'by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison': An exposition on Peter's words in 1 Peter 3:19

LESSON 7

BY WHOM ALSO HE WENT AND PREACHED TO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON: AN EXPOSITION ON PETER'S WORDS IN 1 PETER 3:19

You are welcome to another edition of Insights from God's Word, a Bible study programme that is committed to sharing God's Word by allowing the Bible to speak for itself.

In this edition, we continue with our series on The Truth About Death. In this study, I want us to consider the topic: "by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison": An exposition on Peter's words in 1 Peter 3:19.

A) The popular interpretation in regard to the above text within Christendom is that when Christ died, He descended into hell and actually preached to some spirits of dead people who have been bound in the prison house of hell. This teaching became very popular when the various mainstream Protestant denominations began to utilize the Catholic Church's Apostle's Creed for liturgical and catechetical purposes. The 12 stanzas of the apostle's creed are as follows: 1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

2. And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord:

3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:

4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell:

5. The third day He rose again from the dead:

6. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:

7. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead:

8. I believe in the Holy Ghost:

9. I believe in the holy Catholic Church: the communion of saints:

10. The forgiveness of sins:

11. The resurrection of the body:

12. And the life everlasting. Amen.

(Bold emphasis added to lines 3, 4 and 9) Friends, even though I have serious questions with some of the stanzas in respect to their consistency with Scripture (that is; stanzas 3 and 9), the 4th stanza of this creed has been the underlying catalyst in spreading the false interpretation associated with our key text in 1 Peter 3:19. The 4th stanza of the apostle's creed reads: "Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: HE DESCENDED INTO HELL:" (Capital Emphasis Added).

B) Beloved, this teaching that Christ descended into hell, and preached to some dead spirits in the prison house of hell is contrary to the principle of the unity of the entire Scriptures (John 10:35). In fact, our previous knowledge on the state of the dead clearly emphasized that the dead (whether righteous or wicked) are not conscious of anything (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, 10; Psalm 146:3-4; Job 14:20-21), and that their abode is in the grave (Job 17:13-16; Job 7:9-10; John 5:28-29; Daniel 12:2). This biblical fact is also true of Christ's death (see Luke 23:46-53; Matthew 27:50-60).

Since the popular interpretation of 1 Peter 3:19 within Christendom does not harmonize with the rest of Scripture on the condition of man after death, it cannot be a correct interpretation. We must therefore critically consider what the apostle Peter really meant when he made the statement "by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison".

C) Friends, for us to obtain a clear understanding of difficult verses in Scripture, we need to consider among other things the entire passage in which the difficult text is positioned. And so in this segment of our study, we are going to consider the entire passage of 1 Peter 3:17-21. I believe an analysis of the various verses in this passage will help us to come away with an understanding of our key text in 1 Peter 3:19. The entire passage from which our key text is found reads:

C1) 3:17 "For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil."

Key Explanation: The apostle Peter is basically saying here that we should suffer for well doing rather than to suffer for doing evil (see also 1 Peter 4:12-16). Suffering or persecution is part of the Christian walk (2 Timothy 3:12). Christ once even encouraged His followers to take up their cross and follow Him (Luke 9:22-24).

C2) 3:18 "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,"

Key Explanation: Christ once suffered the ultimate penalty on a cross for the sins of the human race (Luke 23; Philippians 2:5-11; Acts 17:2-3). Our Lord suffered not because He had sinned Himself, but because of the sins of you and I. From Isaiah 53, we read the following: "53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

53:9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth."

(Isaiah 53:6-9) Beloved, the verse 18 of our key passage also makes it clear that Christ suffered and died as a human being (that is, in the flesh) so that He will reconcile us unto God (see Philippians 2:5-11; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21). Our Saviour was not to remain in the grave. He was raised up from the dead by the Spirit of God. From Romans 8:11, we read these clear words of Scripture: "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you."

C3) 3:19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison,

Key Explanation: To understand this key text, it is important to note the progression of thought in the last part of verse 18 and the early part of verse 19. If we combine the last part of verse 18 and the early part of verse 19, we obtain the following text: "18...being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached ... " This progression of thought brings out the clear point that the Spirit Who raised up Christ from the dead was the same Spirit through whom Christ preached. Thus friends, an important point we need to mark here is that it was not Christ Himself Who did the preaching; rather, He did it through the Holy Spirit.

Another key point that is clear from Scripture is that the Holy Spirit works through human agents (John 14:17, 26; 2 Peter 1:21). This fact presupposes that the Holy Spirit also did not do the preaching Himself, but rather inspired a human agent to do so. With an understanding of these clear points, we should be looking out in the subsequent texts for the human agent through whom the Holy Spirit preached.

