“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also - not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand - with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.” 1 Peter 3:18-22
Submission is not a readily pleasant thought. It conjures up images of wives living in submission to domineering husbands or citizens of a country living under the tyranny of a cruel political regime. It even presents images of congregations of sincere believers who sit obediently in submission under the authority of spiritual leaders who insist that the exercise of their leadership positions and gifts are not to be questioned.
Our devotional reading causes me to think of that word .... submission. In a proper biblical light, submission is a good word and a concept that’s not to be feared or shunned. In fact, the word is used instructionally a number of times in the Scriptures.
Noah was submissive to the will of God and that was not something that rang out with popularity in his day. He literally became a laughingstock to those who knew him. There he was surrounded by dry land that had never known so much as an afternoon shower and he was building this huge boat. Building a boat the size of the ark was no small undertaking and from the start began drawing ill attention.
People who knew Noah began approaching him. “Noah, what are you doing?” “I’m building an ark.” “Uh, what’s an ark?” “It’s a big boat.” “A what?” “It floats on the water.” “It does what? Noah it would take a lot of water to float a boat that size. Don’t you think you can find better things to do with your time?” “I’m building it because God told me that it’s going to rain and everything is going to be destroyed.” “Rain? What in the world is rain? And when did you start hearing voices? Noah, you old coot, you’ve completely lost your mind!”
The rest of the world of Noah’s day would not submit to God and chose to live as wild and free as they desired. But Noah kept whittling away hewing timbers and making planks until the ark was finished. Then the rains came and didn’t let up until the ark was floating on a global ocean that covered the tops of the highest mountains. No one survived except Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark.
Because he was submissive to the will of God, Noah, his family, and the animals on the ark saved humanity and repopulated the earth following the great flood. He became a proto-type of Christ foreshadowing the Jesus event. Because Jesus was submissive to the will of the Father, he became the only acceptable sacrifice for sin and through his offering saves all who come to him for forgiveness of sin.
Submission, in its truest biblical sense, is not some blind and rigid adherence to the dictates and demands of another who insists upon exercising arbitrary authority. Rather, submission is more of a yielding to a level of conscious choice where we make decisions based upon what we know of God’s will. Understanding God’s will for our particular lives denotes submissiveness. How we live in relationship toward God and others reflects our level of personal submissiveness. What we do as acts of service, as ministries of charity, on behalf of the Lord are indicative of our submissiveness.
No. Submission is not a dirty word. It may be an “almost forgotten” word but it is certainly not a dirty one. |
