Reflections on 1 Peter 3:18

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)

In my church's Wednesday night small group thing (I don't actually know what they call it) the pastor spent some time pulling out different things in this verse. At one point he wanted us to focus on the "that he might bring us to God" part of the verse. He referenced John Piper's "God is the Gospel" (I haven't read it) and how in it Piper makes the argument that the ultimate goal of the Gospel was that we might get God, that He would be our treasure, that we would have a relationship with our Father.

As he was talking about this the parable of prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32) came to mind, as I reflected upon the son's return to his father's home I could see what my pastor was saying was true. The son comes back, repents, and his father throws a party - but at the end of the day the most important part is not the party or gifts, but the fact that the son now stands with his father in a loving, restored relationship. The son will be grateful for not starving and for having a roof over his head, but it really is about the relationship being restored. The son now has the father in a way he never did before.

Somehow I'd never noticed that in 1 Peter 3:18. I can't begin to count the number of times I've read that verse and yet I don't think I'd ever gotten that part. Funny, huh?

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