"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"  (I Peter 3:18-20 NKJV).

We know that salvation can only be by the blood of Christ. "By His own blood He obtained eternal redemption for us" (Hebrews 9:12). But not for us only. His blood also provided "redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament (covenant)" (Hebrews 9:15).  His saving blood even reaches unto "all men" (Romans 5:18).  Without Christ there is no salvation.

Who are the "spirits in prison?"  The wicked (disobedient) people in Noah's day were in Peter's day "spirits in prison."  Christ told in Luke 16:19-31 how a wicked man died and entered hades where there was "a great gulf fixed:  so that they which would pass from here cannot, neither can they pass to us (Abraham's bosom)" (verse 26).  Hades is a prison.  Notice that Peter does not state that they were spirits in a disembodied state and in prison when He was preaching to them. Their present condition as Peter is writing is "spirits in prison."

The text before us states that "Christ preached" to those in Noah's day.  It is significant to note that Peter says it was done "by the Spirit, by whom" He preached!  This is a common expression in the Bible. According to I Peter the Holy Spirit preached through the old testament prophets (I Peter 1:10-11).  The Holy Spirit preached through Noah to the people of his day (II Peter 2:5; Genesis 6:3). Christ is said to do what the Holy Spirit does in Ephesians 2:17:

"(Christ) came and preached peace to you which were afar off (Gentiles), and to them that were nigh."

In Ephesians 3:1-8 Paul affirmed that it was he who preached among the Gentiles as God's grace gave him the commission  (Acts 9:15).  If Christ could preach through Paul by the Holy Spirit, why could Christ not also preach through Noah by the Holy Spirit?

But what if Christ did preach to dead people?  Many problems would arise.  First, what of "God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34).  Also, what of Hebrews 9:27 which tells us "It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment."   There is no place for a "second chance."  

Secondly, if Christ preached to the dead, what did He preach?  What would/could His message be?  From what we learned in Luke 16, the message could not have offered salvation!

It becomes quite obvious with all the Bible has to say, that Christ through the Holy Spirit preached by Noah to the saving of their lives. Their disobedience to that message resulted in their spirits now being incarcerated in hades awaiting their final sentencing  (Hebrews 9:27).

We must hear the message of Christ now before it is eternally too late!

Thanks to brother Guy Woods and brother Hugo McCord for their scholarship.