The Sabbath-School by Ellet Joseph Waggoner

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 20, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 44.

The Sabbath-School.

By Ellet Joseph Waggoner

LESSON FOR THE PACIFIC COAST—DEC. 13.

UPON whom did Christ pronounce a special blessing? Matt. 5:10.
For what did Peter say it is better to suffer? 1 Pet. 3:17.
For what did Christ once suffer? Verse 18.
For whose sins did he suffer? Isa. 53:5.
Why did he thus suffer? 1 Pet. 3:18.
How did he suffer for our sins? Ib.
By what was he made alive? Ib.
To whom is it said that Christ preached? Verse 19.
By what agency did he preach to the spirits in prison? Verses 18, 19.
Who are they who walk at liberty? Ps. 119:45.
Then who may be said to be in prison?
When was it that Christ by the Spirit preached to those disobedient ones? 1 Pet. 3:20.
Did the Spirit of God indeed strive with the antediluvians? Gen. 6:3.
When did the Spirit cease to strive with them?
To what place do the dead go? Ps. 89:48.
Where did Christ go before he ascended to Heaven? Eph. 4:9.
Did the same Jesus that ascended to Heaven also descend into the grave? Eph. 4:10.
Did the soul of Christ go into the grave (hades)? Acts 2:29-32.
What Scripture proof can you give that Christ did not preach while in the grave?
When we read that Christ suffered for sins, "being put to death," does it mean that the soul of Christ suffered even to death? Matt. 26:38; Isa. 53:10, 12.
What had the Lord promised concerning death? Isa. 25:8.
How only could he destroy death? Heb. 2:14.
If Christ himself had not died, what would be the condition of the human race?

THE scripture which calls out the texts that compose this lesson, is 1 Peter 3:18-20. The text itself teaches a lesson far different from that which it is commonly supposed to teach, and the design of the lesson is to correct this mistaken idea. The apostle exhorts Christians to be patient under reproach, even though it be unjust, citing the example of Christ, who, though sinless, 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 also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison." It is concerning this last expression that the misapprehension exists, people supposing that because preaching to the spirits in prison is introduced almost immediately after the death of Christ is spoken of, therefore Christ must have preached to those spirits after his crucifixion and before his resurrection. If this supposition be true, then our previous teaching concerning the state of man has been at fault; therefore we will study the text carefully.

It would be well for those who hold to the theory that Christ immediately after his crucifixion went and preached to the spirits in hades, to compare this text with Luke 23:43, which was studied last week. It is claimed from that text that Christ went at once to Paradise; yet the same persons claim from 1 Pet. 3:18-20 that Christ went to some place where the dead were congregated, and preached to them. If one theory be true, the other cannot be. A little examination of this latter passage will show us that no statement whatever is made in it concerning the condition of Christ between his death and resurrection.

NOTICE that the statement concerning his preaching to the spirits in prison does not immediately follow the statement that he was put to death. Between these two is the statement that he was "quickened"—made alive. So if we follow the order of the apostle's statements, we find that the preaching was done while Christ was alive. But on reading the verses still more closely, we find that Jesus did not preach in person at all. It was by the Spirit that he preached. The apostle, having introduced the sufferings of Christ, mentions the fact that he was put to death. But the Bible writers always connect the death and the resurrection of Christ. They do not have Christ put to death, and then leave him. So he says, "put to death in the flesh, but quickened,"—made alive. This is not all, he was "quickened by the Spirit; by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison." The verse teaches simply that the Spirit which raised Christ from the dead, is the very same Spirit by which Christ preached to the imprisoned spirits.

Now when did this preaching take place? The twentieth verse contains the answer. "When once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing." Turning to Gen. 6:3, we read: "And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." Thus we find a harmony between the two passages; the Spirit of the Lord was striving with the antediluvians. Christ was preaching to them, through Noah, but all true preaching is accompanied by the Spirit of God. It is the Spirit that impresses the truth of God upon the heart, and convinces of sin.

"BUT," says one, "you forget that those to whom Christ preached by the Spirit, were in prison." No, we do not. For what purpose was the Spirit upon Christ when he was here on earth? In Luke 4:16-21 we read that Christ read Isa. 61:1, 2, and said, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears." That scripture reads: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because he hath appointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Who are these captives? David says, "I will walk at liberty; for I seek thy precepts." Ps. 119:45. And from that we would conclude that all others are not at liberty. So Peter says of false teachers, and those who are ensnared by them: "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." 2 Pet. 2:19. Paul also teaches that if a man yields himself to sin, he is the servant of sin. Rom. 6:16, 17; and in Rom. 7:15-24 he gives a graphic description of the struggles of one who is seeking to escape from the cruel bondage of sin. At last he finds liberty in Christ; his servants alone are free men. So then all sinners are in prison; they have transgressed the law of God, and where the laws are not a nullity, transgressors are always consigned to prison. Through faith in Christ, they may get liberty. But this liberty is contingent on their obedience to the law. The Spirit presses the claims of the law home to the heart, and when the sinner repents and accepts the way of truth, the Spirit abides with him. See Rom. 8:7-14. In Noah's time "the wickedness of man was great" (Gen. 6:5); and therefore the Spirit, through the preaching of Noah, was striving to have them repent and find true liberty.

IT is not alone for the bearing that the popular theory of this text has on the Bible doctrine of immortality, that it deserves notice. There is a deeper reason. The popular interpretation of both 1 Pet. 3:18-20, and Luke 23:43, not only makes these texts contradictory, but overthrows the foundation principles of the gospel. In what way? By virtually denying the death of Christ. When man had sinned, he could not save himself. He could not by any obedience atone for his own sin. Neither would the life of one man answer for the life of another, for all men have forfeited their lives by sin. Human sacrifices, then, would avail no more than would the blood of bulls and goats. Nothing but the life of a divine being, one who was sinless, and the giving of the law, could answer for man. Such an one was Christ. He offered himself freely, not because the law had any claim on his life, but that his righteousness might be counted instead of the past transgressions of those who should believe in him, and obey him. But now they tell us that Christ, the divine Son of God, did not die; that only his earthly, human body died. If that be so, then indeed is our faith vain, and we are yet in our sins. With the sorrowing Mary we may say, "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." An interpretation that makes such a conclusion necessary should not be held for a moment by those who profess to love the Lord.

THAT Christ himself did die, there is abundant proof. Aside from the texts which say that the dead know not anything, we have special statements concerning Christ. The Jesus that "ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things," who now sits at the right hand of God, there making intercession for us, is the same Jesus who "descended first into the lower parts of the earth." Eph. 4:9, 10. Not merely his human body, but his soul, which certainly must include his divinity, went into the grave. As we read in Acts 2:29-31, David did not, in the sixteenth psalm, speak of himself, but, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath that he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne, "He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell [hades, the grave], neither did his flesh see corruption." If, by the resurrection, the soul of Christ was not left in the grave, then it must previously have gone into the grave. Christ himself declared in the garden that his soul was "exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," and this is just in harmony with the prophet's statement that he "poured out his soul unto death." Isa. 53:12. By death alone could he "destroy him which had the power of death, that is, the devil." Heb. 2:14. So then, notwithstanding the theories of men, the foundation of God standeth sure," viz., that "Christ died for the ungodly." E. J. W.