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the fuller rescue

1 Peter 3:18b-20 (JDV)

1 Peter 3:18b He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Breath,
1 Peter 3:19 by which he also went and proclaimed to the breaths in prison
1 Peter 3:20 who in the past were disobedient, when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared. In it a few — that is, eight people — were saved through water.

the fuller rescue

This passage does not teach that Jesus went to hell and proclaimed something to the lost while his body was dead in the tomb. The Sacred Breath (Holy Spirit) was the means or agent by which Jesus proclaimed something to the breaths in prison. What prison were they in? In Peter’s time, all these breaths were in the prison of death. But Jesus proclaimed the possibility of deliverance to them by the Holy Spirit and Moses while they were still alive during the days of Noah.

Peter is drawing attention to the fact that believers have been baptized, symbolizing our willingness to patiently suffer and even die for Christ because we — like Noah and his family — are seeking the fuller rescue — the resurrection at Christ’s return.