Desensationalising 1 Peter 3:18-20
Sept 25, 2016 8:03:08 GMT
Post by Colossians on Sept 25, 2016 8:03:08 GMT
This material is for the teaching of the Body of Christ, however the author reserves copyright over it.
Forward
The purpose of this exposition is to put things straight on 1 Peter 3:18-20. The reader is requested to study the passage quoted below, before proceeding.
____________________________________
DESENSATIONALISING 1 PETER 3:18-20
Chapter 3
[16] “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. [17] For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. [18] 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. [21] The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ”
Chapter 4
[1] “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; [2] That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.”
Overview
Christianity is about being conformed to the death of Jesus Christ: it is about the demonstration of the principles of the spiritual mind, by the power of the Spirit, in the face of pressure to follow the principles of the world, which are the principles of the flesh.
And so Peter tells us here that it is better that we suffer for doing well, than for doing evil, and ends with similar: we should not live for the flesh (we should not live as though the flesh were eternal), but for the will of God (which is in fact eternal), which he says altogether serves to maintain a good conscience toward God.
However because we are too often given to tabloid theology, overarching principles in scripture are often disregarded in deference to ‘tantalising’ ideas and their erroneous doctrinal structures, the one such here being dispensationalism: in reference to 3:18-20 it is held by many that during the 3 days of Christ’s demise in the flesh, He preached to (what is purported to be) the ‘disembodied’ spirits of people who had been disobedient at the time of Noah, and who as a consequence of such disobedience had been incarcerated in one form or another until the Lord could get around to preaching to them.
Such idea is in direct contravention to what we find in the pages of the New Testament.
The Lord:
“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” John 3:5
: there is no use preaching to spirits when they are no longer in the body, for by definition one can only be born again while one is in the body, after which it is too late to be saved.
The writer to the Hebrews:
“it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” Heb 9:27
: there is life, there is death, there is the judgement: there is nothing in-between.
And so we are constrained by the greater counsel of NT scripture to take an approach that is rather in line with the straight-forward gospel.
But we will add further that in order to accept the ‘sci-fi’ version we would also have to set aside the following:
1. The gospel was just as effectively preached BC as it has been AD (see Rom 1:20, Heb 4:2).1
1 Our being told at John 7:39 that “the Spirit was not yet given” at the time of Christ’s ministry, was not in reference to the preaching by the Spirit unto regeneration, but the (coming) Baptism in the Spirit unto power and supernatural gifts. See then our work: “The Baptism in the Holy Spirit”.
2. Any reference to ‘disembodied’ spirits implies some sort of return to the body at a later stage, but in fact we will be solely spirits in the resurrection.2
2 See our work: “Our form in the resurrection”.
3. There is no reason to suppose that the spirits of only those who lived around the time of Noah would be in such a prison. What about the spirits of all the other non-believers who lived before Christ?
The rendering
[17] “For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.”
We have covered this in our opening remarks.
But we will add also the following from Paul:
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” Rom 8:18.
[18] “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:”
If our Lord humbled Himself unto the death of the Cross, then we who declare His Lordship should most reasonably expect to live in accord with such principle.
So Paul:
“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” 2 Cor 4:10.
___
But moving now to that with which this work is particularly concerned, we will understand this “quickened by the Spirit” to be purely and simply in reference to Christ’s resurrection in the flesh, for at this point in the text there is simply no reason to assume anything else.
That is, the phrase is not, as many suggest, that which relates some sort of bringing to life or energising of Christ’s spirit while He was in the grave, for the only death a spirit can die is that which renders him out of fellowship with God, and Christ was never so: that He was rendered spiritually dead by the law does not mean that He was out of fellowship with God, for if the law cannot make alive those who are spiritually dead (see Gal 3:21), then neither can it make dead those who are spiritually alive.
Note then that it does not say: "quickened in the Spirit", but "quickened by the Spirit": it is simply in reference to His being raised from the dead.
And thus the phrase is prefaced with “but”:
“being put to death in the flesh, but quickened [(again)] by the Spirit”.
[19] “By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison;”
Peter bridges from Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection in the flesh to His pre-incarnate preaching to the non-elect at the time of Noah, by reason of the fact that the former provides the basis for the latter: Christ was indeed "slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev 13:8). (Why the non-elect from only the time of Noah are singled out, will become clear shortly.)
