There is no glory without suffering. There is no grace without weakness. Or to put it in the words of your high school coach: "No pain, no gain!"

As a Christian you will suffer. Some of you may have been listening to this series on 1 Peter and thinking, "I'm not really suffering. I'm not persecuted. Nobody laughs at me because I'm a Christian. Is there something wrong with me?" Today you may hear the answer to that question, because today we come to the heart of Peter's epistle. Peter regularly moves back and forth between Christ and your situation, showing how your situation needs to be seen in the light of what Christ has done. Because of the resurrection of Christ, you need to see yourselves as elect exiles in the midst of a foreign land; you have an eschatological hope that gives you joy in the midst of trials (1:1-12). Because his resurrection is the promise of his return, you need to be holy in all your conduct (1:13-25). Because he is the precious cornerstone, you are being built into the holy temple for God's own dwelling (2:1-10). Because he suffered for you, you must suffer patiently in civic, economic, and domestic life (2:11-3:17).

Now Peter sums up the heart of why you must suffer patiently for doing good. It is because Christ suffered once for sins. He said that before (1:11): "The sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories" prophesied in the Old Testament. (cf 2:21: "Christ suffered for you"; 2:24: "He himself bore our sins on the tree"; later, 4:1: "Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh"; 4:13: "Rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings"; 5:1: "A witness of the sufferings of Christ.") 

But this time, Peter talks in more detail of what Christ's sufferings accomplished. Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. We could not come to God. Peter talked earlier about how we are a royal priesthood. Priests enter the presence of God to offer sacrifices. We have been called as priests to come into the presence of the holy God, and offer spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. But sinners cannot enter the presence of a holy God. There is nothing you can do to win his favor. You simply cannot get there. The builders of the Tower of Babel thought they could do it. We laugh at them and think it's absurd to build a tower to reach God. But quite frankly, they had as good a shot as anyone else! If you want to get to God apart from Jesus Christ, you might as well start building. Therefore Christ suffered once for sins-the righteous for the unrighteous--that he might bring us to God. And in Christ, we have come into the presence of the holy God.

But Peter doesn't stop there. There is something else on his mind that is crucial for understanding the work of Christ.

How does he bring us to God? "Being put to death in the flesh--perhaps better, 'by the flesh'--but made alive in the spirit--better, 'by the Spirit.' If you say that he was put to death in the flesh, but raised in the spirit, it makes it sound like his flesh died and only his spirit was raised--which is the furthest thing from Peter's mind. Peter is referring in this passage to two cosmic forces that are arrayed against each other. "The flesh" refers to the powers of this age, and "the Spirit" refers to the Holy Spirit, the power of the age to come. This also helps us understand the famous verse that follows: "In whom he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah...."

Whoa! What does this have to do with suffering? Let's keep in mind, as we look at this passage, that whatever view we take must fit the rest of what Peter is saying. Interpreters have come up with all sorts of different interpretations. The fundamental question is who are these "spirits in prison"? Are they angels or humans? I believe they are angels for two reasons: 1) the language of the passage indicates it. "Spirits" in the plural always refers to evil spirits. (There is one exception in Hebrews, but that refers to the righteous.) Compare verse 19 with 4:6 (plainly talking about humans). "Spirits in prison" is a very different idea than "those who are dead." Scripture does not speak of dead people as "spirits in prison." Here the verb is to "proclaim," whereas there it is to preach the gospel. There is no mention of "good news" here. Peter uses "preach the gospel" in 1:25 & 4:6. So there is no offer of salvation here. It is simply a proclamation of the victory of Christ. Further, why would Christ proclaim his victory only to those people who disobeyed in the time of Noah? In 2 Peter 2:4 we hear of how Peter speaks of angelic beings in hell.

2) But the conclusive evidence is found in the structure of the passage. Verses 18-22 have a very tight literary structure: In verses 18-20 we hear first how Christ has triumphed through suffering, and second, how God saved Noah and his family through water. Then in verses 21-22 we hear first how we are saved by water, through the triumphant resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is called a chiasm. Christ's suffering/victory/judgment salvation through water in the flood salvation through water in baptism Christ's suffering/victory/judgment. On whom does judgment fall? In v22 it is plainly the angels, authorities and powers. Therefore, combined with the language, the structure of the passage is conclusive. In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus went and proclaimed his victory over the angelic powers.

Two questions: 1) Why "the days of Noah"? 2) What does this have to do with suffering?

The two questions are interrelated. If you read Genesis 6, there is no mention of angelic powers. Sure, some have taken the "Sons of God" to refer to fallen angels, but that view has no exegetical basis. The "sons of God" are plainly the line of Seth who is identified in that manner in Genesis 5. So why "the days of Noah"? What angelic powers rebelled and were disobedient? 

In order to understand this, we need to draw back the veil of history, and glimpse, for a moment, what is going on in the spiritual world. Human rebellion and disobedience is always mirrored by angelic rebellion and disobedience. It was so in the Garden of Eden. It was so in the life of Job. It is so in the Book of Revelation, which describes our lives in spiritual terms. Perhaps you've read Frank Peretti's books, This Present Darkness, etc. He gets spiritual warfare backwards. The most interesting and significant events, for Peretti, are the angels and demons. I recommend C. S. Lewis's space trilogy, especially That Hideous Strength, for a more accurate depiction of the relation between human and angelic. Because for Lewis, the most interesting and significant events are human, which is how it should be. But we dare not forget that human rebellion is incited and encouraged by demonic power. We speak of the powers of sin, death, and the devil. We speak of the world, the flesh, and the devil as sources of temptation, but do we really mean it? Oh, sure, we believe in sin and death. We experience the world and the flesh. But the devil? We don't have a problem believing in God. He, after all, is good! But do we really believe that there are evil powers out there, trying to destroy us? Peter did. "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."

