Hello again as we continue our journey with Peter as he recounts the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, the “disobedient – spirits in prison,” and Noah and his family. (1 Peter 3:18 – 21)

They are all connected in a unique and special way and I hope the last couple of posts, this one, and the next few will show you their distinctive symbolism and relationship to you and me in our Christian experience.

Previous posts have included much in the way of Peter’s journey and testimony, his baptism in Christ, starting with Christ taking Peter where he would not in the natural go (John Chapter 21, see Part 5 in this series).

In the next post, I plan to write about Christ’s testimony recounted by Peter in the referenced verses – (1 Peter 3:18 – 21).

Like the last post, this one will focus primarily on the “disobedient.”

Peter is an example of an individual who has experienced the deep wells of the Lord Jesus Christ in his or her Christian journey. I hope, like Peter, you are being refreshed and revitalized in Christ.

Jesus, is here, now, present in our generations to do a deep work in your life and mine. He is here, to bring us into the promised land of rest. He is here to care for you and me, Fathering us unto sons and daughters of God.

Natural Man

The grace and care of Christ is foreign to the natural man. The delight and love of God is foreign to the natural man. Honestly, in our immaturity and brokenness, in many ways, we as Christians do not know how to receive the grace and delight for us of the Lord Jesus Christ and our heavenly Father.

It’s something we must learn and sometimes through difficulty and discomfort. The structures we’ve embraced and built to protect and care for ourselves arose through difficulties and discomfort and sometimes their removal requires discomfort as well.

It seems we are a people of extremes, in and out of Christianity. We either see the grace of Christ as a blanket forgiveness of our sins, wounds and brokenness, including the impact we have on others.

Or, we see it as something to be fought for, apprehended, mastered and obtained by doing things just right. In other words, God’s grace is available through our own efforts to find it, subdue, and possess it.

In one case we do nothing and in the other we fight to capture it. The natural man just does not know what to do or what to think about the grace and care of God.

He does not truly see himself and experience at the core of what he thinks, believes, and feels, the delight and treasure of his creator.

Sadly, parts of our lives have been crafted and sculpted by wounds, sins, and brokenness to be the master – to provide, protect and sustain ourselves by our own efforts.

The natural man inwardly repulses at the thought of needing and receiving the grace and care of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s part of the package that comes with the fall and our entry into a fallen and broken world.

Commentaries

From my reading, it seems to me, some commentators and analysts write about God more in terms of rules and commandments, tainting our perception of him as first and foremost a disciplinarian.

It seems the heart of a father hurting for his hurting children is absent from much of the commentaries I’ve read. At least that’s my perception at this stage in my journey.

Also, in another vein, it seems much in the way of biblical commentary comes from either of one of two perspectives. The first, is we are all under a mantle of grace, all is forgiven, and cleansing and healing of the inner man is unnecessary.

Yes, sin must be fought and there is a battle for righteousness, but the understanding of the need for deep healing and cleansing through bringing to death sinful agreements, beliefs, and practices – by the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ – the uprooting of sins and bitterness, etc., is largely absent in Christendom them at large.

The other perspective, as I tried to express above, grace is something to be grappled with and apprehended in our pursuit of cleansing and healing. It’s through our efforts and “works righteousness,” cleansing and healing is pursued.

Trust, faith, and obedience are largely absent in this second perspective.

And in another vein, some of the biblical writing I read views God as seeing us as a mess, is “undone” because of the mess we become – Christian and non-Christian, has few nice things to say about us, and is all about “fixing” us from the mess we’ve become.

The Scriptures Teach Differently – Grace and Care are First and Foremost

Our heavenly Father sees you and me as treasured possessions.

He sees past the sins, brokenness and wounds, an eternal body, soul, and spirit, having the potential to be redeemed and restored from the fall, to be made new, to be made whole in Christ.

He sees the potential for love, fellowship, intimacy, connection and union with him by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe what grieves his heart is how deeply we have fallen, how it hurts us and others, including him, how destructive we can be to ourselves and others, and the immeasurable gap between what we’ve become because of sin and the love and light of God awaiting us in Jesus Christ.

But he is not dismayed. He knows what he can accomplish in a willing heart and life yielded to him. And, further, he knows how to help us become willing and yielded.

The heart of the gospel, the journey in grace by revelation of Jesus, is to take us from the place of fallenness into the “care” of our heavenly Father.

