Did Jesus Really Descend into Hell?
Apostle’s Creed Series John 20:24-31
24 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.[1]
When you chose to love you chose to become vulnerable. Jesus loved us so much, that he lowered His defenses. Jesus set aside His instincts of self preservation and He descended out of the heavenly glory that He might be close enough to embrace us. Jesus came as a baby. He was unarmed in the fight to conquer the slave master of our souls: sin, death and Hell itself.
God Himself uttered a black and dark curse of death upon the whole universe, and especially humanity, when sin entered through Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, we all suffer loneliness, heart break, disappointment and hopelessness. But our sin would cost Jesus much more than that. For if Jesus would bind the strong man of sin and death then He himself had to enter the battle, crush the serpent’s head, and suffer scars that appear to this day on the resurrected, ascended, glorified physical body of our Lord.
Amazing love! How can it be, that Jesus should suffer for me?
If the wages of our sin were to be paid, then there had to be a unique suffering, beyond the common human experience, within the body and soul of our Lord. By the incarnation the infinite eternal Word had taken on finite temporal flesh and awaited the poison of Death’s stinger to sink deep into His soul, to release all its venom, and to turn the once Glorified One into the most Cursed One. We call this Good Friday. It wasn’t good for Jesus.
Jesus descended into the full experience of our Hell while hanging on the cross.
Surprisingly, many Christians don’t understand this.
Many Christians don’t understand what it means that Jesus lived and died for us. He lived perfectly every day and every moment so He could give His perfect life to us as a gift.
Even father Abraham understood that the just live by faith. Abraham couldn’t get to heaven by sacrificing an animal and we can’t get to heaven by trying to be good. Jesus was good for us. Jesus lived for us, but He also died for us. He went through our Hell for us.
When did Jesus suffer the full misery of our sin, the full measure of the pains of death, and the full cup of the wrath of God? Thomas couldn’t believe what he couldn’t see. Will you believe Jesus descended into Hell if you never get to see it?
All the disciples saw Jesus get arrested, crucified, dead and buried. But Thomas was struggling with what he hadn’t seen yet. He hadn’t seen the resurrected Lord. But he would. We all will. One day soon our faith will become sight.
My sermon this morning is not about what has been seen by some believers, or will be eventually seen by all believers. My sermon is about what will never be seen by any believer.
Mel Gibson made a movie called The Passion of Christ. In that movie He portrayed Jesus getting beaten, whipped, scourged, crucified and then dying. But what we will never see, and what Mel Gibson left out of his movie, is the unique suffering of Jesus at the hands of God.
No one will ever see the suffering our sin cost Jesus on the cross. It isn’t blasphemy to say that Jesus went through Hell. People joke that they went through Hell. Jesus is the only person who can use that expression without exaggeration.
Jesus went through Hell while on the cross so that we won’t have too. That can’t be screen played, scripted, reenacted, described or sketched. Artists can’t paint it, poets can’t speak of it and mathematicians can’t calculate the suffering of Jesus on the cross.
In love Jesus made himself vulnerable to us, and we beat Him. On the cross Jesus became vulnerable before the Father as a sinner. He suffered in ways we will never understand. Jesus made Himself sin for us and then stood before the Holy Father to settle our sin debt. The Father didn’t tread softly. The Father unleashed all the Divine wrath against sin upon Jesus while He hung on the cross. Jesus settled our account by what He suffered.
This is a terrifying thought. Search your scriptures for people who manifest fear. There is no terror like standing unprepared in the presence of a holy God. People pray for the rocks and the hills to cover them up. People pray to sink into the depths of the sea. People even desire that they should escape the holy wrath of God by hiding in the depths of Hell. Jesus was never afforded those luxuries.
We nailed Jesus to a cross between heaven and earth so He had nowhere to hide and no way to run. Jesus hung in our place. He took our punishment, our curse, and our Hell while hanging in the darkness. God dealt out the curse upon a living son of Adam. Adam brought us death. Jesus brings us life by His death.
Jesus was on the cross six hours. For the first three hours people saw Jesus suffer at the hands of sinful men. Then for the last three hours God blotted out the sun so no one could see Jesus suffering for us at the hands of a just and Holy God. Jesus descended into our Hell.
Thomas will never see the suffering of Jesus at the hands of the Father. When we go to heaven it will not be explained to us. It is a transaction that was between the Father and the Son.
Jesus suffered our Hell for us while on the cross and not in the next three days to follow. Jesus kept His promise to a thief hanging next to Him saying, “today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Let me tell you what didn’t happen.