Accordingly too much has been made of this “He went”: many feel there is a nuance here which supports their notion that He went when His body was in the tomb.
Their starting point is wrong: He went all right, not from the tomb, but from “where He was before” (John 6:62), at the time of Noah, by the Spirit: such anthropomorphism is rather and simply to focus our attention on the confrontational aspect of the gospel (see Mt 11:12, Rev 2:16).
[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.”
Here we see why the disobedient from only the time of Noah are singled out: given that only 8 souls were saved, they (the disobedient at the time of Noah) constituted the prime example of those who will never enter the kingdom of God for their not being born again while in the body.
[21] “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ”
Just as Noah was preserved from the waters, so Christ was raised from the dead. And just as Christ was raised from the dead, so those who are in Him are raised to newness of life, and namely, unashamed fellowship with God.
Accordingly, we note that Noah was never actually buried in the waters: our life in Christ contains no element of the death that preceded it.
"the blood of Christ ... [shall] purge your conscience from dead works" Heb 9:14.
Chapter 4
[1] “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; [2] That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.”
(Covered in our opening remarks.)
Summary
(The chain of) Peter’s teaching is:
1. We need to maintain a good conscience before God, which is in fact our salvation.
2. Such good conscience is the irresistible result of a life lived in accord with the death of Christ.
3. The death of Christ was irresistible precursor to that which was even greater: the resurrection of Christ.
4. The resurrection of Christ was by the power of the Spirit.
5. The preservation of Noah in the flood is the primary figure for our resurrection unto newness of life in Jesus Christ and thus the primary figure for the basis upon which we can appeal to God for a clean conscience.
6. (4) links contextually to (5) by way of the fact that the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead was the same Spirit who preached at the time of Noah to those who unlike Noah perished in the flood and who therefore unlike Noah did not prefigure the believer’s right to a good conscience.
Peter’s goal has been to get to the actual authoritative basis for a (our) good conscience toward God, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and he has used the figurative basis for such in order to get there. The passage has nothing to do with the (otherwise) preaching of Christ as a 'disembodied' spirit to other 'disembodied’ spirits while His body was in the grave. The passage has everything to do with the plain and simple gospel.
Amen.
Forward
The purpose of this exposition is to put things straight on 1 Peter 3:18-20. The reader is requested to study the passage quoted below, before proceeding.
____________________________________
DESENSATIONALISING 1 PETER 3:18-20
Chapter 3
[16] “Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. [17] For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. [18] 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. [21] The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ”
Chapter 4
[1] “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; [2] That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.”
Overview
Christianity is about being conformed to the death of Jesus Christ: it is about the demonstration of the principles of the spiritual mind, by the power of the Spirit, in the face of pressure to follow the principles of the world, which are the principles of the flesh.
And so Peter tells us here that it is better that we suffer for doing well, than for doing evil, and ends with similar: we should not live for the flesh (we should not live as though the flesh were eternal), but for the will of God (which is in fact eternal), which he says altogether serves to maintain a good conscience toward God.
However because we are too often given to tabloid theology, overarching principles in scripture are often disregarded in deference to ‘tantalising’ ideas and their erroneous doctrinal structures, the one such here being dispensationalism: in reference to 3:18-20 it is held by many that during the 3 days of Christ’s demise in the flesh, He preached to (what is purported to be) the ‘disembodied’ spirits of people who had been disobedient at the time of Noah, and who as a consequence of such disobedience had been incarcerated in one form or another until the Lord could get around to preaching to them.
Such idea is in direct contravention to what we find in the pages of the New Testament.
The Lord:
“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” John 3:5
: there is no use preaching to spirits when they are no longer in the body, for by definition one can only be born again while one is in the body, after which it is too late to be saved.
The writer to the Hebrews:
“it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” Heb 9:27
: there is life, there is death, there is the judgement: there is nothing in-between.
And so we are constrained by the greater counsel of NT scripture to take an approach that is rather in line with the straight-forward gospel.
But we will add further that in order to accept the ‘sci-fi’ version we would also have to set aside the following:
1. The gospel was just as effectively preached BC as it has been AD (see Rom 1:20, Heb 4:2).1
1 Our being told at John 7:39 that “the Spirit was not yet given” at the time of Christ’s ministry, was not in reference to the preaching by the Spirit unto regeneration, but the (coming) Baptism in the Spirit unto power and supernatural gifts. See then our work: “The Baptism in the Holy Spirit”.
