The Work of Salvation Is Done

Transcript

GR 1940
02/07/2016
The Work of Salvation is Done
I Peter 3:18
Gil Rugh

We are in 1 Peter in our study together so I direct your attention there, I Peter chapter 3. Peter is writing about the matter of suffering, difficulties, trials, persecutions and these things are somewhat more bearable if we can grasp something of what is happening. Why is God doing this? Why is He working the way that He is? You go through the trial and you realize this is the hand of God at work. I can appreciate it more. I don’t always see the specific reason but Peter is writing to encourage these Jewish believers scattered outside the land of Israel in their persecutions and sufferings that this is part of God’s purpose and plan for them and even though you might not see specifically how He is using this, you can be sure that He is using it as you function in obedience to Him and handle it according to His will.

Leave a marker there in Peter and come back to the gospel of John chapter 16. Again these chapters where Jesus is speaking to His disciples shortly before His betrayal and subsequent crucifixion and in John chapter 16 he speaks about the Father loving them in verse 27: “The Father Himself loves you because you have loved Me and believe that I came from Him.” Then he gives this word of encouragement in verse 33: “These things I have spoken to you so that in Me you may have peace.” That is where peace is found. That transcending peace and he goes on to put it in a context. “In the world you will have tribulation but take courage I have overcome the world.” So He doesn’t say that because He has overcome the world we won’t have tribulation but we can have courage in the tribulations that we will have in this world and they are multi-faceted. Peter is writing specifically in the context of believers may be suffering for their faith and their testimony but there are other kinds of tribulations and difficulties that come and the same principles apply. We have seen this in our study in 2 Corinthians. Paul talked about the sufferings he went through, talked about having a thorn in the flesh, some kind of physical trial that God said He would not remove but He would give him adequate grace that would enable him to go through the trial and would magnify God’s power in his life.

So come back to Peter. Trials then are not unexpected and in fact for us as believers they have every reason to be magnified because we live in a world that is opposed to the Master that we serve; so Peter is writing to these Jewish believers to encourage them.

In verse 14 of chapter 3: “Even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness you are blessed and do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled.” So even when you suffer for doing what is right you suffer because you want to serve the Lord and honor the Lord. You want to be obedient to Him. You want to be a light shining in the darkness both with your life and with your testimony verbally. It is a blessing from God. So he uses that. He has talked about that in the different contexts where you know we serve unbelieving masters or under their authority beginning with government and Peter could write about this and he will die under an unjust government as will Paul but all within the purpose and plan of God.

He had told them in verse 15 in that context of being blessed in suffering: “Sanctify,” set apart, that word ‘to sanctify’ to be holy, to be a saint. The basic meaning is to be set apart. Someone is holy. God is holy because He is set apart from sin. So sanctify, set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts. He is the One that we love, that we serve, and that we represent. “Always ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you yet with gentleness and reverence.” I like the emphasis he puts here.

Under this context you want to give a testimony, to tell the lost world that is without hope about the hope that we have in Christ and we do it with gentleness and reverence. The idea of beating them down and how unfair, unjust, ungodly, unrighteous they are we have to speak to them about sin and the seriousness of sin but we were just like them. We have experienced a forgiveness that gives us a hope and be ready to give that kind of defense, reasoned explanation and keep a good conscience. Conduct yourself properly. It won’t keep you from being slandered but your good behavior will be an ongoing testimony and will have its impact and perhaps they will be put to shame and realize what I have been saying about them is not true. It’s a lie. Maybe God will use that to convict them.

So our life and our words are going together, reinforcing one another. They are not saved by observing a life but a life supports the reasoned explanation we give of the hope that we have in Christ.

“And it is better if God so will it that you suffer for doing what is right than for doing what is wrong.” You note the will of God in this. That is our confidence, our assurance. The One we serve is Lord, verse 15, we said of Christ as Lord. I realize I am under His authority. He is in control. He is sovereign; so if it His will that we suffer for doing what is right, well fine. We never come to the point to say, “Well, I might as well have done the wrong thing. If I am going to suffer for it I might have got more benefit out of doing what was wrong. I might have avoided things, no, we realize God is sovereign even in the injustice done to us. That gives us a peace, a courage, a confidence.

That is what we talked about earlier today, that we keep ourselves focused. My desire is to honor the Lord, be obedience to Him. Now whatever else comes that doesn’t shake me and change my focus and Peter is writing about the same thing.

