11-22-09 Salvation Past and Present

Our study of Peter brings us today

to a passage that will need a bit of explanation

in order for us to understand clearly what Peter is saying.

We are in the final few verses of 1^st Peter chapter 3,

a passage in which Peter draws a parallel

between what happened in the life of Noah at the time of the flood

and what happens in our lives through Christ today.

But the passage is worded in such a way

as to make it a little difficult to understand what’s actually being said,

so we’ll walk through it carefully together

and see what’s going on.

The passage we’re looking at

is 1^st Peter 3:18-22,

and here’s what Pete says to us.

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 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. And corresponding to that, baptism now saves you-- not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience-- through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.

OK, we’ve already looked at the first half of that first sentence,

but I want to point out again that opening phrase

because it’s going to help us better understand

what Peter says about Noah in the second half of this sentence.

That opening phrase says, For Christ also died for sins once for all...

And the crucial thing I want us to see in this statement

is that Peter clearly understood,

and wants us to clearly understand

that Christ’s death - His offering Himself as payment for sins -

truly is an offering that was made once for ALL...

And when Peter says ALL,

that exactly what he means.

He means that Christ was offering Himself

as payment for every sin of every person who ever has or ever will live on this earth.

When Adam and Eve plunged themselves and the entire human race into sin

through their act of disobedience against God,

that sin was paid for by Christ on the Cross.

When your grandson

who at this point has not yet even been born,

will, at 15 years old, sneak out of the house and take his dad’s car for a joy ride,

that sin was paid for by Jesus Christ.

And two years from now

when you will enter into that turbulent time of doubt, or fear, or anger, or confusion

and turn once again to that old lie of the flesh

that has been a chronic area of weakness for years,

that sin, too, has already been paid for in full.

You see, even though Christ’s death happened

at a literal, historical point in time 2000 years ago,

what took place for the human race at that point

was absolutely timeless.

Certainly our perceptions and understanding of our God changed dramatically

after the death of Christ took place in the flow of the history of the human race,

because we suddenly saw Him and what He was doing and how He viewed us

with a clarity and a brilliance that changed everything forever.

The New Testament writers talk about God’s mystery, that is, Christ Himself...

In fact repeatedly throughout the New Testament

the word mystery is used in reference to the Person and work of Christ.

And when the New Testament does this

it is talking not about a mystery that still exists,

but rather about a great mystery that has finally been solved,

a mystery that surly must have caused those who lived before Christ

to wonder how God could say the things He said.

It is most of all the great mystery

of how an absolutely righteous and holy God

could speak such amazing words of compassion and kindness and redemption and love

to a race of people who have openly, wilfully rebelled against Him.

How could He tolerate our existence for even an hour,

much less proclaim His love for us and offer us forgiveness and compassion?

There is a fascinating word that we find 175 times exclusively in the Old Testament,

a word that must have caused those who wrote it and those who read it

to wonder how it could be.

It is a word that is used almost exclusively to describe God,

a word that’s never used outside of Scripture,

a word that is designed to combine both His actions and the motivation behind those actions in a single word.

It is the word lovingkindness,

and it is used over and over again to talk about the way God acts toward us, His rebellious creation.

In fact, listen to this description of Himself that God gave to Moses.

Did you know that there was a place in the Old Testament

where God talks about Himself in the third person,

describing Himself to Moses?

When Moses was on the mountain

getting the replacement copy of the 10 Commandments

after having broken the first set,

in Exodus 34:6-7 we read this:

Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

Now, the picture of God given to us in that self-portrait is flooded with hope,

and kindness,

and compassion,

and wonder.

Did you hear what He was saying?

This is our God...compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness...who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin...

How could He say those things?

How could the righteous Judge of all

extend to each of us this offer of forgiveness and compassion?

And prior to Christ’s historical appearance on this earth

it was the great mystery of the ages

because God does not grade on the curve.

There is righteousness,

and there is sin,

and there is no middle ground.

He is righteous,

and all of us were and are sinful,

and He could not ever allow sin in His presence

and then simply overlook it.

And it is not until Christ’s appearance

and then the writings of the Apostles

that this mystery is solved for us

as we are told simply and clearly “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust...”.

How were David, and Isaiah, and Daniel, and Moses freed from their sins against God?

Though they had only a shadow of an understanding about what God was going to do,

their sins were removed from their account

just as ours are - through their faith in the death of Christ.

They could see Him only as a shadow,

but they knew that somehow, some way God would deal with their sin.

