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Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 3:18b-20a; Luke 23:46; Rom. 4:25b; Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:45; Eph. 2:6a; 1 Pet. 1:3; Heb. 2:10; John 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17; John 7:38-39; Acts 5:30-31; Eph. 1:20-23; Phil. 3:10; 2 Cor. 4:10
I. In the move of Christ during His burial — 1 Pet. 3:18b:
А. The crucifixion of Christ having put Christ to death only in His flesh and not in His spirit (His spirit was committed into the hands of the Father at His expiration — Luke 23:46).
B. His spirit having been made alive, enlivened, with new power of life so that in this empowered spirit He made a proclamation to the fallen angels after His death in the flesh and before His resurrection — 1 Pet. 3:19-20a.
II. In the resurrection of Christ:
А. Proving that God’s requirements were satisfied by the death of Christ for us, that we are justified by God because of Christ’s death, and that in Christ, the resurrected One, we are accepted before God; and making the resurrected Christ live within us a life that can be justified by God and is always acceptable to God — Rom. 4:25b.
B. Begetting the incarnated Christ as God’s firstborn Son — Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29.
C. Making Christ, who was the last Adam in the flesh, the life-giving Spirit — 1 Cor. 15:45.
D. Raising the believers up with Christ from the dead — Eph. 2:6a.
E. Regenerating all the believers in Christ as God’s many sons — 1 Pet. 1:3; Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:29.
F. Releasing the divine life from the one grain broken through the death of Christ on the cross to produce many grains for the constitution of the Body of Christ — John 12:24; 1 Cor. 10:17.
G. Carrying out the flow of the Spirit — John 7:38-39.
H. Forming the base of His move in the ascension of Christ for the formation of the church, the Body of Christ — Acts 5:30-31; Eph. 1:20-23.
I. Empowering the believers with the power of Christ’s resurrection for the conformation to His death in the believers’ Christian walk — Phil. 3:10.
J. Carrying out the effectiveness and killing of the death of Christ for the release of the divine life in resurrection — 2 Cor. 4:10.
In this chapter we want to see the move of God in man in the move of Christ during His burial and in the resurrection of Christ. When Christ was buried in the tomb physically, He went in His spirit to Hades, and there He was very busy. This is revealed in 1 Peter 3:18-20. Most readers of the New Testament do not pay adequate and proper attention to this portion of the Word. The first part of verse 18 says, “Christ also has suffered once for sins, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God.” We can understand this because we are in it and have experienced it, but in the next part of verse 18, something is mentioned that none of us can fully understand: “On the one hand being put to death in the flesh, but on the other, made alive in the Spirit.” This verse tells us that two things took place at the same time. When Christ was crucified on the cross, on the one hand, He was killed physically, but on the other hand, He was made alive spiritually. The killing and the making alive were done at the same time. The Spirit here is not the Holy Spirit but the Spirit as the essence of Christ's divinity (Rom. 1:4; cf. John 4:24a). Furthermore, we have a spirit, a soul, and a body. As a man, Christ was the same. He had His personal spirit, soul, and body.
In John 10 the Lord revealed that He laid down His soulish life that we might have His divine life (vv. 15, 17-18, 10b, 28). He laid down His soulish life for us when He was being put to death for our redemption. But according to 1 Peter 3:18, at that time God made Him alive in the Spirit. To make alive means to renew and to empower. When Christ was crucified on the cross, on the one hand, physically, He was killed; on the other hand, He was made alive, empowered, renewed, in His Spirit.
Verse 19 says that in this empowered Spirit He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison. Verse 20 shows that these spirits in prison are the ones who had formerly disobeyed when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared. While Noah was making the ark, preparing the ark, these spirits disobeyed God. This gives us a hint to trace who these spirits are. After they disobeyed God, they were judged and imprisoned. Then they became the spirits in prison.
Genesis 6 gives us a record of Noah’s time. At Noah’s time the sons of God married the daughters of men (v. 2). One ancient manuscript of the Old Testament renders the sons of God as “the angels” in Genesis 6:2. In the Old Testament we are told clearly that the angels are called the sons of God (Job 1:6; 2:1). Furthermore, in Jude 6 and 7 there is strong proof that the sons of God mentioned in Genesis 6 were fallen angels. Brother Watchman Nee taught this truth based upon G. H. Pember’s teaching in his book entitled Earth’s Earliest Ages, where he strongly proves that the sons of God in Genesis 6 were fallen angels.
