1 Peter 3:18 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Peter 3:18

Comments

We must follow Peter’s argument as we move into this difficult passage. His purpose is to strengthen our hearts in the face of suffering, and his argument is that Christ also suffered and great gain came from his suffering. Do not focus on the injustice of how people treat you; your Saviour, who was perfectly just, also faced injustice and that resulted in the salvation of millions. In his office as Redeemer of his elect people, the Lord Jesus Christ became our surety and suffered for sins which he had not committed. This is the ultimate example of the kind of suffering that Peter has been urging believers to bear patiently. In their case they suffer as pardoned sinners striving imperfectly to overcome a fallen nature and do good, but in Christ case he suffered as the Holy One of God who was hated without cause. He made himself responsible for the sins of his people. He not only suffered at the hands of the scribes and Pharisees, but he suffered on account of the elect, for their sins, their unreasonableness, and their unbelief, which was attributed to him. From that greatest, that ultimate example of suffering injustice came salvation for millions. Something higher than justice was at work, for mercy has triumphed over justice. All this was successful in bringing us to God, for he died and rose again from the dead. Since it was impossible that death could hold on to the perfectly just one and since he fully made atonement for us, God, the Spirit, raised him from the dead. As Calvin points out, this is said for our encouragement, for we too can comfort ourselves with God’s promised reward and so we can cheerfully endure the hardship of being treated as evildoers when in fact we are approved by God.

Application

Wouldn’t you have thought the world would be grateful for Christ? He came as promised for centuries. He came to announce himself as the Messiah, the Savour. He came with a blaze of miracles and good works, demonstrating his kindness, healing the sick, raising the dead, announcing himself to be the Saviour. Yet the response he got was hatred, fury, resentment, murderous instincts brought out of the chief clergy. The perfect one, with a perfect character and a wonderful message and mission to save us eternally, faced repudiation and rejection. The servant is not greater than his Lord. If it happened to him, it will happen to you but look what he achieved! He went through to the end, he was vindicated, and is now on the right hand of God the Father. So, you are following him and you, too, will be vindicated in due course. Peter can find no better example than the one who was perfect in all his ways, including in how he suffered unjustly for doing good. He was accused of doing evil at the very moment he was offering up his life as a perfect sacrifice. Our Lord attracted the hatred of an unbelieving world, because his righteousness was so conspicuous by its excellence.

Questions

What is the contrast expressed in the last part of the verse – ‘being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit’? The first clause is clear enough: Christ suffered physical death for he had a real body and was no phantom. He took our nature to make it possible for him to die. The second clause is harder. Sometimes people think that means that his human nature died, whereas his divine nature did not die. That is true but that is not what is being spoken about here. What is being spoken of here is that Christ suffered and died and was brought to life once again at his resurrection by the Holy Spirit. In our version, the translators have given a capital ‘S’ to Spirit and that is quite right, so Christ suffered and died for sin. Some passages of Scripture say that he raised himself by his own power, and that is true. Others say, that the Father raised him up and that is true too. This verse belongs to a family of Scriptures, which says that the Holy Spirit caused him to rise from the dead, and they are all correct because Christ burst the bands of death by his own divine power, but the Holy Spirit also joined with him, and so did the Father. The Father and the Holy Spirit attested that he had succeeded perfectly in his offering of righteousness and his atoning death for sinners. So each member of the one Godhead was involved in the resurrection of Christ.

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Purpose

Introduction

1 Peter 3:18 Commentary and Bible Study