The first book in the Bible ever written was not the book of Genesis,

it was the book of Job.

It provides us with the earliest snapshot

of what God revealed of Himself to His creation

from the very earliest days of our existence.

Now, listen to the knowledge that Job had about His God.

This is from Job 19:23-27

"Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! That with an iron stylus and lead They were engraved in the rock forever! As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!”

From the very beginning

those who have had hearts willing to reach out to their Creator,

trusting Him to do for them

what they could never do for themselves - deliver us from our sin -

have known that somehow God has made a way.

And when Peter tells us,

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...,

he wants us to know

that when Christ did what He did

He was not beginning something new,

but rather completing and fulfilling something that has been from the very beginning -

God’s plan for our redemption from our sin against Him.

And then, to help us better appreciate the fact that Christ also died for sins once for all

Peter takes us back to the time of Noah...

1PE 3:19-20 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.

He does this to show us that even at the most sin-filled time in human history,

a time when literally the entire human race

with the exception of one man and his immediate family

had hardened their hearts against God and rejected His offer of forgiveness,

even then God designed the essential judgement of the flood,

a judgement that had to take place for God to ultimately fulfill His redemptive plan through Christ,

even then God designed a redemptive plan

that allowed Him to forcefully offer redemption over and over and over again

for 100 years prior to that judgement.

When Peter says, “He went and made proclamation...”,

he is talking about Christ making proclamation through Noah

in the same way He makes proclamation of the truth through each of us today.

Whenever the truth is spoken

it is always Christ doing the speaking.

He is truth.

He is the WORD of God,

and with the exception of the relatively few months when He was physically on this planet

He does His communication through His people.

In fact, He does His communication not just through His people,

but through whatever channel serves His purpose.

Do you remember that incident in Numbers chapter 22

when God chose to communicate his truth through a talking Donkey?

There are times when I take comfort in that passage

because it gives me the assurance

that he’s well able to do through me whatever He wants to do.

And when Peter talks about the spirits now in prison

he’s talking about the spirits of the people

who were alive on the earth just prior to the flood.

They are now in prison

and will remain so for eternity

because they refused Noah’s offer of forgiveness and deliverance.

But Peter’s purpose in this whole thing

is to show the endless extent

of the offer of redemption that goes out to all people in all times and all places

because of Christ’s death for sins once for all.

And to illustrate this he takes us back to the most morally corrupt time in all of history,

a time when literally every human being on the earth apart from one man

was in absolute rebellion against God,

and then he reminds us that even then the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark...

Though we don’t know exactly how long it took Noah to build the Ark,

it appears as though he and his family worked on it for about 100 years.

He did it in full view of the entire human race

and as he was building,

throughout that entire hundred years

he kept confronting the world with their sin,

calling them to repentance,

not to condemn them,

not to judge them,

but rather to offer them God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness if they would repent.

It was certainly the most powerful illustration of the extent of the redemptive work of Christ

that Peter could ever have given

because it was literally the darkest point in history up to that time.

And He continues doing the same thing today,

perfectly matching His communication of Himself

to what’s going on in the world,

and will continue to do so right up until the instant when He returns

and His plan of redemption is completed.

And I must say I find it fascinating

to see the way in which God always perfectly balances

His presentation of Himself

with whatever is taking place in the world at the time.

In the time of Noah

that massive boat, combined with powerful preaching of Noah himself,

must have made a massive, highly visible statement to the people of his time.

Today it serves His purposes perfectly

to accomplish most of His communication of Himself

through the lives of His people

as we simply, quietly go about the business

of living lives of hope and strength, and integrity, and true purpose

in a world that can offer none of these.

And there is a time coming

when Satan’s power will be unleashed

with an intensity and visible supernatural power

unlike anything we’ve ever seen on the world before,

as the Ant-Christ and his prophet

take control of the entire world system

displaying signs and wonders that bring the world under their control.

And even then Christ will match His voice perfectly to that world situation,

proclaiming His offer of redemption

to a world in total rebellion against Him

with a volume and clarity that makes certain all can hear.

Did you know that during that time

there will be an army of 144,000 celibate Jewish evangelists

spread throughout the world, continually proclaiming God’s offer of redemption. (Rev. 14:1-4)

Just picture 144,000 Billy Grahams all on the earth at once.

And there will be two prophets of God

who are supernaturally empowered with the ability to perform all manner of miraculous proofs of the power of God.

