Love Wins (KT 10)

As we discussed last time, the power to overcome the curse was found in Jesus. He had a perfect soul that never gave in to the body’s desires, as Hebrews 4:15 states: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” Although Jesus’s soul proved master over his cursed flesh, he was willing to lay that body down to death, as confirmed by John 10:17–18: “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” Finally, Jesus was willing to reclaim his body from death, resurrecting it to life, as Paul explains in Romans 6:9–10: “For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.”

The Old Testament actually teaches the overcoming of the curse in its Day of Atonement sacrifice. We’re told about it in Leviticus 16. The day’s events are filled with symbolism. The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) occurs in the Hebrew month of Tishri (first month of the civil calendar, seventh of the religious/post-Sinai calendar). Five animals were involved—two rams for burnt offerings and a bull and two goats for sin offerings. Burnt sacrifices are dedication offerings, in which the offeror symbolizes the giving of (dedicating) him- or herself to God. Christ did that in offering himself—from his garden prayer through his arrest, trial, and presentation to Pilate. It is also what we do when we come to God in repentance. In other words, atonement is not just something God does to us—it’s something he responds to when we offer ourselves in love. This doesn’t negate grace—it honors love’s design: that faithful devotion and repentance invite relational restoration. Therefore, on the Day of Atonement, the rams are offered as burnt (dedication) offerings—one for the high priest and one for the people.

The sin offerings include the bull, which is killed for the sins of the high priest, and the two goats, offered for the people. While the bull sin offering is needed for the sins of the high priest, it has no counterpart in Jesus’s atonement because Jesus had no sin. Rather, the fact that sin offerings had to be unblemished (see Leviticus 4) highlights the purity within—the purity the blood signifies—the purity of Jesus, who was without sin.

One of the goats is presented before the high priest. The high priest places his hands on the head of the goat. Leviticus 16 tells us that the sins of the people are placed on the goat through this act. This is the only time in all of Leviticus, in all the books of the law, in all the Old Testament where we hear of sins being transferred. It is necessary in this context to show what happens to sin. What happens to this goat? Is it put to death to symbolize it being punished for our sins? No, not at all. The goat is led away into the wilderness and released. The point is that the people’s sins were borne away, never to be remembered. They are forgiven. This is exactly what Jesus does for us. 1 Peter 2:24 tells us, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.” While he bore our sins, he didn’t die to pay for them. The goat’s release—not its death—shows that forgiveness is about removal, not punishment.

There is a second goat, however. That goat does not have sins placed on it like the first one. It is put to death, and its body is burned outside the camp. This goat represents the cursed essence. Its pure blood (representing Christ’s spirit) is removed to sprinkle and purify the tabernacle’s holy place—the meeting place with God. The body (representing cursed flesh) is burned. The body, which was supposed to be the meeting place with God but couldn’t be because of the curse, is put to death and burned as a symbol of Christ’s cursed flesh being put to death and buried in the tomb. But Jesus’s pure and holy spirit (or soul) reclaimed the body—symbolized by the blood sprinkling the holy place—resurrecting a meeting place with God that is free from the curse.

Thus, in the Day of Atonement we see the atonement of Jesus. He bears our sin away, and he puts the curse to death—giving us hope for new essence: new heavens, new earth, new bodies.

The picture of the atonement is fascinating and appealing. Jesus, the perfect God, took on our cursed humanity, showed he was not subject to it by never sinning, put that body to death to end its cursed effect, and then took that body back (redeemed it) no longer with the curse, to live as God intended for his creation with the soul ruling physical essence.

But the question then rises: “Jesus received his new transformed body. When will we receive ours?” Let’s step slowly through the answer. In taking his body back (redeeming it), Jesus did receive that transformed body. And for it, he is called the firstfruits of resurrection. Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 15:20–23: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; afterward, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.” So it is at his coming that we all who love him will receive that transformation of body, when the curse is removed. Multiple other passages tell us the same thing (Philippians 3:20–21; Romans 8:19–20, and others).

But the question still rises: “Why not now?” What is it that prevents Christ from returning now to transform, to redeem, to bring us into the glories of the new heaven and new earth, clothed in new bodies—all without the curse and the pain and heartache the curse brings? When considering the answer, we have to start at the foundation, and the foundation for God’s activity is his nature—truth, goodness, and beauty—expressed in his activity. God acts (as we discussed from the very first session) only and always in infinite love.

