1 Peter Lesson 15

1 Peter 3:18-22 Revised Standard Version

¹⁸ For Christ also died^[a] for sins once for all, 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; ¹⁹ in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, ²⁰ who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. ²¹ Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.

• What is your first Impression?

 I keyed in on the preaching to the spirits as this was a brief topic of conversation from the early portion of this study. I want to understand who they were, but…

• Whose sins did Christ Die For?

 All.

• What does 18 say is the reason Christ died for us?

 To bring us to God.

• In the last part of 18, does it matter if He did this “being made alive in the spirit in which” or “being made alive by the spirit through whom”? The two translations I read gave a different meaning, but so what?

I found this a challenge. The two translations, while the words seem similar, give very different meanings for what is happening. Christ was either alive again to act in the spiritual world under His own power or He was made alive by the Spirit and working through the Holy Spirit. Almost opposite meanings to some degree. More below.

• What did Christ do when “alive in the spirit”? 

 Preached

• To whom did he do this thing?

 Spirits

• Where were they? What does this mean?

 Prison.  Good Question, see below.

• Who/What/When/Where /Why – Where did they come from?

 “who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark” – See below.

• How many were saved by what?

 Eight by water.

• What does verse 21 tell us about baptism? 

 Baptism is our appeal to be acceptable to God based on our faith in Christ. This is probably not as simple as it seems to me, but it was not huge question.

• What is a clear conscience or the pledge/answer of one?

 To me this is the “ticket” to get to live with God in heaven.

• Where does Peter tell us Christ is?

‘into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.” i.e. where we can rely on Him to do what He promised for Us. Again, more than is being discussed, but not controversial.

Below

I put in really simple questions to highlight that some of this passage is very clear and very simple to me. The rest is not clear to me and not simple to me, and I have struggled to place the concept I see in it with what I find in other parts of the Bible and what I have buried in my head with no clear reference.

I believe that when Christ died in the flesh, He was for a time experiencing what I understand to be equivalent with hell, being apart from God. This was/is the penalty for sin, but because Christ was perfect (free from sin) death could not hold Him and He conquered death and sin and in victory He was reunited with/to God and returned to the Spiritual realm to take His rightful position.

In one interpretation, He paused to preach to those who died before Him on His path to heaven. My logical mind tells me this was to everyone who did not have an opportunity to accept Christ as their savior before they died. In my literal mind, this passage tells us it is just those who died while Noah was building the ark.

The confusion in the passage for me brings one possible interpretation being “made alive in the spirit in which” means Christ was made a live in the spirit by dying and conquering sin and death and then while alive in the spiritual realm, he spoke to those who were dead and waiting for judgement in order to give them the option to chose Him.

However, “made alive by the spirit through which” provides a possible interpretation that Christ was made a live by the Spirit and the Holy Spirit spoke to those in prison. This preached through the Holy Spirit could seem to happen at any time and to any group. It also seems to deny power to Christ and give it to the Holy Spirit. I do not like this option, but who am I to define how God also power amongst Himself?

One of the question sets about the passage includes: what is this prison?; who is in it?;, how did they get there?;, and how do they get out? I have never seen a lot of this addressed in clear language in the Bible, but I feel people tend towards a simple solution that ignores it altogether. I liken it to a holding place outside time that our soul goes to after our death and returns from when Christ returns to Earth or when the final judgement occurs. I never believed we went to heaven without sitting before the judgement seat, and I assumed we all sat before it at once and not spread out over eternity as each one of us dies. (In this view its hard to die and go to heaven and return to life. Having a vision of heaven while near death is one thing, being in heaven and returning is quite another.)

Another point to consider is that our “standard” Bible of 66 books does not include information that Jews had available to then when the New Testament was written, and Peter’s audience may have had no difficulty understanding his words based on some of this “extra biblical” knowledge. The version I use for this study includes the Apocrypha which some believe to be the Word of God as well. There are other less biblical texts that also include information that was true mixed in amongst the mundane. Maybe the original audience knew more than we did.

My point is that maybe we are not supposed to know how this works; maybe it does not impact our salvation and is therefore not to be understood. Maybe its importance is to show us to be flexible in how we stand on the known and react to the unknown.

I do not want to step out and study the extra biblical material in order to summarize what this could mean. I have heard of Christ and have accepted Him. Those living can hear from me about Christ and make the decisions. Those who are dead or I cannot reach are not my responsibility to know about.

As confusing as this can be and as deep as some of the topics are in this passage, I think the outcome is that Christ lived, die, and sits at the right hand of the Father in order to bring us into a full relationship with God. We can be assured in this knowledge and we can be encouraged to share it to others so that they are not left in this prison on a path to eternity in hell.

There is an old question: If God is on myside, who can defeat me? The answer is normally thought to be that no one can defeat you. I suggest that if God is on your side, only you can bring your won defeat by rejecting Him. We have all sinned. Christ has paid for our sins. We have to accept Him. Individually. As the last sermon I heard says, Christ Himself invited you personally, “Come”.