Introduction
We are at a passage that remains one the most complicated passages in the Bible to understand. Not just each verse, almost every phrase is ambiguous. Let me give a few examples. Is Peter saying Christ was raised by the Holy Spirit or simply that he was alive in spirit? Does alive in spirit mean without a body or in his resurrected body? Where did Jesus go as a spirit - to hell or some other waiting station for the dead? Who are the spirits in prison - the spirits of dead people or angels or demons? Did Jesus literally go to spirits who lived in Noah’s day or in Noah’s day did Jesus speak in spirit through Noah? You get the idea. Turning to the commentators, the problem is not that one set likes one interpretation and the other likes another. Every commentator differs from the others in some part.
Let me give to you the principles I worked with in making my own conclusions.
1. I assumed that Peter did not elaborate his teaching because he was not introducing new or esoteric teaching to his readers. Either the teaching was common or at least based on common assumptions.
2. I chose in each instance what went along with the primary elements of the gospel, not what relied on obscure and minor teachings.
3. I sought to understand the main point of the whole passage in light of the context in which Peter was writing. In other words I asked why Peter introduces this passage at all. How does it fit in with the subject of suffering?
Let’s get started.
His Death 18
18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
Let’s add the previous verse and then compare these verses with 2:20ff.
It is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. 18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
Now read 2:20ff: But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you…24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree…25 For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
In both cases Peter points out that suffering for good is the calling of the Christian, and for sound reasons. Christ went through the same thing. He was righteous and unjustly punished in regard to his own sin. He took our sin on him. Don’t forget we were the unrighteous for whom he suffered. And he suffered that we would be made righteous and live righteously. To this – living righteously in an unrighteous world – we were called.
Nevertheless, the purpose of Christ’s death cannot be boiled down to being made good people. The primary problem with the sinful nature is that it separates us from God. There is a wall of separation between us and God, formed by our sin and God’s just wrath. Christ, by his death, broke down that wall by taking our sin on himself and receiving God’s wrath. Now, with that wall removed, he is able to bring us to God.
His Resurrection 18b-21
If Christ’s death has brought forgiveness of sin and reconciled us to God, be assured that his resurrection brings us victory over those who would try to harm our souls.
He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit. In the Greek the sentence reads this way, “put to death in flesh but made alive in spirit.” Interpreting spirit to mean Holy Spirit like the NIV Bible does throws off the simple contrast that Peter is making. Jesus did die in the natural flesh, but he rose in a spiritual body, i.e. his resurrected body. As Christians we affirm that Jesus rose bodily. His resurrection was not merely a spiritual resurrection, by which we mean his spirit or soul lives on. Rather, we also affirm that Jesus’ body had been transformed in his resurrection. It was no longer bound to the laws to which the natural body is. It was not restricted by gravity barriers, nor did it need to be sustained with sleep or food, though he could eat. This is what distinguished his rising to life from the rising of Lazarus. Lazarus grew old and ultimately succumbed to death again. Jesus lives forever in his resurrected body.
Indeed, we also hope for such a resurrection. We look to the day that our bodies will be transformed. Do you know what the Bible calls such bodies? Spiritual bodies.
1 Corinthians 15:42-45: So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.
The word for “spirit” is the same word used in our passage.
A traditional understanding of “spirit” is that it speaks of Jesus’ nature between his death and his resurrection. During that time his nature was that of a spirit, being separated from his body. But the Bible has no clear teaching on the subject, and nowhere else does it give that period of Jesus great significance for believers. The periods of Jesus that matter to Christians are his incarnation, his death on the cross, his resurrection, his ascension into heaven, and his future return. Peter is presenting to his people here the significance of his resurrection.
Christ’s resurrection presents him as Lord over all, including the evil spiritual beings who desire to destroy his people. Peter continues: 19 through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison…
Verse 19 ought to read “through which.” Through his resurrected body – his spiritual body – Christ went out and preached to the spirits in prison. Who are these spirits? Are they humans or spiritual beings? I go with spiritual beings because that is how the term is most commonly used in scripture. Only once in Hebrews are humans in heaven referred to by that term. And the spiritual beings most commonly referred to are the evil (or unclean) spirits that Jesus so often drove out. An enlightening passage is in Mark 1:21-27:
They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.”
Note the fear of the evil spirit (the same term used in 1 Peter). Have you come to destroy us? It is quite worried about Jesus.
There is another instance in Mark 5 where Jesus is about to cast out many demons from one man. Verses 9-10 read: Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
What’s the fear? All Jesus does is make them leave. There is some spiritual reality that we cannot see, but which is very clear to the spiritual world. It seems, though, that these spirits at the moment have some sort of respite or a refuge from destruction. They are spirits in refuge or under protection of some kind. The Greek term used for prison in our passage, is also used for watch, such as the watch of watchmen over a city or the watch of shepherds. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night (Luke 2:8).
The situation, then, is that the evil spirits have had sanctuary on earth to carry out their work. Jesus has come striking fear that he will bring their refuge to an end, which he signifies by his ministry of casting them out of people. Yet, though he is driving them out, they are still protected, so to speak. His victory is still not assured. Then he dies, and his resurrection vindicates him, showing him to be the victorious Lord who will bring all things under submission to himself, including these spirits. It is this that he preaches to the spirits.
