And we know that Jesus's ghost also went to the 'spirit prison' to preach. (1 Peter 3:19)
Peter then goes into a section on this Christian love for one another, to be manifested and witnessed throughout whole Christian body of Christ
[1 Peter 3:8-17].
He finally then sums this all up in Christ Jesus as being the perfect model and example of this love, and re-connects that with the exhortation he previously spoke about in the earlier verses
[1 Peter 3:1-17] with the very example of the days of Noah and the Salvation and Judgment seen there. Peter is giving an example of the very thing that Jesus prophesied about:
"But as the days of Noe [were], so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." [Matthew 24:37]
see also Matthew 24:38; Luke 17:2627
People in Noah's day rioted, and did whatever they pleased, and took whom they wanted, etc [ask about the context of “sons of God” and “daughters of men” and what was happening there]. Noah, who
"was perfect in his generations" and
"walked with god" [Genesis 6:9;p], preached unto them about
"righteousness" [2 Peter 2:5], but most of the rest of the world mocked and railed at him, like as others also unto the other prophets
[2 Chronicles 36:16; Job 12:4; Mark 12, etc]. So Noah
"suffer[ed] for righteousness sake", but was unafraid of their
"terror" and of their
"speak[ing] evil" of him as an
"evil doer", but rather he
"found grace in the eyes of the Lord" [Genesis 6:8;p] and
"sanctif[ied] the Lord God [in his] heart" and so
"suffer[ed] for well doing" while believing God about the coming Judgment of the Flood
[Genesis 6:17] which would take everyone away in destruction and thus it was
"accounted unto him for righteousnesss" for so acting upon that Faith
[James 2].
So then what do the remaining verses of 1 Peter 3:18-22 actually mean?
The passage is not saying that Christ Jesus, while deceased and in the tomb
[where "the LORD lay" [Matthew 28:6]], then incorporeally went and preached a sermon to
"spirits" [the common worldly defined form of an incorporeal immortal being, ie. 'ghosts of the deceased', etc]
.
Jesus was dead, having suffered the Death [the wages for sin], which was ours for us all [though we too, our "old man" of "sin" [Romans 6:6;p] must die, and be "crucified with CHRIST" [Galatians 2:20;p] and be "born again" [John 3:3,7; 1 Peter 1:23]], though His
"Humanity died: divinity did not die" for GOD, Divinity, is
"immortal" [1 Timothy 1:17].
...
So, the Holy Spirit was already working in the
"Days of Noah" upon the hearts and minds of men, as He has throughout the scriptures
[Genesis 1:2; Numbers 11:29; Job 26:13; Isaiah 48:16; Zechariah 7:12; 1 Corinthians 2:10; Ephesians 3:16; 1 John 4:13; etc]:
"And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." [Genesis 6:3]
So now, please notice what Peter is actually recounting of as it had happened in the "days of Noah":
"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:" [1 Peter 3:18]
"Put to death in the flesh", and
"quickend" ["made alive, to produce alive...to cause to live, make alive, give life...to restore life...springing up..."; Greek "zōopoieō" "ζῳοποιέω"; Strong's Concordance, Thayer's Lexicon, Vines Expository, ; "in other words, to make living that which was before dead/without life"]
by the Holy Spirit again ["not left in hell [grave]"] into Immortal and Uncorruptible Flesh
[for His flesh never having seen corruption; Exodus 16:5,22-36; Psalms 16:10, 49:9; Acts 2:27,32, 13:35,37].
He [Jesus] was
"quickened by the Spirit" [in this text, being Raised
by the Holy Spirit; Romans 8:11] and was forever raised as an immortal human man with
"Flesh and Bones" [Luke 24:39] so that the disciples could
"handle" Him and that He could
"eat".
Jesus, who spake of the raising of the
"Temple of his Body" [John 2:21; Revelation 21:22], was Raised Bodily
[John 2:19,21, 20:12; Luke 24:3,6,39,43, etc] unto Immortality as the type of the Uncorrupted Manna in the Wilderness foretold
[Exodus 16:5,22-25] and was not floating around somewhere in some "immortalized incorporeal form of man-shade" preaching to other "deceased conscious incorporeals". ...