From the verse 18, it becomes clear that this human agent who was filled by the Holy Spirit preached unto some spirits in prison. The word SPIRIT (pneumasin in Greek) as used in this text can refer to living people (see Hebrews 12:23). Thus, the term SPIRITS IN PRISON does accurately refer to LIVING PEOPLE WHO ARE CHAINED IN THE PRISON HOUSE OF SIN. Let us consider some scriptural passages that make this point clearer:

i) "6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; 7 To open the blind eyes, TO BRING OUT THE PRISONERS FROM THE PRISON, AND THEM THAT SIT IN DARKNESS OUT OF THE PRISON HOUSE" (Isaiah 42:6-7; Capital Emphasis Added).

ii) "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES, AND THE OPENING OF THE PRISON TO THEM THAT ARE BOUND" (Isaiah 61:1; Capital Emphasis Added).

iii) "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, TO PREACH DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVES, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised" (Luke 4:18; Capital Emphasis Added).

Friends, from the passages of Scripture above, we learn that one of the mission statements of Christ for fallen humanity was to free us from the prison house of sin. Satan, the enemy of souls has made us captives of several sinful behaviours of which we have no inner power to free ourselves. From Isaiah 14:17, it is said concerning the devil: "That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; THAT OPENED NOT THE HOUSE OF HIS PRISONERS?" (Capital Emphasis Added).

Beloved, from the Bible, we learn that the Christian warfare is a spiritual warfare. The apostle Paul makes it clear that: "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Ephesians 6:12). Thus friends, Satan’s prison house in this spiritual warfare is basically the prison house of sin (see also Romans 6:6, 17, 20). It is in this prison house that many are spiritually held captives by the devil. How many of us have not struggled to overcome a sinful behaviour in the past? How many are there that do even struggle today? As the Scripture clearly points out, it takes only the power of Christ working through the Holy Spirit to free us from the bondage of sin (see Galatians 5:1; 1 Corinthians 15:57; Revelation 12:11).

Thus, our key text in 1 Peter 3:19 can simply be interpreted as follows: Through the Holy Spirit working through a human agent, Christ preached to people who were bound in various sinful behaviours. But two key questions that beg for answers at this point in our study are these:

i) Who is the human agent through whom the Spirit of Christ preached?

ii) Which people were the recipients of this preaching?

Beloved, our very next text sheds light on these important questions above. The verse 20 of our key passage reads:

C4) 3:20 "who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water."

Key Explanation: Amazingly, the passage becomes clearer as we go along. We are told right from the beginning of the verse 20 that the spirits in prison were disobedient. That is to say, these people lived in sin. In other words, they were captives or slaves to various sinful behaviours as we have already noted (Isaiah 42:6-7; Isaiah 61:1; Luke 4:18; Isaiah 14:17). The verse 20 goes on to say that these disobedient people lived at some time in the past; specifically, during the time of Noah. Beloved, it is interesting to note from Scripture that the people who lived in Noah's day were so disobedient to the commandments of God that the Lord decided to wipe out the entire human race from the face of the planet (Genesis 6:1-9). We are told in Genesis 6:8 that Noah however found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The patriarch Noah was commissioned by God to build an ark that will serve as a refuge for those who will heed the voice of God. From 2 Peter 2:5, we learn that Noah was ‘a preacher of righteousness’ to the antediluvian world. But despite his 120 years of Spirit - filled preaching, only eight souls decided to renounce their sins and enter into the ark of salvation (Genesis 7:6-7; 1 Peter 3:20).

C5) 3:21 "There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,"

Key Explanation: Even as entering the ark was a public profession of faith in God during the time of Noah, so is Christian baptism a public profession of faith in Christ in our day. Even as those who entered the ark were saved through the waters, so will it be that all those who come to believe in Christ and are baptized, will be saved (Mark 16:16; John 3:5, 15).

D) Thus friends, it is clear from the points we have gone through so far that our key text in 1 Peter 3:19 does not teach that Christ descended into hell to preach to some dead spirits in prison. The key message the entire passage (that is, 1 Peter 3:17-21) seeks to convey is as follows:

17 It is better to suffer for well doing than for evil doing. 18 In this respect, Christ gave us an example when He died for our sins so that He could reconcile us unto God. Even though Christ died, He was resurrected by the Spirit of God. 19 With the Spirit of God working through a human agent, that is Noah, Christ preached to the antediluvians who were bound in various sinful behaviours. 20 This action our Saviour performed, so that He could reconcile them also to God. But despite Noah's 120 years of Spirit - filled preaching, only eight souls were saved. 21 Even as entering the ark was a public profession of faith for the penitent during the time of Noah, so is baptism a public profession of faith in Christ in our day. Even as those who entered the ark were saved through the waters, so will it be that all those who come to believe in Christ and are baptized, will be saved.

Exhortation: This study clearly admonishes us to quickly respond to the voice of the Holy Spirit before it is too late. From the words of Christ in Matthew 24, we come across the same warning: "37 But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24:37-39). NOTE: Scriptural References utilized in this study are from either the King James Version or the New King James Version of the Bible.

In our next study, we will consider the topic: "For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead...": An exposition on Peter's words in 1 Peter 4:6. The Bible Study references for this study are 1 Peter 4:1-19, 2 Timothy 4:1, Acts 10:42, Hebrews 6:1, Ephesians 2:1, Ephesians 5:14, Colossians 2:13, Luke 15:32, and Matthew 5:10-12. Please do well to go through these passages before the next study is released.

Stay blessed and keep shining for King Jesus.

Maranatha!

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