There is a place where fences mark
the boundary lines. These aren’t the white picket fences that make us smile,
nor are they the regular ordinariness of a chain link fence. They aren’t even
the unending lines of barbed wire fencing that we see surrounding pastures of
horses or cattle. No, these are the kind of fences that once you’ve seen them
you never forget them. They live somewhere deep in your memory whether you want
them there or not.
They are the fences of prison.
They very easily could be the fences
out of a nightmare. As horrible as they are…they also hold some sort of strange
ability to mesmerize the person looking at them. Maybe that mesmerization comes
from the very horror of these fences.
I’ve seen these fences up close,
and been mesmerized by them. I’ve seen other people that were drawn into that
same sort of mesmerization. Maybe it was because I, and those I observed,
weren’t held in captivity by those fences, not really. I, and they, were where
the fences were simply because we were visitors at a federal prison.
But to be a visitor in that
prison…we had to go into the prison. We had to cross behind the line that was
marked by this horrible fence and enter into the much protected and monitored
world of the prison. To do that we were taken right past that horrible,
mesmerizing, fence.
It is a chain link fence that is
ten…twelve…feet tall. I don’t know how tall it is but its tall enough to be imposing.
It is a fence that has tunnels of razor wire along the top of the fence. But bad
as that is, it gets worse. Much worse. There is another fence just like that
one, not all that far from the first one. It’s a fence inside a fence. The
second fence looks just like the first fence. And still it gets worse. Because
between the two fences there are tunnels of more razor wire lying on the ground
(four at the prison I visited) and on top of those tunnels…there are more
tunnels.
These fences are bright and shiny.
If you come anywhere near them, you can’t miss them. They are there, announcing
to anyone that looks that this is…prison.
And if the fence isn’t enough to
tell you that, the depressing buildings with the tiny windows, made much like
the narrow windows of an old time fort, give you yet another clue.
But the clues…and the
confines…don’t stop there. When you enter the building you know right away that
you aren’t in a normal building. This isn’t some doctor’s office or insurance
building. There’s a huge desk behind which you have your first encounter with
guards. There are metal detectors and rules upon rules that you must get beyond
to go into that horrible fence.
And once you get past them you
discover that all the windows are barred and all the doors are locked. There is
no way in…or out…without someone…a guard…with a very large key to let you in or…out.
Even as a visitor…you become
imprisoned. Visitors are given freedoms that prisoners are not but the rules
are still so many that you do not have control of your life while you are
within the confines of that horrible fence.
That fence marks the line between
freedom and prison.
On one side is true freedom. On
the other side is bondage.
Whether you are a prisoner or a
visitor, once you cross that line, the bondage is there. You must live by the
rules of those that are in charge of the prison that you are in.
There is no freedom.
That fence marks a line that is
very real, very literal. It’s a line that marks…for a time…the end of freedom
for some. And it is a line that for some can never be crossed. There are those
that live within that fence that will never again experience the freedoms found
on the other side of the fence. And there are those…prisoners and visitors
alike…that will find true freedom upon having the gates unlocked for them.
For those that visit their time of
bondage is short. The gate is unlocked quickly for them and they are released
into freedom. For prisoners the time of bondage is long, whether measured in
days, months, or years.
Scripture speaks of prison many
times. We are told that John the Baptist was in prison. That Paul was. That
Peter was. I’m sure we could search the Scriptures and find many examples of
verses that speak of physical prisons.
Physical prisons in Biblical times
did not look like our modern day prisons; at least they didn’t look like our
modern American prisons. Prisoners in those days didn’t have the same rights
and treatment that prisoners in our country do today. But no matter the
differences in the prisons…the people inside were physically bound.
Such is the condition of the
unregenerate. Anyone that hasn’t been saved by Christ is bound to their sins,
to this world, just as much as the prisoner that lives within the confines of
the prison fence.
I have heard many, many people
speak of Hebrews 13:3…
Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with
them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (ESV)
These people
talk, teach, or preach of how that means ‘Christians’ are to go into prisons
and ‘proclaim the gospel.’ In the above verse…our human, American, minds tend
to think of the prison I described above. When we see the word prison, we have
been so condition by society that we have a mental picture of what that is. Our
minds go first to small, cement rooms, to bars, to compounds surrounded by the
fence I described. We think of criminals. We think of guards. And we think of
being told by preachers to go into prisons and tell of Christ. But there’s more
to prison than what we are often told.
