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, in which he went and
proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when
God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in
which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
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 good conscience, through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand
of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. (1
Peter 3:18-22 ESV
Introduction
In preaching through the book of 1
Peter I knew that I would inevitably have to deal with these verses. I dreaded
them, yet I also grow excited about them. I loved the challenge they presented;
I loved the idea of solving this great mystery of 1 Peter. But I also know that
if I was unable to solve this mystery that I would have to stand before God’s Church
as a teacher who doesn’t know what he’s teaching, and for that reason I dreaded
it.
Martian Luther said
this about these verses, “A wonderful text is this, and a more
obscure passage perhaps than any other in the New Testament, so that I do not
know for a certainty just what Peter means.” These verses are clearly unclear.
It is very hard to understand what they mean. So I decided that I would
not be mastered by these five verses, I studied, I read, I diagramed, and I
learned many Greek words. I read the experts and I read those who thought they
were experts. For weeks I thought about this text and now I can say with
confidence that I don’t know what it means. Of course I have ideas, but they’re
just that, ideas. Maybe no one has the answers to this riddle. Maybe only Peter
and the all-knowing God understand exactly what these verses mean. And maybe
that’s okay.
Maybe we don’t need to know
everything now, maybe we do just see dimly as a reflection, maybe the secret
things really do belong to the Lord, or maybe I’m just too unintelligent to
figure it out. The point is this; no one is going to know everything, at least
not on this side of eternity. Does this give us an excuse to just jump past
things we don’t understand? Never! We are called to love God with all of our
minds and a part of that is thinking hard about what His word says. We must
think hard about the Bible but we also must be willing to say, “I don’t
understand.” We can have many good ideas but in the end we need to remember
that humility means we may be wrong.
All of that being said I would like
to share what I’ve learned about these verses. I will share what God has taught
me in the hopes that it might help some else get one step closer to their
understanding of these verses. But before I really get in to what Peter wrote I
would like to give a few warnings:
1.
Guard
against pride
Pride is a very real and deadly
enemy. The reason I want to warn against this is because we can easily have the
tendency to think that my view is right and everyone else’s is wrong. We become
so convinced that I’m infallible and we think every other view is of the Devil.
We must avoid this type of thinking. It is true that only one view can be right
but it is also true that the right view might not be yours. We need to guard against
pride when looking at tough passages
2.
Be
cautious of false teaching
When we a dealing with passages
that are confusing or controversial we must be careful that we don’t base our
doctrines upon it. It can be very easy to take a tough passage and make it the
difference between eternal life and eternal damnation. An example of this is
the Mormon teaching on the baptism of the dead. They took a confusing passage
and made it something everyone must live by. Do not let your uncertainty become
false teaching.
3.
Think
Biblically about disagreements
When someone disagrees with your
point of view what do you do? How do you react? We can be so self-righteous.
This issue goes right along with pride. It’s good to know what you believe but
on some issues there is something that matters more then being right and that thing
is unity. If your interpretation of this passage causes a fight with other
Christians then something is fundamentally wrong. Just skim the New Testament
and you will see how important unity is. John Piper, in a sermon
on this text makes a very good point about this very issue, “Controversy
is essential where precious truth is rejected or distorted. And controversy is
deadly where disputation about truth dominates exultation in truth.” We need to
stand up for the truth. We need to be very careful that we don’t let the truth
be destroyed or twisted, but we also need to fight for unity. The truth of
God’s word is supposed to cause us exult Him; it is not supposed to make us
fight and divide. We must walk a very fine line when it comes to disagreements.
4.
Remember
where wisdom comes from
The next thing I want to warn
against is something that I found myself falling into. There is a danger in
careful study, and that is that we forget that God has more answers then our
books. What I was doing in my study was all very good. I was meticulous,
looking at the text from every angle I could think of. I read and thought very
deeply but what I forgot to do was pray. For some reason I got it into my mind
that I could find out more from reading books then I could talking with the
living God. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Remember where wisdom comes
from; remember to pray.
5.
Don’t
miss the forest for the trees
We need to be very careful that we
don’t get so distracted by these verses that we forget the main truth of this
text. Jesus is the victor, He has won, and through His suffering and His
triumph we can be saved, we can be brought to God. That statement is the main point;
don’t miss the glory of this truth.
