CHOOSING YOUR JUDGMENT – 1 Peter 4:6

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on August 4, 2013 under 2013 |

Preached Sunday, August 4, 2013 from 1 Peter 4:6

Theme: When it comes to suffering for our faith, choosing to be judged by men in order to live for God is a choice of life.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

In our study of 1 Peter this morning, I ask that we focus on just one verse. It’s a verse that truly deserves a whole Sunday morning’s attention.

There are passages in 1 Peter that some Bible commentators consider to be among the most difficult in the Scriptures; and one commentator said he believed this one verse is the most difficult in the whole Bible. But I believe that if we handle it properly and in it’s context, much of the apparent difficulty clears up. And in the end, I believe it proves to be a powerfully encouraging verse of Scripture—something that you and I need very much to hear as we seek to stand for our Lord Jesus in these dark and difficult days.

That verse is 1 Peter 4:6; and in it, the apostle Peter writes,

For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit (1 Peter 4:6).

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May I begin by telling you what I believe this verse is not saying? (That’s not always the best way to begin a sermon; I know. But in this case, it seems like the right thing to do.)

Many from within some traditions of the Christian faith—and even some cults—have interpreted this verse to be saying that people who have died as unbelievers will have a second chance in the place of judgment to be saved. Because Peter says that “the gospel was preached also to those who are dead”, they assume this refers to the spirits of unsaved people who rejected the gospel in their lifetime on earth; and that those souls, after death, will be given other opportunities to hear the gospel again in Hades and believe. Some interpret this to mean that no one, therefore, will really be eternally lost—that all will eventually be saved.

But this is not what this verse is teaching at all. The idea of “another chance” for the unsaved dead is not found in the Bible. The Scriptures, in fact, make it clear in several places that after death, the eternal state of the soul is established. As Hebrews 9:27 says, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment . . .” In the great resurrection, the righteous will be raised to life, and the unrighteous to condemnation. In fact, all you have to do is look at the verse that comes just before our verse this morning—where, in 1 Peter 4:5, we’re told, “They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” The only chance for people to be saved is now—as they live on this earth; and that’s why we must faithfully proclaim the gospel to them while we can.

So; Peter was not saying in this morning’s verse that the souls of unbelieving people who have died will be ‘evangelized’ again in Hades. That misunderstanding, I’m sure, is why some consider this verse to be so difficult. But what is Peter saying in it? I suggest that we can know something of what he means by going back to the last chapter of the Gospel of John; and by looking again at the last conversation that Peter had with the Lord Jesus after His resurrection and before He ascended again to the Father.

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You’ll remember the story, I’m sure. Peter—who had a short time before denied the Lord Jesus three times in the garden—saw the resurrected Lord Jesus again on the shore of the Sea of Galilee as Peter and the others were fishing. Peter swam into the water to get to Jesus, and the others came behind in the boat. They all had breakfast with the Lord on the beach. That’s the passage where Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love Me?” And when Peter answered that he did, Jesus told him, “Feed My sheep.” It’s a truly wonderful story. Peter must have felt welcomed and forgiven; and his sense of our Lord’s love must have been greatly affirmed to his heart.

And then—as the final recorded words that Jesus spoke to Peter—He told him,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish” (John 21:18).

It had only been a short while before then that Peter stood by in the garden, and watched as others took His Lord away and crucified Him. And now, the resurrected Lord Jesus was telling Peter several things about what would one day happen to him. Back in the old days, Jesus told him, he girded himself and walked wherever he wanted to. But there would come a time when Peter was an old man—(By the way; wouldn’t that have been something?—to have the Lord Jesus tell Peter that he was going to be an old man?)—he would “stretch out” his hands, and another would carry him where he didn’t want to go.

Now; in the very next verse, the gospel writer John explained; “This He spoke, signifying by what death he would glorify God” (v. 19a). It may have been that John wrote those words after the events of Peter’s death. Do you know how the apostle Peter died? According to the early church historian Eusebius—who wrote in the early part of the fourth century—Peter was crucified by emperor Nero in Rome.¹ There is a very old tradition that Peter asked to be crucified upside-down—so as not to be crucified in the same way as the Lord he had once denied. Peter truly did stretch out his hands and was carried where he did not wish to go! And the apostle John writes that, after telling Peter this, Jesus said, “Follow Me” (v. 19b).