Jesus didn’t suffer for three days in the grave. He bowed His head, dismissed His spirit, died, and went to heaven unglorified. Our catechism rightly informs us that Jesus continued in a state of humiliation until His body was raised. That means that there was no proof He didn’t die for His own sins until the resurrection, but the suffering was done.
From the moment Jesus proclaimed, “It is Finished!” His suffering ceased.
Satan wasn’t holding Jesus in his devilish playhouse and inflicting torture on Jesus until resurrection morning. Jesus never suffered at the hands of the Devil. Hell is a place of suffering for the Devil and his angels. God will use Hell to eternally torment the Devil. Satan NEVER got control of Jesus to torment Jesus in Hell.
Jesus never got off the cross so that He might descend into Hell. Jesus was nailed to a tree. He wasn’t going anywhere. He experienced our Hell while on the cross.
Jesus didn’t go to Hell to pay a ransom owed to the Devil to buy back saints.
Jesus didn’t go to Hell to preach the Gospel so Old Testament saints could be saved.
We believe a truth that is simple and yet beyond our comprehension. We professed it in the Apostle’s Creed. Look at it in your bulletin. I underlined it for us.
We believe that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. Comma. Jesus was crucified. Comma. He was dead. Comma. Jesus was buried. Semicolon. Why the change in syntax? Because the list of what was seen is finished. All that could be seen with the human eye are these things.
But what is forever unseen is that Jesus intentionally hit rock bottom while on the cross. Jesus finished His descent from the heights of heaven into the pit of Hell while on the cross.
On the cross the sting of death was fully absorbed. The Father stopped bruising His Son. The Father stopped crushing His Son. The Passover Lamb was now sacrificed. Atonement was made. The blood which speaks better than that of Able was sprinkled on the mercy seat not made with hands and the wrath of God was satisfied.
Jesus paid it all. All to Him we owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.
Let me try and wrap this up with an illustration. When I was in Chaplain Officer Basic Training at Fort Monmouth I bought a 1970 Lemans convertible. It was red, black interior, with a white top. I replaced the engine with a twice bored over 400 out of a 1977 Trans Am with a 1970 HO crank and roller rocker arms. For weeks it sat in a friends garage all torn apart. Now it was a car, but the collection of parts did not hold the same impact as the finished car. A pile of parts doesn’t move me down the road with my adrenaline pumping and the wind blowing through my hair.
We all learned this principle in school. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Like a beautiful puzzle, simply having all the pieces doesn’t give us something to admire.
Our confession gives us the historical record like pieces to a puzzle. Jesus suffered under Pilate, He was crucified, dead, and buried. But what does all that mean? Lots of people suffered under Pilate and many were crucified.
Well, stand back from the trees and see the forest. Look at the whole truth that these individual events describe.
What was happening on the cross? If you come to believe in things unseen then your adrenaline will pump and your eyes will open wide. Like the finished car, it will take your breath away.
The visible events are separated by a comma in the Apostle’s Creed. He suffered, comma, was crucified, comma, dead, comma and was buried Semicolon. Now look at the whole and let it take your breath away.
Jesus descended into Hell. That’s the forest. The theological truth. The Gospel itself.
Jesus left all His brilliant glory and majesty in heaven. He was made lower than the angels in the incarnation. He further humbled Himself in obedience to the Father until that obedience led to His ultimate descent. He ended up on the cross going through Hell.
The Bible says that Jesus was smitten by God, and afflicted. he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
Jesus cried out “My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me?” And in those three hours of total darkness on the cross Jesus went through what we would have suffered if we had gone to Hell.
He is the only person to ever go through Hell on earth. We must believe this or we miss the message of the Gospel. If Jesus didn’t go through Hell for us then our Hell remains unpaid.
The Gospel says that there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus – for Jesus took it all. There is no wrath remaining – for Jesus drank it all.
The Apostle’s Creed includes this theological statement to explain what really happened just before Jesus dismissed His spirit. If it speaks to nothing more than His death and burial then it is redundant. This is the position of John Calvin and the church since the Reformation.
Confessing that Jesus descended into Hell tells us what really happened in the darkness. It is the real story told from God’s perspective. We will never be allowed to peer into this mystery of our salvation because Hell is not for us if we are in Christ.
In Jesus the darkness has lifted. The curse is gone. Death’s stinger broke off inside the flesh of Jesus. The grave holds no victory dance over the dead body of a saint. Hell is not for us.
For on the cross Jesus descended into Hell. Praise His name forever. Amen.
[1] The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
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This Sermon reflects the opinions of John Calvin as pasted in below.
