, but oh wow, the outcome. And that's what Peter's trying to illustrate through this passage. He says, I can't give you a better example than Christ when it comes to the righteous suffering and what God does with that.

The outcome is just unfathomably good. Is the initial experience good? Absolutely not. Our Lord suffered horribly with a greater depth of pain than we will ever know. But, but the outcome of this One who suffered, righteously. The righteous one who suffered taking our sins upon himself. The outcome was incredibly, unfathomably, phenomenally good. Eternally good.

So that's what Peter lays out as an example. The example in suffering. He's saying, are you going to suffer? Yeah, you're going to suffer. Is it going to feel good? No. Is God going to do incredibly good things with it? Yep. Phenomenally good things with it. Amazingly good things with it. The outcome will be just tremendously good for suffering righteousness. Next question.

Are we not positionally seated with Christ in the heavenlies now because He, the Righteous One, suffered for us? Isn't all of our position in Christ based on having walked through that door of suffering on his part? Our unfathomable riches, as Paul puts it in Ephesians, our unfathomable riches in Christ, the riches of his gates, the floodgates of grace, are poured out to us because Christ, the righteous one, suffered for us. Aren't all these things an example for us? They are, aren't they?

So Peter, he says, I'm going to introduce the subject of suffering. And he says, I just got to start out. I just, I can't help myself. He said, I can't help myself. Here's an example I just got to tell you about. Jesus Christ. Here's the outcome, folks. With the right hand of God, having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to him. And the last enemy is death. done away with by Jesus Christ, by His doing the righteous one suffering. That's wonderful stuff.

Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, as we ponder, and it's hard for us to fathom the depth of it, but as we ponder, you're suffering righteously. Certainly, it's not for us to act as if in imitation or act out of our best efforts. But certainly, Peter has given an incomparable example of suffering righteously, our very Lord and Savior himself. And we thank you for that example. We pray, Lord, that you would bring to heart and mind the depths of the truths that you've laid out here for us. We thank you for your inscrutable love for us. and having been spelled out and spilled out through Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.