I believe that, from that day on and for the rest of his life—even when Peter was writing this letter to persecuted Christians—that promise from the Lord Jesus would have always been on his mind. How could it not have been? When Jesus told him, “Follow Me”, Peter would have known—by the authority of Jesus Himself—that it would mean following his Lord all the way to death at the hands of men. Peter had once denied the Lord Jesus. But after that conversation, Peter would have lived every day with the knowledge that—at the end of his life’s journey—evil men would take hold of him and slay him for his faith in Jesus.

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And I would suggest to you that this would mean that every day Peter lived would have involved a very significant choice.

Do you remember that—not long ago in our study of 1 Peter—I suggested to you that we have a choice about “suffering”? 1 Peter 3:17 says, “For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.” And I suggested to you that this means that suffering is inevitable. We who live on this earth must face one of two kinds of suffering. On the one hand, we can choose to rebel against God, walk a life of sin, and suffer the consequences of our sin. Or, on the other hand, we can choose to trust in Jesus Christ, follow God’s good ways for us, and suffer persecution for our faith at the hands of wicked men. I told you back then that we don’t really have a choice about whether or not we will suffer; but that we do have a choice as to which kind of suffering that our suffering will be.

Well; here’s another choice that’s put before us—a similar kind of choice. It was one that Peter, in the light of what the Lord Jesus told him, had to make on a daily basis. It was one that he eventually had to make in a final sense. In this world, because of the Lord Jesus, we must face the reality of “judgment”. On the one hand, we will choose to ignore and reject Jesus’ call upon our life, choose not to walk with Him on the path of righteousness, choose to avoid the pressures and persecutions of this world, choose to go with the flow of this sinful world, and—as a result—one day face judgment before God on the last great Day of judgment. Or, on the other hand, we can choose to declare our allegiance to Jesus Christ, choose to faithfully walk with Him in holiness, choose not to go along with the values and priorities of this world, and —as a result—choose to suffer the judgment of wicked people who hate our Savior and His righteous ways.

If we are going to follow Jesus, you and I simply cannot avoid the reality of judgment. Jesus once said, “For judgment I have come into this world . . .” (John 9:39). We do not have a choice as to whether or not we will experience judgment. But we do have a choice as to whose judgment it is that we will experience—either the temporal judgment of men, or the final judgment of God.

It is far better to suffer the temporal judgment of wicked men as a follower of Jesus than it is to suffer judgment before God for refusing to be committed to Jesus. It is no shame or ultimate loss to suffer judgment from mere men if that judgment gives way to eternal life in Christ! As Jesus Himself said;

“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:34-38).

It’s pretty hard, then, to think of anything more important to us during our short time on earth than what Peter is telling us in this verse. Many merely-professing ‘Christians’ are falling by the wayside all around us; and they are abandoning Christ because they fear to face the judgment of men. They don’t want to be called the names that Christians get called in the media today. They don’t want to be thought of in the contemptible ways that Christians are being thought of. They don’t want to be considered “backward” or “intolerant” or “extreme” or “out-of-touch”. And they certainly don’t want to suffer physically at the hands of men for their faith—as many of our brothers and sisters in Christ in other parts of the world are doing even as we speak; and as we ourselves may be called upon to do some day soon.

But as Peter says;

For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

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So; let’s take some time to consider the details of this verse. First, notice the implication that lies behind it; that . . .

1. A FINAL JUDGMENT FROM GOD WILL COME.

Do you notice that Peter opens this verse with the words, “For this reason . . .”? This points us back to the previous context of this verse; and the reference it makes to our God “who is ready to judge the living and the dead”.

In the previous verses—starting with verse one—Peter wrote;

Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you” (1 Peter 4:1-4).

We talked about this in our last time together. That old gang we used to run around with—our old partners in sin—they think it “strange” that we don’t run with them any more. They “speak evil” of us for trusting in Jesus and following the path of righteousness. And of course, we should pray for them, and love them, and hope that they too will come to Christ. But the painful fact is that they judge us; and we suffer as a result. It’s tempting to want to avoid their judgment. But we need to remember that their judgment isn’t ultimate. They “judge” us for a time; but they are not our Judge. Peter goes on to say; “They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead” (v. 5).