2. Any reference to ‘disembodied’ spirits implies some sort of return to the body at a later stage, but in fact we will be solely spirits in the resurrection.2
2 See our work: “Our form in the resurrection”.
3. There is no reason to suppose that the spirits of only those who lived around the time of Noah would be in such a prison. What about the spirits of all the other non-believers who lived before Christ?
The rendering
[17] “For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing.”
We have covered this in our opening remarks.
But we will add also the following from Paul:
“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” Rom 8:18.
[18] “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:”
If our Lord humbled Himself unto the death of the Cross, then we who declare His Lordship should most reasonably expect to live in accord with such principle.
So Paul:
“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” 2 Cor 4:10.
___
But moving now to that with which this work is particularly concerned, we will understand this “quickened by the Spirit” to be purely and simply in reference to Christ’s resurrection in the flesh, for at this point in the text there is simply no reason to assume anything else.
That is, the phrase is not, as many suggest, that which relates some sort of bringing to life or energising of Christ’s spirit while He was in the grave, for the only death a spirit can die is that which renders him out of fellowship with God, and Christ was never so: that He was rendered spiritually dead by the law does not mean that He was out of fellowship with God, for if the law cannot make alive those who are spiritually dead (see Gal 3:21), then neither can it make dead those who are spiritually alive.
Note then that it does not say: "quickened in the Spirit", but "quickened by the Spirit": it is simply in reference to His being raised from the dead.
And thus the phrase is prefaced with “but”:
“being put to death in the flesh, but quickened [(again)] by the Spirit”.
[19] “By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison;”
Peter bridges from Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection in the flesh to His pre-incarnate preaching to the non-elect at the time of Noah, by reason of the fact that the former provides the basis for the latter: Christ was indeed "slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev 13:8). (Why the non-elect from only the time of Noah are singled out, will become clear shortly.)
Accordingly too much has been made of this “He went”: many feel there is a nuance here which supports their notion that He went when His body was in the tomb.
Their starting point is wrong: He went all right, not from the tomb, but from “where He was before” (John 6:62), at the time of Noah, by the Spirit: such anthropomorphism is rather and simply to focus our attention on the confrontational aspect of the gospel (see Mt 11:12, Rev 2:16).
[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.”
Here we see why the disobedient from only the time of Noah are singled out: given that only 8 souls were saved, they (the disobedient at the time of Noah) constituted the prime example of those who will never enter the kingdom of God for their not being born again while in the body.
[21] “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ”
Just as Noah was preserved from the waters, so Christ was raised from the dead. And just as Christ was raised from the dead, so those who are in Him are raised to newness of life, and namely, unashamed fellowship with God.
Accordingly, we note that Noah was never actually buried in the waters: our life in Christ contains no element of the death that preceded it.
"the blood of Christ ... [shall] purge your conscience from dead works" Heb 9:14.
Chapter 4
[1] “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; [2] That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.”
(Covered in our opening remarks.)
Summary
(The chain of) Peter’s teaching is:
1. We need to maintain a good conscience before God, which is in fact our salvation.
2. Such good conscience is the irresistible result of a life lived in accord with the death of Christ.
3. The death of Christ was irresistible precursor to that which was even greater: the resurrection of Christ.
4. The resurrection of Christ was by the power of the Spirit.
5. The preservation of Noah in the flood is the primary figure for our resurrection unto newness of life in Jesus Christ and thus the primary figure for the basis upon which we can appeal to God for a clean conscience.
6. (4) links contextually to (5) by way of the fact that the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead was the same Spirit who preached at the time of Noah to those who unlike Noah perished in the flood and who therefore unlike Noah did not prefigure the believer’s right to a good conscience.
Peter’s goal has been to get to the actual authoritative basis for a (our) good conscience toward God, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and he has used the figurative basis for such in order to get there. The passage has nothing to do with the (otherwise) preaching of Christ as a 'disembodied' spirit to other 'disembodied’ spirits while His body was in the grave. The passage has everything to do with the plain and simple gospel.
Amen.