Spirits: Who are the ones in 1 Peter 3:19?
To begin our study of this, let’s first look at the context in which we find this verse.
1 Peter 3:18-22
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 [the Holy Spirit]:
19 By which also he [Jesus Christ] 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:
22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. [Emphasis added]
In that first verse [v. 18] [but not in some later ones] we have Peter’s comments that are consistent with our gospel message the apostle Paul first introduced, the gospel he speaks of as his gospel.
2 Timothy 2:8
8 Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel: [Emphasis added]
Paul speaks of it this way to differentiate it from Peter’s gospel, the one he was commissioned to preach.
Galatians 2:7
7 But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter; [Emphasis added]
It wasn’t just that Paul was sent to proclaim it to the Gentiles, it was also a different gospel message that excluded salvation by obeying the Mosaic Law and more.
Romans 6:14-15
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. [Emphasis added]
Paul’s gospel, which is now our gospel message, is titled the gospel of the grace of God.
Acts 20:24
24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. [Emphasis added]
Anyone in our time who wants to end up in Heaven must believe this gospel Paul preached, not Peter’s. Christendom today has run them together and tried to make them one and the same. Here is a clear statement about the content of Paul’s gospel message.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
Paul speaks of it as the one he preached to differentiate his gospel from what Peter was commissioned to preach.
2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
Paul “received” his gospel message directly from the resurrected and glorified Lord Jesus Christ, not anyone else.
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: [Emphasis added]
In Paul’s writings he goes to great length to explain the heart of his gospel message.
2 Corinthians 5:19-21
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. [Emphasis added]
When someone believes this for salvation, they are then said to have been reconciled and justified by faith. Performing the deeds of the law or any other form of works provides no one with justification today.
Romans 3:20
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. [Emphasis added]
Justification and salvation come to us today freely through faith in what Christ accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection.
Romans 3:24
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: [Emphasis added]
It was Christ’s redemptive work on the cross that made such a wonderful blessing possible.
Then we have what follows in that 1 Peter passage explaining what else happened before Christ ascended into Heaven.
Again, 1 Peter 3:19-20
19 By which also he went and preached [KERUSSO = proclaimed] 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 [Noah and his family] were saved by water. [Emphasis added]
This “proclamation” he made was a victorious one. What Christ had set out to accomplish through His death, burial, and resurrection had succeeded. There He paid the penalty for the sins of all people of all times. As we noted earlier, the apostle Paul clearly explains what Christ accomplished.
Again, 2 Corinthians 5:19-21, a passage we all need to be familiar with.
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Instead of our sins being held against us, they were all held against Christ on the cross. By personally accepting or receiving this truth people are reconciled to God and everlasting salvation is then provided for them. It is this news about what Christ accomplished that is the message we have all been commissioned to proclaim to the world.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ [His personal representatives], as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. [Emphasis added]
All the goodness one would ever need so as to be acceptable to God is then provided instantly. Believers are at that point credited with the perfect righteousness of God. In the Bible this event is called justification by faith.
Romans 3:24
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: [Emphasis added]
Yes, it was this redemptive work of Christ that made this possible and available to all of us, and we did nothing to earn or deserve it.
Romans 3:27-28
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law [or principle]? of works? Nay: but by the law [or principle] of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. [Emphasis added]
Our justification and resultant salvation were not to be gained by obedience to the Mosaic Law or any other system of works.
Romans 3:20-21
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The law just served to make us fully aware of our need for a Savior.
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; [Emphasis added]
Then we have more on our study of I Peter 3—
19 By which [the Spirit] also he [Jesus Christ] went and preached unto the spirits [demons] 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. [Emphasis added]
This preaching “unto the spirits” that Christ did was His proclamation of victory over what Satan and his angels had tried to do. And what exactly was it that they had tried to do? Answer: It was his aim to corrupt true humanity to make this impossible by angels procreating with women on the Earth and bearing superhuman children from it. We find in Scripture that their offspring was a generation of giants—people who were half human and half angel, fallen angel. Let’s read the record of it.
Genesis 6:1-4
1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,
2 That the sons of God [these fallen angels] saw the daughters of men that they were fair [TOB = beautiful]; and they took them wives [and having intercourse with them] of all which they chose.
These “sons of God” who did this evil are angels who had followed Satan in his revolt against God. We typically speak of these “angels” as ones who are Satan’s angels or demons. We know that because the same terminology is used for angels in the book of Job.
Job 1:6
6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. [Emphasis added]
Genesis 6 continued
3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man [meaning there was a deadline on God’s offer of grace], for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
His comment here is about the fact that His patience with man would finally run out and His judgment would come. At the end of that period He would cause a universal flood that would destroy all people except Noah and his family.
4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. [Emphasis added]
Those angels who engaged in this activity were then incarcerated by God and they’ve been held in captivity ever since then. It was to these angels that Christ went and made His proclamation, announcing to them that their plot had not succeeded. He, the promised Redeemer, had indeed come into the world as true humanity to provide mankind with a way of salvation through His death, burial, and resurrection.
Jude 6
6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. [Emphasis added]
These angels were placed in captivity in a compartment of hell called Tartarus.
2 Peter 2:4-5
4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned [speaking of those angels who did this in Noah’s day], but cast them down to hell [TARTARUS = a compartment of hell], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
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; [Emphasis added]
We have the rainbow today as a symbol of God’s promise to never destroy the Earth with water again.
Genesis 9:12-17
12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
17 And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. [Emphasis added]
This was the pre-incarnate Christ making this promise. We find that the next time He brings universal judgment upon the Earth it will be by fire. It will then be followed by a new heaven and a new earth.
2 Peter 3:9-13
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night [at the time of His Second Coming]; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. [Emphasis added]
Genesis 6 continued
5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And it repented the Lord [meaning He was sorrowful] that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. [Emphasis added]
Conclusion—
In 1 Peter 3:19-20 we read of the pre-incarnate Christ, the manifest person of God, making a victorious proclamation regarding all that He accomplished on the cross, along with His burial and resurrection.
19 By which also he went and preached [KERUSSO = proclaimed] 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. [Emphasis added]
Despite the best efforts of Satan and his angels, Christ succeeded with the greatest victory of all time—providing a way of salvation for all mankind. Here’s a one–verse description of it.
Again, 2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For he [God the Father] hath made him [Jesus Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. [Emphasis added]
Of all Satan’s angels, those of them who served to corrupt true humanity were locked up in a compartment of hell called Tartarus. They are still there today but will be released to create havoc on Earth for a short time after the Rapture in the coming seven-year period of what is called “The Tribulation.” As believers today, we need not concern ourselves with this because as believers we won’t be here. We’ll already be in Heaven enjoying all the blessings thereof.
