Baptism Now Saves

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Let’s open our Bibles to . This morning, for the time we have remaining, we are going to be looking at . If you don’t have a Bible, you can follow along on the screens. Let’s read together these verses:

Read .

It only takes a superficial reading of this passage to see that it is not an easy passage to understand. This is a difficult passage. Several questions should pop into your mind when we read this passage. Questions like “What does it mean that he proclaimed to the spirits in prison?”, “What does Noah have to do have to do with these spirits and baptism?”, and “Does baptism save us?” should all be at the forefront of our minds when we read this passage.

On the surface, this can be a confusing passage. However, if we keep in mind what Peter is trying to do in this letter, some of the confusion (not all) is relieved. We have seen that Peter’s aim is to encourage struggling and suffering believers as they face persecution. In the verses immediately before ours, Peter is encouraging us to endure whatever persecution we might face with joy and boldness because God promises blessing to people that suffering for his honor. We should honor Jesus Christ with our lives and our lips because any persecution will lead to blessing.

The word “for” at the beginning of our passage lets us know that today’s verses are linked to the ones before. Keep this in mind as we study these verses: we are being encouraged to be courageous because suffering is not the last word for the Christian. Our destiny has been secured by Jesus. Through his suffering he secured victory over everything and through His suffering we will share that victory.

Don’t let the difficulties of this passage distract you from this. In this passage God is telling you something deep and comforting: God is telling you that Jesus Christ has defeated every power through his death and resurrection, therefore, you have nothing to fear because your victory has been secured. God has promised that the people who suffer for his honor will be blessed and that blessing is a victory that has been secured through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There are three victories that Peter points out to us in this passage. Peter wants you to live securely while suffering because Jesus is victorious over sin, evil spirits, and every power. Yes, we will suffer in this life. But we can suffer securely because Jesus suffered on our behalf to defeat sin, evil spirits, and every power.

Let’s look at the first victory that Peter describes, Jesus’ victory over sin. God wants us to:

Be Courageous Because Jesus Has Defeated Sin

When we say that we “proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to all people for all of life” we mean it. Even in suffering, what we need most is to remember the gospel. This, after all, is what Peter reminds suffering Christians of in verse 18:

1 Peter 3:18 ESV

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,

God wants us to be courageous because Jesus has defeated sin. Our courage is held up by trusting Jesus’ death and resurrection in defeat over sin. Here in verse 18, Peter wants us to see the unique glory and power of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Here, Peter is not calling us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus but to rest securely in the victory that Jesus’ death secured.

Peter

Why is it unique? For one, Jesus’ suffering is unique because his suffering was for sin. Now, you may be saying, “People suffer for sins all the time.” And that’s true, but not in this way. Jesus’ suffering is unique because he suffered for our sins, not his own. No one can suffer in the place of another for their sins. Jesus died for our sins, and no one else can do that for us. And he did that once. On the cross, suspended between earth and Heaven, Jesus suffered for our sins.

This should be meaningful

Jesus suffered, as verse 18 goes on to say, “the righteous for the unrighteous.” This is how we know Peter wants us to remember that Jesus’ suffering for our sins is totally unique. No one can suffer in our place before God because no one is righteous like Jesus. There is only one righteous one. That righteous one went to the cross for you. You, who are wholly unrighteous and completely unable to atone for you sins, have been saved through the suffering of Jesus. The one who deserved no suffering, suffered in our place.

Don’t run past this as you think about this passage. Don’t be enticed by the controversy and miss this encouragement. Jesus suffered for unrighteous people. Because Jesus suffered for us, sin - and its subsequent evils - have been ultimately defeated. Whatever suffering you may face is not the last word. When sin, either of your own or the sins of another, lead to your suffering, you can rest assured that it will not have the last word.

Second, his suffering is unique because Jesus’ suffering has brought us to God. The greatest threat human beings face in this life is not suffering at the hands of other human beings. Our greatest threat is alienation from God. Being alienated from our good and loving Creator is the greatest threat to our lives. We have been alienated from him by our sin. Our sin has separated us from God, made us his enemies, and put us under his curse.

