Did Jesus Descend Into Hell?
Between the crucifixion and the resurrection did Jesus descend into hell?
Reading the current English translations of Scripture it is easy to understand why some say yes. The question often arises from the King James translation of Acts 2: 27 – 31 (a quote from Psalm 16: 8 – 11), that the soul of Jesus “was left in hell.”In the Apostles Creed it is said Jesus “descended into hell” (descendit ad inferna). “Hell” in both cases refers not to the hell of eternal punishment (Gehenna), but to the realm of the dead, the underworld (OT Sheol, NT Hades). Hence modern translations of both the NT and the Creed read “Hades,” “dead,” not hell.
That coupled with I Peter 3: 18 – 20 cause some to be misinterpreting the concept. “For Christ also suffered once for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient….”
Regarding this I Peter 3 passage it means in the Old Testament time He, by means of the Holy Spirit, went and preached to the people of that era who were disobedient and didn’t repent. They are now separated from God and in hell. It was not at the time of the writing of this text He preached to them. In the era of the Old Testament He preached to them, by means of the Holy Spirit, before their death while they were on earth.
The question lingers, why would Jesus have gone to hell and preached to those therein? Doing so would have been virtually a taunting, a nana-nana-nana.
Exactly where in the realm of the dead Jesus was during that interval is just one of God’s little secrets regarding something we really don’t need to know.
Exactly when He got to heaven and began His building program isn’t known. It is known He ascended into heaven and is there now preparing a place for all who by faith place their trust in Him obediently.
In order that provision be made for whosoever will join Him in heaven, “… Christ also suffered once for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit….”
Jesus took our sin on Himself at Calvary and offers to apply His righteousness to whosoever will receive it. Thereby one is prepared to live an abundant life and then go to heaven.
A related relative issue is are you prepared for that prepared place?
The Real Suffering of the Cross
With the celebration of the resurrection in our rear view mirror it is appropriate that we reflect on the theology of the event, much of which is overlooked. To do so it is expedient to look outside the gospel. We can look back to the Old Testament and forward to the Book of Acts and beyond to the narrative parts of the New Testament for details.
The crucifixion and resurrection are inseparable events.
Romans 4: 23 – 25 frames the two. “Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”
The “his” in the text is a reference to Abraham who was justified by faith expressed in the foreshadowing events related to the cross.
Jesus’ crucifixion was necessary because of our offenses, sins that is.
His resurrection was necessary in order for us to be justified.
The resurrection of Jesus was God the Father’s seal of approval of God the Son.
Paul who was a witness of both the crucifixion and resurrection said, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” (I Timothy 1: 15)
Crucifixion was a devastating act of horror. The human body contains about a gallon and a half of blood. With the loss of 40% of it exsanguination sets in. Death follows if the bleeding isn’t stopped and treated quickly. His was not.
All that Jesus went through leading up to the cross plus the actual act of crucifixion would have caused even greater loss of blood. This refutes claims that He only swooned and was refreshed and revived by being in the cool tomb.
In focusing on the horror and suffering of crucifixion the real suffering is often overlooked. The physical suffering is not to be minimized. However, there was even greater suffering experienced by Jesus. It was the spiritual aspect. For an understanding look back to Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”
Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This had a twofold meaning. Foremost, it was this separation for the Father that caused the greatest suffering. He was experiencing what those in hell experience, separation from God the Father. That was Jesus’ greatest suffering.
Secondarily, the cry had another application. In that era Scripture did not have chapters and verses. When a Jewish mother was teaching her children Scripture she would simply start the first part of the text and the child knew the location. In Jesus’ shout He was saying if you want to know what is happening here look it up in Psalm 22. Do so now.
It’s About Time – Bible Time – Three Days and Three Nights
A question lingering after the celebration of the resurrection relates to time, the time between Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.
Having visited the Bible Land many times, I have always enjoyed visiting remote regions among the Bedouins who live today very much like first century life. Exact time matters little to them. I once asked the age of a certain child. The answer was: “Who knows? Who counts years, days, and seconds?”
Even in modern times different cultures record time differently. Before the introduction of Standard Time in the 1880s, different countries, states, and even neighboring towns, kept their own time with no attempt at consistency. Even though clocks, and later watches, are widely available, much of the world still today estimated their time by the natural rhythms of the Sun and Moon until late into the 19th Century.
Stonehenge in Britain was probably built to measure time. It measured the year by the sunrise and sunset angle on the horizon. It is possible to use other, easily observed, signs of the passage of days. The annual disappearance and reappearance of the stars has been used by many cultures. Natural signs such as the blossoming or fruiting of particular plants or the migrations of birds have also been used to mark the passing of the seasons.
In counting days and nights in the time of Christ it was done differently than today. In light of all this, it is easy to see why there are questions related to the issue of three days and three nights.
In the time of Christ any part of a day was considered a full day. That is, a “day” was not considered as a full 24 hour interval.
We consider a day as beginning at sunup followed by daylight with night coming after the daylight hours.
In the Jewish tradition a day began with sundown. The night (dark) was counted before the actual daylight.
Thus when the sun set on Thursday that was the night part of a new day, Friday.
Hence, Friday was one night and day,
Friday night at sundown day two began.
Saturday at sundown day three began.
This accounts as three days and three nights. To try to understand it based on our reckoning of time is not proper. It must be based on how days were reckoned in Bible times.
The important issue is not how long His lifeless body was in the tomb, but in the fact it did not stay there, He arose from the dead to give life, eternal life, to all who engage in a form of trust of Him that involves responding to Him as not only Savior, but Master to whom they are obedient.