Because Scripture
gives us two very different examples of prison. We are told of those that are
imprisoned within physical prisons in the Bible. We read of Paul and the many
times he was imprisoned. We read of John the Baptist and how he spent his final
days imprisoned. That is one example of the prison we see in Scripture…and it
is the conclusion our minds jump to when we read the word prison. But there’s
another prison that’s spoken of in Scripture. A prison that is easily
overlooked. A prison that most would prefer to overlook.
It is the spiritual
prison.
It is the
prison that every person ever born lives in…or lived in until the Lord dragged
(John 6:44) them out of it. It is a prison that those who reside within it do
not even realize they are bound in.
But bound they
are. Just as if they lived within that horrible fence that surround a federal
prison. That fence circles the entire compound that makes up the prison. It
marks the line of where the prison is…and where the prisoners are. With razor
wire and fencing, someone wrapped the prison up so well that escape is
virtually impossible. Those inside the fence are held captive within that fence
as sure as if they were chained in place.
The
unregenerate are bound by sin in the same way that the prisoner is bound by the
fence. It is wrapped around them so much, so strongly, so securely that it has
them imprisoned.
Jesus
answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is
the slave of sin. John 8:34 NASB
And this is the other prison that
Scripture speaks of. It is the prison of sin. The prison of a Spirit that is
held captive by sin.
We are told in 1 Peter 3:19…
By
which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison (KJV)
If we think of a
physical prison when we read that verse we may well be tempted to ask exactly
how it was that Christ preached to those in prison. Did he literally go into
prison and sit and talk to those confined there? We might be tempted to assume
just that. We certainly read in that verse that he went and preached…in prison.
How easy it would
be to simply assume the prison spoken of is a physical prison and that Christ,
after his resurection, visited those in prison and preached to them. But it
would be a human assumption and it wouldn’t be the Truth as told in Scripture.
As I understand
it, that very verse is interepreted by some to say that it speaks of a type of
purgatory, the supposed spiritual in between place where the lost are
imprisoned. But that isn’t what Scripture teaches us. We are told in the Bible
that if a person dies saved, they are saved for eternity. And we’re taught that
if they’re lost when they die, they’re lost for eternity. There is no
in-between. There is no after death second chance.
"And
as it is appointed unto men once to die, but
after this the judgment:" Hebrews 9:27
So the
sometimes supposed thought that Christ went into this in-between, after death
prison (that doesn’t exist) and preached to those within is a false belief that
isn’t at all what Scripture teaches. It is appointed once to men to die and
then comes judgement. There is no holding area where Christ might have preached
to those within.
We are
told in Luke 16:26…
And
besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so
that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over
from there to us.' (NIV)
That we cannot pass between the
two sides. We’re either saved at death or we’re lost. There is no in between,
no switching sides. We’re one or the other. Either we belong to Christ or we
don’t.
Because our eternity is already
decided at the time of our death, and in fact it was decided long before we
ever lived much less died, there is no need for this supposed in-between place.
My understanding is that the above
interpretation of that passage is but one of many interpretations. Another one
is that Christ descended into Hades in the time between His death and His
resurrection to give those that died in the flood a second chance at salvation.
But if we look at Hebrews 9:27 again we see that second chances aren’t
possible. And if second chances were allotted, which Scripture says they’re
not, why would those that perished in the flood be given a second chance when
those that perished in, say, Sodom and Gomorrah weren’t? Why would He single
out a certain set of people as opposed to preaching to all?
But if we look to Scripture we can
clearly see that there was no reason for Christ to go into hell and preach to
those imprisoned there. Beyond what we’re told in Hebrews 9:27, we are also
told in Hebrews 10:26-27 that for those that continue to sin there is no
sacrifice for their sins…that there is judgement and fury…
For
if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there
no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a terrifying expectation of judgment
and the fury of the fire which will consume the adversaries.
There are still others that say
Christ descended into hell after he was crucified to proclaim victory to the
imprisoned fallen angels or demons. While others say Christ didn’t descend into
hell at all. Those that hold this belief, at least some of them, say that 1
Peter 3:19 is interpreted to say Christ went into hell when in fact that isn’t
what that verse says.
This is a verse that is said to be
difficult to interpret. I don’t know about any of that and know only that there
are those that hold the beliefs above…I know no more about those beliefs than
what I wrote. Quite honestly, my interest isn’t in what others believe but in
looking only at Scripture.
If I look at 1 Peter 3:19 all I
see is that Scripture says Christ preached to those in prison. I see nowhere in
that verse that we can say he preached to any specific set of people in prison
or that the prison mentioned is hell or any other specific prison. It simply
says prison. In the Greek it says he preached to the spirits in prison. It
never says Christ went into hell, it simply says that he preached to the
spirits in prison.
