I have been very much interested in the line you take with regard to our departed friends,-that they are unconscious until the resurrection. I should like you to give an explanation of 1 Peter 4:6, as I have been very much pleased with your answers in connection with other subjects in Present Truth.
The text in question reads thus: "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." (1 Peter 4:6)
It is very evident that this is a conclusion from something that precedes, and that we must begin back a little way if we would understand what is here said. If we begin in the preceding chapter, verses 18-20, and get an understanding of them, we shall have no difficulty when we come to this. Let us read them: "For Christ also has once suffered in the flesh, 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 long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing." (1 Peter 3:18-20)
Let us take each clause separately, and find out exactly what the text says.
a) Christ once suffered for us, that He might bring us to God.
b) He was put to death in the flesh.
c) He was quickened [made alive] by the Spirit.
d) By this same Spirit He went and preached to the spirits in prison.
e) They were in prison--"kept under the law, shut up" (Galatians 3:22-23)--"when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing."
f) It was in the days of Noah, while the ark was building, that Christ, by the Spirit preached to the wicked spirits before the flood. God's long-suffering waited one hundred and twenty years, while His Spirit was working with that sinful generation; yet He said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." (Genesis 6:3)
The instruction that we are to receive from this text is this, that the preaching of the Gospel is by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. His public ministry began with these words: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me: because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of prison to them that are bound." (Isaiah 61:1)
The captives in prison are the bondservants of sin, (John 8:34) "the servants of corruption; for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." (2 Peter 2:19)
Suffering and Living with Christ
Now let us read the next text referred to, which is but a continuation of this, and read enough to get the full connection: "Forasmuch then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. ... 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." (1 Peter 4:1-2,6) "As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." (Hebrews 9:27-28) "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my Word, and believes Him that sent me, has eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but is passed out of death into life." (John 5:24,RV)
Christ's sufferings in the flesh were for us. How much He suffered cannot be put into words, but it is certain that He suffered all that the wicked will have to suffer in punishment for their sins. This may be learned from Psalm 22:1, and especially from: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone tohis own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:5-6)
Now we are to be armed with the same mind, sharing His sufferings. Joined to Him in "the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death," (Philippians 3:10) we live with Him; we have thus passed out of death into life, and so we do not come into Judgment. We enter with Christ into the heavenly places, experiencing the powers of the world to come; and to us it is the same as though the Judgment were already past. He appears for us.
It was to this end that the Gospel was preached to them that are dead. Note well that the text does not say that the Gospel was preached to them that were dead, nor that it is preached to them that are dead, but that is was preached to them that are dead. The reference is clearly to the time spoken of in 1 Peter 3:19-20. The preaching was in the days of Noah, to those who were the captives of sin.
The latter part of 1 Peter 4:6 itself shows most plainly that the preaching of the Gospel to them that are dead was while they were still living. The Gospel was preached to them, in order "that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit." (1 Peter 4:6)
The Gospel was preached to them for the very same purpose that it is now preached to us,--that while still in the flesh they might pass out of death into life, and thus pass the Judgment, and henceforth live in the flesh as though their bodies were already made spiritual. "You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." (Romans 8:9)
The two texts together teach us a most precious lesson as to the power of the Gospel when it is received into the heart. They teach us to "Give thanks to the Father, ... Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son: In whom we have redemption." (Colossians 1:12-14)--Present Truth, October 9, 1902.