"By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;" [1 Peter 3:19]
What is the
"by which" this event
["went and preached"] was being done?
It is
"by the Spirit" [being the Holy Spirit],
[vs 18].
Who then is the
"He" that was doing this
["went and preached"] by means of the Holy Spirit?
It is Jesus
["Christ"], [vs 18], for Jesus was preaching through the Holy Spirit whom He had sent unto Noah to warn the world of the impending Judgment of God and for repentance. Remember
“And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” [Genesis 6:3]? To whom was Noah preaching to in those days then by the Holy Spirit whom Jesus had sent? Deceased 'ghosts' or people who were very much alive and living in sin and rebellion towards God?
The text says that the Holy Spirit strove with
"man" who is
"flesh" which is animated unto life by the spirit of God, having been breathed into him:
"...My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh..." [Genesis 6:3;p]
Peter was using a comparison, of then [Noah's Day] and now [his [Peter's] day] and also the end of time] and was revealing that Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit in the
"days of Noah" [not in the days of Jesus' death] was preaching the Gospel of Salvation [
Genesis 3:15, etc by Noah, the
"preacher of righteousness"] to the living humans [
"man"] that were then [
"in the days of Noah"]
"disobediant" to God.
The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts of Sin, Judgment and Righteousness
[John 16:8], which is why even King David prayed after he had sinned and was
"disobedient" ["Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me." [Psalms 51:11]].
Who then are these
"spirits in prison" [vs 19] that were being
"preached" unto?
They were the living human beings [souls, living beings as defined by
Genesis 2:7 and throughout] who were in the bonds of iniquity, slaves of sin, bondage of disobedience and bound to Sin, Satan and Self [selfishness and also self-works to earn salvation] as the Bible so defines:
"...
brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out
of the house of bondage." [Exodus 20:2], see also
Deuteronomy 5:6. 6:12, 8:14, 13:10; Judges 6:8; Joshua 24:17
"And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn [you] away from the LORD your God, which
brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of
the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee." [Deuteronomy 13:5]
[notice also that last part of the text]
"O LORD, truly I [am] thy servant; I [am] thy servant, [and] the son of thine handmaid:
thou hast loosed my bonds." [Psalms 116:16]
"Bring
my soul out of prison..." [Psalms 142:7]
"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 42:7]
"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]
"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]
"...
whom Satan hath bound,... be
loosed from this bond...?" [Luke 13:16]
"
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon." [Luke 16:13]
"...
Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." [John 8:34]
[...is the slave of sin]
"...
the bond of iniquity." [Acts 8:23]
"For ye have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." [Romans 8:15]
"For
ye were sometimes darkness, but now [are ye] light in the Lord: walk as children of light:" [Ephesians 5:8]
"And
deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." [Hebrews 2:15]
"While
they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." [2 Peter 2:19]
Surely, those that Jesus Himself himself preached to in His 3 1/2 year Ministry were not "deceased or departed, nor some immortal incorporeal", but were very much physically alive
["mortal man" [Job 4:17]; "Mortal Flesh" [2 Corinthians 4:11]] and held in the bondage to sin satan and self.
Even as Paul hath said:
"
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of
sin unto death, or of
obedience unto righteousness?" [Romans 6:16]
Also speaking of
"liberty" from
"iniquity" [lawlessness] the scriptures continue by saying:
"And
I will walk at liberty: for
I seek thy precepts." [Psalms 119:45]
"They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and
were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? " [John 8:33]
"Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." [John 8:34]
"And
the servant abideth not in the house for ever: [but] the Son abideth ever." [John 8:35] [Paul uses this analogy in Galatians; those who are in bondage are sinners, refusing to submit to God and His righteousness]
"If
the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." [John 8:38]
"To open their eyes, [and]
to turn [them] from darkness to light, and [from] the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." [Acts 26:18]
"Because the creature itself also shall be
delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God." [Romans 8:21]
"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and
where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty." [2 Corinthians 3:17]
"For, brethren,
ye have been called unto liberty; only [use] not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." [Galatians 5:13]
"But whoso
looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth [therein], he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." [James 1:25]
"...
judged by the law of liberty." [James 2:12]
"As free, and
not using [your] liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God." [1 Peter 2:16]
"While
they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." [2 Peter 2:19]
Looking further at the context and continuing onward:
"Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." [1 Peter 3:20]
Who are the
"which"?