It is to the Scriptures I wish to
look, not to any idea of what man may think this verse means. In fact…it isn’t
even to this verse in particular I wish to look. It’s the biblical definition
of prison that I want to focus on, not a certain verse.
But before I can move on to that
broader definition, I must focus on certain verses. And so we look to 1 Peter
3:19 only now I wish to move out and take in more of 1 Peter. There is a what
and where behind every verse…or book…in the bible. As we look to 1 Peter it is
helpful to know that Rome has just burned. Nero, the emperor blamed the
Christians which resulted in vicious persecution. Peter called these persecuted
Christians exiles. These Christians had suffered much and may have needed
strengthening in their faith. And here we get the epistle of 1 Peter.
The very beginning of 1 Peter
tells us that it is to these ‘elect exiles’ that Peter is writing. Because of
the vicious persecution these Christians were living in the midst of, Peter
encourages them to witness boldly to the hostile unbelievers that they are
surrounded by. In chapter 2:4-5 Peter tells them that they are living stone
rejected by men but built up as a spiritual house. In chapter 2:8, he says they stumble because they are destined to
disobey the word, as they were destined to do. In
verse 11 he urges them to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war
against their soul.
So
if we look to all of that we see that Peter is encouraging the elect as they
are persecuted. He is reminding them of what they are and encouraging them to
stand fast in the face of the trials (chapter 1:6) they face.
How
likely is it that in the midst of encouraging those that may be feeling
abandoned or attacked by the very Lord they worship, that Peter then switches
over and starts talking about Christ preaching to demons or angels?
When
Peter speaks of Christ preaching to those in prison, he has just finished
telling those he speaks to, to be prepared to give an answer to those that ask
them about the hope that they have (1 Peter 3:15), and not long before that he
has told wives and husbands how to live with an unbelieving spouse. Then we
look to verse 18 and he tells them…
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.
Here,
he reminds them that their savior has also suffered in the flesh. That He
suffered in order to save them…that he might bring us to God. Now we see in
verse 19 that he says…
In which he went and proclaimed to the
spirits in prison (esv)
Which
brings us back to exactly what is meant by prison and whether or not Peter is
speaking of demons or fallen angels. In verse 16 Peter says when you are
slandered by those that revile your good behavior in Christ. Did he then switch
from speaking of people to speaking of Christ preaching to demons or fallen
angels?
What
then does Scripture speak of in this verse? Who are those that are in prison?
Who are those that Christ preached to? And how did He do it?
And
what does that verse mean?
To
understand that verse, and many others, we must first forget any preconceived
ideas of what the term prison…or any other word that means the same or is
connected to it…means. We must not read the verse and assume it speaks of a
type of holding place. We must read it, and understand it, as Scripture
presents it, keeping all of our human opinions and ideas out of it.
Knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.
2 Peter 1:20
That isn’t so easy to do. There
are so many times as we read Scripture that our own understanding of things
effects how we understand, or take, Scripture. Our minds are conditioned by our
society to automatically think one thing when we read the word prison but
Scripture wasn’t written in light of our society. It was written as God’s word
and therefore is in light of Him, not of man.
If we look at 1 Peter 3:19 in
light of Scripture, and only Scripture, we see only that Christ preached to
those (spirits) in prison. Because my purpose is to look further at what
Scripture means when the world prison is used, I’m less inclined to worry about
who it is that Christ preached to. At least at this time.
But I do think it pertinent to
understand that Christ preached to spirits…it wasn’t those in the flesh that He
was addressing. It was those in spirit. By knowing that Christ preached to
spirits we can see that the prison spoken of is a spiritual prison and not a
physical one. For anyone inclined to believe Christ preached in hell…that is a
spiritual prison. Our earthly bodies cannot go there.
Christ walked the earth in the
flesh but it wasn’t our earthly bodies he was here to save. It was our
spirits…our souls. His entire life was lived for the souls of those that belong
to Him. He was concerned with the spiritual, not the temporal…or flesh. Christ
lived and died in the flesh but was made alive again in the spirit. Because we
know that it isn’t our flesh that Christ was here to save, we also know that it
was our spirits that he set free.
Spirits that were once imprisoned
to sin.
That becomes a very big point.
We…in the spirit…were once in prison because of our sin, the sin we were born
with.
Jesus
answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is
the slave of sin. John 8:34 NASB
Christ came to earth and lived in
the flesh for the sole purpose of saving those souls…spirits…that God had given
him…or appointed to be his.
