The term assumes that Peter and his readers were distant from God but Christ by his suffering has relocated “us” to God.
Peter’s point is not that Christ has obtained permission for us to approach God; it is rather that he has repositioned us into God’s very presence itself. That is how that same word is used in the Old Testament in relation to the priests as they were “brought” (or “presented”) into God’s very presence in the tabernacle (Exodus 40:12–13; Leviticus 7:35; Leviticus 8:6, Leviticus 8:13, Leviticus 8:24). Earlier Peter had described his readers as a “priesthood,” persons mandated to work in the presence of God (see on 1 Peter 2:9). Here Peter makes clear that a sinner can approach God (i.e., do the work of a priest) only through the “bringing” work of Jesus Christ as accomplished by his suffering.
18 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,