They are the
"spirits in prison",
[vs 19], which by the text themselves declare are living people in the bonds of sin and disobedience.
When was this preaching
["preached"] to these
"spirits in prison" done according to the context?
It was actually done to those who were
"...disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the Ark was a prepraring..." [and even before through Enoch, and Methuselah [whose name means 'when he dies it will be sent'; 'flood'] as Jude gives]. This was done many years before Christ Jesus was ever incarnated/born as a man, and therefore long before His crucifixion.
Thus the Gospel was also Preached
"in the days of Noah" [for 120 years, Genesis 6:3]. The
"disobedient" were the living disobedient and transgressing human beings who did not board the Ark, disbelieved the message of warning from God, but rather who continued to rebel and ignore the warnings that God [Jesus through the Holy Spirit] had given through Noah
["preacher of Righteousness"].
It was not preached to angels, nor devils, nor immortal incorporeal forms, but rather it was preached to
"man" [Genesis 6:3,5-7], who was living
"flesh" [Genesis 6:12-13,17] [as we are living flesh], See also
[Job 22:15-16].
Peter is likening that preachment done then
["the like figure"], to the preachment done now
[1 Peter 3:21], and their
"then" baptism
["wherein 8 souls were saved by water"] in
"the days of Noah", and he [Peter] is comparing it to the Baptism now offered in Christ Jesus.
The Holy Spirit worked to convict of Sin then [through the preaching and lives of Adam, Seth, Enoch, Methuselah, Noah], as He does now [through Christians], but only 8 humans [living
"souls"] were saved then, as no one else chose to repent, believe and obey and to get into the Ark [the only means of salvation] except Noah and his Family.
So Likewise as it was “in the days of Noe” and in the days of Peter, the Gospel was preached to them who eventually died, hopefully in the faith that they might live again in the resurrection of the just, when his [Jesus'] glory shall be revealed,
“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 Peter 4:6], “But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” [1 Peter 4:13] but if not in that resurrection of the faithful, then in the resurrection of the unfaithful,
“And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” [1 Peter 4:18], so too today He is convicting the whole world of
"Sin, Judgment and Righteousness" [John 16:8] through the preaching of the Three Angels Messages and the
"Everlasting Gospel" found in
Revelation 14:6-12. [As Noah was a
"preacher of Righteousness" [2 Peter 2:5] See also
[Psalms 119:172], so now there is a remnant group of God's people
Revelation 14:12 proclaiming it over the whole world
[Revelation 14:6]...]
Christ Jesus says as it was
"in the days of Noe" [Luke 17:26, see also Matthew 24:37-39], so it will be...
...Another Message goes forth unto the whole world of the judgment, the Loud Cry of the Three Angels Messages is swelling and going forth even in these Last days
[Revelation 14:6-12; 18:1-24]... a message for all, get into the
"Ark" [Revelation 11:19], and to be
“sealed” [Isaiah 8:16; Ezekiel 9:4,6,11; 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13, 4:30; Revelation 7:3,4,5,6,7,8, 14:1] in before the
"door" [Luke 13:25; Daniel 12:1] of Mercy and Probation closes forever, and the
"rain" of destruction comes
[Psalms 11:6; Isaiah 28:17, etc]...
Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver [but] their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 14:14
Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, [were] in it, [as] I live, saith the Lord GOD, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall [but] deliver their own souls by their righteousness. Ezekiel 14:20
Repent
[Acts 4:24, 14:15]. Turn unto the Creator/Redeemer Jesus Christ, and worship Him who made the Heavens, the earth and the sea and all that in them is, for he is the Lord of the 7th Day Sabbath, even as it is written,
Genesis 2:1-3;
Exodus 20:8-11;
Revelation 14:6-7, etc.