"My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and
I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch
them out of My hand. John 10:27-28
Looking at that…we know that a
slave is someone that is held captive. They have been sold or born into a life
of servitude. They are owned by another. Scripture tells us that it isn’t only
people that can enslave but that sin enslaves. Because a slave is a
captive…they are imprisoned. They belong not to themselves but to that which
they are enslaved.
Scripture also tells us that
everyone is born into sin…
Therefore, just as sin came into the
world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men
because all sinned— Romans 5:12
And it tells us that those living in
sin belong to Satan…
The
one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning
from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the
devil's work. 1 John 3:8
By looking at those two verses we
begin to understand who it is that owns those that are enslaved to sin. And we
see something of great importance. The very end of the verse above says…
The
reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.
And what was the devils work? That
same verse gives us the answer…
…the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
Sin was the devils work. And sin
was what Christ came to destroy. Sinners are held captive to sin. They are in
bondage to it with no hope of escape.
My
people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have
no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do
good." Jeremiah 4:22 NIV
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one
understands; no one seeks for God. All
have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Romans
3:10-12 esv
The above
verses make it clear that no one seeks for God. Not only that but they clearly
tell us that all…everyone…does evil and are worthless in the sight of God.
To make a long
story short…every person ever born is a spiritual person. That spirit is in
captivity to sin, and that sin is of the devil. We would not, in ourselves,
seek for Christ. We are worthless sinners that belong to Satan. Until Christ
stepped in, gave His life to pay for our sins, and saved those that are His.
In other words,
Christ died in the flesh and rose in the spirit in order to save our spirits
from the death that our spirits were born into in our flesh. Christ came to
destroy the sinful work of Satan…our sins…in order that we would be set free
from the bondage of sin. He ransomed those that are His from their
owner…Satan…and set them free of the prison their spirits were bound in.
That is the condition
of the spirit of every person that belongs to Christ. It is our beginning in
the spirit. We started this life in bondage…in prison…because we were born into
sin. To put it a little plainer…we were born into the hands of Satan, where we
lived as a slave of our sins, until Christ saved us. Now…that only holds for
those that belong to Christ, those that don’t belong to Christ are still slaves
of sin in the hands of Satan.
Going a bit
deeper…and looking at this Scripturally…without any preconceived ideas of what
prison is…the definition of prison begins to be a bit different than that which
our American minds have been conditioned to think.
From the verses
we’ve already looked at we can understand that the spirits in prison are those
that are bound to sin…which is everyone…but we also see that there are those
spirits that are not to be bound forever. Much the way I was only bound within
the federal prison I was at while I was visiting but I ‘escaped’ that prison
when the guard came along and unlocked the ‘gate’ to let me out.
While I visited
the prison I was essentially held captive by the guards. It was a temporary
imprisonment but I was imprisoned just the same. I could not, at any time, have
simply walked out the door because I wanted to leave. For a time the spirits of
Christs own are imprisoned by sin, and therefore by Satan. He holds us captive
as sure as that fence held me captive. Or maybe it would be better put to say
they are held captive as sure as those that are imprisoned within that fence
are held captive. Because they are not free to leave, just as those imprisoned
inside an actual prison are not free to leave.
When I was
enslaved…imprisoned…by sin, I was not free to leave. In fact I wasn’t even
aware of the fact that I was enslaved or imprisoned. I happily lived in the
life I had without any thought of being released.
By
understanding that everyone not saved by Christ is imprisoned we can begin to
understand that prison can, and is, spoken of in Scripture as that which is
spiritual and not always physical…although we see physical prison in Scripture
too.
Christ, because
He came to ransom those spirits that belong to Him from their sins so that He
could impart salvation, came to preach deliverance to those imprisoned spirits.
How then, did
He do that?
He preached to
them through the gospel of His death in the flesh and resurrection in the
spirit. It was through Him that He testified His gospel.
In 1 John 4:1
we’re told…
Beloved,
believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God: because
many false prophets are gone out into the world.
That verse is telling us to test
spirits. It isn’t those in the flesh we are told to be concerned about but the
spirits. It tells us that there are false prophets in the world but we should
take careful note of the fact that it isn’t the flesh of these ‘false prophets’
that we should concern ourselves with but the spirit of them.
We are told in that verse to see
whether a spirit is of God. Why? What would it matter? Because it is our spirit
that the Lord is concerned with, not our flesh. And it’s our spirit that is of
the eternal. Our bodies are here for a time…
…What
is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.
