Maurice Roberts

The Bible is the first and most essential means of grace. Our worship and prayer is only acceptable in the measure in which it is regulated by the teaching of the Bible. Well-intentioned sincerity is a valuable thing, but it will not make our worship pleasing to God if it is not regulated by his Word. It is a thousand pities to see well-meaning persons attempting to worship and serve God devotedly but in a way not sanctioned by his Word. Our worship is worthless unless it is offered to God in accordance with his own revealed will.

Exactly the same is true of our confession or creed. We believe in vain any doctrine which the Bible has not revealed to us. Belief in any doctrine which is not from God is only misbelief. Our life-long calling as Christians is to remove from our hearts and lives all doctrines and practices which do not have the warrant or sanction of God's Word and are therefore inconsistent with his Word. To believe any falsehood to be true, or any truth to be false, is harmful to our faith and hurtful to our souls. It follows from what is here stated that we must all be careful and life-long students of the Bible. We must constantly correct our beliefs and practices against the teaching of the Word of God, even if at times such correction and reformation may be painful. All reformation of faith and worship, doctrine and practice is painful because it cuts across our fond and cherished attitudes of mind and our familiar patterns of belief and devotion. But reformation is the believer's duty. It sometimes happens, however, that men's false ideas in matters of faith and devotion are actually derived from the Bible itself, or rather, from hasty and ill-considered interpretations of it. Examples of this abound, the most notorious being related to the words of Christ, 'This is my body'. It is not enough therefore that our faith be loosely related to the words of the Bible. What is required of us all is to study the Bible till we have under-stood its true and proper sense. It is the meaning and the message of Scripture which form the substance of what we are to believe. Each particular text of the Bible is capable of being misunderstood. Many, according to the Apostle Peter, wrest the Scripture 'unto their own destruction' (2 Pet. 3:16). To be biblical is to be governed by the true meaning and interpretation of Scripture. False interpretations always lead astray from Christ. And some texts, it has to be admitted, present us with serious problems of interpretation.

Just such a passage of Scripture is to be found in 1 Peter 3:18-20: 'For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.' This text has truly been a 'dismal swamp' to Bible readers. Even some commentators of real worth have stumbled over the meaning of these words and attempted to draw harmful conclusions from them. It will be profitable for us to come to a clear and settled view of the meaning of this difficult passage.

Some wrong views

It is a common mistake of commentators to start out with the assumption that Christ 'went and preached unto the spirits in prison' (verse19) during the period between his death and resurrection. This is a regrettable, if partly understandable, mistake and one that leads to some mischievous doctrines. Commentators who try to interpret the text in this way are influenced by the nearby words which state that Christ was 'put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit' (verse18). These writers perhaps assume that the preaching of our Lord here must have taken place during the time between his being put to death and his being quickened by the Spirit. To interpret Peter's words in this way, however, quickly lands us in trouble. Who are these spirits and in what prison are they? Those who embark on this method of interpretation are faced with various possible answers to these questions. The spirits could be either fallen angels (and demons), or the souls of the damned in hell, or else the souls of Old Testament saints in Hades, conceived of as the 'waiting room' for them till Christ should come. We suppose that there might be found advocates for each of these various views.

But if this line of interpretation is correct in the main, what is Christ supposed to have preached to them at that time when he himself was disembodied and in a state of death? The 'kindest' view is that our Lord entered the plane where the souls of Old Testament saints were at rest and announced to them that his work was now completed on the cross. They might now leave Hades and rise to heaven.

The 'grimmest' view is that our Lord entered into the dark vaults of hell and there announced that the doom of the wicked, both demons and men, was now sealed forever in that he had triumphed over Satan and thus ensured that the wicked would never escape. This view, so the writer once heard, has been referred to as 'the harrowing of hell'. It was, if this view is correct, a gloomy preaching indeed which these spirits received. There is, however, one very good reason for believing that this entire method of interpretation is wrong and misleading. It is the statement of Christ to the thief on the cross, 'To day shalt thou be with me in paradise' (Luke 23:43). Here we are informed that Christ's soul in a state of death was in the place of the blessed dead and nowhere else. If so, he was not in hell. And he was not in some 'waiting room', but in the place where the Old Testament saints, though disembodied, were in comfort and at peace, like Abraham and Lazarus (Luke 16:23, 25).

A second consideration which ought to make us very reluctant to follow the interpretation of those commentators referred to above is that preaching is a spiritual exercise confined entirely to this present life. The Bible knows of no preaching to the dead, either to the blessed dead or to the wicked.

Singing is certainly heard in heaven, but not preaching. Still less is there any preaching to those in hell. It is inconsistent with all that we are told about heaven or hell to suppose that preaching is ever heard in either place. Preaching is a means of grace to men while they are still in a state of proba-tion in this present life. Once our spiritual condition is sealed by death we are beyond all possibility of change. If so, then preaching would be of no value at all, for preaching aims to change men. A serious evil flowing from the adoption of the interpretation above is that room must be found for some such place as purgatory. As a matter of fact this whole passage has been used to attempt to prove that a purgatory of some sort exists and that Christ descended into hell after his death.1 Thus interpreted, Peter's words are the gateway to superstition.

Towards a right understanding

The materials needed to help us towards a correct interpretation are all in the Bible and some of them are even in the context of this very passage itself. One key to unlock the meaning is found in these words of Peter's a few verses 1 For instance, the Catechism of the [Roman] Catholic Church adduces 1 Peter 3:18-19 to prove that Christ, preached the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there (Articles, para. 632) later: 'For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit' (1 Pet. 4:6). The background to Peter's thought is the imminence of the judgment day. Of great importance is the way in which he refers to the dead: 'The gospel was preached to them that are dead.' The persons referred to are now dead but the gospel was preached to them while they were alive.

