21: It has been said before that our God loves to tell stories. The whole body of His revealed Word speaks to the same thing, has at its base the same story. In the fabric of historical events the Master Author weaves types and shadows, the very form of the story being a prophet of things to come. This truth alone is enough to give one courage. It means our Heavenly Father knows what He is doing. Everything we experience, every trial we go through, every joy we are given comes to us from the pen of the Author of life. If that rubs you the wrong way, if you feel constricted by the complete and total sovereignty of God, consider life without it. We can not pick and choose the things that come from God. Either everything or nothing. If nothing comes from His hand then we are lost for there is no God. If nothing comes from His hand then there is something outside God Himself. If there is something outside God, then God has a beginning, a source, a font from which He sprang. If He did, and we live in a world along side God, as it were, then at least these three problems arise. First, all of Scripture must be thrown out. It no longer speaks truth, and therefore is of no value to people. Second, all hope is lost, for we cannot trust in God to right all wrongs, to defend the defenseless, to save people from their sins. Third, all of life becomes meaningless, for if there are things God does not know, or is not in control of, then there is no hope of final judgment. If there is not final judgment, then there is no justice in the world. If there is no eternal justice, then life on this earth descends into chaos, into utter nonsense. What does it matter if I steal from my neighbor? (As a side note, this is the very real and logical end of the evolutionist. This is why it is so dangerous for Christians to try and find middle ground between the Bible and the Theory of Evolution. Notice I did not say science.) If God did not create the world, if He does not continue to sustain it, and if that means He does not have complete and total sovereign control over every single detail of every single life, both human and non, then there is no foundation to what Paul says when He declares his confidence in the love of God through Christ. Only if God created the world can we say "Neither death nor life, nor angels or principalities." Only if He continues to sustain this world can we say, "Nor things present nor things to come, nor powers." Only if He has complete and total sovereign control over every single detail of every single life can we say, "Nor depth nor height, nor any other created thing in all of creation." Only then can we have hope that nothing can separate us from the love of our Father, which has been proved in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. So put away the desire for control in your lives. Don't be concerned with free will and the power to choose. Sit back in faith and watch the story of your life unfold before your very eyes, with all its ups and downs, trusting a Father who loves you, who knows your need better than you ever could. Every page of your story has been written for two reasons: That God may be glorified through you, and that you might learn to rest in Him. By such rest we are conformed to the very image of Christ.
Turning back to Peter's words here we see the story of the flood fulfilled. From his perspective, the flood, while remaining staunchly historical, was a foreshadowing of things to come. It was a story of death and resurrection, new life being achieved through the medium of water. Now this is not to say that the water itself has any magical properties about it. But the image of water, both in literature and in the physical world, carries with it a suitcase full of meaning: cleansing, quenching, life-giving power. The Greek word behind the phrase, "which corresponds to this" is the word we get 'type' from. The thrust of the word in this context implies 'resemblance,' but the plain meaning of the Greek word is 'hard' or 'solid.' This is helpful as we think of the historical events of the Old Testament as shadows or pictures of realities explained in the New. Where before God spoke in pictures and poetry, He now speaks in fullness and flesh. Now that Christ has come, and has 'tabernacled' among His people, all shadows have fallen away before the light of the Son. We no longer speak as in the early dawn, waiting for the sunrise. We speak as those who stand in the full light of day. In the flood, the Lord brought salvation to 8 people, by allowing them to pass unhurt through the water that was death to the rest of creation. They were saved, and given a new world in which to be fruitful and multiply. This, according to Peter, pictures the reality of baptism. Just as Noah was brought through the death-waters of the flood, so too we are brought through the death-waters of baptism. Just as his family was given a recreated world to fill and be fruitful in, so too we are given a world which is being made new. We too have been commissioned to be fruitful and multiply, to have dominion over all the Earth, for He who has all power and authority in Heaven and on Earth is our Head, even the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, this Baptism itself is picture, a symbol, of the death and resurrection story. Baptism is not simply a washing away, though we are cleansed in the regeneration of the Spirit. It also answers the demands God makes of all who would be His children. Just as the flood was a shadow pointing to the solid reality of baptism, so baptism itself is a shadow pointing to the even more solid reality of Christ's death and resurrection, the Baptism, the ultimate death-waters. Our baptism is a means of uniting us to His, not that the mere outward motions perform the trick. It is an attendant ceremony that gives visual, palpable testimony to the God-worked reality. Much like a wedding. It is not the mere outward form of the wedding that unites man and wife. But neither does God work outside the ceremony, generally speaking. The wedding ritual puts into flesh that which God works "behind the scene." So too the ritual of baptism is the incarnation of what the Spirit has accomplished through the ministry of the Word, namely a heart of flesh for a heart of stone. This we name for ourselves. It is ours by gift. It is the air first breathed coming out of the water.
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