The First Letter of Peter- 17

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 9

1 Peter 4:1-6.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, March 15, 2026.

Having looked at what Jesus accomplished through the things he suffered, Peter now calls us to have the same mind that Christ had when he did these things.  We can rejoice in having Jesus at the right hand of the Father interceding for us.  We can rejoice in salvation and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  However, it happened because Jesus was willing to suffer.  He embraced suffering for what it would accomplish.

Let’s look at our passage.

Arm yourself with the same mind Jesus had (v. 1-4)

The word translated as “arm yourselves” was typically used to prepare for battle.  It has the sense of equipping or providing yourself with what you need for a task.

So, who or what are we battling?  We can think about those who persecute and cause suffering in our lives just for doing the right thing.  I can imagine early Christians being challenged to recant their belief that Jesus was Lord, and instead, declare that Caesar is lord.  This may be true to some degree, but to a greater degree, we are arming ourselves with a mentality.  This mentality is something that is going on inside of us.  It is a mental and spiritual battle with our own flesh that can only be won when we think like Jesus did.

Our flesh is looking for any excuse to avoid suffering and obtain pleasure.  If we do not have the mentality of Jesus, then we will be overcome by the desires of our flesh.  The devil knows this and uses it for his purposes.  We can be intimidated away from the work that God has for us.  We can be shamed by social pressure to shrink away from the call of Jesus.  If you are going to follow Jesus, you will need to approach suffering the same way he did.

Now let’s be clear.  Jesus didn’t relish suffering and rush towards it with glee.  He wasn’t bored in heaven and decided to come to earth for some extreme experiences.   He wasn’t on a field trip.  On the other hand, Jesus is not trying to get everyone to like him.  He is not obsessed with getting the Pharisees and Sadducees to like him.  He is thinking about doing the will of the Father.  This is why Jesus prayed and sought God for that purpose he should pursue in the things that he faced.

Jesus did not let the threat of suffering cause him to shrink back from the good and right thing that God wanted him to do.  Yet he also knew that God had a timing to those right things he needed to do.  This timing will also affect our level of suffering.  Jesus could have been stoned to death earlier in his ministry, but it wasn’t God’s timing and way.

Here in America, our suffering is at a low level.  We are not being physically persecuted for our faith, though that does seem to be changing.  Yet there is a mental and spiritual suffering that we carry in our relationships.  Parents who are raising their children for Jesus will find that it is not easy.  Their flesh wants to quit.  It may not want to quit being a parent but at least being a parent for Jesus.  We can shrink away from the right thing that we know we should do. This is our flesh.

Peter then states that those who suffer in the flesh have been made to cease from sin.  The verb “to cease” is actually passive.  We have been made to cease from sin.  This doesn’t mean that we are perfect and never sin. Rather, sin has ceased to be the willing choice to obtain what our flesh desires.  It is no longer our target or focus.  Instead, we are focused on something else.  We have stopped going after sin through the lusts of our flesh and we have been going after something else.  Something has changed within us.  We think and act differently in life because our purpose in life is now led by Jesus.

Peter fleshes out the idea of ceasing from sin in verse two.  Peter refers to the “rest of his time” here.  Each of us have a period of our life that is before becoming a follower of Jesus and another that is after we have followed him.  This is what he is referencing.  How much time do I have left?  Whatever it is, I should use it for the will of God.

The rest of our time is, of course, hard to know for sure.  Psalm 90:12 reads, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  Wisdom recognizes that I am not guaranteed tomorrow.  How will I spend the rest of my time?  We can have a good desire to follow Jesus but be derailed by the threat of suffering.  Suffering can dissuade us from following Jesus.

Peter speaks of not living for the “lusts of men.”  It means the lusts that are common to men.  Of course, the strong desires of our flesh can be different from one person to another.  I need to particularly avoid and reject the lusts of my own flesh so that I can live for the will of God.

The will of God may lead us down a path that has suffering on it.  We can complain about it, but we lose sight of the fact that God has something good in it for you.  First, He intends to accomplish some things through the work that you do.  Second, He intends also to accomplish some things through the things you suffer.  We can forget that God is working to draw people to Christ through the things we suffer.  When wicked people persecute us for doing what is good, there is always something in the back of their head that they have to avoid or silence in order to keep going.  This is the mercy of God working to bring them back from the edge of a moral cliff.

We may want to avoid suffering.  We may even pray for God to take us to heaven.  However, who is going to influence your children, grandchildren, etc.?  Maybe you don’t have such relationships.  Regardless, our only ability to affect this world is while we are in these bodies.  Jesus is asking us to use our mortal life in order to help people come back to what we were made to do.  We were made to image God in relationship with Him.  Jesus has made that possible for those who will turn away from sin and follow him.

Listen, Jesus isn’t in heaven having a party while we suffer down here.  He is pouring out the Spirit into our lives as we seek him.  The Spirit of God is helping us to go to war against what the devil has done in people’s lives.  He is telling us today, “Pick up your cross.  If you do that, then I will fill you with the Holy Spirit, and He will help you do some powerful things.  It will have some suffering in it, but O the glory!”

Even if you don’t get to see the fruit of your suffering, that isn’t the point.  The point is that you laid down your life like a seed into their life.  I may not see it in this life, but God will keep using it in their heart and mind through the rest of their life.

Adding to this argument, Peter tells us that we have spent enough of our past life pursuing the “will of the Gentiles.”  There were Gentiles who knew God, but this is being used of the Gentiles as a whole.  They were separated and foreigners to God.  They only knew the false religions of Satan and his angels. 

What is the will of the Gentiles?  Peter gives us a partial list of such things.  Sensuality or lewdness has the sense of a person with no restraint.  That can be in speech, dress, or activity.  Lust is basically strong desires of our flesh.  Drunkenness is literally excess wine.  When we imbibe too much alcohol, it leads to sin.  The next two words go together, carousing (revelry) and drinking parties.  If you can imagine people eating and drinking to the point that everyone is drunk and then going out into the streets to do whatever comes to your pickled mind, this is what these things describe.  Finally, Peter lists abominable idolatries.  Abominable means hated which is true of idolatry.  God hates it.  However, he literally writes “lawless idolatries.”

