1 Peter 3:18

Plain English Version

All of us have done wrong things, so we should die, but Jesus Christ died instead of us. He took the payback for the bad things we did. He never did anything wrong himself, but he died instead of us, so that we can go to God and become his family. Jesus died just once, but God remembers it for ever. People killed Jesus, but God’s spirit made him alive again.

Cross References

John 16:10

And I am going back to the father, and you will not see me any more. I will not be here, so the Holy Spirit will show people the right way to live.

Acts 22:14

Then he said, ‘The God that we respect, and that our grand-fathers respected, he picked you, and he will show you everything he wants you to do. You will see the man that is properly good, and you will hear him talking to you.

Romans 4:25

It was us who did bad things, but God let people kill Jesus instead of us. He took the payback for those bad things we did. Then God made him alive again, so now God tells us, “You are all right.”

Romans 8:11

Remember that Jesus died, but God made him alive again. And God will do that for you too. Your bodies will die, but after that, God will make them alive again. His spirit will do that. He lives inside you.

Romans 8:3

You see, the law that came from Moses couldn’t help us. We were too weak. If we thought about some bad thing that we wanted to do, then we couldn’t help ourselves, we just did it. That law just made us think about those bad things, and then we wanted to do them. But God set us free from all that. He sent his own son to us. Jesus had the same sort of body that we bad people have. Then God punished him instead of us. Jesus died instead of us.

Galatians 1:4

You know, we all did bad things, but Jesus took the payback for all of us. He died instead of us, so now he can save us from this bad world that we live in. That is what God, our father, wanted him to do.

Galatians 3:13

But if we try to follow that law, we will not be able to do it properly, and in the end God will punish us. But we don’t have to follow that law. You see, God already punished Jesus Christ instead of us. When Jesus died, he paid for us, and he made us free from that trouble that comes from the law. God also says this in his book, “If people hang somebody from wood to kill them, that person gets trouble from God.” And that is what they did, they nailed Jesus Christ to that wooden cross, and he got that trouble from God. Jesus Christ died like that to pay for all of us. He bought us for God.

Ephesians 3:12

We trust in Jesus, and we are joined to him, so we can come to God, and we can be sure that he will listen to us. We don’t have to be frightened of him.

Titus 2:14

Jesus died to save us from all the bad things of this world. He did that to change us into his own special people, like he properly cleaned us inside, and now we don’t want to do anything bad, but we only want to do good things.

1 Peter 3:19

Then Jesus went and talked to the spirits that are locked up like prisoners.

1 Peter 4:1

Remember that Jesus Christ got trouble while he lived on earth. Well, you will get trouble too, so get ready for it and don’t get upset about it. If you get trouble because you belong to Jesus, that shows that you want to live God’s way and don’t do bad things any more.

1 Peter 4:6

That is the reason why we told the good news about Jesus to people that are dead now. We told them the good news, then later their bodies died, like all people have to die because they did bad things. But we wanted them to trust in Jesus, so that at the time when God judges everyone, he will make them alive again, and they will live with him for ever.