Lesson 14 – I Peter Chapter 3:16-21
I Peter 3:16
“And keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.”
In the previous verses Peter has instructed us that God’s eyes are always on us, that He’s always watching over His children, and He listens to us when we pray (that is unless some sin has gotten in the way).
God also wants us to be zealous for Him, that we should not be satisfied with just the status quo in our life with Christ. For us to be zealous in our faith, we need to be active in our faith. This involves us standing up for what we believe in.
Standing up and living for Jesus might mean that some kind of persecutions could come your way. If it does, wear it like a badge of courage (blessings will come). Then when God puts someone in front of you who needs to hear about Jesus, we don’t avoid them, we’re not afraid of them, we just want to tell them about the “hope” that God has placed in our heart.
In verse 15, Peter told us to “sanctify Christ as Lord in our hearts.” Now in verse 16, Peter is talking to us about having a good conscience. Now, if you’ve made Jesus Lord of your heart, I’m pretty sure you have a good conscience as well, it comes with being a disciple of Christ. When you’re right with God, you confess your sins daily… this keeps a clear conscience.
We could ask the question, why is it important for us to have a good conscience? Without having a good conscience, I don’t see how a person would be able to speak boldly to another person, especially when asked about the “hope” that lies within them, I think there would be a great inner conflict.
The word conscience comes from the Greek word soo-ni’-da-sis meaning the soul discerning between what is morally good or bad, prompting to do the good and shun the bad, commending one, condemning the other.
The conscience is that “pesky” little internal judge that witnesses to us, telling us right from wrong. I use the word “pesky” here because that’s how an unbeliever tends to view their conscience, they don’t like the way it invades their personal freedoms. The believer’s conscience is informed and guided by the Holy Spirit. A mature believer welcomes the convictions that come from the Holy Spirit because it leads them to confession and fellowship with God.
Our conscience can be seen as a window that lets the light of God’s truth in. If we ignore our conscience, that window becomes dirty, making it harder for the light of God’s truth to come in.
Paul refers to Gentiles having a conscience, being aware of God’s laws in their heart…
Rom. 2:14-15
“Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know His law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.” (NLT)
From Gotquestions.org;
“The conscience is a servant of the individual’s value system. An immature or weak value system produces a weak conscience, while a fully informed value system produces a strong sense of right and wrong. In the Christian life, one’s conscience can be driven by an inadequate understanding of scriptural truths and can produce feelings of guilt and shame disproportionate to the issues at hand. Maturing in the faith strengthens the conscience.”
Feeding on the Word of God produces an informed value system, thus giving a conscience we can depend on.
Bible commentator Dr. Colin Kruse says, “The conscience is not to be equated with the voice of God or even the moral law, rather it is a human faculty which decides upon human action by the light of the highest standard a person perceives.”
In Titus we see a conscience that has low standards.
Titus 1:15
“Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted.” (NLT)
There was a man who owned a beautiful luxury car, and in it, like most cars these days, was a computer-generated voice system that notified him of any problems. He referred to the voice as “the little lady.” One day, as he was driving, the little lady said, “You’re running low on fuel, you’re running low on fuel.” No way, thought the man. I have almost half a tank left. Every thirty seconds the voice said, “Stop for gas, stop for gas.”
Frustrated, he stopped his car, reached under the dash, and ripped out the wiring. When he drove a little farther, his car sputtered to a stop, yep, he ran out of gas. The little lady wasn’t wrong, it was his gas gauge that was broken.
The moral of the story is, we’re created with a voice inside us that says, “You’re running low on fuel,” or “Stay away from there,” or “Watch out what you’re getting yourself into.” The problem is, those with a seared conscience or an evil conscience say, “No problem,” as they begin ripping away the wires of their conscience… until they can no longer hear the voice within. We need that voice within.
I think what we’re seeing in the world today are countless people with seared, corrupted, and evil consciences, fighting against God every chance they get. The sad part is, some don’t even realize it.
A criminal feels guilty if he “rats out” on his friends, but is ecstatic if he gets away with committing some kind of crime. To take it to the extreme, Muslem terrorists are exuberant whenever they kill or destroy the Jews, their conscience has been seared by satan. What we saw happen in Israel on October 7th was indeed demonic.