This list is not 100% of the things we need to avoid.  In fact, many of these are easy to quit doing.  Many people can “clean up their life” and make the outside look good, but these things beg the question of why we choose them.  What is going on inside of my heart that I keep choosing to go after these things?  Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount does this with murder.  It should be easy to cut off contemplating murder.  But it is much harder to cut off the anger that leads to murder.  The harder things to cut off in our lives are things like anger, jealousy, selfish ambition and slander.  This is what James is talking about in chapter four of his letter.  Jesus is leading us away from these things and towards the will of God.

The world around you thinks you are strange for not joining them in this pursuit of pleasure.  The excess of dissipation is an overflowing of unsaved living, unhealthy, unspiritual living.  Like a flood of water surging down the course of a canyon, they can’t imagine doing anything else.  The Christian is the fish who is swimming up stream while the world around them plunges along with the water downstream.

And thus, we end up back at suffering.  Because you are strange to them, then you are viewed as a threat or a source of guilt.  You are viewed as someone who can’t be manipulated and therefore can’t be trusted.  This leads to those who will malign you for following Jesus instead of the world.  Some “Christians” may even malign you for following Jesus instead of their traditions about Jesus.  Regardless, the word for “malign” is literally to blaspheme.  We are used to that being used about God, but we can blaspheme one another when we say things that are not true about one another.  It may stop there, but maligning people opens the door to abusing them further.  People are first called evil and then it is okay to persecute, even to kill, them.  The malign statements, the blasphemies against Christians, then become justification for more sinful actions that cause suffering for God’s people.

Let us remember that Jesus faced such men, and he put his trust in the Father’s will in the moment and in His purpose through it, even though it led to his death.

God will judge those who malign you (v. 5-6)

Verse five reminds us that those who persecute us will not get away with it.  They will be judged.  All people will be brought before Christ and give an account for their life.  I do not suspect there will be much speaking on their behalf.  The emphasis is more on being held accountable for one’s life.  Those who have rejected his salvation and persecuted his followers will be found guilty on that day.  It may not look like this is the case, but this is God’s promise, warning, to humanity.

When a person is going through suffering, this may not seem very comforting.  We want God to stop it now or even before it happens.  Regardless, we are called to have faith in God.  The example of Jesus and God’s answer of resurrection makes this a well-founded hope.

By the way, Peter doesn’t explicitly say that Jesus is this one who will judge, but this is the clear teaching of the apostles and Jesus.  See John 5:22-23, Acts 17:31, Romans 2:16, among many others.

Christ is “ready” to judge the living and the dead.  This may sound like it is about to happen in a matter of days.  But the meaning is more that Christ has been given the place and authority of judging those who are alive and those who are dead.  He is ready to judge whenever the Father chooses.  Jesus was ready to sacrifice his life on day one of his ministry.  However, it was the Father’s will that this did not happen until three and a half years of ministry had occurred.  Similarly, Jesus is ready to judge now, but will not do so until the Father says it is time.

Let us remember that this is true for us as a world and for us as individuals.  When we lay down our mortal bodies in death, our judgment before Christ will be evident.

Why does the Father delay?  Particularly, why does He delay while I am suffering?  This ties into God’s purpose to send the Gospel to the ends of the earth.  This is a period of time in which the nations are given grace through Jesus.  The way that we suffer (like Jesus did) is one of the goads that God uses to prick the conscience of lost people.  If they repent, then they become a brother or sister in the Lord.  We should forgive them and love them.  If they do not repent, then they will be held accountable by Jesus. 

If you had been ripped off by a big corporation and sued them, how would you feel if you went into court and found out that the judge owned a similar big corporation?  The opposite is true with Jesus.  The One who will judge humanity on that day is One who was unjustly and wickedly treated by people.  He is not on the side of the elite.  However, he will not pervert justice for the poor.  Jesus will judge in absolute truth.  This is a sobering thought.

This brings us to one of the most disputed verses in this letter.  Peter turns from the readiness of Christ to judge the living and the dead and states that this is why the Gospel “has been preached” to the dead.  Most translations have interpretations affecting their end result.  It literally says, “For this purpose even the dead were evangelized (given the Gospel).”  It begs the question of when the evangelizing occurred.  Was it while they are alive, being dead now or was it while they were in the grave?

We will come back to this question.  Let’s continue the flow of Peter’s argument.  The coming judgment of Christ is the purpose, or reason, for this evangelizing.  Yet, Peter states that this evangelizing was done so that something else might happen.  This is what the second half of verse 6 reveals.  Let’s look at the statement first and then come back to how this all fits together with evangelizing even the dead.

The second half of verse 6 has a clear symmetry that contrasts the first clause with the second one.  It uses the phrase “on one hand” there is this bad thing, “but on the other hand,” there is this good thing.  These clauses are in the subjunctive mood which emphasizes that this is God’s desire or purpose, whether men cooperate with it or not.  Let me lay out verse 6 in a clumsy literal interpretation.

“For this reason, even the dead were evangelized in order that, on one hand, they may have been judged according to men in flesh, but on the other hand, they may be living according to God in spirit.”

God’s purpose in this evangelization is to overcome the judgments of men in this world that have sent many to the realm of the dead.  They may have been put to death in their flesh according to the judgments of men, but God intends to make them alive in spirit.  This is some of the same verbiage that was used of Jesus in 1 Peter 3:18. Jesus was put to death in his flesh but made alive in spirit.  God does not always stop persecution.  However, He always overturns it.

We can understand that God’s purpose is to change a person’s destiny any time the Gospel is preached to them.  Instead of removing death from our experience, He makes possible a greater life following that death for those who trust in Jesus the Christ.

So what is this evangelizing even the dead?  There are really two good ways to interpret this, though I know there are endless variations in them.

The first is to see this as people who are now dead, but the evangelization happened while they were alive.  God’s purpose in the Gospel is not to make us invincible to the wicked in this life, but that when we die (whether naturally or at the hands of persecutors) this will not be the last word.  They live in spirit.  Unlike Jesus, believers do not immediately receive a spiritual body.  Their spirits are with Christ at the right hand of the Father awaiting the day of resurrection when they will obtain glorified, spiritual bodies like Jesus.  Even before the cross, righteous believers like Noah, Abraham, David, and all the rest, went into the good side of the Grave (Sheol/Hades) awaiting the day when Messiah would make it possible for them to be released into the presence of the Father.

One of the fears of early believers is mentioned by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4.  They worried that somehow believers who had died were going to miss out on the good things that were expected at the Second Coming of Jesus.  Paul explains that those who are dead will not miss out on God’s plan.