Five Different Views
Now
that I’ve given my warnings I want us to examine the words of Peter. As I said
before, this is a hard text. One of my good friends, Bryan Nix, said that,
“There are so many explanations of 3:18-22 that it makes my head spin.” In a sermon I heard by
Mark Driscoll he said that, “there are 180 different views.” As is often the
case with a hard text, people simply do not agree on what it means. Although
there are many different views it seems like there is about five main ones.
Wayne Grudem lays these five views out very nicely in his commentary
on 1 Peter, and I’m indebted to him for the information I’ve gotten from his
book. His list of each basic view goes something like this:
View 1: When Noah was building the ark,
Christ, in the spirit, was preaching repentance through Noah to the unbelievers
who died in the flood. These people were on earth then but they are now in
prison.
View 2: After Christ died He
went and preached to the spirits of people in hell, offering them another
chance to repent
View 3: After Christ died He
went and preached to the spirits of people in hell, proclaiming that He had
triumphed and that their condemnation was final.
View 4: After Christ had died
He proclaimed release to the spirits of people who had repented just before the
flood and led them from their prison into heaven.
View 5: After Christ died went into hell
and proclaimed triumph over fallen angels who sinned by marrying human woman
before the flood.
I’ve been
looking into these different views for a long time now and one thing that
strikes me is that it is very easy to argue for just about any one of these
views. I read Grudem’s commentary
and went away thinking that View 1 was correct. I listened to John McArthur and thought
that View 5 was correct. I could probably close my eyes, pick a view, and then
proceed to explain why it is in fact the right one.
What I want to do at this point is
not go into detail about each individual view but instead take a good long look
at the words that Peter wrote down. One principle that we need to keep in mind
is that we interpret the unclear parts of the Bible by the parts that are
clear. If you don’t understand something then you should focus first on what
you do understand.
What We Do Know
Let’s
examine this text and ask the question, “what can we plainly see from what
Peter is telling us?” In other words, what is clear about this passage? We will
start in verse 18, Peter writes, “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…” So what is clear in this verse? It’s clear that Christ suffered
and died once, for our sins. Christ suffered as a righteous man to pay for the
sins of the unrighteous. It’s also clear that the whole reason for doing this
was to bring us to God. That is a glorious truth. Christ went through all the
pain and suffering so that sinful humans might be brought to God. Don’t skip over this amazingly clear and
wonderful truth. The last thing we can say from this verse is that Christ was
made alive in the spirit. Christ was made alive and he is still living.
Next we
have verse 19, “in which he went and
proclaimed to the spirits in prison…” This verse is far less clear but
before we jump into all of our questions let’s ask what is clear in this verse.
It starts out saying, “in which he went…”
What does that mean? It means that Christ, in the spirit, went somewhere to
do something. Christ in the spirit went and proclaimed or preached. So we know
for a fact that Christ went somewhere in the spirit and he proclaimed
something, that’s very good, but we also know who he preached to, He preached
to the spirits in prison. And you probably thought you didn’t have clue what
this verse meant.
Peter
continues this thought in Verse 20, “because
they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were
brought safely through water…” We know something more about these spirits
in prison; we know that they formally did not obey. The Greek term for this
carries a stronger more active sense. We could translate it disobey or we could
say that they refused to believe. The point is they did not obey and we can
safely say it was not an accident. Notice what Peter says next, “when God's patience waited in the days of
Noah, while the ark was being prepared…” So we not only know that the
spirits disobeyed but we also know when they did. The spirits disobeyed in the
days of Noah, specifically while the ark was being built. So now we know what
they did and when they did it, but we also learn something about God, He waited
patiently. The whole time these spirits were disobeying, God was waiting
patiently. The last thing we can be certain of from this verse is that God
saved eight people (Noah and his family) by bringing them through the water of
the flood on the ark.
Look at the
next verse, “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 good conscience…” What’s clear in this verse? Well, it’s clear
that the flood corresponds with baptism, the flood, and the salvation of Noah’s
family, is a symbol or a type that represents baptism. The next thing that is
clear is that baptism does not save but simply removing to dirt from the body,
but it does save us as an appeal to God for a good conscience. This is only
possible because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The
last verse is verse 22, “through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand
of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”
Jesus is in heaven. He has won. Jesus is reigning and angels, authorities, and
powers our all subject to Him.
