It has long been the desperate hope of some that God would offer a second chance for obedience after death. Whether for family members or friends that never had time for God, or to excuse sinful behavior in oneself, the chance to repent and turn to God between death and final sentencing would offer a degree of hope for eternity—not to mention complete license to disregard Bible teaching one’s whole life on earth. A passage of Scripture that has sometimes been used to teach such an arrangement is 1 Peter 3:18-20, in which it is said of Jesus, “He went and preached to the spirits in prison.” Does Peter here teach that we get a second chance to obey God after death?

Clearer Passages

An important axiom to remember when studying difficult sections of the Bible is this: always interpret more obscure passages in the light of truths revealed in clearer passages. With that in mind there are a number of places in the New Testament in which it is clearly taught that no second chances will be given to the disobedient after death. “It is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). Notice that final judgment is meted out based upon what was done “in the body,” not “in the spirit” after death.

Luke 16:26, a verse that describes the conditions of souls after death and before final judgment, teaches that there is “a great gulf fixed” between the righteous and the unrighteous, and that neither can pass from one side to the other. With these clearer passages keeping us on course, let us proceed.

Context of 1 Peter 3:19

The paragraph in which we find the verse in question begins with verse 13, in which Peter addresses the central message of the entire book—persecution in the lives of Christians and how to handle it. His readers were not to fear persecutors, but find reason to rejoice (3:13-14); they were to be always ready to defend that which gave them hope (3:15); and they were to make sure that the only thing their enemies could find for which to persecute them was holy living (3:16-17). Since no discourse on persecution due to holy living would be complete without some mention of Jesus, Peter described our Lord as one who suffered death, but was raised again victorious (3:18).

It is in the midst of the description of the one who suffered for the sins of the world that Peter said, “He went and preached to the spirits in prison.”

When?

Peter does not leave the reader to guess the point in time at which Jesus did this famous preaching. According to 3:20, it was “in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.” The “spirits” were in prison, awaiting final judgment, at the time Peter was writing the letter (cf. 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). At the time Jesus preached to them, they were very much alive. They were living humans who “were disobedient …in the days of Noah.”

If that be so, then how did Jesus preach to them? Not in person, but “in spirit” (3:18-19) through the personal preaching work of Noah himself. Since the Spirit of Christ was in preachers of old (1 Pet. 1:11), and Noah was a preacher of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:5), then it could rightly be said that Jesus preached to the people of Noah’s day through Noah. Since only seven others besides Noah accepted Noah’s (Christ’s) message, the rest were at the time Peter wrote “in prison.”

Despite the claims of some, there will be no second chances after death, so let us obey God now—while we still can.

Eddie Parrish