In this situation, it is speculated that Peter is encouraging them that, even though we may be put to death in flesh, we are alive in spirit.  God’s judgment makes the judgments of men irrelevant.  In fact, this being alive in spirit occurs while we are still in this mortal flesh.  This is generally what is meant by eternal life.  It is the life-giving-principle of Jesus Himself working within us, no matter what state we are in (mortal flesh, body dead but spirit with Jesus, and finally a glorified spiritual body).

This is a good, scriptural understanding.  However, Peter may have been saying something more than this.  The second interpretation actually sees this as an evangelization by Jesus after his death to those who are in the grave.  Some oppose this because it sounds like they are getting a second chance at salvation.  However, this is not necessarily the case.

Scripture does appear to be clear that we are given this mortal life to make and to demonstrate our choice regarding Jesus.  Once we die, we are held accountable to that choice.  Hebrews 9:27 states, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment…”  2 Corinthians 6:2 states, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”  Clearly, we are called to accept God while He has opened a door for salvation.  If we wait, the time may close and be missed.  Death is equated with facing our judgment, not an extension of a season of salvation.

That said, there is a plausible way to see this in the second sense (Jesus evangelizing the dead after his death) without teaching that people get a second chance in the Grave.

In 1 Peter 3:18, we saw that Jesus went into the Grave and then to Tartarus (a prison for rebellious angels/spirits).  There he proclaimed his victory to them and the finality of their defeat.  There is no sense in that passage that he “evangelized” them.  That word is not used.  Also, it is not hard to see that while he was in the Grave where the departed human spirits are held in two compartments, one good and one bad, Jesus may do some more declarations.  Thus, we can see Jesus proclaiming his victory to those “in torments in Hades,” which would accentuate that they had chosen the wrong side.  We could also see him sharing the good news (the real meaning of the word evangelize) of his victory and what it means for those human spirits in Abraham’s Bosom, or Paradise, which is the good side of the Grave.  He is not so much giving them an offer of salvation but explaining what has happened and how they have been saved.  This makes sense because though they had a sense of the good thing God was doing, they were just as much in the dark as the disciples were to how God was going to do this.

The foundations of the Gospel were laid down in Genesis three as God pronounces judgments on the serpent, Eve and Adam.  Notice that He promises that a Seed of the Woman would come forth to crush the Serpent’s head.  He would no longer have dominion over humanity.  This is a kind of proto-Gospel.  Through the Old Testament more and more definition is given to what and how God would save humanity.  We can imagine David coming into Abraham’s Bosom and sharing with those who were there all that God had revealed in his day.  Isaiah would enter one day and share what God had showed him.  Yet Jesus coming into Abraham’s Bosom would not just lead the spirits into heaven without some kind of explanation of what had happened.

The New Testament even speaks of Abraham and Israel having the Gospel preached to them in the sense of a proto-Gospel.  Galatians 3:8 says this about Abraham, and Hebrews 4:2 expresses this sense about Israel in the wilderness.

This second view sees that sharing good news with even the dead is not the only thing in view.  The whole dynamic of Jesus going into the grave in order to bring the righteous spirits held in the grave (awaiting the price to be paid for their sins and justification) and lead them into the presence of the Father is part of the purpose of God.

This faithfulness that has happened already is part of the confidence we can have in the midst of suffering.  God will not and has not left us at the mercy of wicked men, treated as lambs for the slaughter.  Instead, God wants to use our suffering and especially how we do it in order to make peace possible with his enemies, our enemies.

The spiritual life we have in Christ while we are in the flesh will not cease when our bodies die.  Our spirits will then live before the Father in heaven until the time of resurrection comes.  Then, we will have glorified, spiritual bodies in which we will be “like the angels.”  This is the sure, proven hope that believers have when facing suffering in this life.  May God strengthen us as we live for him in this lost world.

Our Witness 9 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 16

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 8

1 Peter 3:18-22.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, March 8, 2026.

Peter once again points us to Jesus and the example of how his suffering was used to accomplish our salvation.  You could say 1Peter 2:21-25 uses the example of Jesus to show us how to go through suffering.  In our passage today, Peter points to Jesus again.  He uses the suffering of Jesus to show us why suffering happens.

Following this, Peter will then challenge believers in Jesus to follow his example by having the same mindset towards suffering.  If we will join him in his suffering, then we will also join him in his coming glory.

Let’s look at our passage.

What Jesus accomplished through suffering (v. 18-22)

Jesus faced many threats of suffering in his years of ministry leading up to the cross.  Yet he embraced the suffering because of what it would accomplish.  This section walks through what was made possible through the suffering of Jesus.

We are first told that he was suffering for our sins (the just for the unjust).  This is clearly talking about his suffering on the cross, but it can be extended to the suffering of his whole mortal, human experience.  In fact, Peter emphasizes that Jesus suffered just once for our sins.

Unlike the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, the Lamb of God only needed to die once in order to atone for the sins of humanity.

Of course, lambs have nothing to say about being sacrifices.  Jesus did have something to say about it.  He could have refused, but instead, Jesus went through the suffering of the cross, of death, in order to cover our sins.

Though God uses suffering in our life, it is not His plan that we should only experience suffering.  Suffering has its season, but God always intends it to be followed by glory.  Think of it this way.  Is Jesus suffering today?  Of course, not!  We can make a case for an internal pain to watch so many refuse his offer of salvation, but that is another matter.

If we run away from suffering and expect God to remove it from our life, we are not paying close attention to the way Jesus made salvation possible for us.

It wasn’t fair for the “Just One” to be sacrificed for us unjust ones.  It wasn’t fair, but it was love.  In fairness, God would not help us.  In fairness, God would not become a man.  In fairness, He would not suffer in our place.  None of this is fair, but it is love! 

When we are tempted to complain about suffering for the sake of doing what is righteous, it is usually the unfairness of it that fuels our protest.  Yet Jesus was perfect, sinless.  I on the other hand cannot say that about myself.  What excuse do I have to reject the call of Jesus to pick up my cross and follow him?

How am I using my forgiven life?  Am I trying to get comfort and ease, or am I trying to bring sinners to repentance?  Am I suffering the painful things involved in sharing the Good News with others? 