Exactly the same sense is to be attached to 1 Peter 3:19: 'He (Christ) . . . went and preached to the spirits in prison.' These spirits, or souls of men now disembodied in a state of death, had the gospel preached to them while they were alive on earth. If we were to expand, or paraphrase, this verse we should have to be careful how we did it: 'Christ went and preached to the spirits who are, not were, in prison.'

It is of interest to know that the Latin Vulgate Bible, in use during the Middle Ages, translated 'were' in prison (erant), whereas the Reformer Theodore Beza, friend of Calvin, translated it 'are' in prison (sunt). The Vulgate translation has led to a good deal of needless confusion over this text. Peter is not saying that Christ preached to those who were dead, but to those who are now dead. They were alive when Christ preached to them but they are not alive now.

Other problems

What precisely are these 'spirits in prison'? They are the disembodied souls of those evil men who heard and rejected the preaching of Christ and so are now in the intermediate state of hell. The full and final state of heaven and hell are not yet manifested by God. The souls of the righteous are in glory but they still await the return of Christ to enjoy the ultimate and final state of heaven. Similarly, the wicked dead are not yet in the final state of hell as it is to be opened up after the Day of Judgment. They are at present kept in a place of suffering and confinement, as in a prison till the Judgment Day. Hence, they are here aptly described as 'spirits in prison'. They are, of course, human beings, not demons. The gospel has never at any period of history been preached to demons, who have no Saviour, and so no hope.

But when and how did our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ preach to these spirits? He did so at the time before the Flood of Noah's day, 'while the ark was a preparing' (verse 20). It is clear therefore that the reference is not to any 2 Those who wish to have a convenient survey of these confused views should consult such a technical commentary on First Peter as that of E. G. Selwyn (Macmillan, 1969). preaching of Christ during his earthly life or ministry, or to any mysterious ministry of preaching carried out by him between his death and resurrection. This reference is to the preaching of Christ in his pre-incarnate state 'in the days of Noah' (verse 20). How then did Christ preach during the one hundred and twenty years when the ark was being built by Noah? He did so by his Holy Spirit given by him to Noah, who was an inspired mouth-piece for Christ, warning the pleasure-loving sinners of that age to flee from the impending wrath of God by repenting and entering the ark. Hence Peter affirms that Christ was 'quickened' (made alive, at his resurrection) by the Spirit (verse 18). The same Holy Spirit who raised up Christ from the dead (Rom. 8:11) also inspired Noah to preach in those far-off antediluvian times 'when once the long-suffering of God waited' (verse 20).

How then is it here said that Christ 'went and preached unto the spirits in prison' (verse 19)? The verb 'went' must refer to gracious divine action on Christ's part and not to physical movement. Christ in his rich grace gave an abundance of his Spirit to Noah, whom Peter elsewhere refers to as 'a preacher of righteousness' (2 Pet. 2:5).

This would indicate that the preaching which the men before the Flood heard from the lips of Noah was no ordinary preaching but was an anointed, gracious, Christ-given preaching. And yet, for all that, those who heard it were impenitent to the last. Noah's preaching, Spirit-filled and Christ-given as it was, saved not a single man outside his own family. This fact must be a comfort to many a modern preacher and missionary who is too honest to falsify facts.

The judgment which came down upon these impenitent men of Noah's day, as all know, was in the form of a deluge of water (verse 20). Peter, however, does not draw our attention to the flood waters as the instrument of God's wrath. Rather, he asserts that the eight who entered the ark were saved by water. The very element which destroyed the impenitent saved those who obeyed God at that time. In the economy of God it is often, perhaps always, so. One means in God's hand spells life to believers and death to the scornful, whether that means be the waters of the Flood, the Red Sea or the last great fire. This fire will burn up this sinful world's corrupt works and at the same time usher in a purified universe for the people of God. Peter expands on the significance of the element of water to teach us the importance of baptism. The same element which lifted up the ark and its occupants to safety above the raging waves in Noah's day is now used by God to save us (verse 21). He hastens to dispel any misconception on this point. The water does not save us, he explains, by automatic contact with our skin like some external washing, but when it is the sacramental symbol of an internal cleansing by which we are able to look up to a holy God with love and faith - our conscience reassuring us of justification in Christ. The main pastoral problem evidently addressed by Peter in this whole First Epistle is that of the sufferings of God's people in this unkind world. To this theme he turns again and again in the course of the epistle.

Peter's message to believers

It remains to explain how the passage we have here been explaining and expounding is related to the general theme of the epistle as a whole. This we must now do.

In this world the Christian must expect to suffer many injustices. He will therefore have to suffer even for well-doing (verse 17), an experience which is especially hard for the human spirit to bear because it feels so unjust. But an argument is at hand to help us to bear even this, 'for Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust' (verse 18). If we remember that our Master so suffered, it is vastly easier for us to suffer injustice in this world.

Besides, Christ and his people have in the various ages of human history, all had to go through the same experiences of suffering unjustly. Yet both he and they have always finally triumphed over the ills of this life and been saved out of them at last. Noah and his family saw evils in plenty in their day. But they were saved out of them at length by those very waters which destroyed the sinners who rejected Christ's gospel. The water of baptism - provided it be baptism indeed, associated with a renewed soul and so with a quickened and good conscience - now saves us just as surely as it saved Noah of old. As he rose above this world's troubles in the ark so shall we also in the end of our life. This assurance is fortified by the further fact that Christ, who suffered for well-doing in this life, is now both risen and ascended to his glory above. It cannot be long therefore till we join our beloved Saviour in his glory. The Christian living in this new millennium and seeing all round him the same evils that Noah saw and the same ominous contempt for the gospel, should take fresh heart. If we are faithful to Christ we shall not fail to appear with him at last in glory.