Christ Frees the Prisoners of Sin
AGAIN, we know that Christ's special work is to save people from sin. See Matt. 1:21. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 1 Tim. 1:15. "Looking for . . . our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity." Titus 2:13, 14. Both these points, namely, that sin brings men into bondage, and that Christ releases them from this prison, are brought out in the following passage:— "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; by which [i. e., by the Spirit] also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing." Christ, by the Spirit, went and preached unto the spirits in prison; this was in the days of Noah, while the long-suffering of God waited. God's long-suffering waited one hundred and twenty years, and during this time his Spirit was striving with the wicked antediluvians. See Gen. 6:3. Those wicked men were in the bondage of sin; Christ was ready and anxious to give them freedom,—the same freedom that Noah had, namely, the righteousness which is by faith,—but they refused to be made free, and were therefore destroyed.