Jesus embraced the suffering of the cross in order to bring us to God (v. 18).  Mankind had been separated from God in the Garden of Eden.  Originally, God had put humanity upon the earth to have dominion over it, in a way that imaged Him.  This imaging was based upon relationship.  This is why God would come down in the cool of the day and talk with them.  The Fall of chapter three fractured that relationship.  It put sin between us and God and affected our ability to image him.

Jesus becomes a means for healing that breech.  His suffering makes it possible first to be brought to God as spiritual children through a new, spiritual birth.  However, we are also going to be brought into the presence of God when we die.  Our souls will be allowed to enter into the presence of God as stated in 2 Corinthians 5:8. “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”

This is the picture at the end of the book of Revelation.  It pictures God the Father dwelling with Jesus and the saints, never to be separated again.    This relationship could not be possible without the suffering of Christ.

Jesus was put to death to his mortal flesh, but then, made alive to his spiritual, resurrected life.  The emphasis here (v. 18) is on the heart of what Christ is doing.  He is not just dying for our sins.  He is making a new mode of living possible for humanity, at least those who put their faith in him.  Jesus made the way and showed the way to right relationship with God.  However, he also paved the way to a resurrected life in a spiritual body (see 1 Corinthians 15:35f.

It was suffering that moved Jesus from a mortal life to an immortal life.  Of course, this was not done instantaneously.  He suffered many things.  Even his suffering on the cross did not happen until the timing of the Father.  It also happened in the way that the Father intended.

We are called to follow this pattern.  Embrace whatever suffering we may have to face in this life for following Christ in order to be brought into a glorious, spiritual body at the time of God’s choosing.

We are next told (v. 19) that it was in this new state that Christ could go and preach to the disobedient spirits that were held in prison.  Some versions interpret “spirit” at the end of verse 18 as the Holy Spirit.  Thus, they open verse 19 with “by Whom.”  They emphasize that Jesus went to do this act of verse 19 by the Holy Spirit.  I don’t believe this is what Peter is saying.  As a mortal, Jesus could not go into the grave (Sheol/Hades).  However, he could go as a spirit being.  In fact, all human spirits would go into the grave at death and await the judgment.  So verse 19 should open with the phrase “by which.”

Who are these spirits in prison?  Verse 20 makes it clear that these were disobedient in the time leading up to The Flood of Genesis during Noah’s time.  Peter flies right on by the statement in verse 19 because the people of his day would know exactly what he is referencing.  Let me clear up a couple of things first.

The NKJV says that Jesus “preached” to the spirits in prison.  This makes it sound like they are being offered salvation.  However, the word is better translated as proclaimed or made a proclamation.  Jesus made some proclamation to these disobedient spirits held in prison.  A proclamation can be anything.  We will come back to this because I don’t want to lose sight of all that Jesus accomplished.  Let’s just say Jesus was able to proclaim something to some criminal spirits in the underworld because of his suffering.

Because this connects to the time of Noah, Peter makes another point about how our present salvation connects to the salvation that happened for Noah and his family.  The waters that destroyed others are the same waters that lift up Noah and his family to a new world.  This is all done by God’s wisdom.  Peter describes the waters of The Flood as being a picture of the waters of baptism that new followers of Jesus go through.  We will come back to this later as well.

Finally, in verse 22, Jesus in his resurrected, spiritual existence could now enter into the heavens, sit at the right hand of the Father, and have all angels, authorities and powers subordinated to him.  This doesn’t mean that none of them are still in rebellion, but that his presence at the right hand signifies his power and authority over everything, whether in the heavens or on the earth.

The angels are clearly spiritual beings.  The words “authorities” and “powers” are terms that speak to varying levels of position in a hierarchy.  This would clearly apply to other spiritual beings that were of varying levels of authority and power.  Yet these words can also be used of human authorities and powers. In Matthew 28:19, Jesus said, ““All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”  The only authority that would not be subordinated to Jesus is the Father Himself.  Think of it.  A human sits at the right hand of God the Father exercising authority and power in the Father’s place (imaging Him perfectly).

None of this could have been accomplished without a mindset that accepted suffering for what it was: the path to the salvation of God!  We cannot lose sight of this in our lives today.  Salvation is not possible without embracing a certain amount of suffering (emotionally and physically).  We can willingly choose to suffering things in order to reach our friends and loved ones for Christ.  Instead of complaining about the unfairness of it all, we are challenged to join Christ in this great purpose of saving “whosoever will.”  Of course, the suffering is not forever.  It will come to an end, and we will enter into the glory of those who suffered with Christ!

Two issues that need explanation

Let’s circle back and deal with these two issues that need further explanation.  First, let’s look at the flood and how it points to water baptism today (the end of verse 20 and all of verse 21).

Verse 21 opens with a statement that water baptism is a “figure” (KJV), “antitype” (NKJV), “symbolizes” (NIV) of The Flood.  These are all good interpretations.  A symbol always corresponds to something (singular or plural).  We have to ask ourselves how the waters of the Flood are picturing water baptism.

The Flood waters were a judgment upon all mankind. They brought destruction.  However, God’s grace used this same thing to save Noah and his family who represented the believing remnant at that point.  This is a key point.  The same thing used to destroy some is used to save some.  The waters were bad for the wicked and good for Noah and company.

We can question God’s grace when we are going through suffering.  We can only see how it is destroying our life.  However, if we trust God, our suffering can be used to save us and others, just like Jesus. 

In this sense, Jesus is the Greater Noah.  The seven family members symbolize the complete remnant of believers who are the family of Christ spiritually.  New believers are also new members of the family of Christ.  All new members are baptized in water.

Water baptism is a picture of several things.  Spiritually, it is a picture of dying to our old way of life and being raised up to live a mortal life like Jesus did, in obedience to the Father, the Word, and through the power of the Spirit.  Yet it is also a prophecy that my body will one day die.  The water is a symbol of being buried (put under the ground).  Jesus has the power and has promised to raise us up into spiritual, glorified bodies.  Water baptism declares that death will not be a destruction to us because we are going to be raised up in glory like Jesus was.

Death will take all humanity.  It will be destruction to many, but it will also be the path to the New Heavens and the New Earth that God is going to create.  It is the path into a new relationship between God the Father and all of remnant humanity.

Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 even points to the Red Sea crossing as a type, symbol, of water baptism.  The people of Israel were baptized by God when they went through the waters.  This was a path of life to Israel, but a path of death to those bent on wickedness, namely Pharaoh and his army.  On top of this, Paul also points to the cloud (water vapor) that followed them through the desert.  It too was a picture of water baptism.  The cloud becomes a protection to them in order to bring them to the Promised Land.

