timfost
Puritan Board Senior
Dear all,
I've been teaching through 1 Peter and have come to 3:18-22. I would appreciate your thoughts on any or all of the points. For verse 21, I am coming from a paedobaptist perspective, though I'm not sure if this is relevant to the specific points below.
1. 18. I'm inclined to think the phrase "made alive by the Spirit" is not referring to the Holy Spirit. The ESV reads "made alive in the spirit..." When I compare to 4:6b ("that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit"), the passage seems to be speaking more clearly concerning resurrection and new life rather than the Holy Spirit's involvement in the resurrection.
2. 19. "...preached to the spirits in prison." "Spirits" here seems to refer to fallen angels, not human souls. This interpretation seems likely because:
a. The context speaks to Christ having authority over "angels and authorities and powers" (v. 22)
b. A similar reference is made in 2 Peter 2:4-5: "For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness [prison]... but saved Noah..."
Concerning the word "preached": This seems to be better translated "proclaimed." If the spirits refer to fallen angelic beings, He did not preach the gospel to them (compare 4:6a), but rather that He proclaimed to these spirits His triumph over death.
3. 21. The sacrament of baptism is the antitype here. The very word "antitype" would be proof that he is not speaking about baptismal regeneration, or else "antitype" would be a meaningless word. Peter seems to be speaking not only of the symbol here, since it is not the symbol that saves. Would it be correct to conclude that Peter is describing both the symbol and what the symbol represents (the washing of regeneration)?
4. 22. The overall context deals with suffering, encouraging the saints that when they suffer for the sake of righteousness, they are being like Christ. In returning to Christ's suffering (v. 18), this context seems to start with Christ's weakness as One who suffered and progresses to Him going into heaven and "angels and authorities and powers... made subject to Him." In other words, we have a progression of weakness to strength. It seems to me that this fits in the context as we start in this position of weakness, suffer for righteousness, all the while looking to our "inheritance incorruptible" (1:4) and to the unchanging word which has made us alive (1:23-25). In comparing us to Christ who suffered, Peter seems to be preparing his listeners for the victory that they already have in Christ as well as looking forward to the final victory over death for which they are "kept by the power of God through faith for salvation" (1:5).
Thoughts? Thanks in advance!
I've been teaching through 1 Peter and have come to 3:18-22. I would appreciate your thoughts on any or all of the points. For verse 21, I am coming from a paedobaptist perspective, though I'm not sure if this is relevant to the specific points below.
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, 19 by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. 21 There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.
1. 18. I'm inclined to think the phrase "made alive by the Spirit" is not referring to the Holy Spirit. The ESV reads "made alive in the spirit..." When I compare to 4:6b ("that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit"), the passage seems to be speaking more clearly concerning resurrection and new life rather than the Holy Spirit's involvement in the resurrection.
2. 19. "...preached to the spirits in prison." "Spirits" here seems to refer to fallen angels, not human souls. This interpretation seems likely because:
a. The context speaks to Christ having authority over "angels and authorities and powers" (v. 22)
b. A similar reference is made in 2 Peter 2:4-5: "For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness [prison]... but saved Noah..."
Concerning the word "preached": This seems to be better translated "proclaimed." If the spirits refer to fallen angelic beings, He did not preach the gospel to them (compare 4:6a), but rather that He proclaimed to these spirits His triumph over death.
3. 21. The sacrament of baptism is the antitype here. The very word "antitype" would be proof that he is not speaking about baptismal regeneration, or else "antitype" would be a meaningless word. Peter seems to be speaking not only of the symbol here, since it is not the symbol that saves. Would it be correct to conclude that Peter is describing both the symbol and what the symbol represents (the washing of regeneration)?
4. 22. The overall context deals with suffering, encouraging the saints that when they suffer for the sake of righteousness, they are being like Christ. In returning to Christ's suffering (v. 18), this context seems to start with Christ's weakness as One who suffered and progresses to Him going into heaven and "angels and authorities and powers... made subject to Him." In other words, we have a progression of weakness to strength. It seems to me that this fits in the context as we start in this position of weakness, suffer for righteousness, all the while looking to our "inheritance incorruptible" (1:4) and to the unchanging word which has made us alive (1:23-25). In comparing us to Christ who suffered, Peter seems to be preparing his listeners for the victory that they already have in Christ as well as looking forward to the final victory over death for which they are "kept by the power of God through faith for salvation" (1:5).
Thoughts? Thanks in advance!