Reading for Today - I Peter 3:18-22 - Christ also suffered once for sins

1 Peter 3:18-22 (ESV)

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, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 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. 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, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Christ suffered to bring us to God. Not only did Christ die to provide a way that we could have forgiveness, He died to provide a way to reconcile us to God so that he would call us His Children. When we learn of God’s plan for salvation, when we believe it, choose to repent and turn from our past sins and confess Christ we are ready to turn our lives over to God. It is through the act of baptism that we access this salvation and make an appeal to God for a good conscience. After we have become Christ’s we must then continue to seek and to follow Him. If we do not remain faithful to Christ, he cannot confess us before His Father in Heaven. This does not mean we live a perfect life, but it does mean our heart and motives are right and that we are seeking to do that which is right. We read in I John 1:7 that if we walk in the light as he is in the light the blood of Christ continues to cleanse us from all sin. May we seek to be in Christ and to follow Christ, to be pleasing to God, and to provide a light to others that they may come to know the grace and love of God. May our hearts always be open to His word so that we are touched by His truth and seek His will and not our own.