The example is Christ back in chapter 2, verse 21: “You have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you” and it is in the context of course, the end of verse 20, “if you suffer and do what is right and you suffer for it.” That finds favor with God. It is pleasing to Him because we are acknowledging His sovereignty in our commitment and in every circumstance to please Him, honor Him, manifest His character and Christ gave us an example. You are not saved by following the example of Christ but as His children He is our Lord. It is enough for us that we be like Him and “He committed no sin, no deceit was found in His mouth. When He was reviled He didn’t revile in return. When suffering He uttered no threats. He kept entrusting Himself to the One who judges righteously.” You see the overlap and what the Spirit says in the Word and what we have been studying in the end of II Corinthians in light of the fact that God is the One who judges me and to Whom I will give an account. And then “Christ bore our sins in His body” and this is where Peter is going now at the end of chapter 3, the same emphasis.

So we come to verse 18 of chapter 3 and you will note the ‘for’ or ‘because’ where 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.” And this is one of those special passages. One of the most concise and clear summaries of the work of Christ that we have in all Scripture. Very simply said, Christ died for sins for all. There is a finality to it. The righteous One for the unrighteous. Why? So that He might bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit and that is the ultimate promise that we have too even if we suffer death that is not the end for us.

So you will note the connecting words, and, verse 16; for, verse 17; for and then the preposition in verse 19, ‘in which’ all connecting together, tying this into the matter of suffering, difficulties, trials, opposition. We don’t have lives built around trying to avoid difficulty, trials, suffering. We are not doing what we can to stir them up. No, our focus is doing what would be pleasing to God. Paul didn’t go into a city with ‘I am going to do everything I can to make a ruckus and get people upset but he did go into a city saying, “I am determined I will present Jesus Christ, Him crucified as the payment in full for sin and the One in whom there is salvation.” Now whatever trouble and trial that brings so be it. So we want to keep the focus clear.

“For Christ died for sins, once for all.” You will note that word ‘also.’ “For Christ also died.” He connects the sufferings that believers go through with the sufferings of Christ. So verse 17: “It is better if God should will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. For Christ also died for sins.” That was back in verse 24 of chapter 2. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.” And “He is the one who committed no sin” verse 22, “no deceit was found in His mouth” but He conducted Himself in a manner pleasing to the Father in the most unjust treatment, unfair treatment.

So the example now in chapter 3 again is Christ. We ought to be like Him. Not always though the easy road and the most pleasant situation. “Christ also died for sins.” He paid the penalty. “He bore our sins in His body on the cross,” as chapter 2 verse 24. “So that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” because He is acting on our behalf to pay our penalty. He is taking our place. We call it substitutionary atonement which sadly is being abandoned by many who call themselves evangelical but they no longer believe in substitutionary atonement. They no longer fit within the confines of what we normally have identified as evangelicals, Bible believing Christians. It is clear, “Christ died for sins once for all.” That is why He is here on the earth, why He went to the cross to die for sins, once. There is a finality that once for all there is no for all in the word but you know it can be taken two ways when we put that in English. He is not emphasizing He died once for everyone in this passage. But he died once period. There is a finality to His death. It is a finished work that cannot be repeated. In the work of Christ everything that needed to be done to accomplish the work of salvation has been done; the clarity of it. This is what marks us off from others within “Christendom.” They call themselves Christians but then they add things. He died once. There is a finality in His death. It is a finished work. It can’t be added to. Nothing can be taken away from it.

Come back to Hebrews chapter 9 just before Peter. You have James and just before James you have Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 9. This is part of our being ready to give a reasoned explanation of the faith that is in us. Christ died for sins, once. It is done. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 26: “Otherwise He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world.” Contrast with the Old Testament system where the priest kept reoffering sacrifice, reoffering sacrifice but now once and there’s our word ‘once,’ hapax”at the consummation of the ages He has manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself and “in as much as it is appointed for men to die once; after this comes judgment,” physical death, the appointment to die. He died.

So Christ also having been offered once, that emphasis on the word ‘once.’ We had it in verse 26, we have it in verse 27, we have it in verse 28, “Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await for Him,” anticipating the second coming of Christ. His first coming when He was manifested on this earth was to deal with sin, “put away sin” as verse 26 says “by the sacrifice of Himself.” That necessitated His death on the cross and all that entailed and He was taking the penalty that we had “for the wages of sin is death.”

