DAY 345 Read 1 Peter.
Today's reading: No positive date can be established for Peter's epistle to Christians scattered throughout what is now Turkey. Interval evidence suggests the time during or just preceding Nero's persecution of Christians about A.D. 64 or 65.
Memory gem: "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" (1 Peter 3:18).
Thought for today:
Peter writes that Christ "went and preached unto the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:19).
We ask, When did this preaching take place? The answer is in the passage of Scripture itself. Notice the words: "when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah."
That clause settles it. Christ preached to those "spirits in prison" when God's mercy was pleading with souls just before the Flood came in the days of Noah.
Now we read in the verse 19, "By which also he [that is, Christ] went and preached unto the spirits in prison." "By which" refers back to the preceding verse--to the "Spirit," the Holy Spirit of God, through whom Christ spoke. Our Saviour's preaching back in the days of Noah was "by the Spirit," and we have the words of Scripture to that effect (see Genesis 6:3). The Holy Spirit was the agency of that preaching. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, through Noah, gave a message of warning to that pre-Flood generation, just as Christ preached through His apostles by the Holy Spirit and as today He preaches through earnest men in the same way. The gospel is not preached on earth by Christ Himself in the flesh, but by His servants; yet it is counted just the same as if it were done by Him. It is called the "gospel of Christ," but it is preached by Christ's representatives, His true ministers.
But someone asks: "What about the phrase 'spirits in prison'? How can 'spirits' mean living people?" Is it possible for a man to be in spiritual bondage while alive in this world? The Bible says so. In Hebrews 2:14, 15, we read that Jesus purposed "through death" to "deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
In fact, there are thousands of "spirits in prison" right now. There is deliverance for you right now.
Today's reading: No positive date can be established for Peter's epistle to Christians scattered throughout what is now Turkey. Interval evidence suggests the time during or just preceding Nero's persecution of Christians about A.D. 64 or 65.
Memory gem: "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" (1 Peter 3:18).
Thought for today:
Peter writes that Christ "went and preached unto the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:19).
We ask, When did this preaching take place? The answer is in the passage of Scripture itself. Notice the words: "when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah."
That clause settles it. Christ preached to those "spirits in prison" when God's mercy was pleading with souls just before the Flood came in the days of Noah.
Now we read in the verse 19, "By which also he [that is, Christ] went and preached unto the spirits in prison." "By which" refers back to the preceding verse--to the "Spirit," the Holy Spirit of God, through whom Christ spoke. Our Saviour's preaching back in the days of Noah was "by the Spirit," and we have the words of Scripture to that effect (see Genesis 6:3). The Holy Spirit was the agency of that preaching. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, through Noah, gave a message of warning to that pre-Flood generation, just as Christ preached through His apostles by the Holy Spirit and as today He preaches through earnest men in the same way. The gospel is not preached on earth by Christ Himself in the flesh, but by His servants; yet it is counted just the same as if it were done by Him. It is called the "gospel of Christ," but it is preached by Christ's representatives, His true ministers.
But someone asks: "What about the phrase 'spirits in prison'? How can 'spirits' mean living people?" Is it possible for a man to be in spiritual bondage while alive in this world? The Bible says so. In Hebrews 2:14, 15, we read that Jesus purposed "through death" to "deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
In fact, there are thousands of "spirits in prison" right now. There is deliverance for you right now.
RSS Feed
