1 Peter 3:18-22

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Jesus’ Path to Victory

1. Victory Earned

1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,

1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered…

1 Peter 3:18
For Christ also suffered once for sins…

1 Peter 3:18
…the righteous for the unrighteous…

1 Peter 3:18
… that he might bring us to God…

2 Corinthians 5:21
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2. Victory Declared

1 Peter 3:18-20
…but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

• Who are the “spirits in prison?”

2 Peter 2:4
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment.

Jude 6
And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—

• What did Christ proclaim?

Satan may tempt you, but he cannot claim you. The head of the serpent has been crushed by the pierced feet of the Savior. (Charles Spurgeon)

• When did Christ proclaim it?

3. Victory Sealed

1 Peter 3:20
…when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

1 Peter 3:21
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

4. Victory Forever

1 Peter 3:22
who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Resources Cited

Doriani, Daniel M. 1 Peter. Edited by Richard D. Phillips, Philip Graham Ryken, and Daniel M. Doriani. Reformed Expository Commentary. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2014.

Grudem, Wayne A. 1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 17. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988.

Luther, Martin. Commentary on 1 & 2 Peter, Jude.

Greear. J.D. Searching for Christmas (The Good Book Company, 2020), p. 52-53.

Merida, Tony. The Pattern of Christ’s Suffering and Exaltation. https://idcraleigh.com/sermons/july-19-2020-1-peter-318-22-the-pattern-of-christs-suffering-and-exaltation/

Schreiner, Thomas R. 1, 2 Peter, Jude. Vol. 37. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003.