1 Peter 3:18-22 - The Pinnacle

1 Peter 3:18-22   For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.  In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.  It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him (NIV).

   We have reached a pinnacle in the book of I Peter.  How exciting!  “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (I Peter 3:18 NIV).  Who is the “you” referring to?  If double predestination were correct, I could never read this Scripture verse to anyone, because I would not know who the blessed and chosen “you’s” are.  Fact is, Scripture is for anyone, because God loves everyone, and the “you” is any human being.  The choice is ours.  Christ died for you!  You have the choice to receive Him or reject Him.  Jesus Christ died for “all!”
   Speaking of salvation being offered to everyone, we move to Jesus preaching to “…the spirits in prison…”  I love this passage!  It is one many people avoid, and of which there are many different interpretations.  Yet I think it gives insight into a critical Biblical truth.
   George Cramer mentions three of the interpretations: First, some think the Spirit of Christ preached through Noah back when Noah was building the Ark.  (I read one commentary where the person thinks that since all but Noah’s family did not listen then, all but eight from that time were doomed forever.)Second, some think Christ was preaching to evil spirits, proclaiming victory.  Third, the author is convicted Christ did preach to the spirits of people who had not repented and who were in prison in Hades between His death on the cross and His resurrection.  I also take the view that Jesus preached to people in “Hades.”
   What is this prison?  George Cramer gives a quote regarding this issue.  “The Greek word ‘Hades’ translates the Hebrew word ‘Sheol,’ which was the place to which the spirits of all people were believed to pass at death; there they waited until the final judgment; ‘Hades’ must not be confused with ‘Gehenne,’ the place of the lost.” (1)  The last sentence truly distinguishes this prison from “hell.”  Thus the word hell is probably not appropriate for pre-Christ times, though that word is used in the "Apostle’s Creed."
   So before the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross, human beings were sent to a place which we do not know much about other than it had attributes of a waiting area which is probably best termed “Sheol” or“Hades.”  This may sound strange, yet the fact is when Jesus died as the substitutionary atonement on the Cross, He died for every single human being who had ever lived, for every single human being who was currently living, and for every single human being who would ever live.  The atonement of Jesus Christ was not restricted by time!
   When I was a youth pastor years ago, there was a star student in our youth group.  Quite the extraordinary young student, once she did a project for a class at her public school.  She did a plaster of Paris cast of her mom’s arm, and then she attached it to a painting of a sea.  The sea was the Red Sea, and the arm was that of an Egyptian who had been chasing the Hebrews, who was now drowning.  She entitled it something like ‘Reaching out to God.’  Her point was that this Egyptian had realized she had done wrong, and was seeking mercy at the last second.  In actuality, mercy was available to the Egyptians who had enslaved the Hebrews, and who died all those years ago, because Christ died even for them.
   Though details about this prison are few, one thing is for sure: being in that “prison,” there was only one way to be freed, and that was to believe in Jesus, the Messiah who made eternal life possible by his substitutionary death on the cross.
   I add the atonement of Jesus sealed the new covenant which became available for all humanity, even those in Sheol who died before the New Covenant was available.  Plus, the atonement ended the need for Sheol, thus negating the doctrine of purgatory which is a strong Roman Catholic doctrine.
   However, I am claiming Christ offered salvation to everyone in Sheol.  Then why does Peter specifically mention the people from the time of the flood?  In a commentary by J. Ramsey Michaels, he said, “…Christ went and preached ‘even’ to the spirits who were disobedient to God in Noah’s time – i.e., he went to the most remote and unlikely audience imaginable…” (2)  Though I disagree with his overall view on this passage, I think he captures a key concept here.  It is a metaphor that everyone was included.  I am convicted the preaching of Jesus offered salvation to all past humanity back to Adam and Eve.
   Now many Biblical scholars do not agree with this interpretation for a big reason.  They advocate that once a person dies, his or her fate is sealed.  As Louis Barbieri stated, “This interpretation causes further difficulty for it implies the doctrine of a second chance” (3)  I am in disagreement with this, because people did not have a first chance to be saved by Christ before the time of Christ!  Think of all of the peoples in various countries where false gods were the norm in their culture for the thousands of years preceding Christ.  Many of those people knew nothing about Christ, not even the fact of God’s prophecy to the Jewish people of a coming Messiah.
   After Christ was the atonement for sins on the cross, people in Sheol got to hear the Gospel for the first time.  And ever since the atonement of Jesus, heaven is available!  Peter goes on to state Jesus was resurrected!  Then Jesus ascended into heaven, and that is where He is now!
   This is such a debated subject, how appropriate I end with the love of a child.  Once I was a youth pastor at a summer camp for elementary students and junior high students at a place called “Singing River Ranch.”  There was this one sweet elementary student who often wore the camp bandanna on her head.  One evening, the speaker, a minister born, raised, and educated in India, was talking about the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden.  After his talk, that girl raised her hand and asked whether Adam and Eve were going to be saved.  The tone of voice of that precious child was so sincere.  Because of the loving concern of that young student for the two first human beings, I considered that even Adam and/or Eve could have been saved by Jesus, as this passage teaches.  Ladies and gentlemen, the atonement by Jesus on the Cross did not exclude a single human being, and when He preached to the souls in Sheol, it was the opportunity for them to receive Him or reject Him.  And now is the time for any people living in this day and age who have not received Jesus, the One who died in our place as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of us.
Hunter Irvine
(Revised on 8/24/19)

(1) George Cramer, First and Second Peter
(Chicago: Moody Press, 1967), 55.

(2) J. Ramsey Michaels, Word Biblical Commentary,
Volume 49: 1 Peter (Waco: Word Books, 1988), 206.

(3) Louis Barbieri, First and Second Peter
(Chicago: Mooday Press, 1975), 70.