Friday, October 7, 2005
1 Peter 3:18-19 For Christ also suffered once for sins, 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.
I BELIEVE HE DESCENDED INTO HELL
In studying the life of Jesus Bible students will often become familiar with the two part division of Jesus' humiliation and His exaltation. These phrases are Biblical, taken from the Paul's own words, "And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name" (Philippians 2:8-9). When we refer to Jesus humiliation we speak of the time when Jesus gave up the full use of His divine power, but took on the form of a servant, bearing all the weaknesses of our human nature. On the other hand we also speak of Jesus' exaltation when He again took up the full use of His divine power after His death and burial.
This is mentioned here because of many false views regarding Jesus' descent into hell. When we think of hell, we think of a place of pain and suffering because of sin -- and rightly so. We even speak of Jesus suffering the pains of hell. But that is not what we are confessing in this phrase of the Apostle's Creed. On the cross Jesus proclaimed, "It is finished!" Jesus' humiliation was completed when His body was placed and sealed in the tomb.
Peter reminds us that Jesus' descent into hell was not to suffer the torments of hell, but to proclaim the victory He had won over Satan through His death on the cross. Paul also writes of this saying, "Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it" (Colossians 2:15). When Jesus descended into hell, He did so to proclaim His victory over sin and Satan. This was not part of Jesus humiliation, but was the first step in His exaltation. So when we confess that Jesus descended into hell, remember that we can be sure that Jesus has won the victory over all our sin, and over Satan, which He Himself proclaimed after His death on the cross!
