What does it mean that the gospel was preached to those who are dead (1 Peter 4:6)?

(V. 6). For this cause the Gospel was preached to those who are now dead, so that, on the one hand, judgment may take its course on those who, having been warned, refuse the Gospel and continue to live as regards men after the flesh, or, on the other hand, by receiving the Gospel they might be blessed, and, abandoning their old life, live as regards God, according to the Spirit. God proclaims grace but does not give up His government whereby evil is dealt with in righteousness. The verse does not imply that the Gospel was preached to men after they were dead. It was preached to living men who are now dead. There would be no sense in suggesting that dead men could live, either after the flesh's lusts, or in the power of the Spirit.

The next verse has perplexed many, and has been misused by teachers of error and unsound doctrines, like the passage about the spirits in prison. "For to this end was the gospel preached also to the dead, that they might be judged as regards men after the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit." It is strange that expositors should detach a verse like this from the context and then, without considering its connection, build upon one verse a new and vital doctrine. So it is claimed that the dead mentioned are those who died before the gospel was preached, or who never had a chance to hear the Gospel, but who hear it now in the abode of death, to obtain eternal life. But this is only one of a number of other interpretations.

The Apostle had spoken in the preceding verse of the judgment of the living and of the dead. He now mentions the dead to whom the gospel had been preached. It is a thing of the past and means that those who are dead now while they lived had heard the preaching of the gospel. He means only the righteous dead and the other dead are not in view at all. Those who are now dead passed through the same experience, as the living pass through it, judged according to men in the flesh, but living according to God in the Spirit. Thus the preaching to the dead as dead is not taught at all in this verse. If there were such a thing as preaching to the physical dead we should find it in the Epistle to the Romans, in that great document of the gospel, or somewhere else in the Pauline Epistles; but there is nothing mentioned about this anywhere.

A. The physically "dead" are meant in both verses. Christ is, and is ready, to judge quick and dead. Only as glad tidings were preached (though not in the same way or fulness) in times past to men (living then, though now) dead, as well as to men living now, it was to this end that they might be judged as regards men in flesh, but live as regards God in Spirit. The Jews were apt to slight the judgment of the dead, through their pre-occupation with the judgment of the quick at the appearing of the Messiah. Hence the apostle is the more careful to show the believers from among them, not merely as in 1 Peter 3, the judgment which awaits those formerly disobedient who are kept in prison awaiting their final doom, but the twofold end of the good news in the promises proclaimed to men in the past — either judgment as men in flesh responsible for their works, or living according to God in Spirit because the word was mixed with faith and issued in righteousness and holiness of truth.

And here follows a passage which has been similarly taken to that which we have just been looking at, and in a similar interest. Here, moreover, we find, as some understand it, a gospel preached to the dead as dead; "For to this end was the gospel preached also to the dead, that they might be judged as regards men after the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit." Here is a gospel preached which has effect (or is expected to have), and we must carefully consider the effect in order to the apprehension of the whole passage.

We have just been shown, in fact, the effect of the death of Christ for those who in faith realize it. It is the ceasing from sin, the ceasing from the will of the Gentiles; for which the Gentiles judge those who do so. This is the very effect of the gospel which we have here. The effect is a life "according to God in the Spirit." That is simple. But it should be as simple that this of necessity goes with a judgment by men after the flesh, a fleshly judgment passed upon those who have now learned to live a spiritual life.

That is all simple, and there should be no difficulty with regard to it. The difficulty is only here, that this gospel is said to have been "preached also to the dead." The only question can be: Is it to the dead, then, as dead, that it was preached? or simply in life to those who have passed away, and are now among the dead? Here, the effect spoken of should be in itself decisive. Suppose a preaching to the dead as dead, it is difficult to understand how men after the flesh should judge their turning to God in this condition. Is it their fellow-prisoners in the pit who do so? It is plainly that of which the apostle has been speaking, while a life "according to God in the Spirit" naturally speaks of a life lived here, not of a simple change in men who have, as to present things, ceased to live. The apostle has, in fact, already been speaking of a judgment to come, both for the living and the dead. The judgment upon the living is at the coming of the Lord, for which all Christians are taught to wait as that which is near at hand. From this judgment of the living, Christians have escaped. They wait for Jesus Christ as their Saviour, One who has delivered them already from the wrath to come. But the dead? Here the same principle obtains. To these also the gospel has been preached, not as dead but as living — but with this effect, that they are delivered from the judgment of the dead, as those who might live on to the coming of the Lord are delivered from the judgment of the living. Thus, all is really clear and consistent with the whole context. The apostle is speaking in it, as is plain, only of Christians, or at least of those to whom the gospel has been preached; and the effects which he deduces from it are perfectly inconsistent with the thought of any evangelizing of the dead as dead. The whole purport of what is here is but an expansion of what he says at the beginning, that as Christ path suffered for us in the flesh, we are to arm ourselves with the same mind. We are to make Christ's suffering our ceasing from sin, so as no longer to live as men around are, in the lusts of the flesh, but to God, a life which His coming judgment will show to have had the most decisive significance.*

It is His judging that is linked with verse 6, and helps to rid it of the difficulties with which superstition loads and darkens it. "For to this end the glad tidings went to dead persons also, that they might be judged according to men in flesh, and live according to God in spirit." From the hour that man fell by sin under death and judgment, God had in His grace a gospel to shelter and give life according to God; which is therefore in the last book of scripture called "an everlasting gospel." To this clung faith from the first; and it was added to and cleared gradually throughout the O.T. till the death, resurrection, and glory of Christ gave it fulness. And those who now dead heard it in the course of ages had their responsibility so much the more increased. If they abode in their sins through unbelief, they will be judged by the coming Lord according to men in flesh. Grace exempts from that sorrowful condition by the faith of the glad tidings, and life is in Christ for all who believe, who therefore live to God in spirit. For Christ gives life no less than pardon. Those who feel their need of God's grace do also submit to the humbling sense that they deserve judgment. Thus it is that repentance and faith ever go together.