So that once for all sacrifice, once for all time. The finality of that sacrifice was to bear the sins of many. It is on the behalf of many. Now the next time He appears He won’t be coming to provide a sacrifice for sins. He will be coming to bring the salvation that He has accomplished to fruition for those who have believed in Him.

You come into chapter 10 of Hebrews while you are here, verse 10: “By this will we have been sanctified, set apart, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.” There is our word again, ‘once.’ Down in verse 12: “But He having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time.” This is the finality of it. “He sat down at the right hand of God.” Remember there were no chairs provided for the priest as he went around his priestly ministry in the temple in the Old Testament tabernacle because his work was never done. Those sacrifices that were repeated regularly could never take away sins but Christ’s work of offering sacrifice was done.

Verse 14: “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” There is a finality to what Christ has done. That is why those who add anything are cursed by God. We talked about what Paul has to deal with so many times, the Judaizers who want to add to the work of Christ, the necessity of the Mosaic Law and circumcision. The difference between the reformers in their opposition to Catholicism which what? Has a re-sacrifice of Christ in the Mass regularly. You read in the obituaries and they will talk about when someone dies there will be a Mass said, what? Is the work not done? Christ is back in physical form to be re-sacrificed again? There is nothing to share in common here. Protestants do the same thing by adding their works, other activities, baptisms, whatever. We have to understand Christ has done everything. All we can do is respond in faith, receive the free gift but we can’t add to it. We can’t take away from it.

Come back to Peter. “For Christ also died for sins, once for all,” or for all time, a finality to it. It was the just for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous. That word ‘for,’ that little preposition we have there. The just for Greek word for the word ‘for’ huper, sometimes referred to as the preposition of the atonement because of how often it is used, on behalf of the righteous on behalf of the unrighteous. He was taking our place.

Chapter 2, verse 24: “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.” He had no sin of His own so He was bearing our sins; the righteous One was acting on our behalf, taking our place, paying our penalty is the point “that He might bring us to God.”

Come back to chapter 1 of Peter. Remember these are Jewish believers and they pride themselves on their heritage and you know being tied back to Abraham and all of that. There is a place for that but that couldn’t save them. So verse 18 of I Peter 1: “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile, empty way of life inherited from your forefathers.” The things most precious in this world couldn’t’ redeem you but “you were redeemed with precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” That is God’s plan of redemption. That is God’s only plan of redemption. There is no other way of salvation. We have talked about this. There is a washing out of this and those who call themselves evangelicals have lost their way. They have what they call the National Prayer Breakfast and some of you listen to that and you hear them speak about faith and what brings us together is our faith. I am not saying it was evangelical speaking but I say, “Could an evangelical sit through this if you really believe the Scripture?” It is our faith that sustains us; our faith that keeps us going. We are people of faith. You realize all of that is meaningless. It is the point. There is only way. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me,” period. Now if you stood up that would sort of unsettle that particular meeting and many others because we want to just talk about, well, it’s by faith and we all have our faith in God. We have different varieties of it but we all are trusting God and that is what gets us through the hard times. You know people believe a lie and they find some comfort in that.

Some of us were talking this week about the fraud that had been done. People had invested money and lost large sums of money. They believed. They were comforted. You see these people being interviewed on TV and they said, “You know, we thought our retirement was set. We thought we were comfortable for life.” They believed it. They had faith in that. But their faith was worthless.

This idea that because you have faith you have something. If you have faith in something worthless you have a worthless faith. Faith in and of itself doesn’t have value. If I jump off the top of a building and have faith that I will float down, my faith is worthless. Faith doesn’t make me float. Now if I have a parachute and have faith in the parachute and it is a good one then I have faith in something worthwhile. So the point here, the finality of the work of Christ.

Come back to II Corinthians because this leads into where we are going so we will look at the passage more broadly. II Corinthians chapter 5 which we have looked at in our studies in II Corinthians and this is one of those passages that you come to often and it is good for us to settle and fix in our minds some of these passages. Not that all Scripture has its place but some passages bring together in a concise and clear way the message concerning the work of Christ and so it is those kind of passages we can bring to people and they express in a succinct, clear way what Christ has done. We don’t want to get led off into rabbit trails that take explanations here and there and in II Corinthians chapter 5, we were in this earlier in our study today too where Paul realizes he will give an account to God. “He is controlled,” (verse 14) “by the love that Christ has for us. We believe that one died for all; therefore all died.” He was their substitute acting on their behalf and “He died on behalf of all so that those who live might no longer live for themselves.” That saving was not just to be an escape from hell it was so that we could be born again, born from above, partakers of the divine nature. Now we live not for ourselves, that selfish, self-centered life, we live for Him who died and rose again on our behalf. We are no longer our own. We have been brought with a price, Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians. “Therefore we are to glorify God in our bodies.” We live for Him.

