1n 1 Peter 3:14-22 Christ is revealed as the body of the shadow of the ark. In the ancient time Noah built the ark, and this ark was a shadow of Christ as the real ark.
Verse 18 says, “Christ also has suffered once for sins, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God.” Christ is the righteous One, yet He died for our sins, the sins of the unrighteous. His death removed all the barriers, particularly the barriers of our sins and unrighteousness. Because His death has removed all barriers, we have a way to reach God. Christ died in order to bring us to God.
It is true that Christ died on the cross for our sins that we might be forgiven and redeemed. But here Peter says that Christ died for the purpose of bringing His believers to God. He not only brought us to God but also into God.
Sins in verse 18 and in 2:24, 1 Corinthians 15:3, and Hebrews 9:28 refers to the sins we commit in our outward conduct; whereas sin in 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Hebrews 9:26 refers to sin that is in our nature by birth. Christ died for our sins, bearing up our sins on the cross, that we might be forgiven of our sins by God. But He was made sin and took away the sin of the world so that the problem of our sin might be solved. Peter did not deal first with sin in our nature but with sins in our conduct, in our manner of life (1 Pet. 3:16). The emphasis of 1 Peter is that Christ’s death redeemed us from our inherited vain manner of life (1:18-19).
The fact that Christ, the righteous One, died “on behalf of the unrighteous” indicates that Christ’s death was for redemption, not for martyrdom. On the cross He was our Substitute and bore our sins; He, the righteous One, was judged on behalf of us, the unrighteous, by the righteous God according to His righteousness, that He might remove the barrier of our sins and bring us to God. This was to redeem us from our sins back to God, from our unrighteous manner of life back to the righteous God.
First Peter 3:18 goes on to tell us that Christ was “on the one hand being put to death in the flesh, but on the other, made alive in the Spirit.” The Spirit in which He was made alive is not the Holy Spirit but the Spirit as the essence of Christ’s divinity (Rom. 1:4; cf. John 4:24a). The crucifixion put Christ to death only in His flesh—which He received through His incarnation (1:14)—not in His Spirit as His divinity. His Spirit as His divinity did not die at the cross when His flesh died; rather, His Spirit as His divinity was made alive, enlivened, with new power of life, so that in this empowered Spirit as His divinity, He made a proclamation to the fallen angels after His death in the flesh and before His resurrection.
On the one hand, Christ was put to death in the flesh; that is, He was crucified on the cross in the flesh. On the other hand, Christ was made alive in the Spirit. Man put Him to death in the flesh, but God made Him alive in the Spirit. While Christ was being crucified on the cross, the Roman soldiers were putting Him to death in His flesh, and the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—was making Him alive, strengthening Him, and empowering Him.
In eternity the Lord was the only begotten Son of God. In time He became flesh to be a man, but He was not yet the firstborn Son of God. Romans 1:3-4 reveals when He became the firstborn Son of God: “Concerning His Son, who came out of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” According to the flesh, He is the seed of David, a man; according to the Spirit of holiness, He is the Son of God. He was designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness out of the resurrection of the dead.
First Peter 3:18 also shows when and how the designation was done: “Christ also has suffered once for sins, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, on the one hand being put to death in the flesh, but on the other, made alive in the Spirit.” This verse tells us that after He died in the flesh, Christ was still active in the Spirit. In John 12:24 the Lord said that He was the grain of wheat which bears much fruit by falling into the ground and dying. On the one hand, He was dying on the cross in the flesh. On the other hand, He was growing in the Spirit. Verse 23 indicates that this was Christ’s glorification. When the grain is dying, its life element grows. When a grain of wheat falls into the ground, its outer shell dies and decays, but its life within is active. The grain, on the one hand, dies and, on the other hand, lives. When the grain dies, this death gives the life within an opportunity to operate to bring forth tender sprouts. This is resurrection.
When the Lord was buried in the tomb, it was His flesh, His humanity, that died. However, His divinity, the Spirit of holiness, had a great opportunity to work. The Spirit of holiness resurrected the humanity of Christ and, at the same time, uplifted the humanity of Jesus into divinity. It was at that moment that God said, “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You” (Acts 13:33). This day refers to the day of the Lord’s resurrection. Hence, it was at the time that the Spirit of holiness uplifted the humanity of Christ and resurrected His flesh that Christ became the firstborn Son of God.
First Peter 3:18 shows that in Christ’s resurrection, His divine part was made alive to impart divinity into His humanity, thus making His humanity divine. Hence, God begot Christ in His resurrection. That begetting equals our regenerating. Christ was begotten, and we were regenerated in the same resurrection at the same time (1:3). This resurrection was a universal birth, a great delivery. In the resurrection of Christ there was a divine birth, a divine delivery, in which all believers were born together with Christ as their firstborn Brother, the firstborn Son of God.