Since the conscience holds people to their highest perceived standard, the Christian needs to set that standard to the highest level by submitting to all of God’s Word. Another important reason for us to study God’s Word. It’s not enough to do it just once a week at church.
Job 27:6
“I will maintain my innocence without wavering. My conscience is clear for as long as I live.” (NLT)
What Job says makes perfect sense. By maintaining our innocence, we help ourselves by always having a clear conscience.
Until a person receives Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they are laden with a life full of guilt, shame, and self-contempt… that is, unless their conscience is so seared they lose the ability to listen to it at all.
Hebrews 9:14
“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Our God-given conscience is cleansed by God through the finished work of Jesus, which frees our conscience from the guilt of sin. Sometimes a person still feels guilty about their sins of the past, this happens when people don’t fully understand that Jesus died for all their sins and that they are completely forgiven. Satan loves to confuse people that way.
Hebrews 10:22
“Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting Him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.” (NLT)
It’s always good to be washed in the Word. When we study God’s Word, it has a way of fine-tuning our conscience, making us more sensitive to what is right and wrong.
And keep a good conscience… so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.
In this, we can agree with the apostle Paul…
Acts 24:16
“I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.”
Paul was all about maintaining his conscience. As Christians, we are to keep our consciences clear by obeying God and keeping our relationship with Him in good standing. We do this by the application of His Word, and confessing our sins daily.
In which you are slandered…
Slandered Christians who maintain their good behavior in Christ will have their consciences clear, untroubled by guilt, and their godly lives will prove any finger pointing by unbelievers to be false.
Those who revile… means to insult, to treat abusively, use despitefully, to accuse falsely, and to threaten.
The Christian with a pure conscience can endure and deflect whatever the reviling world throws at them, things like abusive speech or any kind of insulting language. And let’s be real, being a faithful active believer sometimes requires us to have a “thick skin” at times.
I Cor. 4:12-13
“We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. We appeal gently when evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage, like everybody’s trash – right up to the present moment. (NLT)
Our job is to keep on maintaining our good behavior in Christ, and in doing so, our accusers will be put to shame. Adversity is just a reality when it comes to living for Christ. When you suffer for Christ, think of it as a spiritual privilege. If we really believe “that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose,” we will understand “all” as being part of God’s plan, even though there will times we won’t understand all things.
Joseph understood this even though he faced adversity many times in his life:
Gen. 50:20
“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”
Our Christian journey includes God equipping His saints all along the way, even as we endure a hostile world at times.
I Peter 3:17
“For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.”
This sounds like this verse should be in the book of Proverbs instead of First Peter. This doesn’t require any explanation, but I found this from Puritan Thomas Watson;
“Afflictions work for good, as they make way for glory… not that they merit glory, but they prepare for it. As plowing prepares the earth for a crop, so afflictions prepare and make us ready for glory.”
I Peter 3:18
“For 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;”
Here we have a “flagship” verse from Peter, and when I say flagship, I mean this is one of the crown jewels from Peter. Moving away from the topic of a good conscience, a good conscience isn’t dependent on what we do or don’t do, but upon what Jesus has done for us. Christ suffered to bring man to Himself.
For Christ also died for sins once for all… we can only have a clear conscience when we understand that our sins, failures, and shortcomings were completely paid for by Jesus.
“Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”
Once for all…
Romans 6:10
“For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”
Hebrews 7:27 (Speaking of Jesus)
“Who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.”
Hebrews 9:12
“And not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”
Hebrews 10:10
“By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
The sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf was absolutely perfect, never needing to be repeated. The whole book of Hebrews deals with the ways that the New Covenant in Christ is better than the Old Covenant, and this includes all the Levitical sacrifices that were made on a daily basis. At the heart of the gospel is the fact that Jesus Christ, who is perfectly righteous, died for unrighteous sinners.
Romans 3:25
“For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past,” (NLT)
God has provided redemption for the world through Jesus. God had a plan from eternity past, that His Son would die for the sins of the world, once for all… “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” Once for all means the entire human race… “the world.” “So that everyone who believes will have eternal life in Him.” (Jn. 3:15)
Romans 10:9
“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”
Christ also died for… this phraseology is to remind believers not to be surprised or discouraged when they experience different kinds of suffering due to the fact that Jesus triumphed in His suffering. The NKJV uses the word “suffered” instead of “died.” Man deserves to die, Jesus did not.
