9:27 What do we learn from this?

We learn from this that there is no further opportunity for salvation after death. As someone is when they die, that is how they will remain throughout eternity (CP Rev 22:11-14). Sadly though, despite what these scriptures teach, many in the church still believe that sinners do get another chance of eternal life after death, due to their misunderstanding of 1 Pe 3:18-20 (CP 1Pe 3:18-20).

Many in the church believe that the spirits in prison here are the spirits of humans being given another chance of eternal life. But that is not correct. Human spirits are always qualified as such in scripture; they are never just called spirits (CP Nu 16:22; 27:16; 1Cor 14:32; He 12:23).

The spirits in prison are fallen angels - the angels God cast down to hell and bound in chains. They rebelled against God and sinned in the days of Noah precipitating the flood that destroyed everyone on earth except Noah and his family (CP Gen 6:1-8, 11-13, 17 with 1Pe 3:18-20; 2Pe 2:4-5 and Jude 6-7).

Hell in 2Pe 2:4-5 is translated from the Greek word tartarus, which means a prison for fallen angels. Mt 12:38-40 also teaches this (CP Mt 12:38-40).

Heart in V40 (KJV), means a vault or cell, by implication a prison. The angels' first estate in Jude 6 (KJV) is their original status in God's order - the exalted position they held in heaven above earthly humans (CP Psa 8:4-5; He 2:5-7).

Their own habitation, which they left, was their heavenly abode; the strange flesh they went after were earthly women, and the sin they committed was fornication (CP Gen 6:1-4). The word preached in 1Pe 3:19 should have been translated herald or proclaim.

The Greek word used here is kerusso, which means to herald or proclaim as a town crier, whereas the Greek word for preach, associated with the gospel for salvation, is euaggelizo. We learn from this that Jesus was not giving the spirits in prison a second chance at eternal life, but that He was making a proclamation to them.

Scriptures do not teach what the proclamation was, but the general consensus among Bible Scholars is that Jesus proclaimed to the spirits in prison His victory over death and Satan on the cross, which is outlined for us in Col 2:14-15 and He 2:14-15 (CP Col 2:14-15; He 2:14-15).

Christ descended into hell between His death and His resurrection as both Eph 4:9-10 and 1 Pe 3:18-20 teach (CP Eph 4:9-10 and 1 Pe 3:18-20 with Psa 16:10; and Ac 2:25-32). See also comments on Mt 12:38-40, 1Pe 3:18-20.

He 9:27 and Rev 22:11-14 also clearly refutes the teaching that there is an intermediate state after death called purgatory, to which the soul and the spirit of the righteous go to be purged of sins not yet forgiven while awaiting entry into heaven (CP Also Lu 23:39-43; 2Cor 5:8).

Nor is there such a thing as reincarnation or transmigration - the passing of the soul into another body after death (CP Lu 16:19-31).

This is called the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. We learn from it that the righteous go straight to heaven when they die and the unrighteous go straight to hell (see also comments on Lu 16:19-31). The only ones who will not die in the church age are the saints still living when Jesus comes again to take all the saints of God back to heaven with Him at the first resurrection (CP Jn 14:1-3; 1Cor 15:51-58; 1Th 4:13-18).