The word for “preached,” by the way, is not the word Peter has used for proclaiming the gospel. What is preached can only be determined by the context. And the context here is of the victorious risen Lord going before the wicked spirits who seek to disrupt and overthrow his kingdom.
See how this fits in with the context of the letter? Peter is writing to struggling Christians who are being persecuted by hostile neighbors. Can they survive? Will God protect them? The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” Christ is Lord. Evil will not win out. The spiritual forces of evil may try their best, but the victory has been pronounced by the risen Lord Jesus Christ.
And though this world with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.
(“A Mighty Fortress is our God”)
These spirits are described in verse 20 as those who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. This leads to further speculation about the origin of these spirits. Genesis 6 speaks of “sons of God” who married “daughters of men” and produced “the Nephilim.” Actually, I don’t care to speculate on that passage, nor the origin of the spirits. I think Peter refers back to Noah’s day, not to identify the spirits but to make Noah’s situation a model for the Christians to whom he is writing.
Four times in his epistle, Peter refers to the disobedient. Three times apply to the people of his day, the other to these spirits who, as he notes, disobeyed a long time ago. His point is that the age in which he and his readers are living is nothing new.
He refers to Noah’s day, because that is the period of the first great judgment on the world. At that time, God waited patiently while wickedness seemed to go unchecked. God was waiting for the time to be fulfilled when the ark would be ready. We are in a waiting period now just as in the days of Noah. It seems that wickedness goes unchecked and that the church of Christ is in peril. But understand, that God is in control; judgment on wickedness and deliverance for the righteous will come once more. God is waiting patiently for the appointed return of his Son.
The sign of the judgment and deliverance is the baptism we have received. Verse 20 continues: In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also… Peter now compares the flood water with the present sacrament of baptism. It is an intriguing comparison. He notes that Noah’s family was saved not from the water, but through the water. What does he mean? Simply this: what Noah and his family were really saved from was the wickedness of the world. The floodwater was the instrument of destruction on the wicked, but it also served (with the ark) to deliver the righteous from the wicked. In a sense, the flood cleansed the earth from wickedness and restored the righteous.
So it is with baptism. The water of baptism symbolizes the cleansing away of sin (i.e. wickedness) and restoring the believer to righteousness. The believer is separated from the world and is preserved from the judgment that is to come. Water represents the sprinkling by the blood of Christ that Peter referred to in his introduction (1:2). I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols, God tells Israel in Ezekiel 36:25.
Now, Peter plainly says that baptism saves. Is he asserting, as the Churches of Christ claim, that water baptism is the act of salvation? This is the only such statement in the NT, and Peter is quick to add a qualifier: not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. He is saying that it is not going through the motions of baptism that saves, but the attitude in which it is done. Baptism is not an immunization shot that shoots salvation in us whether we like it or not. It requires coming before God in good conscience, confessing our sin and looking to him for salvation.
But that still leaves the question, Does water baptism save? No. It may be involved in the act of salvation, if the person is repenting and turning to Christ in faith at the same moment, which was often the case in the days of the apostles’ preaching. The apostles’ and evangelists’ preached, the people responded in faith, and they were baptized on the spot.
But even then, the water was not doing the real work. The real work was done by the Holy Spirit; it is the baptism of the Holy Spirit who sprinkles the blood of Christ, that does the saving. Water signifies that real spiritual activity. Yes, baptism saves, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And water baptism is the Christ-given sign to impress that salvation upon us and lead us into our full salvation. Remember, we are still looking to our complete salvation that will take place when Christ returns. Meanwhile, we can look back to our water baptism as the sign of Christ’s saving work.
Peter summarizes Christ’s work appealing to the resurrection, as he had done back in 1:3: It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ’s death brought atonement; his resurrection declared the victory and our salvation. In baptism we look not to the dead Lord, but the risen Lord whose victory over death marks our own victory.
See where Peter is going? Christ died for our sins. He rose victorious as Savior and Lord, demonstrating his power to bring judgment to the wicked and salvation to those who are his. Now, one more great act – he has ascended on high.
His Ascension 22
Verse 22: who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. This is the act of glory. Peter beheld with his own eyes the Lord Jesus rising into glory. By his ascension he returns to the position of glory and honor and power at the right hand of God the Father. There he reigns over all creation.
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:1-11).
Even the demons must some day bow before Christ the Lord.
Conclusion
Remember in the midst of your trials who your savior is. Jesus Christ is the victorious Lord. Through his death he broke the bondage of sin; he conquered death itself. Through his resurrection he has subdued the evil powers so that they cannot harm his people. His ascension shows that he is not struggling to hold his kingdom together. He rules his kingdom in glory and power, and he shall return at the time that God the Father has appointed, not sooner and not later. And he shall bring the final judgment on the wicked and consummate the salvation that he has given to his people. That is our hope; therefore, let us keep our eyes fixed upon it and our Lord Jesus.
Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ has ascended on high; some day, Christ will return.