Every one of winter’s dead bows that blossoms speaks of resurrection.
The Rose of Sharon arose.
People, Places, and Events Regarding the Crucifixion and Resurrection
THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. Jewish tribes coming to Jerusalem in the Bible era always camped in the same places. Those from Galilee always camped on the southern end of the Mount of Olives. To get from Bethany, where Jesus had spent the night, to Jerusalem from there Jesus had to travel through their encampment. Galileans knew Jesus, much of His ministry was performed there. On His way to Jerusalem He passed through their encampment. As He did, they shouted “Hosanna” and other praises. He was their champion. Galleans being rural people, farmers, shepherds, and fishermen, they wanted the Romans driven out. Their motivation for shouting praise was likely not of Him as Messiah, but potential liberator. It was nonetheless fitting praise.
Later in Jerusalem the religious and merchandising community led the crowd shouting “Crucify Him,” They were profiting from the business provided by the Romans and wanted to placate them, thus they were inclined to condemn Jesus.
It was not the same crowd shouting the two different expressions as commonly thought in Western culture.
THE CAVE IN GETHSEMANE. After an extended and exhausting day in Jerusalem, Jesus went to a place well known to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was already too exhausted to climb the Mount of Olives and return to Bethany.
In the garden was a cave still in existence today. Jesus was in it when Roman soldiers came for Him. The text says Jesus “went out” to meet them. The Greek text means “He went out from within” to meet them. This further indicates He was within some enclosure, the cave.
A BOARD GAME AT CALVARY. Scripture notes Roman soldiers gambled for Jesus’ garments at Calvary. There was a game popular with Roman soldiers called the Basalie, or King’s Game. The markings would have been made on a stone. In playing the game a criminal, and if one was not available a straw man, was mocked as a king and abused. In that instance Jesus was their mock king being belittled .
ON CALVARY’S HILL. There is no evidence in the Bible Calvary was a hill or mount. The concept was made popular by Cecil Francis Alexander (1818-95) in a hymn regarding the crucifixion entitled, “There Is A Green Hill Faraway.”
THE HEIGHT OF THE CROSS. Jesus was offered a sip from a sponge on a reed. Such reeds were approximately 18″ long. Thus, His head was about 9″ to 10″ high, no higher.
THE CROSS. The cross was not made of dogwood according to a popular thought. Dogwoods don’t grow in Israel or the region. Its shape may have been as is normally thought. However, Romans crucified many people using anything that resembled a cross, such as the fork of a tree. Some were even “X” or “T” shaped.
GUARDS AT THE TOMB. Jewish leaders asked Pilate for a guard to make certain the tomb was secure. Shortly before this Herod had disgracefully divorced his wife, the daughter of the King of the Nabataeans, Aretas domiciled in Petra. Aretas retaliated by engaging Herod’s forces in battle east of the Dead Sea. Herod’s forces suffered heavy losses in the battle. There were scarcely enough to keep the peace during the festival apart from Roman soldiers. In response to the request made of Pilate the scarceness of Jewish forces prompted Him to say, “You have a guard.” It is commonly thought he was giving them a guard.. However, it is more likely he was saying “You have a guard, your Temple Guard, use the guard you have.” This being true there were not members of Herod’s forces or Roman soldiers at the tomb resurrection morning, but Jewish members of the Temple Guard.
REGARDLESS of such details as these, it is the FACT Jesus suffered, died, and was resurrected for our sins. It is that we celebrate at Easter.
From Where Does Love Come – Part Four
“Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith.” I Timothy 1: 5
The third fountain from which love springs is a genuine faith. This relates to our future goals.
The word translated as sincere, or genuine, means without hypocrisy. Are you living on a pretend faith? Faith produces works. Faith is consistently expressive. Is your faith a mirage?
The test of your faith is does it prompt obedient action? If what you call faith doesn’t, it isn’t faith, it’s froth. It is a religious front that is a fake.
There are some very special times that can be used to demonstrate faith. Use the difficult times in life as occasions to demonstrate your faith in the living Lord. Instead of complaining and whining, use those difficult moments as meaningful times to exhibit your faith and thereby prove His faithfulness.
In love our Lord has discretely established faith as the means by which we obtain life’s greatest blessings and numerous other valuable ones. We are saved by grace through faith. Faith is the positive means by which we respond to the offer of salvation through Jesus Christ.
There are some things that we might like but can’t obtain on our own. For example, if there were a cube of pure gold measuring 13″ X 13″ offered to you, would you accept it. If you were told that for it to be yours all you would have to do is come pick it up personally and take it with you, would you do it? A thirteen inch cube of pure gold! Would you like it? It is yours if you simply take it. Most persons would love to have such a quantity of gold. Regardless of how badly you would like it you could not meet the requirement for obtaining it. You could not pick it up for it would weigh one ton. You couldn’t meet the standard of picking it up.
For you to pick up the gift of salvation God has made it possible for the “whosoever” of John 3: 16. All that is necessary is faith in Christ.
It can never be spelled out too simply or too frequently. There are four basics we do well to learn. Use the personal pronoun “I” to refer to yourself and repeat within yourself the following:
#1. I am not God.
#2 God is God.
#3 I sin when I get #1 and #2 reversed.
#4. Jesus Christ came to help me get #1 and #2 in proper order and to forgive me of #3.
When we, by faith, put those four in proper perspective, we are in position to obtain the wonderful love gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.
You will never truly live until you have established a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Then you shall never die. The fountains of love flow freely.