In the Garden of Eden, the Devil won. And in the days of Noah, the Devil won. Indeed, the powers of darkness were victorious over virtually the whole human race for thousands of years. Consider Israel. Very few outside of Israel were saved, and even the people of God didn't do so well. Time after time they fell prey to idolatry, turning to demons rather than God.

Perhaps this is why Jewish thought spoke so much of the angelic and demonic world. The apocryphal books of 1 Enoch and Jubilees attempted to explain biblical history in angelic and demonic terms. These books were very common in Peter's day. You might say they were the Frank Peretti novels of the ancient world. By echoing their language Peter is not saying that they were inspired. I commended C. S. Lewis to you, but I would never say that he wrote Scripture! Likewise Peter is commending that spiritual vision of history. 1 Enoch tells the fictional story of how Enoch was commissioned by God to proclaim judgment against the wicked angels who had polluted the human race with their evil schemes. Peter is saying, remember that story about Enoch? Well Jesus is the one who really goes and proclaims judgment (v19), and not only that, but Jesus has also gone into heaven itself, to the right hand of God, "With angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him" (v22). Okay, that may explain what this has to do with Noah, but what about suffering? Don't you see? Where does suffering come from? Where does all unjust suffering come from? From the Evil One. Where else? Other people may be the agent, but you know the source.

There is a strange idea out there that demons can cause sin. You know Frank Peretti's names for his demons? Most have to do with vices. Where does the Bible say that demons cause sin? I once had a "demon" "manifest" in front of me. A friend of mine thought he had a demon and the demon showed up. When the supposed demon said that his name was "Fear," I began to wonder. Yes, there certainly were demons involved in that conversation, but I wasn't speaking to one. Demons do not cause sin. They cause suffering, both physical and spiritual torment, which then is an occasion for temptation. Remember Job? Could Satan cause him to sin? No! All he could do was torment the man. Peter speaks of this after speaking of the devil as a roaring lion: "Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world" (5:9). 

Resisting the devil means enduring suffering. If you are a Christian, then the devil will torment you. He may choose physical pain or spiritual temptations. He may utilize his minions, namely, those who have bowed the knee to one of his guises, (i.e., any unbeliever) and send them to torment you as well. He has many weapons. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh (there you see Peter's vision of the cooperation of man with the devil) but made alive in the Spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water. As God gave a picture of his eschatological final judgment in the Flood, Peter is saying that he also gave a prelude of that judgment to the angelic world. Just as he destroyed the humans who partook in the rebellion, so also he imprisoned the angelic instigators.

And then Peter says that you have passed through that final judgment! Our situation is like that of Noah. Judgment is coming, coming against angels and people. The flood was divine judgment and, for Noah, a picture of messianic suffering. It is a type of baptism, a symbol of death. Baptism is the symbolic link we have to show we accept the judgment of God and it is our common link to the sufferings of Christ. In baptism the final judgment is poured out upon us. But because Christ has suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, our baptism brings us to God, consecrating us as priests for his service. Through his resurrection, baptism now brings us through suffering to glory, through judgment to the right hand of God in Jesus Christ.

1 Pet 4:1: "Therefore Christ suffering in the flesh, you arm yourself with the same mindset, because the one who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin." Wait. If you suffer in the flesh, you still sin, don't you? Some people have taken this to be referring only of Christ. But Christ never "ceased from sin," he never was a sinner. 4:2: "in order that no longer according to human desires, but by the will of God, you should live out your lives."  Suffering is a divine judgment, but it is not necessarily a divine punishment" (Dan McCartney). Suffering is a kind of dividing point, a crisis. It is a crisis that really shows up a person's deep convictions about life. This suffering in the flesh is not suffering in general, but suffering for Christ in particular. And the result of suffering is that you cease from sin and live for God. It does not mean you are now sinless, but your former activities of sin are abandoned. The one suffering in the flesh is linked covenantally to Christ and His sufferings. Your suffering becomes a manifestation of Christ's suffering which is a judgment of God, as a benefit for His people. Suffering for Christ is not punishment but is gracious. Suffering as a Christian can be done for any cause or reason. Not all pain is suffering. Pain is a function of the nervous system that tells us that something is wrong. Suffering is pain caused by some evil influence or force in you.

As Protestants we tend simply to dismiss monasticism and all of its agenda. We do this to our own loss. One of the truly great insights of patristic and medieval monasticism was the place of suffering in the Christian life. They understood the relationship between suffering and ceasing from sin. Now at times they got carried away and overdid the self-inflicted suffering! (The Flagellants who thought that by beating themselves they could partake of the sufferings of Christ and thereby drive the plague out of Europe...) But they understood that the Christian must discipline his passions. The Gentiles are surprised at Christians because we do not live our lives for sensuality, passion, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties and lawless idolatry. We live instead for the will of God, patiently enduring suffering because we have partaken of the judgment of God.

And Peter concludes, "for this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the Spirit the way God does." Some try to connect this with 3:19 (the spirits in prison) but the language is more connected with 3:18: "Christ put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit." Therefore we ought to see 4:6 concluding this section by pointing out that even death (the ultimate in suffering) is not the final word. The gospel was preached to those who are dead (i.e., those Christians who have died) so that they might live their lives not for their passions, but for the will of God. They have died the same as all people ("judged in the flesh"), but because they have partaken of the sufferings of Christ, baptized into his judgment, they now live in the Spirit the way God does.

Because in the end, those who share in Christ's suffering, share in his life and glory.

Copyright © 2003 Peter J. Wallace