039 - 1 Peter 3.18-21 - Did Jesus go to hell to preach to the dead? Does baptism save? (Suggested by Pamelasv)

1 Peter 3.18-21 - Did Jesus go to hell to preach to the dead? Does baptism save?

·         "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 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:" (1 Peter 3.18-21).

To bring us to the Eternal One, Christ suffered only once for the sins of the unrighteous.

Yet, though dead in the flesh, He was quickened in Spirit: the same spirit that worketh inwardly in each one of us.

And it is in this Spirit that He went and preached in the spirits of those believers who lived in the time of Noah. Today they are in prison. After all, as long as the longsuffering of the Eternal One waited for the people to repent, they were praying to the Eternal One for the end of the world:

• " And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." (Genesis 6:13).

The Eternal One allowed the ark to take so long to be done just to give people time to believe in Him and repent. Unfortunately, only eight individuals have achieved salvation, and this is physically thinking.

After all, although through the waters of the flood, all the ungodly people were slain, this didn’t free the world of the badness. Noah and his family was saved from external violence. However, the sin still stay in Noah’s and his family’s flesh. So much so that, after a little time, Noah get drunk, naked and cursed Canaan, his grandson, that had not to do with his drunkenness or with the mistake of this father (Cam) in show up the nakedness of his grandfather (Noah).   

The waters of the deluge serve to show that, it’s no matter how much just someone can be before the Eternal One. Even if He destruct all human race and to begin again through of a just and saint man, the sin will come to take account of the society.

In order to you understand this, see what it means baptism:

• "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. "(Galatians 3:27).
• "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. "(Romans 6: 3-4)
• "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."(1 Corinthians 12:13).

Note that baptism have ligation with burial.

For example: at Noah’s time, he and his Family was saved through burial of all wicked in the waters of the deluge.

Likewise, Israel’s people were saved through of the waters of the Red Sea, when they bury the Egyptians.

Similarly, Israel’s people were kept below of the water of the cloud provided by Eternal One, in order to bury all wrong direction that they can get.

However, this didn’t resolve. In the end, all Israel was to bondage at Babylon and until today they live tormented in the earth of them.

This show that all this salvation was parcial, in as much as only the Christ’s blood can actually purify our inner being (1John 1.7) and, thus, ensure us access to the true life replete of piety (2Peter 1.3) and of spiritual blessings in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1.3), things that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man (1Corinthians 2.9).

It is not in vain that Moses, touched by Eternal One, plead in behalf of Israel, although in spite of their mistakes:

 

·        “And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people; now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.” (Exodus 32.9,10)

 

Even that the Eternal One would commence a new nation taking Moses as basis, even thus they would corrupt themselves.

And the worst is that, even knowing all this imperfections of the Old Covenant (of which the baptism in the water was part, in as much as was set up by last prophet of the Old Covenant, namely, John, the Baptist), even thus they try to fulfill the baptism literally.

Today, these deluge waters are represented figuratively by water baptism, which in turn is a figure of true baptism that saves: being baptized in the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit:

 

·        “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1Cor 12.12,13).

 

Behold the principle of the salvation:

 

·        “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10.9,10).

 

The faith that save begins in the heart. When we believe that Jesus resurrected and allow that He live e fulfill His justice in us (Romans 8.3,4), we start to walk in newness of life. Instead of a carnal life, bind to the past traumas or to future fears, we pass to worry about what Jesus want to manifest in us in this world. The interest of one is to help the other to totally fulfill his mission so that, when the time finish, the person to be ready to account (Romans 14.10; 2Corinthians 5.10).

  That is to say, when we are buried (baptized) in Christ and in His teachings, we give opportunity to that Jesus use us to answer to the questionings of those who persist in deriding Christ and His Word.

This was the baptism that Jesus ordained for the salvation of all:

• " And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."(Mark 16:15).
• "And Jesus came and spake unto them, aying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28.18-20).

Note the sandwich scheme in this last stretch: "baptizing" is between "teach all nations" and "teaching them,". This pinpoint to the method used by the Holy Spirit to our earthly nature die within the body of Christ: doing us to Remember of His Word (John 16:14,15) and graft it inside us (James 1:21).

This is what true baptism (the baptism in Christ) means: not the removal of filth of the flesh, but the blaming desire that entreat to the Eternal One for the privilege of own a good conscience before Him (see Psalms 139.23,24) with Christ living in us.

• “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6.3,4).

Understand: we are baptized in the crucified body of Christ, and not in the live body, as if Christ was a gathering of sinners (as happen in a religion institution), which only believe in Jesus with their minds.

At last, today we are saved being buried in the water of the Word (John 15.3) when we are baptized in Christ (Romans 6.3).  Who obey to the Eternal in life accepting the convent que He established, the Christ’s blood is applied.