The just for the unjust… this is a picture of Jesus’ life given for our life… a substitutionary death on our behalf.
John 10:15-18
“Even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
Human logic would ask, if God knows all things, why did He even create man when He knew in advance that man would sin against Him? If God didn’t create man with free choice, then His Son wouldn’t need to suffer and die.
Indeed, God’s ways aren’t our ways, and what God did for us gives us a picture of His perfect holy love for us. Do we honestly realize how priceless our salvation truly is?
I Peter 2:24
“And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.”
So that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit…
When we question “Why” did Jesus do this? Our verse says, So that He might bring us to God… all because people are dead in their sins.
The phrase that He might bring… this is the action of Jesus. In ancient courts, certain officials controlled all the access to the king. Before anyone could see the king, they would verify if that person had to right to see him. Today we call it “vetting” someone. Once a person was “vetted” then that person would then be introduced to the monarch. This is what Jesus does for believers… we see this in Hebrews 6:19-20:
“This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.” (NLT)
Jesus did this to bring His elect into communion with God.
Hebrews 2:17-18
“Therefore, it was necessary for Him to be made in every respect like us, His brothers and sisters, so that He could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then He could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. Since He Himself has gone through suffering and testing, He is able to help us when we are being tested.” (NLT)
All of Jesus’ actions were done so that He might bring us to the throne room of God, where we now have full access through Him.
Eph. 2:18
“For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.”
Having been put to death in the flesh…
There are those who say that Jesus never died on the cross, that He just fainted into some kind of a semi-coma. That Jesus was then taken down from the cross and placed in a cool tomb where He later revived, unwrapped Himself, and walked out of the tomb.
Crucifixion was a brutal way to die, sometimes it could take up to a week for a person to die. Those who were crucified would lift themselves up with their legs to try to catch a breath of air. To stop them from doing this, the soldiers would break their legs, making it too painful for them to lift up for air… they would eventually suffocate. However, the soldiers didn’t bother to break Jesus’ legs because they could see that He was already dead.
John 19:36
“For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, “not a bone of Him shall be broken.”
Then just to make sure Jesus was dead, one of the soldiers thrust a spear into Jesus’ chest.
John 19:34
“But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.”
Having been put to death in the flesh… leaves no doubt that on the cross Jesus’ physical life ended.
The phrase made alive in the spirit… there’s two ways to look at this.
In the spirit is the translated word new-mah, the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son. Or it may refer to Christ’s human spirit in contrast with His human body. The point Peter is making here is, even though Jesus was dead physically, He remained alive in His spirit.
Warren Wiersbe has an interesting comment on this,
“It seems evident that, if He was “made alive in the spirit,” at some point His spirit must have died. It was probably when He was made sin for us and was forsaken by the Father. So on the cross, our Lord suffered and died. His body was put to death, and His spirit died when He was made sin. But His spirit was made alive and He yielded it to the Father.”
I Peter 3:19-20
“In which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.”
“So he went and preached to the spirits in prison, those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood.” (NLT)
These two verses are going to require a little bit of a “deep dive” on our part.
In which also… this refers to what happened with Jesus’ living spirit while His dead physical body was still sealed in the tomb.
He went… Jesus went somewhere. This is where people get all confused, they say, “Oh no, Jesus went to hell and suffered for our sins,” which isn’t true at all. This comes primarily from the Apostles’ Creed, which states, “He descended into hell.” It’s important to first understand what the Bible teaches about “the realm of the dead” or “the place of the dead.”
There are two words used to describe the place of the dead, sheol and hades. A lot of people when they hear the word hades immediately translate it to mean hell… it’s not.
Acts 2:31
“He (David) looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay.”
The word “hades” refers to the place of the unbelieving dead, a temporary place where they await the resurrection. Hell is the permanent and final place of judgment for the lost, along with satan and his demons. When a Christian dies, they go to neither place, but go to heaven to be with Jesus.
Where did Jesus go when it says He went? Jesus went to hades, or we could say He visited “the place of the dead.”
