To Encourage You

1 Peter 4:6 “For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.”

Some passages of Scripture are more difficult to understand than others.  Peter said as much when he wrote, “Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15-16).  Thus, the need for the help of the Holy Spirit to teach us.  But difficult passages aren’t limited to Paul, for Peter, himself, has given us one such passage in 1 Peter 4 above.  It talks about those who are dead to whom the gospel was preached.  At least two things are possibly meant here, and both are, wonderfully, true.

First, “the dead” may be referring to those who are “spiritually” dead.  That applies to every single one of us before we are born again.  In Ephesians 2, Paul writes about this condition in the following words: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom WE ALL once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”  It’s essentially the same think Peter said just before the verse above when he wrote, “For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry” (1 Peter 4:3). For you see, that’s how the spiritually dead live. They are void of the life of God and they have no desire to glorify God with their bodies.  As such they could be called the walking dead, alive physically but dead as a doornail spiritually. They have no hunger for spiritual things, and they have none of the desires that emanate from spiritual life. But then the miracle of the gospel.  It’s the seed that, when planted and taking root in the heart, springs to life when a person believes.  Again, to Ephesians 2, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” What wonderful truth this is!  What a miracle when those who are dead hear the gospel and believe, and who then can live by the spirit both now and for all eternity.

But there’s another way that 1 Peter 4:6 might be interpreted.  It’s good to remember that Peter is writing to Christians who were undergoing severe persecution. Some of them had died as martyrs.  Throughout his letter, Peter is encouraging them with truth about how such suffering will result in blessing in the end. He’s been telling them that Jesus, Himself, suffered for them even unto death, but now He lives forevermore in the glory of paradise. So, as Peter writes about the gospel that was preached “to those who are dead,” he might have been referring to those who had died as martyrs and were no longer with them physically. Their death, according to those who are “judged in the flesh the way people are,” could be referring to the physical death that is inevitable to every person as a result of the Fall and God’s judgment on sin, or it could refer to the judgment of men who had consigned believers to death by such means as crucifixion or the Roman arena where some were fed to the lions.  Regardless, notice that Peter talks about these dead people in terms of their life. As such, he would be saying the very same thing that Jesus said when He preached, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25), or similarly, when He warned that many of those who would believe in Him would be persecuted just as He was.  He told us that “they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake . . . You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives” (Luke 21:12-19).

Did you hear that? “Some of you will be put to death . . . but not a hair of your head will perish.” It’s the promise of eternal life. It’s the wonderful reality that for those who know Jesus, “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).  And so Peter could encourage his fellow believers, which includes all of us who believe here and now, that death is not the end for them. It’s the truth that every one of the believers who were dead at the time Peter wrote his letter (and every believer who has died since) are NOT dead but alive. It’s the promise of eternal life. 

So, are you dead or alive?  Have you ever been born again?  Do you have the confidence that one day when you will be “away from the body” you will at that very moment be “at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8)? Well, if not, you can be, for that’s the message of the gospel. That’s why Christ came.  He came to destroy the curse of death for all who will believe.  It’s the message held out to everyone from the “God (who) so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” It is my prayer, and the prayer of all who once were dead but are now spiritually alive, that you, too, will look to the One and only Savior.  Won’t you just look and live?