1 Peter 3:22 Commentary and Bible Study

The apostle Peter draws the strongest contrast between where Christ’s enemies would have like to dispatched him, and where in fact God has elevated him. This is said for the encouragement of all who follow in Christ’s footsteps and face suffering for his name’s sake. Although his argument has been involved, Peter has held his subject and now returns to it. He has pointed to Christ as an example of patience in suffering in making an atonement for his people during his life on earth, and to the example of Noah at the time of the flood when, by his Spirit, Christ spoke to that generation through the preaching of Noah. How has all this suffering ended? Christ has gone to where his enemies can never come. They intended to cast him into the lowest hell and were confident that they had succeeded. God’s answer to their wickedness was the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the grave, and the reversal of all their murderous schemes. By this he told them in the strongest possible terms how wickedly they had opposed the divine will. Let those who put Christ to death tremble, for God has seen what they have done. He has not yet struck them for this evil, but he has taken his beloved Son out of the grave and seated him at his right hand. Can he be ignorant of the wickedness that placed him in the grave? They cannot hope to escape his attention, for God could not be aware of what they had done, and not know who has done it. The Father loves the Son, and is he not then angry at the way sinful human beings have treated his Beloved? In short, Peter wishes to highlight the great contrast between the value that sinful men set on the Son of Man and the value that God the Father set on him.Christ was content to wait for his Father to act and not try to avoid the path that the Father had appointed him to walk. In perfect submission he endured the hostility of men in order that their malice should reach its climax and their sin be exposed to the uttermost. This obedience was rewarded when God’s will prevailed over the will of men and, after men had done their worst, it was found that they could do nothing to permanently harm the Son of God. He is now exalted to the highest place in the kingdom of God for all eternity, having all in subjection to him, and given a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.