Just a quick note on the above picture, it reminds me of “The Voyage of the Dawntreader” by C.S. Lewis when Repicheep sets off in his little boat to travel east, east, east until he finds the end of the world a.k.a. Aslan’s country.

This text I am about to discuss perplexed both my Sunday School students and me yesterday. We studied Genesis 6 in conjunction with this text, 1 Peter 3:18-22. There is some extremely interesting and edifying material here.

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, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, 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. 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, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.

I don’t intend this to be about the controversial part of the text (the spirits in prison), so let me share what I think to get that out of the way. The context here (angels and authorities being made subject), along with the word “spirits”, and the interpretation of the “sons of God,” in Genesis 6, lead me to believe that Jesus is casting judgment upon those angels who spread their wickedness upon the earth before the flood. Let me say that this is a very involved scenario, and I very well could be wrong about this. It is just what I gather from the text.

Now, I think what is more pertinent is what Peter is saying about Christ. First, note that the sacrifice of Christ is singular. “For Christ also suffered once for sins,” as opposed to Peter’s argument that Christians must face continual suffering in their lives. There is a beautiful finality about the sacrifice of Christ, especially as Peter places it here after a lengthy discussion of how believers will face persecution and suffering. It is as if Christ is our model, and not only that, but our model has completed the suffering necessary for sin and therefore our suffering will soon be over.

Another brief note, Jesus was “put to death in the flesh.” I’m still amazed at people who hold to the theory that Jesus almost died on the cross. They say that He survived the cross and that the spices and wrappings stopped the intense bleeding and that Jesus recovered while in the grave. While that is logically possible, it shows a disbelief in many clear statements of Scripture like this one that Jesus was dead, completely dead. In conjunction with this, it is the Spirit who brings Him to life.

At this point it is amazing to me that Peter brings up the topic of Noah and the flood. I don’t think I understand it completely, but I am beginning to see what is going on here. Remember why God brought the flood upon the earth. Man had become so evil that all his thoughts were only evil continually and God regretted that he had made man. Therefore, the flood was God’s display of displeasure upon what man was doing as well as a method of cleansing the earth. The way in which God cleansed the earth in this way was physical in that it killed all living flesh, except of course for Noah and his family. Notice that there was no spiritual provision for sin at this time, and immediately following the flood, sin manifests and multiplies again. Here comes the antitype.

Now moving to baptism, Peter says it is an antitype. How so? Well, the flood killed all life upon the earth via a physical means and temporarily cleansed some rather wicked and perverse sins from the world. Note what Peter says concerning 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.) The dipping of a person in water at best can remove dirt from the flesh, but if that person is conscientiously dipping himself in obedience to Christ then the soul is cleansed by an agent more powerful than 40 days and 40 nights of rain, he or she is cleansed by the sacrifice of Christ. This by the way is a strong argument in favor of believer’s baptism because of the words “the answer of a good conscience.” Baptism as a mechanical operation done upon an individual who does not understand (a baby) or upon an individual who does not believe is essentially ineffectual. And Peter’s proof is that all of the water in the world could not do what Christ does through the conscience, so what makes us think that a little dip without the conscience could make any difference.