Institutes of the Christian Religion
by John Calvin — Book 2, Chapter 16, Sections 8-12
8. “Descended into hell”
Here we must not omit the descent to hell, which was of no little importance to the accomplishment of redemption. For although it is apparent from the writings of the ancient Fathers, that the clause which now stands in the Creed was not formerly so much used in the churches, still, in giving a summary of doctrine, a place must be assigned to it, as containing a matter of great importance which ought not by any means to be disregarded. Indeed, some of the ancient Fathers do not omit it, [It is not adverted to by Augustine, Lib. 1. De Symbolo de Catechumenos.] and hence we may conjecture, that having been inserted in the Creed after a considerable lapse of time, it came into use in the Church not immediately but by degrees. [The French of this sentence is, “Dont on peut conjecturer qu’il a esté tantost aprés le tems des Apostres adjousté; mais que peu a peu il est venu en usage.”—Whence we may conjecture that it was added some time after the days of the Apostles, but gradually came into use.] This much is uncontroverted, that it was in accordance with the general sentiment of all believers, since there is none of the Fathers who does not mention Christ’s descent into hell, though they have various modes of explaining it. But it is of little consequence by whom and at what time it was introduced. The chief thing to be attended to in the Creed is, that it furnishes us with a full and every way complete summary of faith, containing nothing but what has been derived from the infallible word of God. But should any still scruple to give it admission into the Creed, it will shortly be made plain, that the place which it holds in a summary of our redemption is so important, that the omission of it greatly detracts from the benefit of Christ’s death. There are some again who think that the article contains nothing new, but is merely a repetition in different words of what was previously said respecting burial, the word Hell (Infernis) being often used in Scripture for sepulchre. I admit the truth of what they allege with regard to the not infrequent use of the term infernos for sepulchre; but I cannot adopt their opinion, for two obvious reasons. First, What folly would it have been, after explaining a matter attended with no difficulty in clear and unambiguous terms, afterwards to involve rather than illustrate it by clothing it in obscure phraseology? When two expressions having the same meaning are placed together, the latter ought to be explanatory of the former. But what kind of explanation would it be to say, the expression, “Christ was buried”, means, that “he descended into hell”? My second reason is the improbability that a superfluous tautology of this description should have crept into this compendium, in which the principal articles of faith are set down summarily in the fewest possible number of words. I have no doubt that all who weigh the matter with some degree of care will here agree with me.
9. Christ in the nether world?
Others interpret differently—viz. That Christ descended to the souls of the Patriarchs who died under the law, to announce his accomplished redemption, and bring them out of the prison in which they were confined. To this effect they wrest the passage [The French is, “Pour colorer leur fantasie, ils tirent par les cheveux quelques temoignages.”—To colour their fancy, they pull by the hair (violently wrest) certain passages.] in the Psalms “He hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.” (Ps. 107:16); and also the passage in Zechariah, “I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water,” (Zech. 9:11). But since the psalm foretells the deliverance of those who were held captive in distant lands, and Zechariah comparing the Babylonish disaster into which the people had been plunged to a deep dry well or abyss, at the same time declares, that the salvation of the whole Church was an escape from a profound pit, I know not how it comes to pass, that posterity imagined it to be a subterraneous cavern, to which they gave the name of Limbus. Though this fable has the countenance of great authors, and is now also seriously defended by many as truth, [ See Justin, Ambrose, Jerome. The opinions of the Fathers and Rabbis on Hell and Limbus are collected by Peter Martyr, Loci Communes, Lib. 3 Loc. 16 sect. 8; see Augustine, Ep. 99.] it is nothing but a fable. To conclude from it that the souls of the dead are in prison is childish. And what occasion was there that the soul of Christ should go down thither to set them at liberty? I readily admit that Christ illumined them by the power of his Spirit, enabling them to perceive that the grace of which they had only had a foretaste was then manifested to the world. And to this not improbably the passage of Peter may be applied, wherein he says, that Christ “went and preached to the spirits that were in prison,” (or rather “a watch-tower”) (I Pet. 3:19). The purport of the context is, that believers who had died before that time were partakers of the same grace with ourselves: for he celebrates the power of Christ’s death, in that he penetrated even to the dead, pious souls obtaining an immediate view of that visitation for which they had anxiously waited; while, on the other hand, the reprobate were more clearly convinced that they were completely excluded from salvation. Although the passage in Peter is not perfectly definite, we must not interpret as if he made no distinction between the righteous and the wicked: he only means to intimate, that the death of Christ was made known to both.