But Jesus suffering brought us to God. Your greatest enemy, your greatest need, your greatest barrier in life has been dealt with. Jesus has defeated sin, the righteous for the unrighteous, so that he would bring us to God. So listen to this: the all powerful Creator and sustainer of the universe, who rules and reigns over everything - including every evil power - now lives in loving relationship with us. We have been brought to God. He is our loving Father.

If you want to live courageously in this life, you need to rest securely in this fact: you have been brought near to God. God is not your enemy, working against you. No, he is a kind and gracious Father. He loves you, because your greatest enemy (sin), has been defeated by Jesus.

This is the first, and most important for us, victory that Peter wants us to realize. There is a second, and it’s Jesus defeat of evil spirits. This is our second point:

Be Courageous Because Jesus Has Defeated Evil Spirits

Not only did Jesus defeat our sins through his death and resurrection, but he also defeated evil spirits. This is what Peter is referring to in verses 19-21:

1 Peter 3:19–21 ESV

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,

Of course, this is the confusing part of our passage. Who are these spirits? As you can safely assume, there is a lot of diversity of interpretation of this passage. Some argue that they are the “spirit” of people during the days of Noah while others say that they are fallen angels. Which is right? Well, we need to walk humbly before this passage and say we are not totally certain. However, after studying this passage, I believe this passage is speaking of fallen angels that disobeyed God in the days of Noah.

Were there such angels? I believe so. In , which is another confusing passage, we are told about “sons of God” that sinned because they sinned with women.

Genesis 6:1–4 ESV

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

2 Peter 2:4 ESV

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

Do we have any indication that these “sons of God” were angels? We do. Let’s look at Jude 6-7:

Jude 6 ESV

And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—

Jude 6–7 ESV

And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

What happened to these angels that sinned? Peter himself tells us in 2 Peter 2:

Genesis 6:1–4 ESV

2 Peter 2:4 ESV

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

These angels, during the days of Noah, disobeyed God through their sinful acts with women and God committed them to prison. And verse 19 of our passage tells us that Jesus, after his death and resurrection, ascended to Heaven and declared his victory over them and their ultimate defeat by him.

Colossians 2:15 ESV

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

These angels, who sinned during the days of Noah, have been defeated. And now Peter takes liberty to expand on the judgement that was brought during Noah’s day against sin, judgement through the flood, and relate it to baptism. You see this in verses 20-21. What is our passage saying here? Let me summarize it quickly:

During the days of Noah God judged the world through water. Yet, despite his judgement, God spared Noah and his family were saved from those judging waters by the ark. However, it was also through those waters that God was judging sin. So Noah and his family were saved from sin by the judging waters of the flood.

Peter, in relation to this, says “baptism now saves you.” What he means is that waters of baptism, like the waters of the flood, demonstrate that God will destroy sin but believers are rescued from this judgment in that they are baptized with Christ, who also emerged from the waters of death through his resurrection. Noah was saved through the stormy waters of the flood and Christians have been saved through the stormy waters of baptism by Jesus’ victory over death.

Baptism saves, not by removing dirt from your body, this means not through baptism itself, but because of what baptism portrays - that we are asking God, on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus, to cleanse our consciences and forgive us of our sins.

Now, what does this matter to us? We do not have to fear even the demons that may be inducing our suffering. We live in a world far removed from the thoughts, ideas, and realities of the Bible. We don’t often think in the ways that the Bible tells us to. We don’t think of our suffering to be possibly due to demonic spirits at work against us. But the Bible does. And yet, we must not fear. We must be courageous because Jesus has defeated evil spirits. Therefore, be courageous in suffering because of the victory that Jesus has won.

Finally, a third victory that Peter describes for us is Jesus’ victory over every power. Point #3:

Be Courageous Because Jesus Has Defeated Every Power

We see this in verse 22:

1 Peter

1 Peter 3:22 ESV

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

Through his suffering and death, Jesus defeated sin, has brought us to God, defeated evil spirits, and in verse 22 we see that every angel, authority, and power is subject to him. Jesus reigns over all. Every hostile power is under his control. In your suffering, Jesus still reigns. When you suffer, Jesus has not surrendered you to evil forces, even if you suffer death. Jesus, by his death and resurrection has triumphed over all demonic forces and being united to him, you will reign with him over all evil.

Do not fear. Be courageous because Jesus has defeated sin, evil spirits, and every power.

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