In his first Epistle Saint Peter begins to stir things up with regard to what is expected of a believer in his or her very personal life relationships. In 3.18-20 we read: For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. The singular purpose for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross was to bring the alignment of God and those who follow him into one heart and mind.

The death of Jesus was the key to reconciliation between God and his creation, but it was never to be the ultimate end of that relationship: 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; Those who had come to the end of their days on the earth before the incarnation of the Christ had to be presented with that same reconciliation offering.

When God declared his judgment on the earth at the time of his cleansing flood there were few who took advantage of that temporary rescue from his condemnation: who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. Many of those recognized the salvation of God but it was far too late for them to access that deliverance. We must be submitted to God at all times.

It is in the heart of God that all humanity would come to him to receive his gift of redemption through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. Absolutely nothing can survive the judgment of God when offered deliverance from eternal damnation, as Noah’s ark proved: In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, All else was destroyed and had to be recreated by God. It’s better to yield to his redemption now.