"What is the Gospel in this passage?" Inasmuch as Peter wrote his epistle to the Jewish converts among the dispersion, especially to those who were scattered through the provinces of Asia Minor, it seems tolerably certain that in speaking of those "that are dead," he refers to Jews of former generations. If so, the "gospel" would be the glad tidings of God's promises to the Jewish nation, in connection with the advent of the Messiah and the establishment of the kingdom; and consequently it is the gospel of the kingdom. (Compare Hebrews 4:2.)

"Those that are dead - is this spiritual or bodily death?" The answer given to the first question shows, if correct, that it is of those who are dead as to the body that the apostle speaks. The context points also most plainly to the same conclusion, for in verse 5 Peter declares that the sinners to whom he has been alluding (verses 3, 4) "shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead." The two classes - the living and the dead - are here specified who will be amenable to judgment at the appearing of the Lord (see 2 Timothy 4:1), though an interval of a thousand years will separate the judgment of the latter class from that of the former; and "the dead" in verse 5 are undoubtedly "the dead" in verse 6.

"What is it to be 'judged according to men in the flesh,' and to 'live according to God in the spirit'?" This question is best answered by considering the object of the proclamation of the gospel. It is that men, on receiving the glad tidings, should be brought out from under the condemnation in which they lie (for "he that believeth not is condemned [judged] already"), and, through the efficacy of the death and resurrection of Christ, receive the forgiveness of their sins, together with a new and divine life, so that henceforward they should not be "in the flesh, but in the Spirit," if so be the Spirit of God dwells in them. (Romans 8:9.) They thus, in the language of Peter, "live according to God in the Spirit." If they, on the other hand, refuse the gospel preached to them, they are left in their condition as sinners, and remain for judgment before the great white throne, "according to men in the flesh"; that is, they will be dealt with then on the ground of their responsibility, judged "according to their works." (Rev. 20:12.) What Peter, therefore, sets forth is the consequence, on the one hand, of receiving, and the consequence, on the other hand, of rejecting the gospel. The question as to whether this twofold description could apply to one and the same person has already been answered, for those who "live according to God in the Spirit" can never be judged "according to men in the flesh."

Now the ground of all judgment will be the testimony as regards God and His truth which may have been rendered to those who are subject to judgment; in other words, the responsibility of each will be measured by the divine testimony they have heard. "The gospel" of verse 6 is not the Christian gospel in particular. It is just "glad tidings" such as has at different times been preached to people of bygone ages, now dead. In particular it refers to the glad tidings of salvation by the ark through the flood, for "the dead" refers to the same people as the Apostle had alluded to in 1 Peter 3:19 and 20. All through the bygone ages there was also glad tidings of a coming Deliverer and always then, as now, the glad tidings separates those who hear it into two classes; those who refuse or neglect it and have to stand their judgment as men in the flesh, and those who receive it and consequently live in the spirit as regards God. Those who thus pass from death to life by the hearing of Christ's word of glad tidings do not come into judgment, as another Scripture assures us.

But the fact of some being saved from the flood is not the only testimony that Peter gives. When I come to the next chapter I find this, "Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead" (1 Peter 4:5). The moment is coming when you must meet the Lord Jesus Christ, and you must give account to Him. "For this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." Who were they? The antediluvians. They heard a suited gospel in their day. Judgment was coming, and there was a place of safety. Alas! they despised the testimony! What is the testimony today? judgment is coming, deeper than the judgment of that day; but salvation is preached, and there is a place of safety. It is to be in Christ. Many persons have thought they were all right because they have what they call "joined the church." But if you have not been born again, if you have not been brought to know your sins forgiven, if you have not trusted Jesus as your Saviour, take care lest you repeat antediluvian history. What was God's object with men in Noah's day? That they might "live according to God in the spirit" (1 Peter 4:6). Men declined His proffered grace, and perished. Imitate them not.

(1 Peter 4:6,) "For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." This verse may have an allusion to the end of the 3rd chapter, to those who lived in Noah's day; but I do not think we can limit it to these, but rather that it takes in all who had died before the time of the coming of the Messiah, to whom promises had been made. God holds us responsible, not only for what we have received, but for what we have heard, that is, for our privileges. The testimony God has given, whether in that day or in this, is that men should live in view of God, by the Spirit. They will be taken up and dealt with on the ground of the privileges they have had. If they turn their back on the testimony of the Lord, that testimony turns for a witness against them, and by it they will be judged.

The apostle has been speaking of the altered conduct of those converted from heathenism, and of how the Gentiles around misjudged them. "Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you; who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead." Thus sinners were judging in their fleshly way the spiritual life that approved itself to God as such. Christians were judged after the manner of men in a fleshly way, but lived according to God in a spiritual one. And for this — to separate them from the ranks of these misjudging ones, themselves the objects of God's righteous judgment, had the gospel been preached to them. So far all is plain; but why "to the dead"? Surely because the apostle would bring in the very thought Dr. Farrar rejects, that death fixed the condition in which it found men. These righteous ones had got the good of that preached gospel, which had made them anticipate the coming doom of sinners, and accept the judgment of men in the flesh, rather than God's final and eternal one. But could they possibly be "dead" before they were preached to? Not certainly if the end was to be their being judged according to men in the flesh for their changed lives! The context is conclusively against the restorationist interpretation.*