And that, I suggest is something we need to remember. There is an ultimate judgment coming. The judgment of men against us for following Jesus is only temporal. It is not decisive. It is not final. We are to keep that final judgment in perspective—where, before God, there is no longer any condemnation to those who are in Christ.

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That, then, was what Peter meant by those beginning words, “For this reason . . .” He was speaking of the ultimate judgment of God—”who is ready to judge the living and the dead”. And as we move on in this verse, we see next that it was for this reason—that is, because of this ultimate judgment—that . . .

2. THEREFORE, THE GOSPEL WAS PREACHED.

“For this reason,” Peter writes, “the gospel was preached also to those who are dead . . .” In other words, it was in the light of this great reality—the ultimate judgment before the throne of God—that the gospel was preached. It may be that the fallen people of this world oppose the message of Jesus Christ and ‘judge’ those who proclaim it and live by it. But their judgment is temporal; and it was because of the reality of the ultimate judgment that this glorious good news of salvation through faith in Jesus was preached.

But who are the “dead” to whom it was preached? As I hope I’ve already established, I don’t believe it is being preached to the souls of dead unbelieving people in Hades. Rather, I believe that what Peter is speaking of is a very simple idea. He is speaking of people who had been living on this earth to hear the gospel being preached to them, and who believed and were saved by faith in Jesus, and who had since that time died—perhaps even at the hands of unbelieving people who ‘judged’ them for their faith. I believe that the New International Version interprets this verse correctly when it says, “For this reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead . . .”

When Peter calls them “dead”, I don’t believe Peter would have meant that they were dead “spiritually”. He would only have meant that their bodies had died. Their spirits were very much alive, were in the presence of Jesus Himself, and were now forever safe from the temporal judgment of men. I believe Peter would have agreed completely with what the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4. Paul referred to Christians who had died physically as those who had “fallen asleep”. When you “fall asleep”, you will one day wake up. He wrote;

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

These dear departed believers—only “asleep” for a while in the Lord—heard that gospel, believed what they heard, died physically, and are now safe in the presence of the Savior. The judgment of unbelieving men didn’t ultimately affect them. And it struck me the other day, as I was studying this verse, how immeasurably greater that number of the “dead” in Christ has grown to be since the time Peter spoke those words! As that gospel has spread around the world, there have been many more who have heard it and believed it, and have suffered at the hands of unbelieving men for it, and who are now safe in the presence of the Savior—awaiting the day of resurrection. The victory of those words—”the gospel was preached also to those who are dead”—has expanded greatly over the centuries!

And that’s why God made sure it was preached, and had been preached since, and is being preached today, and will be preached until the day that Jesus returns in glory!

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Personally, I think the suffering Christians to whom Peter wrote would have been greatly encouraged by this. There were dear brothers and sisters in Christ from within their midst who had suffered under the judgment of men for their faith. Some of them, no doubt, had laid down their lives for Jesus under the judgment of men, because they would not deny Him. But men killed their bodies—and now could do no more to them. Their victory is sure. They will never have to fear judgment at the throne of God. They are safe.

As Peter said,

For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.

In the original language we’re told that their judgment by men was in the past-tense. It was that they may be judged, according to the temporal standard of men, in their bodies. But the result of that temporal judgment is put in the present tense. It was so that they may now live—unendingly—according to the even greater standard of God in the spirit. They now live before Him, and with Him, and by Him, and in His likeness.

They now stand as an example to us who are living for Jesus today; and who are called upon to suffer Him as they did . . .

3. AND THUS, WE CAN CHOOSE TO SUFFER IN HOPE.

I believe this all makes perfect sense when we read on in Peter’s letter. In verses 12-19, he wrote;

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now

“If the righteous one is scarcely saved,

Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator (1 Peter 4:12-19).

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So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ; in this fallen world, we can choose which judgment we will suffer. And when given the choice, let’s always choose to faithfully stand for our Lord Jesus; suffering the temporal judgment of men in the hope of eternal life in our Savior.

That’s the choice of life.

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“It is, therefore, recorded that Paul was beheaded in Rome itself, and that Peter likewise was crucified under Nero” (Eusebius, Church History, 2.25).