It may seem odd that Peter speaks of water baptism in this way, “which now saves us.”  Some have even taught that it is only the act of water baptism that regenerates a person.  However, Peter is not saying that the act of water baptism can save anybody by itself.  Look at the very next words: “not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God.”  It is not the physical act that makes us belong to Christ.  It is the internal faith that we have placed upon Jesus.  We have responded to God’s raising up of Jesus to be our Savior.  We believed.  Because we have believed, we are then water baptized as a declaration to the world and to those rebellious spirits that we are leaving them behind and following Jesus!  Death will be our promotion, but it will be their undoing.

Let’s deal with the proclamation that Jesus made to the spirits in prison.  What is this.

We know that this is not an offer of salvation because they are in prison for their disobedience in the period leading up to The Flood.  Peter does not say that they are in the grave (Sheol/Hades), but rather, that they are in prison.  This seems to be the same thing that he mentions in his second letter (2 Peter 2:4).  “For God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to [the Greek is literally “Tartarus”] and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment…”  Jude also mentions something similar in Jude 1:6. “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day…” 

The picture given of the underworld is that all human spirits go into the Grave (Sheol/Hades) which is a holding place for the human spirits until the judgment.  The Greeks pictured Tartarus as a prison that was as far below Hades as Hades was beneath the earth.  Tartarus is a prison for angels or spiritual being who rebelled in the days before The Flood.  This is was connected to the strange passage in Genesis 6.  The sons of God was a class of spiritual beings who took human wives and created giant offspring, an offspring that was part angel and part human.  They were imprisoned by God for this.

The Book of Enoch was a popular book in the days of Peter.  It was never considered to be Scripture, and there is no need to try and elevate it to that status.

In the Book of Enoch, these imprisoned spirits want to be pardoned.  They talk Enoch into asking God for a pardon.  God’s response is that they are going to stay in prison until the time of the judgment, aka, “No!”  Enoch then goes down to these spirits and proclaims to them God’s judgment.

Peter seems to be connecting Jesus to a similar, even greater, proclamation.  Jesus is the Greater Enoch proclaiming to the spirits in prison that their rebellion has not only failed, but that he has now secured the salvation and redemption of mankind.  In short, he proclaims that they have lost.

This is a common theme in Scripture.  Jesus is the Greater Adam, the Greater Enoch, the Greater Noah, the Greater David…ad infinitum.  Their lives were a fuzzy picture of the power and work that Messiah Jesus would do to save us.

Jesus not only proclaims defeat to the spirits in prison, but he also proclaims victory to the righteous human spirits stuck in the good side of the Grave.  He could now lead them into the presence of God the Father because he has paid the price for their redemption.  The rebellion against God’s plan with humanity had failed.  The perfect man had redeemed the inheritance for humanity.  The judgment of these spirits is sure and the salvation of those they sought to supplant is sure.

All of this was obtained because Jesus embraced the suffering that came from staying true to God the Father.  His is the glory of a victor and the glory of One who brings many sons with him into glory!  May God help us to line up in his wake, choosing to work for him through the suffering that may come our way.  We can overcome the threats of the wicked and the fears of our own flesh.  “Blessed are those who overcome because they will stand with the Great Overcomer, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the end!

Our Witness 8 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 15

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 7

1 Peter 3:13-17.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, March 1, 2026.

The verses leading up to this section were a quote from Psalm 34 which declares that God is against evildoers and on the side of the righteous.  This was written by David expressing his faith in the midst of a time of persecution and suffering.  In other words, it was written in a time when he could easily have doubted this truth.

This begs the question of why righteous people suffer.  Peter doesn’t approach the issue this way, but it is at the back of all that he says about it.

Let’s look at our passage.

You may suffer for doing what is good and right (13-17)

When I say that you “may” suffer for doing what is good and right, I am keying off of the conditional words that Peter gives in this section.  The clincher is in verse 17.  There Peter uses the phrase “if God should will it.”

Of course, there are levels of suffering and different kinds of suffering. Yet Peter is preparing believers for whatever levels they may face.

There is a cognitive dissonance that occurs when we recognize that, though God is on the side of the righteous, He often allows the righteous to suffer at the hands of the wicked.  How can this be?

Whether we can answer this or not, Peter makes it clear that God does allow believers to suffer for doing what is good (verse 13) and right (verse 14).  He does have a reason, but we do not always know specifically what that is.

Of course, we are talking about good and right as God defines it and not as society defines it.  This is what marks a Christian.  We have stopped defining these things for ourselves or using society’s definition.  We are following the thinking and mind of Christ.

Even a society that was built upon the foundation of God’s definitions of good and right can drift away from them.  Eventually this becomes all out rebellion to the Word of God and to the Spirit of Christ.  We see this in the Bible with Israel, and we see it today in these united States of America.  An example is how our culture has been accusing Christians of not showing love when they do not approve of homosexuality or the transgender craze that happening.  The world makes a “moral” accusation that is equivalent to saying, “You are bad, even evil!”

Yet the truth is this.  There is nothing more loving than to protect your child against this wicked persuasion that has taken over our land.  It is fundamentally God’s will for parents to shield their kids from this.  It is an age-old problem.  Society’s love to call evil what God calls good and to call good what God calls bad.

In verse 13, Peter opens with this question.  Who would harm you for doing what is right?  Some translations use the word zealous for what is right and others have for following what is right.  Regardless of which of these is the right word, they both are saying the same thing.  Zeal refers to an internal drive for what is right.  The phrase “following good” (or imitating good) focuses on the external act that flows out of an internal zeal.  Yet the main point is about who would harm you for this.

We can approach this question like Paul does in Romans 8:31. “If God be for us who can be against us?”  The answer in one respect is, “No one of any consequence.”  Thus, Paul states that nothing (no one) can separate us from the love of God.  This is true even when God allows them to persecute us (harm us for doing good). 

Both Paul in the Romans 8 passage and Peter in this passage immediately bring up what God has done through Jesus and his suffering.  When we think about the suffering of Christ, we are reminded that he endured this for the sake of saving those who are lost.  Thus, we can contemplate this question of who might harm us for doing good in the sense that it would only be a person who is lost and under the judgment of God.  This is a judgment that God does not desire for them.  If my persecutors don’t repent, then they are going to face a judgment that they will not survive.

