The Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude Preached and Explained · Martin Luther
CHAPTER III.
V. 18. _Since also Christ has once suffered for us--the just for the unjust._ There St. Peter presents us, once for all, the example of our Lord, and points us evermore to Christ's sufferings, that we all of us alike should follow his example, so that he need not present a particular exemplar for the estate of every individual. For just as Christ is held forth as an example to all in the whole Church, so it is the duty of every individual in the Church,--each for himself, of whatever state he is,--to copy thereafter, in his whole life, as it is set before him; and he will speak after this manner: "Christ was righteous; yet, for well-doing, has suffered on our account, who were unjust; yet he sought not the cross, but waited till it was God's will that he should drink the cup; and it is He that is our pattern, whom we are to imitate." Thus St. Peter here adduces this one example, to this end especially, that he may thus designate that by which every estate is to be instructed; and now he goes on to declare more fully the suffering of Christ. But, more particularly, he says here, Christ has suffered _once_ for us; that is, Christ has borne many sins upon himself, but he has not done it in such a way as to die for every individual sin; but at once, for all together, has done enough to remove the sins of all who come to Him and believe on Him--who are now freed from death, even as He is free.
_The righteous for the unrighteous_, he says. As though he had said, much rather should we suffer, since we die for the righteous who had no sin. But He has died for the unrighteous, and for the sake of our sins. _That He might present us to God._ This is all said to teach the peculiar end of Christ's sufferings; namely, that He died,--not for His own sake,--but that He might present us to God. How is that consistent: has He not offered up Himself? Answer: It is true that He has offered up Himself upon the Cross for us all who believe on Him, but at the same time He offers up us with Himself, since all they who believe on Him must suffer also with Him, and be put to death after the flesh as He was. Yet God has taught us, that they are alive in the spirit and yet dead in the flesh, as He afterwards says. But are we a sacrifice with Him? Then, as He dies, so we are to die according to the flesh; as He lives spiritually, so do we also live in the spirit.
_Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit._ The word _flesh_ is common in Scripture, as is also the word spirit, and the Apostles usually present the two in contrast. The sense is this: that Christ, through His sufferings, is taken out of this life that consists in flesh and blood, as a man on earth who lives by flesh and blood,--walks and stands, eats, drinks, sleeps, wakes, sees, hears, grasps, and feels,--and, in brief, whatever the body does while it is sensible; to all this Christ has died. This is what St. Paul calls a natural body,--that is, the animal life. _In the flesh_, not _after_ the flesh,--that is, in the natural functions which the body exercises, to such life is He dead: so that this life has now ceased with Him, and He is now removed to another life and quickened after the spirit, passed into a spiritual and supernatural life, that comprises in itself the whole life that Christ now has in soul and body. So that he has no more a fleshy body, but a spiritual body. Thus shall it be with us at the last day, when spiritual life shall succeed to flesh and blood; for my body and yours will live without food and drink,--will not procreate, nor digest, nor grow wanton, and the like, but we shall inwardly live after the spirit,--and the body shall be purified even as the sun, and yet far brighter, while there probably will be no natural flesh and blood, no natural or corporeal labor.
V. 19-21. _By which same He also went and preached to the spirits in prison, who aforetime were disobedient, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. Which now also saves you through baptism, which is typical by it; not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the union of a good conscience with God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has ascended to heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God,--and angels, and principalities, and powers, are subject to Him._ This is a strange text, and a more obscure passage, perhaps, than any other in the New Testament, for I do not certainly know what St. Peter means. At first sight, the words import as though Christ had preached to the spirits,--that is, the souls which were formerly unbelieving at the time Noah was building the ark; but that I cannot understand, I cannot even explain it. There has been no one hitherto who has explained it. Yet if any one is disposed to maintain that Christ, after that He had suffered on the Cross, descended to these souls and preached to them, I will not dispute it. It might bear such a rendering. But I am not confident that St. Peter would say this. Yet the words may well be understood in this sense,--that our Lord, after His ascension into heaven, came and preached in spirit, yet so that His preaching was not in the body. For He speaks not with bodily voice; He does no more what pertains to the natural functions of the body. Whence it must also follow, as it seems, that inasmuch as He preached to the spirits in that same spiritual body, such preaching must also be a spiritual preaching, so that He did not go there in body and with oral preaching. The text does not require us to understand that He went down to the spirits and preached to them at the time of His death. For this is his language, _by which same_,-- namely, when He had been put to death in the flesh and made alive after the spirit,--that is, when He had unclothed Himself of His fleshly existence and had passed into a spiritual being and life, just as He now is in heaven,--_thus_ He went and preached. Now He certainly could not have gone to hell, after He had taken to Himself such a new existence; wherefore we must understand that He has done it after His resurrection.
