John Wesley's notes
on the First Epistle Peter 3:17-22
17 It is infinitely better, if it be the will of God, ye should suffer.
His permissive will appears from his providence.
18 For - This is undoubtedly best, whereby we are most conformed to
Christ. Now Christ suffered once - To suffer no more. For sins - Not his
own, but ours. The just for the unjust - The word signifies, not only them
who have wronged their neighbours, but those who have transgressed any
of the commands of God; as the preceding word, just, denotes a person who
has fulfilled, not barely social duties, but all kind of righteousness.
That he might bring us to God - Now to his gracious favour, hereafter to
his blissful presence, by the same steps of suffering and of glory. Being
put to death in the flesh - As man. But raised to life by the Spirit -
Both by his own divine power, and by the power of the Holy Ghost.
19 By which Spirit he preached - Through the ministry of Noah. To the
spirits in prison - The unholy men before the flood, who were then reserved
by the justice of God, as in a prison, till he executed the sentence upon
them all; and are now also reserved to the judgment of the great day.
20 When the longsuffering of God waited - For an hundred and twenty
years; all the time the ark was preparing: during which Noah warned them
all to flee from the wrath to come.
21 The antitype whereof - The thing typified by the ark, even baptism,
now saveth us - That is, through the water of baptism we are saved from
the sin which overwhelms the world as a flood: not, indeed, the bare outward
sign, but the inward grace; a divine consciousness that both our persons
and our actions are accepted through him who died and rose again for us.
22 Angels and authorities and powers - That is, all orders both of angels
and men.