Whether we think of them as having no real power to affect our actions or we think of them as lost humans that Jesus wants to save, the Christian can face persecution without yielding to the temptation to be angry with God and even stop believing in His love for them.

In verse 14, Peter says, “even if you should suffer…”  The experience of suffering in the first century and in the twenty first century is not uniform.  On one hand, we are all guaranteed some level of suffering if we follow Christ.  Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:12, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”  You are going to pay a price.  But, on the other hand, the suffering of one person may be quite light compared to another.  The level of persecution is not the issue.  Rather, it is how we respond to it.

Peter challenges us to see that we are blessed even if we should suffer for the sake of righteousness.  He is using words from the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount.  Matthew 5:10 reads, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.”  Those these people are blessed because God speaks on their behalf, this word for blessing emphasizes the happy experience of a life that is lived in right relationship with God.  How can a person be “happy in Jesus” when they are persecuted for doing the right thing?  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus continually points to what God is going to do for such people.  The kingdom will be theirs.  They have a great reward in heaven.  You will be like the prophets (and Christ) before you.  You will be comforted.  You will see God!  He ended with Matthew 5:12. “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad!  How can a person rejoice when they are being persecuted?  They have to trust in their heavenly Father greatly.

Peter then quotes a part of Isaiah 8:12. “Do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled.”  In the context of Isaiah, God is counseling Isaiah on how to respond to the fear and craziness of a society that is in rebellion to God.  He even tells Isaiah not to call a conspiracy the things his people called a conspiracy.  This is not to say that there is no truth to their fears.  Rather, they are only afraid of those things because they don’t know God.  The one who trusts in God should not fear the things that the godless fear.  When you have no fear of God and you walk away from Him, you feel exposed to everything.  You fear anything and everything because God is not with you.

Threats can even come from people claiming to know God.  Following the resurrection, the apostles were told by the religious leaders to quit preaching about Jesus.  If they didn’t quit, they would be thrown in prison.  Yet Christians are told by a man who faced such threats not to fear those who threaten us.

Think about David.  Saul sought his life and called him a traitor.  David could have let fear move him to protect himself.  He could have killed Saul several times.  Each time David refused to do so.  Saul was a man in rebellion to God, and so he was afraid of things he didn’t have to fear.  David was not a traitor, and even if he was, God called Saul and could protect him.  It was Saul’s awareness that God was not on his side that caused fear.

Instead of fearing their threats and actions of persecution, we should do like David.  He feared God too much to respond to Saul in like manner.  We too should fear God too much to respond to people like the world around us is doing. Jesus is our example and guide.

Peter then lists two things we should do (verse 15) in lieu of fear.  First, we are to set apart Christ as Lord.  To sanctify or set apart means to make this one thing more important than anything else.  Christ as my Lord must mean more to me than a perfect life of comfort and ease.  I would be willing to give up anything even suffer anything before I would give up Christ as Lord.  This is what Paul is driving home in Romans 8.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.  Yet I can let fears cause me to shrink back.  We are to guard our heart from such things.

The second thing we are to do is to be always ready to defend the reason for the hope that is in us.  People will be perplexed at the way you cling to Christ in the face of persecution and suffering.  How can you go through this suffering and not rant and rave against God?  How can you cling to Christ as your Lord when he doesn’t protect you from my torture?

They may never ask this question out loud, but we need to be ready to give a reason why we would have such faith in the face of such adversity.

Essentially, Peter is talking about testifying to your persecutors, your enemies.  In fact, the persecution of the righteous is one of the ways that God pricks the heart of those who do evil.  In those moments, we must not be overcome by their evil and return evil back to them.  This is our finest hour, our opportunity to slip the Gospel past their spiritual defenses.

Our great hope in Christ is still held in these weak, mortal frames.  It is easy for us to fear and balk under the threat of suffering.  However, we need to double down on trusting God.  When we are weak, the Spirit of God will be strong through us.  We can testify for Jesus and about Jesus to those who do us wrong.  This is the will and the mind of Christ.

Peter adds three descriptors to how we are to give our defense.  We are to do so with meekness, fear, and a good conscience. 

Meekness is strength under control.  It is hard to keep your composure when you are unjustly persecuted.  The Christian is called to control their flesh and follow the path of Christ.  Instead of letting anger cause us to rage, we are to let the Holy Spirit give us the words to say.  We are to trust God.

The fear (reverence) cannot be towards men.  He has just told us not to fear those intimidating us.  This is the fear of the Lord.  As I mentioned David earlier, he feared God too much to touch King Saul.  He would let God remove Saul.  When we give an answer to the ungodly, we are to know that we are to give the answer that God wants us to give.  It will be an answer that pleads with them to turn from their wickedness and turn towards the love of God that is even now extended to them through you.  Jesus is their judge, but he is also mine.  I must trust his judgments, whether with my own persecution or my ultimate judgment in eternity.

Finally, Peter mentions that we should have a good conscience.  This is also before God.  If I have done what I know God wants me to do (the good and the right as He defines it), then my heart and mind will have a simplicity (no ulterior motive) and the peace that comes from it.  David was no traitor.  He had a clean conscience before God.  Yet Saul still hunted him.  David didn’t understand why this was going on, but he knew that he was following God.  He didn’t deserve the things Saul was doing.  We may often struggle with the why of life, but there is a peace that can be found in having a clean conscience.  “I am following Jesus, and he will help me all the way.  He will be attentive to my prayer and against those who try to do me evil.”  I don’t have to know why; I just need to know Who.

Verse 16 ends with the challenge to do this in such a way that those who are slandering us (calling our good evil) will be put to shame.  All who falsely accuse the righteous of doing evil will one day face the shame of what they have done before God.  They may rail against your good conduct in Christ now, but they will be silent when they stand before God.  God will not be intimidated by the power and authority they had in this life.

Yet this can also go another way.  There is a certain public spectacle that happens when people given to righteousness are persecuted and slandered.  The person doing so may have their conscience pricked by the realization of what they are doing.  However, even if they don’t feel the shame of their actions, others watching may see the shame of it.  At the cross Jesus was truly paying the price for our sins.  Yet he was also pricking the conscience of everyone who ever hears the story of what was done to him and why.

Shame is real whether a person feels it or not.  Ultimately, we are challenged to live in such a way that those who do persecute us will only become a clarion call to the world around us drawing attention to the Lord we serve.

