This by itself seems simple. Jesus preached to the criminals while on Earth.
In context of the last few versus, it confused me. Christ suffered for us and died for us... was "made alive by the Spirit." Then preached to those in prison. Does this refer to after He rose again?
Then I kept reading and felt less confused and uneasy about how I was interpreting this. So am going to include verse twenty.
"who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water." ~ verse 20
Okay, I lied. We are going to verse 21.
"There is also an antitype which now saves us - baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ," ~ verse 22
Before Jesus died on the cross, those who trusted in Him had to trust that they were saved for something He would do in the future and that though their sins were not paid for now, that they would be. When Jesus died in our place for the crimes we committed, that waiting in faith for the debt to be paid happened no more. Now we are covered and know that if we accept Jesus' gift of salvation and let Him work in our lives to help us no longer be disobedient, that we are free. Death is no longer a prison to be feared.
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