James 4:14 NIV
And that the things of this earth
shall pass…
The
world and its desires pass away…1 John 2:17 NIV
Our earthly bodies are here but
for a time. We are told numerous times in Scripture that we should not be
concerned with the earthly, or temporal but that we are to concern ourselves with
that which is eternal. I recently wrote about Eli and touched on Samuel. Both
men held roles of great importance, both men had two sons that were wicked. One
man, Eli, was destroyed along with his sons for the son’s wickedness. The other
man, Samuel, and his sons weren’t punished for his son’s wickedness. The
reason…Samuel and his sons were in charge of that which was temporal or of the
earth, while Eli and his sons were in charge of that which was eternal.
The Lord isn’t concerned with the
things of the earth. It’s that of an eternal…or spiritual…nature that concerns
Him. And we are told to concern ourselves with that which is eternal…
Set
your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3:2 NIV
In light of that…what kind of
prison would Christ be concerned with? He walked the earth when there were
prisons here. During that time we saw Him doing many miracles. How easily He
could have made the walls of every prison crumble and the chains on the
prisoners fall away but He didn’t. We never read of Him freeing prisoners
inside physical prisons.
Just as Christ was concerned with
the spirits, we are told to test the spirits to see if they are of God or if
they are ‘false prophets’. We are warned of those that are still in bondage to
sin, for they are false prophets. And we are told to test those spirits to find
the ones that are of God, or have been set free of bondage.
There we see two very different
sets of spirits. Those that are of God and those that are false prophets.
Because we are testing not flesh, but spirit, we are dealing not with the
earthly world that our minds tend to weigh things against but we are dealing
with the spiritual or eternal. Just as Samuel dealt with the things of this
earth and Eli handled that which was eternal.
Christ, too, handled that which
was eternal. He was here for the very purpose of making the way for those
spirits that belong to him to have the eternal.
Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Ephesians 1:3 ESV
It is the spiritual that our Lord
is concerned with and it is the spiritual...or heavenly places…that He released
us from the bondage of sin so that we could attain. And it was through his
physical death and spiritual life after death that he preached to the spirits.
In
Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses… Ephesians
1:7 ESV
Christ died with the weight of our
sins but was resurrected without those sins. In the flesh he suffered our sins,
in the spirit He was free of them. And it is in Him that we are given
forgiveness for our sins…gaining freedom from our sins.
Or freedom from the spiritual
prison that our sins bound us in.
It was the spirits of the elect
that Christ witnessed to in spirit. In other words it was the ‘they’ that shall
not be snatched from his hand (John 10:28) that were preached to as they were
imprisoned in their sins. These are the spirits that Christ was here to save,
and they were the spirits that he was concerned with.
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in
the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But
if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of
sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And
if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who
raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because
of his Spirit who lives in you. Romans 8:9-11 NIV
The above verses give us a very
good idea of exactly what the Lord is concerned with and who it is that he is
concerned with. …if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. There we are told who is Christ’s and what it takes to be Christ’s.
To be His we must have His spirit. …if
indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.
If we back up
just a bit we are shown something there that is easily overlooked. You…are not in the realm of the flesh but
are in the realm of the Spirit. The Oxford dictionary defines the word
realm as a kingdom. Substituting the word kingdom for realm we get…the kingdom
of the spirit. So we are not in the kingdom of the flesh, but in the kingdom of
the spirit.
What would the
kingdom of the flesh be? Earth? The world? Our earthly bodies? Whatever it is,
it is the temporal or earthly life. We are not in the earth…not in of the
world.
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of
this world…John 18:36 KJV
There
we have it straight from Christ…his kingdom…his realm…is not of this world.
What are we then? Anyone that has the spirit of Christ is in the
realm…kingdom…of the spirit.
Christ
came to earth and walked the earth in the flesh but He was here because of the
spirits of those that belong to Him. He lived in the flesh, died in the flesh,
because of sin, and rose in spirit to save the spirits of those that are His.
It is this spiritual kingdom that He was concerned with, not the earthly. And
he told us that in His own words in John 18:36…Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world.
If
we look again to Romans 8:9
You…are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm
of the Spirit, if…the Spirit of God lives in you…if anyone does not have the
Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
It is Christ’s spirit that lives
within those that belong to Him…those that are of His kingdom. Those that
belong to Christ live not in the flesh, but in His spirit.
Romans 8 goes on to tell us…
10 But if Christ
is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the
Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And
if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who
raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because
of his Spirit who lives in you.
Those spirits
that Christ paid the penalty for their sins have been spiritually delivered
from death. He delivered…or saved…us from the servitude…or prison…of sin. When
Peter said Christ suffered for sins, that the just died for the unjust, to
bring us to God…He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit
Now if we look
to 1 Peter 3:19 again but this time focus on what we paid no attention to
before…
By which also he went and
preached unto the spirits in prison (KJV)
By
which. That is the key part of that verse now. By which…what? By which Christ died in the flesh for sins but rose in the spirit. By which His kingdom is not of this world. By which… You…are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the
Spirit.
