The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Peter — Section 163

y ers. 19,. 21.-Tlie crucified Saviour quickened in fPirit. P_reaching to the spirits in prison. "' e have already seen thnt through our Lords suffenngs he secured q •1ickened ~;,iritual power-influence over spirits in prison, and ascension to heavenly authority. 'i'his passage re'l'eals him quickened in spirit, preaching to the "spirits in prison." Nuw, if that be the apostle's line of thought, the correct meaning of this passacre whatever it be, will fall in naturally with it. May I venture to show why I cam~ot accept either of two common explanations of these words? It is thought by some that after our Lord's death (possibly in the interval between his death and resurl'ection) his disembodied spirit passed into the unseen world, and preached the gospel to the disobedient dead. Now, if that be the proper meaning of the words, if they cannot mean anything else, we must accept it. 'l'hat the words taken by themselves will bear that meaning cannot probably be denied: then why should we hesitate to adopt it? I might remind you that 'll.S far as those three days are concerned, we seem to be told that they were spent in Paradise with the Father and the redeemed. "This day," be said to the penitent thief, "thou ~ha!t be with me in Paradise;" "Father," he said, "into thy hands I commend my spit·it: and having said thus, he gave up the spirit." Then, if this passage does mean that Christ preached to the dead, it only speaks of the dead in the days of Noah; it seems incredible that these comparative few should be singled out from the great mass of mankind for so great a blessing, I might remind you, too, that if the:;e words mean that the impenitent ,dead have a. second cLance, they stand alone in Scripture, at least as far as _I am aware. But weightier than all is the fact that the plain teaching of this book is to the contrary. I know the tenacity with which we cling to the hope that those who have never beard the gospel shall yet hear it, if not here, hereafter; and that many have cherished this hope, partly on the strength of these words. My hope of that is not less because I' do not see it encoura,,.ed here. I know God well enough, and I know this book well euough, to lrnow that no man will be condemned because of Adam's sin ; through Christ every man stands on a fair footing; the condemning sin is rejection. 'l'hen the Saviour must be presented to each hereal'tcr, if not here. I cling to the hope that the preachiug of the Saviour on the other side of the grave will bring multitudes to hea¥en who died without a gospel. But for you who have the gospel now, this is your day of grace; with you, salvation is now or never. It hns been supposed that these words refer to Christ, by his Spirit, preaching in the days or Noah to men ,vho were then on earth, but who, when the apostle wrote, wero in the unseen world- " spirits io prison." But there are t170 fatal objections to this meauing-one is, that there is notliiog here about God the Spirit, as I have already shown; o.nd the other is that such a meaning is foreign to the drift of thought in the chapter. It is not easy to see wbat room there is in that for the interjection of a reference to the Spirit of God striving with men nearly three thousand years before; it seems altogether irrelevant to the apostle's ar,,.ument-that alone condemns it. I. \VHAT, THEN~ IS THE MEANING OF' THE PASSAGE? There is no necessity to refer the words, "spirits in prison," to those who have passed into the unseen world; for in Scripture the ungodly are constantly spoken of as in a state of imprisonment, bondage, :a11tivity. "Spirits in prison" may tbeu be said to be a frequent designa,tion of the cnredeemed on earth; indeed, the very word "redemption" carries this idea. Some may object tl,at the context seems to imply that the spirits referred to o.re the spil'its of the dead. Not necessarily so, If we refer the expression not to certain individuals, OH, m.1-22.] 'l'HE FIRS'!' EPISTLE GENERAL OF PE'rER.