The Triumph of Christ

Pastor Chang Kim

1 Peter 3:18-22

Introduction: 

And in our passage this morning, Peter encourages his readers in the midst of their suffering by reminding them that Jesus is triumphant and that is the main idea of this passage. It’s simple, but very powerful. Jesus is triumphant!

Let us read v18, 18 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 but made alive in the spirit.

Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. This is one of the clearest and therefore most important verses in the entire Bible about what Jesus accomplished through His death on the cross. God requires that we turn away from our sinful rebellion and put our trust in Jesus alone as the atoning sacrifice for our sin and as the only One who can rescue us from our sin. 

Verses 19-20 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 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.

2 Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment

And in Jude 6 And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day

Rather, Jesus “proclaimed” His victory over them.

21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The only way the physical act of baptism has any significance is as a representation of saving faith—that is, as an outward sign of an inward reality. 

v22 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. 

We might be surrounded by evil and at times even be victims of evil, but we know that, ultimately, we will prevail because Jesus is triumphant. There’s no need for us to be discouraged or anxious or uncertain because victory has already been won. Team Jesus has already won and believers are all part of Team Jesus.