For to this end was the Gospel preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed as men in the flesh, but live as to God in the spirit.
"In the spirit" (pneuma) means according to "the rational spirit, the power by which a human being feels, thinks, wills, decides; the soul" (Thayer 520-1-4151). This word suggests the disembodied or "unclothed" spirit of man (2 Corinthians 5:3-4). While "in the spirit" may refer to the higher, nobler life of the spirit, the weight of evidence, contextually, seems to refer to their state after death (See 1 Corinthians 15:44).