1 Peter 3:18 says, "For Christ died once for all time for sins, a righteous person for unrighteous ones, in order to lead you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.
And in this state he went and preached to the spirits in prison"
The New English Bible of 1961 translates 1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ also died for our sins once for all. He, the just, suffered for the unjust, to bring us to God. In the body he was put to death; in the spirit he was brought to life. And in the spirit he went and made his proclamation to the imprisoned spirits.” Other modern translations of 1 Peter 3: 18, 19 read similarly.
Regarding 1 Peter 3:18 is a Greek text, and the words “flesh” and “spirit” are put in contrast to each other, and both are in the dative case; so, if a translator uses the rendering
“by the spirit” he should also consistently say
“by the flesh,” or if he uses
“in the flesh” he should also say
“in the spirit.”) So saying at 1 Peter 3:18 that Jesus was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit is an accurate translation and shows us that Jesus was resurrected with a spirit body and in this spirit body he went and preached to the spirits in prison.
So, the apostle Peter says regarding Jesus’ resurrection, “in the spirit he was brought to life.” This explains why on the resurrection morning when God’s angel rolled the stone from the door of the tomb the soldier guards did not see Jesus rise from the dead and come out, although they did see the materialized angel. (Matthew 28:1-4) This explains why, when the resurrected Jesus met two disciples walking that day to Emmaus and went along with them and started to take supper with them, they did not know him until he began to serve the bread; and then he disappeared.(Luke 24:13-35)
This explains why, when the apostles and other disciples were met together in Jerusalem behind closed doors for fear of the fanatical Jews, Jesus must have come right through the walls. For he amazingly stood right in among them, and, after eating and talking with them, he vanished from them, but not through any unbolted door. (Luke 24:36-44; John 20:19-24) Of course, for Jesus, who had been brought to life in the spirit, to make himself visible to his disciples, he had to materialize on each occasion a body of flesh and bones. Jesus himself then said: “A spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you behold that I have.” Since the flesh-and-bones disciples could not see what was not flesh and bones, they could not see a spirit and they could not see the resurrected Jesus, who was “in the spirit.”
Humans with flesh-and-blood bodies cannot live in heaven. Of the resurrection to heavenly life, the Bible says: “It is sown a physical body, it is raised up a spiritual body. . . . flesh and blood cannot inherit God's kingdom" (1 Corinthians 15:44-50) Only spirit persons with spiritual bodies can live in heaven.