Verse 17: “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature (a new creation) old things pass away, new things come. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself.” This is where Peter is going. We will read this here and then we will see it when we get back to Peter. God reconciled us to Himself. Peter will say that Christ brought us to God, His death, reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

What is that ministry of reconciliation? Telling people God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. What does that mean? Not counting their trespasses against them. That is what we are talking about. The righteous One died in the place of, on behalf of the unrighteous. That means that now it is possible for me to have my account wiped clean, stamped “paid in full,” nothing owed. My sins are not counted against me. That is what it means, God was reconciling us. We can’t be reconciled to God with our sins. They have to be taken care of. He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. I love that, the word of reconciliation. We tell people we are not re-doing the work of reconciliation as the paganist practiced; people trying to do things to bring about. It’s just the word of reconciliation. We are telling people the Gospel. Christ died for our sins; that benefit can be yours if you will trust Him; the simplicity of it.

You know, first people don’t want to admit they need that. They are that sinful and secondly they are antagonized by being told their way won’t get them there. You think people would be happy to hear. “You mean, I don’t have to work my way to heaven?” “You mean I don’t have to go through all these rituals, endlessly, hoping to be at the right place when I die?” No, no, no, no. “You mean I don’t have to go to purgatory and have burned off things that didn’t get taken care of?” No. What can you say? It is almost too good to be true, isn’t it? You think there would be people lined up at your door waiting to hear what you had to tell them, tell something of the seriousness of sin that the beauty and clarity of this message is so forcefully rejected.

We are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us. See what an honored position we have? You realize you stand as God’s spokesman. It is as though God is speaking through you, not direct revelation but the revelation is given. When I tell people the Gospel it is God speaking through me. It is His words. I am just passing them on. “We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.” There we go again; taking our place, paying our penalty so that we might “become the righteousness of God in Him.” He took our sin and gave us His righteousness in effect, God’s righteousness which is what we need. That is why no one can bring a charge against God’s elect, Romans 8 because God has justified, declared us righteous, credited us with His righteousness. That is what we need. That is what He has done.

So come back to Peter. I didn’t forget we were studying Peter. “Christ died once for all, the just on behalf of the unjust so that He might bring us to God.” We just read in II Corinthians to reconcile us, to bring us in right relationship with God. You know people don’t want to think of themselves cut off from God.

Back up to Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2. The chapter begins, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins,” spiritually dead, cut off from God “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience among them we all too formerly lived in the lust of our flesh indulging the desire of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.” We like to talk about God’s love and it is true He is a God of love. God is love but they divorce it from the context of Scripture. This is the great manifestation of love that “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” If you don’t avail yourself of that you are not the object of God’s love. You are the object of God’s wrath. If you are not a child of God you are a child of His wrath. You are not a child of His love. “We were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.” There are only two kinds of people, those who have taken hold of the benefit of Christ’s death by placing their faith in Him and those who haven’t. There is no middle ground. Like Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me.” So we needed to be brought to God. There are different ways to picture it. “Be reconciled to God.” Have the enmity between us resolved. There is nothing I can do. He did it all. Now I can receive, accept, believe in what He has done or I can choose not to. But you note, until we respond in faith we are children of wrath. We are not people in the middle trying to make a decision. We are the enemies of God deciding whether we will continue as the enemies of God in opposition to Him or we will bow in submission to His will, placing our faith in His provision. This is not as we would say, rocket science. It is not complicated. Now in one sense it is almost unexplainable that such a transformation could take place in such a simple clear way. What do I have to do to have eternal life, to be forgiven for eternity for all my sins, past, present and future? Place your faith in Christ. Boy that is really difficult and complicated. I don’t really know if I can understand that. It’s not, that is not the problem. The problem is sin, stubbornness, rebellion.