Jesus made a proclamation to the spirits now in prison… the word proclamation means to be a herald, or to officiate as a herald. Contrary to what some people think, Jesus did not preach the gospel in hades, but He did make a proclamation.
The spirits now in prison… who are these spirits? They’re probably fallen angels.
Jude 6
“And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,”
What Jesus heralded or proclaimed we’re not told, but there’s a good chance it was a declaration of His victory over satan and his demons. I imagine there was a great deal of weeping and gnashing of teeth going on that day.
Who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah…
This takes us back to Genesis 6:1-4 (NLT)
“Then the people began to multiply on the earth, and daughters were born to them. The sons of God saw the beautiful women and took any they wanted as their wives. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.” In those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilim lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times.”
The oldest interpretation, the traditional Jewish view of ancient rabbis and modern Jewish commentators, as well as of the church fathers, is that “the sons of God” were demons, or fallen angels.
These are the ones held in hades, that Jesus made His proclamation to. They filled the earth with their wickedness to such an extent that not even 120 years of Noah’s preaching to them during the construction of the ark convinced any of them to repent of their godless ways. Only eight persons, were brought safely through the water, everyone else in the world was destroyed.
The water… God protected Noah and his family from the flood waters. With this in mind, Noah and his family become a type or picture of salvation through Jesus Christ… which preserves all who will believe, saving them from God’s judgment on sinners.
I Peter 3:21
“Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you… not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience… through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,”
Now here is a phrase, that if you take it out of context, you’ll get the wrong understanding… baptism now saves you. Baptism doesn’t save a person. Peter saw in the “flood” a picture or type of a Christian’s experience in baptism. The “flood” at the time of Noah is a picture of death, burial, and resurrection. The early church saw in the “ark” a picture of salvation. Noah and his family were saved by God when they placed their faith in God. So it is the same for all sinners who put their faith in Jesus and become one with him. Baptism isn’t what saves, it’s the resurrection of Jesus that saves.
Not the removal of dirt from the flesh… putting a person in water, or just water on a body, can’t remove the stain of sin. Only the blood of Jesus can do that… there’s power in the blood.
I John 1:7
“But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
But an appeal to God for a good conscience… Peter has already told us that having a good conscience is important to being a witness for Christ. And part of that good witness has to do with us being faithful to our commitment to Jesus… as seen in our baptism. Baptism is a public declaration of a commitment to Jesus,
Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…
I Cor. 15:13, 16-17
“But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised;
For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.”
All the proof we’ll ever need is in the resurrection…
Budda, Mohammod, Gandi… they are all still in their graves. Just as there’s power in the blood of Christ, there’s power in His resurrection! We can say death comes when the spirit leaves the body:
James 2:26
“For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”
Then on the flipside, the resurrection has to do with the spirit returning to the body.
Luke 8:54-55
“Jesus, however, took her by the hand and called, saying, “Child, arise!” And her spirit returned, and she got up immediately; and He gave orders for something to be given her to eat.”
As we have studied before, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all had a part in the resurrection of Christ. And as Paul has said, without the resurrection, everything we believe in falls apart.
I Cor. 15:3-4
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”
Peter was an eye witness to this fact. When Jesus took His last breath on the cross, He said, “Father into your hands I commit My spirit.” (Lk. 23:46) When we die, our spirit goes immediately to be with God… to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. (II cor. 5:8) Jesus’ resurrection shows us, just as Jesus’ spirit was reunited with His body, our spirit will reunite as well… that’s the promise from God. Except that we won’t receive our new body until our resurrection takes place, and as you know, this is called the rapture.
I Thess. 4:16-17
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”
So, whether we’re dead or alive at the coming of Christ, we will receive our “new” bodies.
I Peter 3:22
“Who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.”
Jesus took His position at the right hand of God having superiority over angels and authorities and powers after they had been subjected to Him through the power of the cross, which He proclaimed to the demons in hades… they were all subjected to Him.
Peter has laid out for us the ways in which we should in good conscience live our lives for Christ. If we are diligent in our commitment with Christ, we can expect some suffering along the way. Take heart Christian, Jesus has already taken all the steps ahead of us. He gave us life, His life, He suffered greatly for us, all because He has this great love for each one of us… simply priceless.