By
which…he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.
By
which…He preached the gospel.
Upon His death in the flesh and
resurrection in the spirit he delivered the gospel to His spirits that were
imprisoned in their sins. He had to die
in the flesh and rise in the spirit so that he could ‘preach’ deliverance to
the elect…to the saints.
But
when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the
Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
John 15:26
Nevertheless
I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if
I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I
depart, I will send him unto you. John 16:7
Through Christ’s death and
resurrection, His Spirit testified…or preached…to the spirits in prison.
Through His death and resurrection Christ did what no one else ever had or ever
could do. He didn’t simply die. He didn’t even die for His God, or for His
faith. He accomplished something in His death. But not only that…He conquered
something through His death. He overpowered something through His death.
Through His death and
resurrection, Christ overpowered sin. He conquered the one who is the ruler of
sin and He testified before the spirits of those that were imprisoned by sin,
and its ruler, so that He could release those spirits from prison.
Since I started this with 1 Peter
3:19, I’ll go back to it now. When I first started speaking of that verse I
gave descriptions of what some believe that verse means. It wasn’t my intention
to discuss any belief of what that verse means, it still isn’t. At least it
isn’t in the sense of discussing it in connection with what anyone believes
that verse means. As I sat down to write this my sole intention was to define
what the term prison means in Scripture.
In verses such as Hebrews 10:34…You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the
confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better
and lasting possessions….Scripture is speaking of a physical prison, the kind like the one I
described when I first started writing this. The kind of prison that is
surrounded with tall fences, razor wire, and stone walls.
But
when we look at prison as it is spoken of by Christ…it isn’t those physical
prisons that Scripture speaks of but the spiritual prison that we are all bound
in until the Lord drags (John 6:44) us from our sins and into His salvation.
Through the death and resurrection of Christ we were made alive spirit.
Through the death and resurrection of Christ we were made alive spirit.
But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is
subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of
righteousness. Romans 8:10
Everyone ever
born is a slave to…or imprisoned by…sin. We are locked into our sin as sure as
those living within that prison fence are locked inside it. There is no escape
unless the guard comes along and unlocks the gate with the key…unless the guard
makes a way for escape through the fence holding those inside it captive.
Christ was the guard that opened the gate for His people. But He did it in
spirit, not in the flesh, because…my
kingdom is not of this world.
It was in the
Spirit that Christ preached to the spirits that were in prison, and it was in
spirit that he drew those that are His…the elect…into obedience to Him…and into
salvation.
Looking once
again to 1 Peter 3:19 and the words by
which, it is there that we see by
which all of this happened. By which
He saved the elect that were imprisoned by sin and preached the gospel to them.
Christ preached to the spirits in
the Spirit, but first He became sin…
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so
that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV
He became sin
for us because He took our sins upon Himself, dying in our place…
For the wages of sin is death…Romans 6:23 NIV
He died in our sins so that we
might be made righteous…
…if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject
to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. Romans 8:10
Through Christ’s death in the flesh…as sin…and
his being made alive again in the Spirit, the gospel was preached to all the
imprisoned spirits that belong to Him. It is by the Spirit that our flesh…our
imprisoned spirits…hear the gospel and it is in the spirit that He drags us out
of those sins and into His Spirit, setting our spirits free from the prison we
were born into.
This is the preaching that Christ
did to those in prison.
Sin is the prison that is spoken
of. It is the bondage that we all live in until Christ saves those that are His
from that prison. He must unlock the gate that will free us from the confines
of the prison fence.
This was the case throughout all
time. Just as we are told that the elect were chosen before the creation of the
earth…
For he chose us
in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
In love
5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship
through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has
freely given us in the One he loves. Ephesians 1:4-6 NIV
We are also
told that Christ’s death in the flesh and resurrection in the Spirit was the
same for all saints…or the elect…through all time…
All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have
not been written in the Lamb's book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. Revelation
13:8
So it was the same for those in the Old
Testament as it was for those in the New Testament and today. Christ was slain
for all from creation.
Whether it was in Old Testament times
or today…Scripture speaks of the darkness of those imprisoned to sin as prison.
Those that Christ has not saved are in prison sure as if they lived within the
fence I described earlier.
It was through Christ’s death in the
flesh and resurrection in the Spirit that He preached deliverance to all the
captives in prison.