What We Don’t Know
As
you can see, we know a whole lot about these verses. There is much that is very
clear. So what’s the problem? Why is it that no one can agree on what these
verses mean? It’s because there are some pretty hard questions. There are some
things that are uncertain and they cause us some trouble. So we are going to do
the same thing we just did and we’ll pull out what we don’t know for sure.
Let’s
take another look at verse 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…” This verse is really very clear, and I think that God did that
because it is such a foundational truth. Our faith depends on this verse. But
there is a question that I see. The question is this: what does it mean to be
made alive in the spirit? We will come back and attempt to answer the questions
later, but for now we will just state them.
Verse 19 is
the most confusing verse in this whole passage. It says, “in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison…” So what
don’t we know? Just about everything. Here are the questions: When did Christ
go and proclaim? What did he go and proclaim? Who are the spirits? And what is
the prison?
There are
most questions we can ask but these are the ones I want to focus on. There is a
lot going on in this text, but for now let’s just focus on the issue at hand.
Maybe there will be a another article on baptism down the line, but let’s just focus
on the task at hand.
What We Know Vs.
What We Don’t Know
I want us
to notice these two lists. The first is all the things that we do know and the
second is all the things that we don’t know.
What we do know:
1.
Christ suffered/died once for our sins
2.
Christ suffered to bring us to God
3.
Christ was made alive in the spirit
4.
In the spirit Christ went and
proclaimed/preached to the spirits in prison
5.
The Spirits formally did not obey in the days of
Noah, while the ark was being built
6.
God waited patiently while the ark was being
built
7.
Noah and his family (8 persons) were brought
safely through the water in the ark
8.
Baptism corresponds with Noah and his family
being brought safely through the water
9.
Baptism does not save as a removal of dirt from
the body
10. Baptism
does save as an appeal to God of a good conscience
11. This
appeal is through the resurrection
of Christ
12. Christ
is in heaven, at God’s right hand, reigning over everything
What we don’t know:
1.
What does it mean to be made alive in the
spirit?
2.
When did Christ go and proclaim?
3.
What did we proclaim?
4.
Who are the spirits in prison?
5.
What is the prison?
As you can see we know far more
then we don’t know. That is a tremendous blessing. So the challenge we have
before us is to look at the things we don’t know and ask what they mean in
light of what we do know. We need to be very careful here because if we don’t
remember the plain things then we will not be able to interpret the less clear
parts correctly.
What Does It Mean?
At this
point in my study I realized something. What I realized is that many people get
caught up in word studies and in far-fetched theories and completely abandon
any sort of natural reading of this passage. I am convinced that the most
natural reading of this passage is the best one. We should accept the most
simple and clear explanation of this text. I don’t think that the New Testament
writers wrote in such a way so that only the intellectual giants could
understand. I think that the Bible was written so that anyone could know God.
So when you
read this passage what does it say? What is the simplest and most natural interpretation?
It says that Christ went in the spirit to some other spirits in prison; these
are spirits who formally disobeyed in the days of Noah while God waited patiently.
To me it sounds like these verses say this: After Christ died he went in the
spirit and proclaimed the good news to the people who formally died in the
flood. That’s what the most natural reading seems to convey. Here is how I
would paraphrase this text:
Christ suffered and died for our sins, as a righteous man for
us who are unrighteous, He was put to death in the flesh but God made Him alive
in the spirit, in this spirit he want and proclaimed (the good news) to the
spirits in prison. These spirits formally disobeyed in days of Noah while he
was building the ark. During this time God was waiting patiently (for them to
repent). When the flood came a few, that is 8 people, were brought safely
through water. The salvation of Noah and his family is a type for baptism,
which now saves you. Baptism does not save by cleaning the body, but it saves
because it is an appeal to God for a clean conscience. This is only possible
because it is though the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christ is now in heaven,
at God’s right hand, reigning in triumph and glory with angels, authorities,
and powers subject to Him.
Now
I know that I’ve made a lot of assumptions here. The question now is this: are
the assumptions true? Is my interpretation correct or am I in error? Is there
even any way to tell? We need some answers. We cannot just accept whatever we
hear. We need to ask if the Bible supports whet we believe. So does a deeper
look at this text support my view? We will dig into this in the second part of
this article, so please check back soon for part 2!