The fallen angels did not keep their original position but abandoned their own dwelling place, which is in heaven, to come to earth at Noah’s time to commit fornication with the daughters of men. The evil marriage of the fallen angels with the daughters of men caused a mixture of the human race with the fallen spirits, producing persons who were giants (Nephilim — v. 4; Num. 13:33). This shows how evil the human race had become at Noah’s time.
God had to destroy the whole generation of that age because the mixed marriage between the angels and human beings made the human race impure. God judged them with the flood. First Peter 3:20 says that only a few, eight souls, were brought safely through by the water of the great flood. All the rest were destroyed, including the descendants of that mixed marriage. Furthermore, these fallen angels were judged and imprisoned in gloomy pits, awaiting the judgment of the great day (2 Pet. 2:4-5). In Hades there is a section for the imprisonment of these spirits, the rebellious angels.
When Christ was crucified, on the one hand, His body was killed; on the other hand, God renewed, empowered, Him in the Spirit. In this empowered Spirit He went to Hades at the time of His burial to proclaim to these imprisoned spirits the victory achieved by God through His death on the cross.
We should not think that this is unimportant. If this were unimportant, Peter would not have included it in his short first Epistle of only five chapters. This portion in 1 Peter shows the victory that Christ accomplished on the cross. It also shows us that even at the time that Christ was buried, He was busy to proclaim God’s victory in Him to the rebellious angels. This was a part of God’s move in Christ.
The Bible tells us clearly that in this universe there are the heavens, the earth, and Hades, which is underneath the earth (Eph. 4:9). Paul was brought to the third heaven and to Hades, and he received visions and revelations of these hidden regions (2 Cor. 12:2-4). When he was caught away into Paradise, the pleasant section of Hades (Luke 16:22-23, 25-26), he heard unspeakable words, which it is not allowed for a man to speak. Hades is divided into three sections. First, there is the section of fire for the unbelievers after they die (vv. 23-24). Second, there is the section that is called Paradise, where the spirits of the saved saints are. According to Luke 16, Abraham and a poor man named Lazarus are there (vv. 25-26). The Lord Jesus also went to Paradise after He was crucified on the cross. When He was on the cross, two criminals were being crucified with Him. He said to one of them, “Today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (23:43). On the day the Lord was crucified, He went to Hades (Acts 2:27), to Paradise. From there He also went to the third section of Hades, the section where the fallen, rebellious angels are imprisoned in gloomy pits, called Tartarus (2 Pet. 2:4). Christ went to these rebellious angels to proclaim God’s victory accomplished through His death in the flesh on the cross. That was the victory of God in Christ’s victory and was a part of God’s move in man.
The crucifixion of Christ put Christ to death only in His flesh, in His body, and not in His spirit. His spirit was committed into the hands of the Father at His expiration (Luke 23:46). On the one hand, men killed Christ’s body; on the other hand, Christ committed His spirit into the hands of God. God renewed and empowered Him in the Spirit. Then Christ entered into Hades to proclaim God’s victory in Him on the cross to the imprisoned, rebellious angels. Before you and I heard about the crucifixion of Christ, those imprisoned angels had already heard it. The proclamation of Christ, of His victory for God on the cross, was proclaimed to those rebellious angels as a shame to them.
As we have seen, Christ was made alive, enlivened, with new power of life so that in His empowered Spirit He made a proclamation to the fallen angels after His death in the flesh and before His resurrection (1 Pet. 3:19-20a). He was put to death in the flesh, but His Spirit as the essence of His divinity never died. This is a part of the history of God’s move in humanity.
We cannot fully understand these things, because they are a mystery. Even the things related to our physical body are mysterious and not able to be fully understood. In light of this, consider how much more difficult it is to understand the mysterious death and burial of Christ. Christ died in the flesh but still lives in His Spirit. In this renewed, empowered, and strengthened Spirit He went down to Hades, where the rebellious angels at Noah’s time were imprisoned, to proclaim to them how God had achieved the victory through Him in His death.
The resurrection of Christ proves that God’s requirements on us sinners were satisfied by the death of Christ for us. Christ’s death has fulfilled the requirement of God’s holiness, the requirement of God’s righteousness, and the requirement of God’s glory.
How do we know that God was satisfied by Christ’s death for us? The proof is Christ’s resurrection. After Christ’s death, God raised up Christ and accepted Him. We are justified by God because of Christ’s death, and in Christ, the resurrected One, we are accepted before Him. In Christ’s resurrection God justified us and put the resurrected One into us as a sign of God’s acceptance of us. He also makes the resurrected Christ live within us a life that can be justified by Him and that is always acceptable to Him.
