conscience – Living the Word

1Peter 3:19-22 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.

‘By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison’ by the Holy Spirit anointing He preached to the angels in Tartarus while His body was in the grave (2Pet. 2:4; Jude 1:6-7).

‘Spirits in prison’ ten proofs these spirits are fallen angels: They sinned in the days of Noah (Gen. 6:4). If these were human souls it would not specify only those who sinned in the days of Noah. Human beings are never called “spirits.” Where human spirits are referred to it is always qualified and clarified by speaking of them as “spirits of men” (Heb. 12:23); “spirits of all flesh” (Num. 16:22; 27:16); and “spirits of the prophets” (1Cor. 14:32). People have spirits, but they are not spirits. Where the word “spirits” is used without such qualifications it refers to spirit beings (Ps. 104:4; Heb. 1:7, 14). There is a special prison for angels that sinned before the flood (2Pet. 2:4; Jude 1:6-7). The Greek word for “preached” is kerusso meaning to proclaim as a public crier, or to announce something whether it be good or bad. The gospel is never preached to human beings after they die, and there would be no special message for only the one generation of Noah’s day for God is impartial. Human beings are appointed to die and after this the judgment (Heb. 9:27), not more preaching intended for their salvation. There is no special prison for human beings who sinned in Noah’s day and another prison for all other human beings who have sinned. All go to Sheol/Hades until the judgment (Rev. 20:11-15). Christ made no announcement to human souls in hell that we know about. He did liberate the righteous souls taking them to heaven with Him when He ascended on high (Eph. 4:8). He left the angels in hell until the judgment (2Pet. 2:4; Jude 1:6-7). Christ Himself – not Enoch, Noah, or some other man – went to preach to these spirits. This could only be while He went to Sheol/Hades (Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:27). Whoever the spirits are they were in prison when Christ preached to them (3:19). All these facts indicate that they were fallen angels and not men.

‘Wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water’ into which ark eight souls were saved by [Greek: dia, through] water, or saved from drowning in the flood by being in the ark (Gen. 6:9-10, 18; 7:7; 8:18). The water did not save them, but the ark did.

‘Saved by water’ they were not saved in the sense of their souls being saved from sin, but saved from drowning in the flood.

‘Like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us’ the “like figure” of baptism in water also saves us. It was the ark that saved them from drowning in the flood. So baptism in water does not save the soul, but faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ – that which baptism is a figure of – does save the soul (Rom. 6:3-5; 1Cor. 15:1-4; Eph. 1:14; Col. 1:20-22). A mere figure can have no power to save, but the reality of the figure can. Peter, lest some should trust in water baptism to save the soul, makes it very clear that baptism does not save one from the filth or moral depravity of the flesh. He shows it to be only the answer of a good conscience toward God, one that has been made clean by faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is clear here that at baptism the conscience is already supposed to be good and clean and baptism merely answers to it. As the waters of the flood could not have saved these eight persons had they not made use of the ark, so the water of baptism does not save the soul of anyone, but testifies figuratively to the salvation that comes by faith (Rom. 1:16; 3:24-25; 10:9-10).

‘Filth of the flesh’ the Greek word rhupos, the root word of rhuparia, rhuparos, and rhupoo, meaning moral filth and depravity (Jas. 1:21; 2:2; Rev. 22:11).

‘Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God’ this is His rightful place by virtue of His achievements and exaltation to original glory (John 17:5; Eph. 1:20-23; Php. 2:9-11; Heb. 1:3-4). After Christ made His supreme sacrifice His work for sins was finished. He could then sit down and wait to see His work completed in the lives of believers who would be freed from sin and delivered from their enemies (Heb. 1:3; 10:12-14; 12:2; Ps. 110:4).

John 8:3-11 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what say thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

The scribes and Pharisees attempted, yet again, to snare Jesus to arrest Him by bringing a woman that was taken in adultery. Had He contradicted Moses (Lev. 20:10; Deut. 22:22-24), He would have been condemned as a false prophet. Had He condemned the woman to death He would have been accused to the Romans as usurping authority, so He merely wrote on the ground as if He did not hear them. When they continued to ask, He told them that the sinless ones should first cast a stone. It is not recorded what He wrote on the ground.

Capital punishment by stoning was lawful (Ex. 19:13; Deut. 13:10; 17:5; 22:21). The Jewish method of execution was to cast the criminal from a 10 or 12 feet scaffold half-naked, with hands tied in the back. The witnesses did the pushing with great force and if this did not kill him a witness then would take a large stone and dash it upon the breast. On occasions where mobs stoned a man no scaffold was used, but certain accusers threw the first stones and then all could throw until the victim was dead (Num. 15:36; Jos. 7:25; 1Kings 21:13; Acts 7:58-59; 14:19; 2Cor. 11:25).

Conscience is a wonderful thing. It is the faculty that decides the lawfulness of our actions as to right and wrong (Rom. 2:12-16). The causes of their conviction was their own evil designs against Him, not so much against her; their failure to include the man who was guilty with the woman; what Christ wrote on the ground; the challenge to start throwing if they were sinless themselves; their hypocrisy which was known to Christ and others present; and their guilt of committing the same sin (Rom. 2:1).

As they were convicted by their own consciences, they, her accusers, started to depart, leaving the woman in the midst of the disciples and others who were present.

Jesus did not say He did not condemn adultery as a sin. He simply forgave the woman, as He had done others who were sinful (Matt. 9:1-8; Luke 7:37-50). He was not a magistrate and since no man of her accusers stayed to condemn, He was not going to pass sentence on the woman, taking it upon Himself to execute the law of Moses. He had to avoid the Jews accusing Him of taking magisterial authority in His own hands. Then, too, Christ came to save men, not to destroy them, so forgiveness of her sin was as much His obligation then as it still is when anyone repents and turns from sin (Matt. 12:31-32; 1Jn. 1:9). He frankly told her to sin no more, proving He did condemn adultery as a sin. He did so elsewhere (Matt. 5:27-32; 19:9, 18-19).

Tag: conscience

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