Suffering, New Life, and the Glory of God
Read: 1 Peter 3:18-22
Reflect
If some clever smiley Christian company were to design a Monopoly knock-off, I would imagine that even more popular than “Chance” and “Community Chest” cards (renamed “No-Such-Thing-As-Chance” and “Koinonia” cards) would be the “Get out of Suffering Free” passes. Who wouldn’t want them? Who really gets married thinking their spouses would wound them deeply, intentionally or not? Or who joins a church thinking, “I hope this is a place where I can find some conflict and be yelled at?” I don’t typically begin my day wondering how my attempts at righteousness and doing good will earn me slander or harm in the community. I don’t like it when life works out that way, even though Peter presents these very situations as the context of I Peter chapter three. They are the very kinds of suffering that Christians can expect to face.
In this passage Peter encourages us that God’s purposes are being worked out, especially in times of suffering. Need proof? Jesus’ suffering resulted in glory for God, in His name proclaimed in the darkest of places in the spiritual realm, and in the faithful presented truly alive before God. Jesus endured the wounds of his own people, died at their hands, and was slandered by all onlookers. Although righteous, he was judged as unrighteous before God for our sake.
Baptism is no mere bathtub experience. Baptism proclaims to the world, like the story of Noah across the generations, that the suffering of the righteous can affect many. Baptism is God’s gift—His official seal on our flesh— given so we can know that the only way to move from sinful rebellion against God to new life is through the propitiatory (satisfying God’s holiness) and vicarious (on behalf of human sin) suffering of Christ. For believers, baptism is assurance that we can in good conscience face any difficulties, hurts, injustices, and evil in this world with the confidence that God is at work for His glory.
How is God at work through your struggles today? Do you want escape from suffering more than you want Christ’s righteousness to be seen in you? As Martin Luther reminder himself daily, “I know this for certain, I am baptized.”
Keith Hileman
Respond
Pray for elder Chuck Hendricks, staff Diana Palmer, deacon John Sand, and last names “V” in our body.