And there will be an Angel of God continually flying over the earth

...having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people...REV 14:6

I mention this simply to show that, no matter how hard Satan’s world system tries to silence the truth,

God is absolutely committed to making certain that His offer of forgiveness through Christ

is always clearly heard,

no matter whether anyone chooses to listen or to respond.

Which, of course, is Peter’s purpose

in his bring up this business about Noah,

showing us the patience of God

as He reaches out to those in rebellion against Him.

In the end, even with a hundred years of patient proclamation of the truth,

in the end only eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

And all of them were direct family members of Noah.

And then from there

Peter takes his Noah illustration

and brings it back to us

with what I believe he considered to be a great comparison.

He says, (3:20-22) “...eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you -- not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience -- through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”

OK, now what he’s saying is that, just as that water that covered the earth

was Noah’s doorway into a whole new world of safety and salvation,

so when you go through the water of baptism

it’s your doorway into a whole new world of safety and salvation as well.

They were saved from physical death by going through the water of the flood,

and you are saved from eternal death by going through the water of baptism.

And, though I’m only guessing,

I think Peter was quite pleased with his little going-through-water analogy.

In fact, I think it’s very likely

that this little comparison

was a frequent part of the comments he would make

before he baptized new converts.

But then, as he’s writing this out

he looks back at what he’s just written... Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you...,

and he realizes that unless he clarifies that

it could easily be misunderstood.

He knows, of course,

that it isn’t the physical act of baptism that saves a person.

He knows that not everyone who has been baptized automatically enters the family of God,

and that it is not the act of baptism

that causes God to then declare a person to be a child of God.

And so he clarifies what he’s just said by saying ...not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience...

In other words,

Peter is saying he is not talking about the physical act of baptism,

but rather he’s talking about what your spirit is saying to God at that point in your life.

This is a little harder for us to relate to today

because the 1^st century church incorporated baptism into their evangelism

in a very different way than we do today.

In the early church

it served the role

that the sinner’s prayer frequently serves in our church world today.

You know how it is...

when an evangelist today explains to his listeners

God’s simple offer of salvation through faith in Christ

and he moves people to the point of asking them to decide

whether they are ready and willing to place their lives into God’s hands,

what does he do?

Usually he will say something like,

“If you have come to understand your need for God’s grace and forgiveness,

and if you are willing to accept His offer of salvation through faith in Christ,

I invite you to bow your head and repeat this prayer after me.”

And then He’ll guide them through a prayer along the lines of this:

“Lord, thank you for dying on the cross in my place for my sins.

I want to place my life into Your hands, trusting Your death for my sins personally. Amen.”

And with that prayer or one like it

a person is able to express the choice

that is taking place within them at the spirit level.

It gives them a point in their life

when they can say with certainty, “I accepted God’s offer of salvation through Christ.”

But that prayer is a relatively new tool in evangelism.

There’s nothing wrong with it,

but it is not what we commonly see happening in the early Church.

Do you remember that incident in Acts chapter 16

when Paul and Silas had been beaten and thrown into prison

and while they were in there their actions brought the Jailor to the point

where he wanted to turn his life over to Christ.

OK, in Acts 16:30 it says,

... and after he brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

Now, in our church culture today

how would we have responded to that question?

We would have said, “If you are sincere in your desire to trust Christ and place your life into His hands,

just bow your head with me now and repeat this prayer after me.”

But that’s not what they did in the early church.

Do you want to know what they did in the early church?

Well, lets read a few more verses and find out.

ACT 16:30-33 and after he brought them out, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.

...and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household.

Typically in the early church

saving faith in Christ was expressed not through the sinner’s prayer,

but rather through baptism.

They both served the same purpose for a person at that point in their life,

providing the person with an outward action they could take

that expressed what was going on within their spirit.

But that’s why Peter says what he says here,

and also why his words are sometimes misunderstood.

He obviously identifies baptism with the point of salvation in a person’s life

because that was the accepted immediate expression of saving faith

that was a part of 1^st century evangelism.

But it’s usually not that way in our church world today.

But the important thing,

and the thing that is absolutely clear in Peter’s writing

and absolutely true both in the early church

and in our lives today

is that the turning point in the our lives as we interact with our God

is the point at which we appeal to God for a good conscience...

In other words,

the point at which we cry out to our God as our Savior - our only hope,

asking Him to do the one thing that only He can do,

the one thing that changes our life for all eternity,

that He cleanse our conscience by removing our sin from us forever.