Romans 4:25b says that Christ was raised for our justification. In His resurrection God justified us because Christ’s death satisfied God’s requirements. God’s resurrection of Christ is a proof that Christ’s death satisfied God. We can illustrate this by the payment of a loan. If we borrow money from someone, he possesses the receipt until the day the debt is paid. When the debt is paid, the receipt is given to us to prove that the lender is satisfied with the payment. The “receipt” of God’s requirements being satisfied by the death of Christ and of our being justified is the resurrection of Christ.
This resurrected Christ has been put into us, first for our acceptance by God for our past and second for us to live a life that can be justified by God and always accepted by God for our present. The fact of resurrection takes care of our past. Our fall into sin brought us into a debt that we could not pay. Then Christ died for us and paid the price, so God released Christ to us in His resurrection. His resurrection released us from our debt. At the same time, Christ the person, the resurrected One, was put into us so that we may live a life that is always justified by God and accepted by God. This is a great part of God’s move in man.
Do you know that you are a justified person? Before you were saved, you were not justified. You were condemned. But once you receive Christ, you receive Him as the resurrected One. In His resurrection you have the proof that God was satisfied, so God can and has to justify you. To justify you is to release you. You have been released from your debt. Also, this resurrected One enters into you to live in you so that you may live a life that is always justified by God and accepted by God. Therefore, the resurrection of Christ is for our justification, and our justification is for our past and for our present.
In resurrection the incarnated Christ was begotten as God’s firstborn Son (Acts 13:33; Rom. 8:29). Christ was originally the only begotten Son of God without humanity. Then through His resurrection He became the firstborn Son of God with divinity and with humanity also. This was God’s move in man to beget Christ as His firstborn Son in resurrection.
In the resurrection of Christ, God also made Christ, who was the last Adam in the flesh, the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). Christ was a man in the flesh, but through resurrection God made Him the life-giving Spirit. Today Christ as the life-giving Spirit is within us (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16).
When Christ was resurrected, we all were raised up in His resurrection (Eph. 2:6a). God not only created the heavens and the earth but also moved in all these steps. But when most Christians read the Bible today, they do not care for these mysterious, invisible steps of God’s move in man. This is why we have the burden to see how God moved in taking so many steps in Christ in humanity.
In Christ’s resurrection we all were regenerated in Christ to be God’s many sons (1 Pet. 1:3; Heb. 2:10; Rom. 8:29). In God’s eyes we all were regenerated in Christ’s resurrection before we were born. Before we were generated, we were regenerated in Christ’s resurrection about two thousand years ago. The fact of our regeneration took place almost two thousand years ago, but we experienced this fact when we were saved.
Christ was the one grain of wheat containing the divine life within His human shell. One day He was killed, and that killing on the cross broke His human shell to release the divine life within Him. This released divine life produced many grains by dispensing the divine life into His believers (John 12:24). All these many grains are the members of His organic Body (1 Cor. 10:17). This is a particular step of God’s move in man.
In John 7 the Lord told us that the Spirit would flow out of our innermost being as rivers of living water (vv. 38-39). The one flow of the Spirit becomes many rivers. The rivers of living water as the flow of the Spirit flow out of us in resurrection.
Resurrection formed the base of God’s move in the ascension of Christ for the formation of the church, the Body of Christ (Acts 5:30-31; Eph. 1:20-23). Without resurrection Christ could never ascend to the heavens, so the resurrection laid the base for His ascension, in which He formed the church. He released His divine life to produce all the members of the Body of Christ, yet they could not be formed into the Body until He ascended into the heavens. It was in His ascension that He formed all the regenerated members, produced in His resurrection, into His one organic Body.
God empowers the believers with the power of Christ’s resurrection for the conformation to His death in the believers’ Christian walk (Phil. 3:10). We should live a life of death so that we can be conformed to the image of Christ’s death. But in ourselves we cannot do this. We need the power of Christ’s resurrection. The husbands and wives are a constant and continual problem to each other. This is why there are so many separations and divorces today. But we have the power of Christ’s resurrection that empowers us to be conformed to the death of Christ. The power comes not from us but from the resurrection of Christ.
It is by the power of Christ’s resurrection that we can be conformed to His death. Paul says that he was always bearing about in his body the putting to death of Jesus that the life of Jesus also might be manifested in his body (2 Cor. 4:10). Christ’s death was always killing Paul. The killing of the cross results in the manifestation of the resurrection life. This daily killing is for the release of the divine life in resurrection.
These are all the aspects of God’s move in Christ’s resurrection in humanity. Today God is moving in us, the believers of Christ, in the resurrection of Christ.