Verse 17 makes it clear, if it isn’t already, that God sometimes wills that we suffer for the good that we do.  This sounds strange, but Peter has laid the groundwork for the reasons He would do such things.  We are the goads in the hands of Jesus, pricking the dull conscience of this world.  We don’t do this just through our suffering, but also through how we suffer.

In these times, we must not lose sight of the purpose of God.  We must not let the enemy convince us that God doesn’t care about us.  We must not let the enemy separate our heart from the love of God, both for ourselves and for those who persecute us.

It was God’s will that Jesus suffer because it would make salvation possible, and it would draw people to that salvation.  Why do we tend to flee from suffering?  This is precisely what God uses to testify through us to others.  Perhaps we have fled too much, so much that there is no longer a testimony of Christ in our sphere of influence.

Peter ends with the encouragement that it is better to suffer for doing what is right than to suffer for doing what is wrong.  To suffer for doing wrong is not great feat.  You deserve it.  However, enduring undeserved punishments is a mark of someone who knows Jesus.  It is great righteousness.  We can only do this if we have a close relationship with Jesus by the Holy Spirit.  It is his vision, and it is what saved our soul.  He gave mercy to me and you through people who could have written us off.  If he did such for us, how can we not be his mercy in the lives of others, even those who persecute us for doing good?  We can’t, or better we shouldn’t.  We should say with Jesus, “Nevertheless, Your will be done!”

Our Witness 7 audio

The First Letter of Peter- 11

Subtitle: Our Witness before the World- Part 3

1 Peter 2:21-25. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, February 1, 2026.

In his instructions to household slaves leading up to this passage, Peter makes this point.  If you suffer for doing what is right and patiently endure it, there is favor with God.  He now points them (us) to Jesus as a great example of what he is talking about.  Jesus suffered for doing what was right, and he righteously endured it.

Jesus is not just an example to household slaves.  He is also an example to all of us in our situations that may have differences but are essentially the same dynamic spiritually.  We are going to see through the rest of the letter that Peter continually points us back to this example he lays out here.

No matter what relationship may bring us suffering, God’s purpose is to create millions of examples (exhibits) of those who suffered for doing what was right, and yet, patiently endured it.

Let’s look at our passage.

Christ is our example (v. 21-25)

Verse 21 adds the phrase “leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”  Think of all the steps that Jesus made in which he could have turned back, but he kept going forward. 

Peter is doing this when he asks to step out of the boat.  Peter made a choice to ask, and then he chose to step out of the boat.  Notice that there is a point at which the results of our decision carry us along, for good or for bad.  It is not that there are no more choices to be made, but that there are tidal forces carrying us.  We tend to warn about the power of consequences, but we should also see that there is a good in it.  The choice to step out of the boat created a scenario in which there was no going back.  He would either walk or sink.  There is a certain good in this.  When we steel our courage and follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we find ourselves in scary places, yes.  But we also find ourselves in places where God shows up to help us through it.  Just that first step to follow his example is often the opening of a whole river of God’s help.

Jesus chose to care the burden of the cross for us, and so we ought to carry our cross for him.  Praise God that He is working in us to help us do this very thing!

Theological liberals love to say that Jesus is only an example of love, i.e., he was not actually paying a price for our sins.  This is an error and contradictory to Scripture.  However, it is also an error to downplay the reality of the example that Jesus has given us.  Of course, this example of trusting the will of God would do us no good if Jesus had not truly atoned for our sin.  But he has made peace between us and God.  He has supplied the Holy Spirit within us to help us do this!

Peter then quotes from Isaiah 53:9, “who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth.”  This is a passage describing God’s work through His perfect servant, the Messiah.  Israel had failed to rightly serve God’s purposes.  However, God would bring forth a perfect servant, a suffering servant, who would save Israel and the Gentiles by his righteousness and suffering.

This Old Testament verse uses a word that is generally translated as “violence.”  The word involves doing wrong to someone in a harsh way.  This can be a physically violent act, or metaphorically violent in the sense of brazen and bold wrongs done to another.

When translated into Greek, the translators chose a word that means lawlessness.  Only a lawless person would sin against others in such a bold and harsh way.  The quote in 1 Peter says, “who committed no sin.”  Peter expands the “lawless” translation of the earlier Greek manuscripts to the more general “sin.”  Definitely Christ was revealed to them as not being a violent, lawless man.  However, Jesus was more than this.  He was without sin.  We see Jesus challenging his opponents in John 8:46, “Which one of you convicts Me of sin?”  Of course, the only “sin” they could pin on him was that he a man made himself one with God, which is no sin if it was true.  Hebrews 4:15; 7:26, 1 John 3:5, among many other New Testament verses, agree with this statement of Peter.  The Messiah was a sinless man.  The apostles came to see that Jesus was the only perfect imager of God the Father who had ever lived on this planet.

The second part of this Old Testament quote from Isaiah 53 says that he was free of deceit, or treachery.  There is nothing like suffering to bring out the worst in us.  It is often in our desire to avoid difficulty that we choose a path of misleading people or hiding the truth.

Jesus positively did good things to people, but he also refrained from doing wrong to others.  This is the example that we are called to follow, not because it saves us, but because we have been saved.  I can’t follow Jesus perfect enough to save myself, but I can follow Jesus out of perfect thankfulness for his saving grace.

This leads us into the next descriptions of the character and actions of Jesus.  These emphasize what he didn’t do.

Jesus did not respond with reviling to those who reviled him.  To revile someone is about verbal abuse.  It can be translated to rail against someone.  Any time you see someone spitting mad yelling obscenities and accusations at another person, you are seeing this in action.  In fact, this is a perfect example of the metaphorical violence that Isaiah 53:9 references.  How easy it is to become so angry with such people to begin shouting back at them and responding to them in kind.

Jesus was accused of many things in very unkind manners.  During his trial, he is even pictured as being blindfolded, punched, and in a mocking manner, told to prophesy who hit him.  This was both verbally abusive and physically abusive.  Yet, Jesus did not yell back and say hateful things against them.  When we are squeezed by life, the stuff that is deep within us is generally brought to the surface.  You and I have a history of failing in this area when we are in the pressure cooker of suffering.  Yet Jesus went through it without sin.

If you remember the night of his betrayal and arrest, you will also remember that Jesus showed the disciples how they could follow him.  It would require more than a spirit that was willing.  A willing spirit must deal with its weak flesh through prayer, wrestling with God over His purpose in our life and yielding to Him.

