1 Peter 3:18-22, Christ Our Example in Suffering for Righteousness

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary says,

The main purpose of vv.18-22 is fairly clear. “For Christ died” suggests that the example of Christ’s experience through suffering into victory gives assurance that those joined to him will share the same destiny.

This is certainly encouraging to all believers who suffer persecution, as Christ did. But Peter’s description of Jesus’ suffering and subsequent victory leaves us reeling with questions.

¹⁸ Because Christ also suffered once on account of sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order that he might bring you to God, being put to death in body, made alive in spirit. ¹⁹ In spirit he went also and preached to those spirits now in prison, ²⁰ who at some point were disobedient when God’s longsuffering waited patiently in the days of Noah as the ark was being built, in which a small number, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. ²¹ This is a representation now of how baptism saves you, not the removal of dirt from the body, but an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who has gone to the right hand of God, into heaven, angels, authorities and powers being made subject to him.

Christ suffered on account of sins “once,” never to suffer for sin again. His sacrifice, the righteous one for us unrighteous ones, paid the penalty for our sin finally and completely, so that we would not have to pay it, but could be forgiven and reconciled to God forever.

Peter says Jesus was put to death in body (literally, “flesh”) and made alive in spirit. What does that last part mean? Jesus wasn’t made alive until three days after his crucifixion, when he was resurrected, body and soul. So “made alive in spirit” means resurrected, even his body being considered spiritually alive.

Then Peter says it was “in spirit” that he “went” and preached to those spirits now in prison who “at some point” (the Greek word pote) had sinned during the days of Noah. Three explanations have been historically given for this:

• Jesus was preaching through Noah to the pre-flood world, none of whom was saved and who, upon death, were consigned as spirits to prison.
• Jesus’ spirit descended to Hades while his body was in the grave, and there he preached either to the unsaved dead in Hades, giving them a chance to be saved, or preached to the saved in Hades announcing his victory and, by extension, theirs.
• Jesus went after his resurrection to proclaim his victory to the angels (sons of God, Genesis 6) who sinned and were consigned to prison.

It is this last view that seems to fit best with the language of the text. Jesus was made alive in spirit, that is, resurrected, and it was in spirit that he went to preach (even as he “went” after to the right hand of God in heaven at his ascension). It is only fallen angels who sinned who are imprisoned (an event Peter alludes to in his second letter, 2 Peter 2:4). Unbelieving people cannot have a second chance to be saved once dead. And why would only those unbelievers, and not those subsequent to Jesus’ death and resurrection, have this opportunity?

Mention of the time of the flood leads Peter to think of those who were saved at that time, Noah and his family, eight souls. They were saved through water, the ark carrying them through the water to safety. And this is a picture of how we are saved through water, that is, baptism. But it is not really the water that saves us, as if washing away the dirt of our lives, our sin, but rather the faith in Christ that has led us to baptism, what Peter describes as “an appeal to God for a good conscience.” We are depending on the blood sacrifice of Christ once for sin to cleanse us and cleanse our conscience.

Jesus’ victory after suffering, his resurrection and ascension into heaven, is an exaltation over all other angels, authorities, and powers. In Jesus’ exaltation, we too are given the prospect of our own exaltation after suffering.