The natural man and all the voices of sin, will do everything possible to keep you and me from care – the revelation of Jesus Christ in us by grace. (1 Peter 1:13)

The Wilderness

It is from this understanding we gain perspective on the wisdom and necessity of a journey in the wilderness with Jesus.

In the wilderness, the Lord begins a process of detaching and releasing us from all the hard-fought efforts we have made to provide, protect and sustain ourselves apart from the care, love and grace of God.

The process of detachment and releasing may be difficult and have discomfort.

It’s a journey where we begin to learn to lean into the things of God and learn to lean into his cleansing and healing.

Back to the Disobedient – Spirits in Prison

In the last post I covered how the “disobedient” in the days of Noah may be types of those who die in the wilderness, like Israel of old, and those not “taken,” i.e., the five virgins without oil, who may be required to give their lives as a testimony in the tribulation.

Christ’s Proclamation to the Imprisoned Spirits

I believe Christ may have spoken something along these lines:

Rejoice! I have completed and fulfilled all righteousness!

Everything Noah represented to you I’ve fulfilled!

Noah pointed you to me – everything he represented in “type,” I have fulfilled. Rejoice!

I am everything Noah desired to be and everything he looked forward to.

I am the righteous and holy one, the embodiment of all the promises of God – the promises you attempted but failed to achieve.

You were to be a type of me as Noah. You fell short of the finish line. I have paid the price of your sins and disobedience. I am faithful when you were not.

But, be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world and fulfilled all righteousness.

I have come to bring you into my kingdom, to serve my kingdom and those who will rule with me.

What the Commentators Say

Some say this is Christ speaking through Noah to the disobedient generation in the days of Noah. And some say the spirits in prison are in purgatory and rescued by Christ after his resurrection at Calvary.

The Scripture doesn’t tell us what happened to the spirits in prison subsequent to Christ’s proclamation unless you believe he was speaking through Noah.

Was Christ’s proclamation a release from freedom for those who had deathbed conversions? Or, was Christ’s proclamation a confirmation of eternal separation Noah possibly warned them about?

My thought is this. On the heels of Christ being made alive, resurrected – the righteous and joyous culmination of all Scripture in Christ – having experienced the joys and intimacy and love unfathomable with his heavenly Father – would he now look upon the disobedient with eyes of condemnation sending them to the chains of eternal darkness?

I think not. I believe Christ brought revelation that though they failed to complete their race, he completed it and because he completed it and they had a heart for God, they too will be completed spiritually in heaven.

(You may want to read Part 5 in this series to get a better perspective on how Christ may have felt subsequent to his resurrection)

Perspectives

Preaching of righteousness includes provision for repentance. God provided much in the way of opportunity and patience for those in Noah’s day to accept his invitation to be saved and have a new identity and destiny.

They, the disobedient, called to be types of Christ, did not respond to the wooing and call of the Spirit of God through Noah and possibly his family as well.

We do see numerous examples in Scripture of situations and events that catapult people into them, where, when they cry out to God in repentance and mercy, God responds to their plea.

We do know this about the disobedient, they did not fulfill the type of Jesus Christ like Noah and his family who by faith received the promise of God and did the hard “heart work” before the flood in obedience to God.

Many of us know the heartache and pain from lack of Fathering both in the natural and spiritually. How much did that play a part in the disobedience of the “disobedient?”

Noah’s preaching was to bring the people of his day into relationship with their Father and creator. Noah’s preaching, I dare to say, was focused on bringing people into relationship, not the dire consequences of the flood if they disobeyed.

This is the same relationship Christ endeavors to bring the church at large into, deep intimacy and connection with him and their creator.

Today, as in the time of Noah, your preaching and mine, should be motivated to bring people into intimacy and connection with Christ.

Though we know, just like Noah, there is a limit to the patience of God and the allotted time for man.

The time of salvation, to prepare, to be chosen by Christ to be taken deep in him, to begin the baptism journey of Jesus Christ, is now, and not when you see the storm clouds and the flood waters of persecution on the horizon.

If Peter submitted to the deep work of God in his life, letting the Lord take him deep in him, to a place he would not naturally go, initiated, trained, and disciplined – Fathered in the grace and care of the Lord Jesus Christ – and makes a point of the disobedient at time of Noah – who did not have the measure of the Spirit of God and the revelation of the word of God we have today – how much more will we be held accountable 2,000 years after the coming of the Messiah?

Jesus, is here, now, to bless you and me in the richness of his delight and love and care for us, in the depth of his person and Spirit, unlike anything you and I could imagine or think.

Blessings, Drake