1 Peter 2:23 also mentions that he uttered no threats.  Sometimes threats are empty because we have no way of backing them up.  We may be powerless, but Jesus is not.  Jesus has great power and thus shows great restraint.

Of course, don’t get Peter wrong.  There is a great threat looming over those who reject Jesus.  How you treat him will determine your eternity.  However, Jesus doesn’t threaten people.  He only points out the truth.  During his trial, he found it best to generally not respond to their accusations, taunts, and lies.  Yet this doesn’t change the fact that there is a day of judgment for each of us and for this world as a whole.  God will hold us accountable for choosing our sin over the top of the righteousness of Jesus.

The last thing that Peter points out about how Jesus endured suffering is that he entrusted “himself to Him who judges righteously.”  Persecution doesn’t only affect how we treat others.  It can also affect our relationship with God the Father.  Jesus entrusted himself to God the Father even in the face of death by wicked men.  He could do this because His relationship with the Father only knew Him as trustworthy.  Jesus stepped out of the boat of mortality and put himself into the hands of the Father.  “Do with me what you will, Father!”  God could powerfully stop his persecutors or not.  Regardless, Jesus both knew and trusted the decision of the Father.  May God help us to have such a relationship of trust in Him.

Remember that God is never “on the side of sinners.”  If it looks like they are getting ahead and that it pays to be wicked, don’t believe it.  They will eventually stand before God and despise themselves in His presence.  However, God is on the side of sinners in the sense that He is trying to break through their spiritual blindness.  Our righteous suffering may be the only thing that pricks the heart of the wicked and turns them back from sin.  Can I do that for Jesus?  He promises to reward our service for His purposes, but we have to trust Him with our life.  Yes, they may reject the witness we give, but at least God sees me.  He doesn’t like what is being done to me.  However, if I do this rightly, I can have His favor.  I can remain in the place of His favor.

This suffering of Jesus is more than an example of love and trust.  Verse 24 shows us that Jesus was a sacrifice that provides spiritual healing for us.  In Jesus, God is providing a way for sinners to find spiritual healing. 

We sometimes act like we don’t know what God is doing through us, but we do know in general.  He is showing Himself to the world through us.  We don’t have to perfectly understand all the ways that He is doing that in order to say, yes, to Him.  This is what faith (trust) is all about.

In trusting God, Jesus did something for God that needed to be done if any humans were to dwell with God in eternity.  Without Jesus even the best of humans would be stuck in the grave, unable to enter into His presence.  We may be clueless to what God is doing specifically, but we do know that it has to do with showing others who Jesus is.  Jesus provided for our spiritual healing, but then he uses you and me to bring that spiritual healing into the minds and lives of the lost.  We provide opportunities for them to know His spiritual healing.  Verse 24 explains how his sacrifice does this.

“He himself carried our sins in his body on the tree.”  If you approach this from an Old Testament mindset, you will recognize the importance of this word, “tree.”  This whole thing with sin started with some trees in Genesis three.  The Tree of Life was counterposed to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  They chose (we choose) to go after the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil rather than the Tree of Life.  There is something about trees in the word of God that is important.  We see this in Psalm 1.  The perfect Israelite (there was ever only one) would be a Tree of Life that would bring forth fruit rather than chaff.  This ultimate fruitful Israelite would only be the Messiah who is presented in the next psalm.  Blessed are those who put their trust in Him (Psalm 2:12). 

Scripture doesn’t describe the Tree of Life, but the New Testament presents Jesus as the ultimate Psalm One Blessed Man.  Yet the tree on which he provided life for us did not look desirable.  It was a cross.  Everything in our flesh wants to continue to flee to the other tree, but God calls us to embrace this tree of suffering in Jesus.

Jesus took your sins, my sins, in his body (a representative of whomever would believe in him) to the cross.  God’s punishment upon our sin came upon Jesus who was sinless.  Is this fair?  Of course, it is not!  However, it is love.  In Jesus, our sin has been nailed to the cross and punished.

Notice the contrast between the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of this age.  Jesus embraces our death upon himself.  He sacrifices his mortal self in the name of God’s purpose in humanity.  The spirit of this age will sacrifice any number (the more the better) of humans for the sake of humanity.  Those who make the decision of just whom will be sacrificed will never be caught making sacrifices themselves.  Which of these hearts will you choose?

Peter than describes that this was “so we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”  Our sins and the guilt that comes with them have been dealt with by God.  He simply asks me to admit my fault, yield to the Lord Jesus Christ, and put my faith in him.  If we do this, our sin and guilt will be completely removed.  The flesh will still battle us, but it cannot change what Jesus has done, once and for all.  By faith, we can die to the sin that we so easily want to do and come alive to the righteousness that He wants to work in us and work through us.  If we claim that His love is working in us, then we will see it working through us to others.

Peter then quotes from Isaiah 53 again (verse 5).  It is the wounding of Christ that provides for our healing.  This is important because Peter is pointing us to this as an example.  Because of Jesus, our suffering and wounds can do some good, both in our lives and in the lives of others.  My wounds and suffering can point others to Jesus and his salvation.

Spiritual healing does involve the removal of the external guilt of our sin that hangs over us.  However, it is the internal guilt of sin that is harder to heal.  We have to let the forgiveness of Christ and the love of God teach us the better way, the way of Christ!

Peter then ends with emphasizing our spiritual condition in verse 25. He breaks this up into two different stages.  Before Jesus, we were continually straying like sheep.  Notice that this is an allusion to Isaiah 53:6. Led by our fears, ignorance, and desires, we stray away from the Good Shepherd and the grace of God.  “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall upon him.”  This was true of Israel, and it was true of the Gentile nations.  It was true of me, and it was true of you.  This is our helpless state before Jesus came and before we came to know about him.

But now, after coming to Jesus, we are something different.  We are now sheep who are returning, coming back, to the Good Shepherd who is also the Overseer of our souls.  Both shepherd and overseer correspond with what later became role titles in the church: pastors and bishops respectively.  I don’t think Peter is giving any sense of religious title here.  Jesus is the good shepherd in every way that a shepherd is good for sheep.  He is the great overseer watching out against our enemies and for our good.

Doesn’t it seem odd that Peter (one of the sheep) is exhorting the rest of the sheep to be more like the Good Shepherd!  May God help us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus by the help of His Holy Spirit!

Witness 3 audio