1 Peter 3:22

who is gone into heaven and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him.

This paragraph is closely connected with the foregoing, the apostle apparently including suffering evil under the general heading of doing good for the sake of the Lord: For better it is to suffer while doing good, if the will of God should so decide, than for doing evil. The apostle here, as in the entire section, uses a very vivid description, personifying even the will and the patience of God. The opinion of the world may be that a person should avoid suffering at any cost, by any means. But the Lord's standpoint in the matter is this, that suffering evil is sometimes necessary and therefore to be endured. One thing is certain, namely, that a Christian will not object to the will of the Lord if He permits suffering to strike His children. While it would be a calamity for them to be suffering as a punishment for evil-doing, it is no more than they may expect to be suffering for doing well, for it is the way of the world to be hostile to the children of God and to persecute them in every possible way; it is a part of the Christians' calling as long as they are living in the midst of unbelievers.

It is here that the example of Christ should serve for encouragement: For Christ also died once for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might offer us to God. The example of Christ is of such great value-to the Christians because He suffered and died, being altogether innocent, the Sinless One having the sins of all men imputed to Him, the Just and Holy One taking the place of the unjust ones. Thus Christ's one death atoned for the transgressions of all men, His vicarious suffering reconciled all men to God the Father. By this act He offered, or brought, us to God, made it possible for us to become partakers of the glory of God. Our bodies, by virtue of the redemption, the glorification of Christ, will be made like unto His glorified body, and we shall see God face to face.

Just how the work of Christ made this possible is shown by the apostle: Having died, indeed, in the flesh, but having been quickened in the spirit, in which He also went and heralded to the spirits in prisons. Christ died, not according to His divine nature, although this was truly and inseparably united with His human nature also in death, but in the flesh, that is, in His fleshly, natural mode of existence, in which He lived and suffered in the days of humiliation. Thus the entire Christ, the God-man, was put to death in the flesh. This same Christ, so the apostle proceeds to tell us, after His death resumed life in the grave. He was quickened, made alive, in the sepulcher. This quickening was made in the spirit, or with respect to the Spirit, that is, in the new glorified state, in which Christ, in His transformed and glorified body, lived, acted, and moved about, came and went as a spirit. In this spirit, in this new spirit-life, glorified and exalted, Christ, the God-man, according to His soul and body, retaining His flesh and blood in a glorified form, went forth, as our triumphant Champion, into the abode of the damned and of the devils, and there proclaimed His victory to the spirits in prison, that is, in hell, specifically to those who are further described. It was a part of the punishment which came upon the condemned and upon the demons in hell that they saw and heard Christ proclaim Himself as the Victor over death and hell, and were obliged to tell themselves that they might have partaken of this glory of the great Hero of mankind, if they had not deprived themselves of this blessing by their revolt against Him and by their unbelief.

The last thought, so far as it concerns condemned human beings, is now elaborated: That had once been disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared. Among the spirits in prison to whom the victorious Christ manifested Himself in the manner shown above were also the souls of those people who in the days of Noah had refused to heed the warning preaching of this man of God, and probably jeered at him for building his big ship on dry land. For one hundred and twenty years the Lord had patience at that time, for one hundred and twenty years he had Noah preach repentance to his fellow-men. But they refused to heed his warning and have thus become an example to the unbelievers of all times, all of whom may expect to meet with the same condemnation. This factor stands out all the more strongly by way of contrast: in which few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. Of all the men that lived on earth in the days of Noah, all rejected the preaching of Noah. And so finally he only with his family, a total of eight souls, was saved through water, the Flood being considered the means of saving these eight people with the animals that were with them in the ark; the water lifted them up and thus saved them from destruction.

The apostle now makes a splendid application of this incident: Which now saves also us as Baptism, its counterpart, not the removal of the dirt of the flesh, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The words of the apostle are so simple and so clear that the deliberate misunderstanding of their import by a great number of Christians is a mystery. Water is to us Christians a means of salvation. It is water that saves us, that transmits to us the salvation of Christ in Baptism, which is the antitype or counterpart of the Flood, as Peter has just shown. This salvation, of course, does not consist in washing off the dirt which may have gathered on the skin of the body, but it cleanses the heart of sins; it is a pledge, a contract of a good conscience toward God; it guarantees to us that we may have, by virtue of its application, a clean conscience before God, thus being enabled to lift up our eyes to Him without the slightest trace of fear. This is true because the spiritual gifts and blessings which are the result of the resurrection of Christ, the certainty that God has accepted the sacrifice of His Son and granted forgiveness of sins to the whole world, are transmitted to the believer in Baptism. Thus all Christians are, by reason of their baptism, happy and blessed people, having the certain hope of eternal life through the grace of God in Christ Jesus which they received in the water of Baptism.

In concluding this paragraph, the apostle adds this confession concerning Christ: Who is at the right hand of God, having gone to heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subject to Him. Here Peter briefly indicates how the exaltation of Christ was consummated. He ascended up on high, into heaven, He took His place at the right hand of God, entering upon the full and unrestrained use of His divine power and majesty, also according to His human nature. And He now rules in all eternity as the almighty Lord over all, every order of angels, of the blessed spirits, being subject to His command. There is nothing which has not been put under His feet. See Hebrews 2:8; Psalms 8:7; 1 Corinthians 15:24 ff.; Romans 8:38; Ephesians 1:21. This Man at the right hand of God, Jesus Christ, our Savior, will guard and protect His Church on earth in the midst of all the tribulations and persecutions of these last days. He will deliver us from every evil and translate us into the kingdom of His glory. To Him be glory and power, both now and forever!

Summary

After an exhortation to Wives and husbands the apostle summarizes his admonitions to the Christians in general, showing the need of true brotherly love, of following and defending that which is good, and basing the entire admonition on the benefits of Christ's work as we have received them also in Baptism.