1 Peter 3:18-20 (KJV), “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened (made alive) by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”
When Jesus consecrated himself to deny his own will and to do only the Father’s will, he was baptized into the death of his human will. “Then I (Jesus) said, Behold, I have come–In the volume of the book it is written of me–to do Your will, O God.” Hebrews 10:7 (NKJV).
Jesus told His followers to deny their wills also. Matthew 16:24 (NKJV), “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.’” Christians are “buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” Colossians 2:12 (NKJV).
How and when was Jesus quickened?
In 1 Peter 3:18, the word translated “quickened” is Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance word #G2227, meaning “made alive.” At his baptism, Jesus was made alive (begotten) to a new life by the Holy Spirit. When he was raised from the water, “the heavens were opened unto him” (Matthew 3:16 NKJV). “…for God gives him (Jesus) the spirit without limit.” John 3:34 (NLT)
Thus, Jesus lived the rest of his life as a “spirit-begotten new creature. ” Jesus’ will, words and actions were all in harmony with God’s purposes. John 3:34 (NLT), “For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives him the spirit without limit.”
It was Jesus’s amazing life as a new creature that was a sermon to the spirits in prison (the fallen angels). These sinful angels watched how Jesus led a pure, loving, holy life – even when opposed by evilness. The demons knew who Jesus was. Luke 8:27-29 (KJV), “…there met him (Jesus) a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with you, Jesus, son of the Most High God? …For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.”
Perhaps you have heard the saying, “Your actions speak louder than words.” Jesus’s life was the sermon.