Focal Passage: I Peter 3:13-22
As Christians our lives should draw a clear line between good and evil. Our suffering should be for the sake of righteousness and our testimony should affirm the same truth. First Peter 3:15 puts “Lord” first (the emphatic position), revealing the Lordship of Christ to be first and foremost in Peter’s mind. Nothing calls us to righteous living like worshiping Christ as Lord.
When we set apart Christ as Lord, understanding that the title refers to His active authority and not just part of His name, we submit every aspect of life to His command. Nothing is outside His Lordship! His glory seen in His finished work on the cross becomes the reason for our hope. When we wave the banner of the cross and not human philosophy or efforts, our message answers every objection with gentleness and respect and disarms the enemies of the cross (v. 16).
When we suffer for righteousness’ sake, we follow the example of Jesus. Unlike our flawed works, Jesus offered perfect obedience to the Father that He might purchase our salvation. We have been brought to God because the perfect righteousness of Jesus has been exchanged for our sin. Christ’s death on the cross drew a permanent line between the righteous and the unrighteous.
Rust
Peter revealed (vv. 19-20) that Jesus proclaimed His victory over spirits who were disobedient (the primary emphasis of the verse) when Noah preached righteousness while God used him to prepare the way of salvation for the people who trusted in Him. Peter reminded his readers that Noah’s small family, only eight people, were saved through water (v. 20). This verse has led many people to conclude that Peter taught baptismal regeneration, but thoughtful interpretation leads us elsewhere.
Water killed the unbelievers of Noah’s day and would have killed his family had God not provided an ark for their deliverance. Water separated belief from unbelief. Peter continued by stating that baptism corresponded to the flood and “now saves you” (v. 21).
Again, Peter appeared to say that baptism was the source of salvation, but provided a parenthetical explanation that evaporated any notion of the saving power of water: “not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.” Water can remove dirt from a body, but it cannot remove sin from a soul.
Peter concluded that “baptism … now saves you …through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (3:21). Baptism marks one’s public profession of faith in the finished work of Jesus. It does not save us, but provides a public distinguishing mark between the saved and the lost just as the flood did.
The same Jesus who was “delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification” (Romans 4:25) “is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us” (Romans 8:34c) with all earthly and supernatural authorities subject to his rule (I Peter 3:22). We, who left to ourselves could only choose our preferred path of unrighteousness, have been made the righteousness of God in Christ (II Corinthians 5:21). Only grace separates the righteous from the unrighteous. Let us pursue holy lives that put that grace on display! B&R
