Bible Questions and Answers

Please explain 1 Peter 3.18-20 - preaching to the spirits in prison.

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: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 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.

The punishment for sin is death.

Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the soul of the son is Mine; The soul who sins shall die.

We do not have a spirit which continues in a conscious existence after death.

Ecclesiastes 9:5 For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing…

Therefore, there can be no ‘spirits in prison’ to be preached to after death. Niether would it serve any purpose because at death our future is fixed.

Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

So, in what way could Christ be said to preach to ‘spirits in prison’ in the days of Noah? Because of sin they, and we, are all ‘in prison’ awaiting death for our sins. Christ is said to have preached to them by the Spirit.

We have some help here from Peter:

1 Peter 1:10,11 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

From this we understand that the ‘Spirit of Christ’ was in the words of the prophets. By extension the Spirit of Christ was in Noah who Peter tells us was a preacher of righteousness.

2 Peter 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

I deduce then that the Spirit of Christ was in Noah when he preached righteousness to those in his day. But they would not take any notice of him. Christ himself existed only in the purpose of God at the time of Noah. He came into existence when he was conceived in the womb and born of Mary. But the whole purpose of God hinged upon Christ right from the beginning. Christ was the only one who could bring the prisoners out of the prison house of their sin.

Isaiah prophesies of him. Compare Isaiah 42:6 and Luke 4:15

The work of preaching to the ‘spirits in prison’ continues today. 1 Corinthians 1:21

I hope you find this helpful.

God bless,
Glenn