Come back to I Peter chapter 3. This is all accomplished “by Christ having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit.” Put the death in the flesh, His physical death, His death on the cross. It always comes back to that and He was made alive in the Spirit. Some would say, “By the Spirit” and make it the Holy Spirit. It seems the contrast here is what happened to Him physically and what happened to Him spiritually. But His resurrection was with a physical, glorified body but it is referred to in Scripture as His spiritual body even though it is not spirit in the sense it is not tangible. It’s not this body raised though we have to be careful that we put it in the right context.

Come back to I Corinthians chapter 15, I Corinthians chapter 15 and Paul is talking about resurrection and the bodily resurrection and there were some in the church in the Corinth. Well if there are problems and there are sins like we saw in our study in II Corinthians chapter 12 at the close of that chapter and then they got all their doctrinal issues like there were those in the church at Corinth that were denying the bodily resurrection, verse 12. “If Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead how do some among you (in the church at Corinth) say there is no resurrection of the dead?” That would mean Christ wouldn’t have been bodily raised. If Christ hasn’t been bodily raised there can be no salvation so it is a package. “The wages of sin is death.” The resurrection of Christ from the dead is the seal and guarantee of that finished work and providing for what we will get, a resurrected, glorified body.

Verse 20: “Christ has been raised from the dead” and it goes on to talk about resurrection body and he gets somewhat we might say, impatient with them. Somebody will say in verse 35 trying to be you know, very scholarly, “How are the dead raised, what kind of body do they come, what kind of body are you going to get from that body that is decayed and blown away as dust or ashes or whatever?” Paul’s response, “You fool,” and then he goes on to explain.

You come down to verse 44. He talks about the body: “It is sewn a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body there is also a spiritual body” which is a body brought about by the work of the Spirit in transforming this body so it is this physical body but it is this physical body that has undergone a transformation. So it can be called in one sense a spiritual body but not a spirit that we think of that is disembodied. It is a spiritual body, this body but this body with major changes that makes it so it can be contrasted with a perishable body and an imperishable body, a natural body and a body that has been totally changed by the Spirit so that we can call it a spiritual body.

Now we come back to I Peter. “He was made alive in the Spirit.” That brings us to the blessed hope of the believer that since Christ has been raised from the dead where we were in I Corinthians 15 He is the first fruits guaranteeing the resurrection with that unique, imperishable spiritual body, this body so changed and the glory of that body when he talks about a seed put in the ground and then what you get out of that seed when it grows you think of the seed put in and then the beauty of the flower. You get some idea the amazing glory that would be associated in the context of the resurrected, glorified body. It is a body of glory. That is why it is called a glorified body.

Come back to chapter 1, verse 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” You see everything comes back to Christ, who He is, what He has done, the Son of God who has died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin has been raised victorious over sin. The work of redemption is done. Everything necessary for us to enter into the fullness of glory in the presence of the glorious God has been taken care of. We will obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled because remember, we will be in a body which is imperishable and undefiled and this inheritance will not fade away and it is reserved in heaven for us and we are protected by the power of God through faith because we believe and that’s for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

So that is what keeps you going in these times of distress. This just keeps recycling and recycling. Talk about your troubles, your trials and the various ways they come and the various situation God put you in but it is all in the context of what Christ has done and now that you belong to Him how God is working in your life in preparation in to using you for that ultimate time when He will bring to completion what He has done.

So you come back to verse 19 where I said we were going to be tonight. That wasn’t a promise. It is in this Spirit He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison who were once disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah and we are going to stop here but this is where we are going and this is what some call one of the most perplexing and difficult passages in all the Bible so we will look at this and make sense of it. It is interesting how these things are brought in by the Spirit of God in the context of the great statement in verse 18 and follow it up with some statements that seem to be confusing. We just want to keep them in proper perspective. We will stop here. Now you have everything you need. You have been pumped again through this week. Take the time to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with someone else. Be God’s mouthpiece to them. Look for that opportunity and perhaps by God’s grace they will respond in faith.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your grace. What a blessing it is to be reminded of the wonder and beauty, the finality of the salvation that was accomplished with the finished work of Jesus Christ. How blessed we are to know that He did everything necessary for us to stand before You holy and blameless and without spot; to have the assurance and promise that someday we will be glorified to spend eternity in the glory of Your presence. May everything that we do and everything we go through be shaped by our grasp of our understanding of these wonderful truths. Bless us in our service for You in the week before we pay in Christ’s name amen.