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I. The CHARACTER Of the mission of the Savior.

1. His mission was one of suffering. He "suffered." Christianity is not the worship of sorrow, according to the cavil of some; but it is the worship of One who had much to do with sorrow, touched it at its every pore.

2. His mission was one of innocent suffering. Many suffer wrongfully, he absolutely innocently. "The Righteous."

3. His mission was one of vicarious suffering, "for," i.e. on account of, the unrighteous.

4. His mission was one unconquered by suffering. "Being put to death in the flesh, he was quickened in the spirit."

II. The PURPOSE of the mission of the Savior. "That he might bring us to God." Implying:

1. We are away from God. Not

(1) locally, but in

(2) estrangement of heart. That is the "far country."

2. We can be restored to God. The great gulf is not fixed. The golden wind of the gospel is "reconciliation."

3. God himself brings us back by Christ. No mutual quarrel; God always pitiful. "Long suffering," etc. Guthrie well says, "The central truth of the Bible is not that God loves us because Christ died, but that Christ died because God loves."

III. THE EXTENT OF THE INFLUENCE of the Savior's mission. The literature of ver. 19 is a library. But apart from any confusion created by that literature, is it not clearly taught? -

1. That Christ had a mission to disembodied spirits after his death. Killed in the flesh, in the spirit he triumphed, and in the spirit went on that wider, deeper mission.

2. His mission to disembodied spirits was in harmony with that of all his life. He "preached." Some read it, "He sealed with the curse of damnation." Is it not rather, as everywhere, "proclaimed repentance, pardon," "heralded love and mercy and hope"?

3. This mission was to disembodied spirits in a state or place of misery. "Prison." Some change the word to "Paradise." Dare we do that? It is rather the abode of the guilty, the disobedient, of whom the apostle gives a dark specimen (ver. 20). Dean Alford says, "This throws a blessed light on one of the darkest enigmas of Divine justice." Yet mark, there is no light view of sin here. It is awful for spirits to be in prison, and in prison for twenty-four centuries. - U.R.T.

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KJV: For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

WEB: Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;