In Isaiah xliv. 23 we have corroboration of this view: "Sing, O ye
heavens ... shout, ye lower parts of the earth." Here "lower parts"
means simply the earth beneath; that is, beneath the heavens.

The most difficult and important passage bearing on the clause is 1
Peter iii. 18, 19. "Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by
the spirit by which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison."
In the Revised Version the rendering is not "by" but "in," "which"
referring to the word "spirit,"--not the third Person of the Godhead,
but the human spirit of Jesus--in which spirit, separated from the body
yet instinct with immortal life, He went and "preached to the spirits in
prison," or rather to the spirits in custody. The passage marks an
antithesis between "flesh" and "spirit." In Christ's "flesh." He was put
to death. His enemies killed His body, but His soul was as beyond their
power. His body was dead, but in the abode of souls His "spirit" was
alive and active.

So far there is here simply the statement that our Lord's disembodied
spirit passed to Hades, but the Apostle adds that He "preached to the
spirits in prison," and it is inferred by some that He preached
repentance, but this is an assumption for which there is no Scripture
warrant. We are not told what was the subject of Christ's preaching. He
had finished His work on earth, had atoned for sin, had overcome death
and conquered Satan. Even angels did not fully know the work of grace
and salvation which Christ accomplished for man, and it is not likely
that the spirits of departed antediluvians and patriarchs understood its
greatness. The least in the Kingdom of Heaven knows more than the
greatest of patriarchs or prophets knew. While in the flesh they had
seen His day afar off, and, as disembodied spirits, they knew that
Messiah by suffering and dying was to work out their redemption, but