The
Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He
hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal
the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind, to
set at liberty them that are bruised. Luke 4:18
Jesus plainly stated that He was
sent to preach deliverance to the captives…or to those that were imprisoned…and
to set them free. He is the Guard that came to open the gate. He is the Key
that must open the lock. It is through Him that the prisoners gain freedom from
the prison and servitude of sin. He is the salvation for the imprisoned spirits
of the elect. It is those that He speaks of when He speaks of prison, these are
not physical prisons but spiritual.
Recovering
of sight to the blind…
Who are the blind He speaks of
here? What sight is it that He is to recover?
Jesus
said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may
see…John 9:39 ESV
And
even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In
their case the god of this world has
blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4
ESV
If we remember from above the god
of this world is Satan. Through him, through sin, the minds of those on earth
have been blinded to the light of the gospel. Christ came into this world, that those who do not see may see. Our
spirits are imprisoned in darkness until Christ sets us free through His
gospel. Christ is the Light in the darkness. He is what frees us from the
prison of sin. Not through the flesh but in the spirit.
Luke 4:18 tells us why Christ
came…
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to
proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering
of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed (ESV)
to set at liberty those who are oppressed (ESV)
That is the
very thing that was foretold in Isaiah…
The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach
good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the Prison to them that
are bound. Isaiah 61:1
Isaiah foretold of what Christ was
and why He was here. If we read those verses with the thought of a physical
prison in mind, we would have to assume that Christ was here to release all
prisoners from the bonds of their physical imprisonment…or to do away with all
physical prisons. But we see in Scripture that that isn’t what Christ did.
Never once did he abolish a physical prison. It was within His power to do so,
yet we never see Him freeing anyone from a physical…earthly…prison.
The reason we never saw Him do that
is He wasn’t…and isn’t…concerned with the earthly…or temporal. If we look back
to Eli and Samuel and think of how Eli and His sons were destroyed for their
wickedness, while Samuel and his sons suffered no punishment…we see, again,
what Christ was concerned with. He was here to free the spiritual prisoners
from the darkness of their spiritual prison. He is the Light in that darkness.
And it was through His Spirit that He preached to the imprisoned spirits.
Christ was here for that which is
holy…the elect…and it was the holy…or eternal…that He was concerned with. He
was here to open the spiritual prisons, not the physical prisons.
I,
The Lord have called Thee in Righteousness, and will hold Thine hand, and will
keep Thee, and give Thee for a Covenant
of the people, and a light of the Gentiles;
To open the blind eyes, to bring out
the Prisoners from the Prison,
and them that sit in darkness out of the Prison House. Isaiah 42:6
Could Scripture be any plainer in
describing what he means? Could he show us in any better way just what prison
is? For the above verse to be speaking of a physical prison, it would have to
be saying that the earthly prisons have no light, that the prisoners are
confined within a dark building. And even if that were so…it wouldn’t be what
He came to earth for. Since we see nowhere in Scripture where Christ goes into
physical prisons and brings out the
prisoners from the prison, we are shown through Scripture that the
prisoners are not bound in physical prisons.
John the Baptist was imprisoned
while Christ walked the earth. If Christ was here to free those in a physical
prison…would He not have started with John the Baptist? But He didn’t free John
the Baptist. Nor did He free any other prisoner in a physical prison.
That is because it wasn’t the
physical that He was concerned with but the spiritual. The prison that is
spoken of so many times in Scripture…again, there are two different types of
prison…is the darkness of sin, the bondage of living in and serving sin. The
spirits that are preached to are those spirits that are in bondage to…or a
slave to…sin. These spirits live in darkness until
Christ drags them from the prison that they are in.
This was as true for those in the
Old Testament as it is for us today. Christ’s death in the flesh and
resurrection in the Spirit set the imprisoned spirits of those in the Old
Testament free just as He set the elect of today, and throughout all time,
free. That is the work that was completed on the cross…
Therefore
when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And
He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. John 19:30 NASB
It
was finished on the cross. The Lamb was slain from before the creation of the
earth (Revelation 13:8) in order to deliver the spirits of the elect from the
prison that they were in. Christ’s finished work on the cross covered all of
time…from before the creation of the earth to the very last day. Those in the
Old Testament received the salvation that was given through His death in the
flesh and resurrection in the Spirit because they had the Gospel preached to
them beforehand. The elect of today are saved through the Gospel of what
happened long ago, just as the elect of the Old Testament were saved through
the Gospel of what would happen. Christ’s Gospel covers all of time, from
before creation to the very end. He is the beginning and the end.
It
is finished.