While the words only require that he be considered as speaking here of spiritual preaching, we may rest in this view, that St. Peter speaks of the office that Christ performs by means of external preaching. For He commanded the Apostles personally to preach the Gospel. But with the word preached He comes Himself, and is spiritually present there, and speaks and preaches to the people in their hearts; just as the Apostles speak the word orally and in body to the ears, so He preaches to the spirits that lie captive in the prison-house of the devil. So that this also should be understood spiritually, like the preaching. But here the expression follows, _to the spirits which aforetime were unbelieving_, &c. We should observe, in accordance with the divine account, that in that state of existence in which Christ is at present, those who have lived aforetime and those that are living now, are alike to Him, for His control extends itself alike over dead and living: and in that life, the beginning, middle and end of the world are all in one. But here on earth it has properly a measure, so that one age passes on after another, the son succeeds the father, and so it continues. But to give an illustration: If a high wood lies before you, or you look upon it as it stretches along in length before you, you cannot well overlook it; but if it lies near before you, and you stand above it and can look down directly upon it, then you have it in full view. So it is, that here on earth we can form no conception of this life (I speak of), for it passes on (piecemeal as it were) foot by foot, to the last day. But as to God, it all stands in a moment. For with Him a thousand years are as one day, as St. Peter says, in the next Epistle. Thus the first man is just as near to Him as the last that shall be born, and He sees all at once, just as the human eye can bring together two things widely separated at a single glance. So the sense here is this, that Christ preaches no more in person, but is present with the word and preaches to spirits, spiritually, in the heart. Yet you are not to understand that He preaches in this manner to all spirits.
But to what spirits has he preached? To those who aforetime were unbelieving. This is the figure of speech which is called Synecdoche. That is, "from a part the whole" (_ex parte totum_),--that is to say, not to these very spirits, but to those who are like them, and are just as unbelieving as they. Thus must we look away from this outward, to that inward life. That is the best rendering, as I think, of those words of St. Peter;[6] still I will not too strenuously insist upon it. This at least I can scarcely believe, that Christ descended to those souls and preached to them; while the Scripture is against it, and declares that every one, when he arrives there, must receive according as he has believed and lived. Besides, while it is uncertain what is the state of the dead, we cannot easily explain this passage as one that refers to it. But this is certain, that Christ is present and preaches in the heart, wherever a preacher of God's word speaks to the ear. Therefore may we safely draw to this conclusion: let him to whom a better understanding is manifest, follow the same. This is the summary of the sense which I have exhibited: Christ has ascended to heaven and preached to the spirits,--that is, to human souls; among which human souls have been the unbelieving, as in the times of Noah.
V. 20. It continues,--_when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water._ Thus does St. Peter bring us into the Scriptures, that we may study therein; and gives us an illustration out of them, from the ark of Noah, and interprets this same figure. For it is pleasant to have one bring forward illustrations from such figures, as St. Paul also does when he is speaking, Gal. iv., of the two sons of Abraham, and the two women; and Christ, in John v., of the serpent which Moses had erected in the wilderness. Such comparisons, when well drawn, are delightful; wherefore St. Peter introduces this here, that we may be able to comprehend faith under a pleasing image. But he would also tell us, that as it happened when Noah was preparing the ark, so it takes place now. As he took refuge in the ark which swam upon the waters, so, it is to be observed, must you also be saved in baptism. Just as that water swallowed up all that was then living, of man and beast,--so baptism also swallows up all that is of the flesh and corrupt nature, and makes spiritual men. But we rest in the ark, which means the Lord Christ, or the christian Church, or the Gospel that Christ preached, or the body of Christ, on which we rest by faith, and are saved as Noah in the ark. You also perceive how the image comprises in brief what belongs to faith and to the cross, to life and death. Where there are only those that follow Christ, there is surely a christian Church, where all that springs from Adam, and whatever is evil, is removed.
V. 21. _The like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth now save us; not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God._ But you are not kept and saved by merely washing away the filth of the flesh, that the body be clean, as was the practice of the Jews; such purification has no further value. But the answer of a good conscience toward God,--that is, that you feel your conscience to be rightfully at peace within you, that it stands in harmony with God, and can say, "He has promised to me that which He will fulfil, for He cannot lie." If you shall rely upon and cleave to His word, then shall you be preserved. Faith, alone, is the band whereby we shall be held; no outward work which you can do will suffice. _Through the resurrection of Christ Jesus._ This St. Peter adjoins, in order to explain that faith which rests on the fact that Christ died, descended to hell, and has risen again from the dead. Had He continued subject to death, it would not have advantaged us; but since He has risen and sits at the right hand of God, and suffers this to be proclaimed to us so that we may believe on Him, we have a union with God, and a sure promise, whereby we shall be saved as Noah in the ark. Thus has St. Peter given to the ark a spiritual significance throughout, within which is not flesh and blood, but a good conscience toward God,--and that is faith.
V. 22. _Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels, and authorities, and powers, being made subject unto Him._ This he says for the enlightening and strengthening of our faith. For it was necessary that Christ should ascend to heaven and become Lord over all creatures and powers universally, that He may bring us thither, and make us conquerors. This is said for our consolation, that we may know that all powers, whether they be in heaven or earth, must serve and aid us, even death and the devil,--since all must become subservient, and lie at the feet of the Lord Christ. This closes the third chapter. The fourth follows.
Ideas discussed in this chapter
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.