Thinking-Christianly

The NIV translation if 1 Corinthians 5:4-5 reads, “When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” The implication of this verse is that there may come a time in this life when our sinful nature no longer exists. Is that what the Bible teaches?

The Greek word the NIV translates “sinful nature” is the word most literally translated “flesh.” The NIV avoids the word “flesh” because it creates an image of tissue and bone–our physical body. To view the verse in this sense is to inject a dualism between body and spirit that is not part of Paul’s argument. The word “flesh” in Paul’s writings most often refers to that self-sufficient part of our nature that is God-defying. It’s our tendency to give in to that which is selfish, self-centered, and independent of God.

The purpose of the church discipline in 1 Corinthians 5 was to excommunicate the man who rebelled against God’s clear morality (See Leviticus 18:8, Deuteronomy 22:30, Deuteronomy 27:20) with the hope that he would face his tendency to give in to this rebellious, “fleshly” part of his nature, and determine to follow God instead. It is that tendency that would be crippled or ruined.

Unfortunately, the sinful nature itself is something that remains throughout our earthly lives. Paul concedes this in Romans 7:18. We can battle it with an increasing measure of success by God’s grace. But we cannot eradicate it in this life.

Some in the Christian church maintain that Jesus was in hell during the time between his crucifixion and resurrection. Let’s look at some scriptures that are used to justify this conclusion and see what we can find.

1 Peter 3:18-20
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, 19 through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison 20 who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
Ephesians 4:9-10
(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)

Interpretation:

Some have assumed that the preaching to the spirits in prison in 1 Peter 3 refers to Jesus proclaiming the gospel after his crucifixion to those who have died. This is improbable for the following reasons:

• The word for “preach” is not the verb “to evangelize” or “preach the good news.” This is no “second chance” after death. The word means to declare a solemn message from a king or potentate.
• The action is past tense (he went) indicating that those whom Jesus gave this message to are in prison [deceased] now. It does not demand that they were dead at the time.
• The people described in verse 20 who were addressed are those who disobeyed God in Noah’s day. The audience was not all who have died, but those who were alive in Noah’s day and who have since died.
• Elsewhere (2 Peter 2:5), Peter refers to Noah as a “preacher of righteousness.” The word for preacher is the noun form of the verb in 1 Peter 3:19.
• The verse declares that when Jesus proclaimed this message, it was done through the Spirit.
• The least complicated interpretation is that Jesus, through His Spirit working in Noah, warned Noah’s contemporaries about their responsibility to God. This complements the thought of 1 Peter 3:19, that Christ died for the sins of all. He is the agent of salvation to all generations.
  Some would conclude that Eph. 4:9-10 refer to Jesus descending into hell. This is unlikely for the following reasons:
• Jesus decent is normally viewed as part of his coming from heaven—his incarnation. For example, Jesus describes his mission in these words in John 3:13: “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven– the Son of Man.”
• Jesus humiliation preceded his exaltation, as reflected in this verse. (See Philippians 2:5-11.) This fits with the picture in the context of Christ as the now exalted one giving gifts to the church and reigning over the universe. This compliments what Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:23

Note: The earliest copy of what we call the “Apostles Creed,” known as the “Old Roman Creed” c. 400. does not contain the phrase descended into hell. The later 6th Century Gallican creed does. For reasons given above, most evangelical scholars do not endorse the concept that Jesus descended into hell or believe that the phrase belongs in the creed.
 

1 Corinthians 5:1 can give the impression that there was no incest in ancient Rome. The NIV describes a man united to his step-mother as a type of immorality “that does not occur even among pagans.” On the surface, the text might imply that Paul was unaware of any cases of this behavior in the world of his day.

In this case, the NIV text is misleading. There is no Greek verb in the phrase. A more literal rendering might read something like, “of a kind not even among pagans.” Instead of inserting the word occuring I might suggest the word condoned. Tacitus and Cicero both knew of such behavior, and condemned it. The main point of the verse remains. The Corinthians were tolerating behavior that the wider culture of their day did not consider appropriate.

John Morgan (“Science Tells Us Age of the Earth”, Fargo Forum 1/15/2007) describes himself as an “unflinching atheist” and states that “the world is not 6,000 Caesarian years old, as stated in the Bible.” If Mr. Morgan were more familiar with the Bible, he would realize it does not claim a date for the earth’s creation. His contention is with an idea circulated in James Ussher’s The Annals of the Old Testament published in London in 1650. Ussher may have been severely mistaken. In any case, it’s difficult to understand Mr. Morgan’s logic in faulting the Bible for something it does not assert.