If we
look to 1 Peter we can see that Scripture speaks of this very thing…
Searching
what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them
did Signify, when it testified
beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should
follow. 1 Peter 1:11
The Spirit of Christ was in the
Old Testament saints just as it’s in the saints of today, and will be in the
saints of the very last day. And the Spirit that was…and is…and will be…in them testified…Christ.
Christ preached…or testified…to
the saints through His Spirit that was…and is…in them. That is how He preaches
to the spirits that are His. That is How He sets the captives free. It’s how He
brings them out of the darkness of their prisons.
The
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Romans 8:16
It is Christ’s Spirit within the
elect, throughout all of time, testifying…or preaching…to them that drags (John
6:44) them from their spiritual prisons and into the Light. We were all
prisoners on death row…facing the death sentence of hell…until the
Guard…Christ…came along and unlocked the gate so that we could be set free from
our spiritual prison.
having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were
also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised
him from the dead.
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having
forgiven us all our trespasses, Colossians 2:12-13 ESV
Christ came
into the earth, in the flesh, to save the prisoners from their prison. He did
this in order to save those that are His from the spiritual prison that was
guarded by the ruler of sin. He is the Guard that opens the gate. He is the one
that freed the prisoners. But as we have seen it isn’t the freeing from a
physical prison that He has released those that are His but the freeing from a
spiritual prison.
No
man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will
first bind the strong man; and then He will spoil his House. Mark 3:27
Christ is the man that came into
the strong man’s (Satan’s) house (earth…spiritual prison) to spoil (take) his
goods (the elect).
For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against
the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12 NIV
When Christ’s Spirit preaches to
the elect…at any point in time…He drags them from their spiritual prison and
into His light, saving them from death. In doing so, He frees the elect from
the strong man’s house (Satan’s) and frees them into His kingdom.
He opens the fence that binds us
within prison and frees us from the one holding us captive to release us into
freedom.
For he has rescued us from the dominion
of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, Colossians
1:13 NIV
I, the Lord, have called
you in righteousness; I will take
hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a
covenant for the people and a light for
the Gentiles,7 to open eyes that are blind, to free
captives from prison and to release
from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. Isaiah 42:6-7 NIV
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace. Luke 1:79
NIV
Christ saved us from the prison of
darkness and brought us into the Light. We are no longer held in spiritual
bondage but have been set free. Christ preached to us through His Spirit and
saved our spirits from prison. We are now in Christ’s kingdom, free from the
bondage of sin.
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell
you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no
permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free
indeed John 8:34-36 NIV
There Christ
speaks of the true freedom He gave to those that were His. In verse 36 He
said…if the Son sets you free. That verse clearly says that it is Christ that
sets us free. He is the One that gives the freedom. It comes through Him and
nowhere else.
The elect are
saved through Christ, He sets us free. We were chosen before the foundation of
the earth (Ephesians 1). Christ was slain from the creation of the earth to
save those that were chosen before creation.
In John 8:31-32
Jesus tells the Jews…if you abide in my
word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth, and the truth
will set you free… but the Jews reply…we…have
never been enslaved to anyone. The Jews did not understand the freedom
Christ was speaking of. He went further to explain…you are doing the works your father did (vs. 41)…you are of your
father, the devil, and your will is to do your fathers desires.
Christ tells
the Jews of their spiritual bondage and who their captor is but they do not
believe Him. But He doesn’t stop there. He goes on to tell them that it was
Abraham’s faith in Him that saved him…Abraham
rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad. (vs 56)…Truly,
truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. (vs. 58)
There Christ
not only tells them of their spiritual bondage, and that it is He that will set
them free, but He tells them that it was Him that set Abraham free.
They didn’t understand that Christ
spoke of a spiritual prison, they thought He spoke of a physical prison and
replied by saying that they had never been in bondage to anyone. Christ
explained that it was the devil that they were in bondage to, and still they
didn’t understand. He explained that Abraham had rejoiced in Him and that He was even before Abraham.
Christ was explaining that He had
come to save them…and all that are His…from this spiritual prison. He didn’t
come to set free those that were held in physical captivity. He didn’t come to
establish His kingdom on earth but save His spiritual kingdom.
And He did that by preaching to
them in the Spirit. It was…is…His Spirit in the elect that drags them from the
spiritual prison…sin…that they are in bondage to. It is that prison that He
came to save the ‘prisoners’ from.
By looking to all of Scripture we
can see what is meant by prison and who the prisoners are. Scripture interprets
Scripture. It makes the story clearer. And in this case it gives us the
definition of the type of prison Christ referred to.