What would happen if God, on a whim, said, This is it. Jesus will return now, and we’ll enter glory together? That return of Jesus is a two-sided coin. Of course, it is a wondrous time of rejoicing for us who know God. But it is also a time of judgment. When Christ returns, the end of opportunity has come. Would our God, who acts only and always in love, end opportunity for a person on a whim? Scripture teaches that God is patient. And he who knows all possibilities would also know when no possibility exists any longer. It is at that time, when there is no hope or point to waiting any longer, that Jesus will return.

That end is illustrated by the flood story. At a time when the world spiraled into evil, at the point where we read in Genesis 6:5, “God saw how great the corruption had become in humanity—how every impulse and intention deep within their hearts bent only toward evil, all the time,” God then knew no possibility existed for any other to come to him, and the flood waters—the destruction that the people of the earth were rushing toward—were released by their own pursuit.

In 1 Peter 3:17–22, Peter presents far more than simple encouragement for believers facing suffering. He draws back the curtain on God's sweeping plan across all history, tying together three monumental pivot points: the flood, the atonement, and the final redemption. Each of these moments reveals God's unwavering purpose to restore relationship with humanity, despite human rebellion.

Peter first points to the flood of Noah’s day, reminding readers of a time when human corruption had saturated the earth. The thoughts and intentions of people's hearts were bent only toward evil, continually severing the relationship God had intended. God’s grief over humanity’s rejection of truth, goodness, and beauty culminated in a flood that served both as judgment and rescue. Noah and his family were preserved through the waters, saved by their trust in God’s provision—the ark—which bore them through the destruction into renewed life. The flood, Peter shows, is not simply an act of judgment; it becomes a symbol of rescue through judgment, foreshadowing both the atonement and the future redemption of all creation.

Moving to the heart of the gospel, Peter presents the atonement not as an isolated act but as the true fulfillment of what the flood prefigured. Christ, the righteous one, suffered for the unrighteous—not to absorb punishment, but to carry the curse into death. Jesus had been put to death in the realm where the flesh ruled. But through his resurrection, he broke the dominion of cursed essence and reestablished the rightful rule of the soul (spirit). His resurrection is a proclamation—a cosmic declaration of victory over all the imprisoned spirits enslaved by the curse. Although Peter highlights the rebellious people of Noah’s time as a vivid example, the proclamation extends far beyond them. It speaks to every soul held captive by cursed existence throughout history, announcing that the way back to relationship with God has been opened.

Peter’s vision does not stop with the atonement. He points forward to the ultimate restoration: just as Noah’s family emerged into a cleansed world, and just as Christ emerged from death into new life, so too humanity will one day fully emerge into a renewed creation. Baptism, Peter says, now symbolizes this hope—not as a ritual cleansing of dirt, but as a pledge of a good conscience toward God, empowered through Christ’s resurrection. Jesus, having ascended to the right hand of God, now reigns over all angelic and spiritual authorities, securing the certainty of final redemption.

Thus, in just a few short verses, Peter traces the grand arc of God’s restorative plan. The flood pictures both judgment and rescue. The atonement fulfills the promise of rescue and secures the way for humanity to be restored. And the final redemption will consummate the promise, bringing about a fully renewed creation centered in Christ. Suffering now, Peter reminds us, is not the end of the story. It is a step along the great arc from fall, to rescue, to restoration—the story of a love that would not give up on its creation.

Most translations of this passage tend to confuse this story as summarized above. This translation, from The Essential Bible, helps clear the confusion:

17   For it is better to suffer for doing good—if God so wills it—than for doing evil.

18   After all, the Anointed One also suffered once for sins—the righteous for the unrighteous—in order to bring you into relationship with God. He was put to death in the realm where the flesh rules but made alive in the realm where the spirit rules.

19   In that very act of resurrection, he proclaimed his victory to the imprisoned spirits—

20   reflected most vividly in those who had disobeyed long ago, during the time when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the ark was being built. In that ark, a few—that is, eight souls—were rescued through the waters.

21   That water is a symbol pointing ahead to the immersion we now undergo—not a ritual washing of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Jesus the Anointed One.

22   He has gone into the heavenly realms and is now at God’s right hand, with all angelic rulers, authorities, and powers made subject to him.