10. The ‘descent into hell” as an expression of the spiritual torment that Christ underwent for us.
But, apart from the Creed, we must seek for a surer exposition of Christ’s descent to hell: and the word of God furnishes us with one not only pious and holy, but replete with excellent consolation. Nothing had been done if Christ had only endured corporeal death. In order to interpose between us and God’s anger, and satisfy his righteous judgment, it was necessary that he should feel the weight of divine vengeance. Whence also it was necessary that he should engage, as it were, at close quarters with the powers of hell and the horrors of eternal death. We lately quoted from the Prophet, that the “chastisement of our peace was laid upon him” that he “was bruised for our iniquities” that he “bore our infirmities;” expressions which intimate, that, like a sponsor and surety for the guilty, and, as it were, subjected to condemnation, he undertook and paid all the penalties which must have been exacted from them, the only exception being, that the pains of death could not hold him. Hence there is nothing strange in its being said that he descended to hell, seeing he endured the death which is inflicted on the wicked by an angry God. It is frivolous and ridiculous to object that in this way the order is perverted, it being absurd that an event which preceded burial should be placed after it. But after explaining what Christ endured in the sight of man, the Creed appropriately adds the invisible and incomprehensible judgment which he endured before God, to teach us that not only was the body of Christ given up as the price of redemption, but that there was a greater and more excellent price—that he bore in his soul the tortures of condemned and ruined man.
11. Defense of this explanations from Scripture passages
In this sense, Peter says that God raised up Christ, “having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible he should be holden of it,” (Acts 2:24). He does not mention death simply, but says that the Son of God endured the pains produced by the curse and wrath of God, the source of death. How small a matter had it been to come forth securely, and as it were in sport to undergo death. Herein was a true proof of boundless mercy, that he shunned not the death he so greatly dreaded. And there can be no doubt that, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Apostle means to teach the same thing, when he says that he “was heard in that he feared,” (Heb. 5:7). Some instead of “feared,” use a term meaning reverence or piety, but how inappropriately, is apparent both from the nature of the thing and the form of expression [French, “Les autres translatent Reverence ou Pieté; mais la Grammaire et la matiere qui est la tracté monstrent que c’est mal ˆ propos.”—Others translate Reverence or Piety; but Grammar and the subject-matter show that they do it very unseasonably] Christ then praying in a loud voice, and with tears, is heard in that he feared, not so as to be exempted from death, but so as not to be swallowed up of it like a sinner, though standing as our representative. And certainly no abyss can be imagined more dreadful than to feel that you are abandoned and forsaken of God, and not heard when you invoke him, just as if he had conspired your destruction. To such a degree was Christ dejected, that in the depth of his agony he was forced to exclaim, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The view taken by some, that he here expressed the opinion of others rather than his own conviction, is most improbable; for it is evident that the expression was wrung from the anguish of his inmost soul. We do not, however, insinuate that God was ever hostile to him or angry with him. [See Cyril. Lib. 2 De Recta Fide ad Reginas; Item, Hilarius de Trinitate, Lib. 4 c. 2 and 3.] How could he be angry with the beloved Son, with whom his soul was well pleased? or how could he have appeased the Father by his intercession for others if He were hostile to himself? But this we say, that he bore the weight of the divine anger, that, smitten and afflicted, he experienced all the signs of an angry and avenging God. Hence Hilary argues, that to this descent we owe our exemption from death. Nor does he dissent from this view in other passages, as when he says, “The cross, death, hell, are our life.” And again, “The Son of God is in hell, but man is brought back to heaven.” And why do I quote the testimony of a private writer, when an Apostle asserts the same thing, stating it as one fruit of his victory that he delivered “them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage?” (Heb. 2:15). He behoved therefore, to conquer the fear which incessantly vexes and agitates the breasts of all mortals; and this he could not do without a contest. Moreover it will shortly appear with greater clearness that his was no common sorrow, was not the result of a trivial cause. Thus by engaging with the power of the devil, the fear of death, and the pains of hell, he gained the victory, and achieved a triumph, so that we now fear not in death those things which our Prince has destroyed. [Vide Luther, tom. 1 in Concione de Morte, fol. 87. 12.]
12. Defence of the doctrine against misunderstandings and errors.
Here some miserable creatures, who, though unlearned, are however impelled more by malice than ignorance, cry out that I am offering an atrocious insult to Christ, because it were most incongruous to hold that he feared for the safety of his soul. And then in harsher terms they urge the calumnious charge that I attribute despair to the Son of God, a feeling the very opposite of faith. First, they wickedly raise a controversy as to the fear and dread which Christ felt, though these are openly affirmed by the Evangelists. For before the hour of his death arrived, he was troubled in spirit, and affected with grief; and at the very onset began to be exceedingly amazed. To speak of these feelings as merely assumed, is a shameful evasion. It becomes us, therefore (as Ambrose truly teaches), boldly to profess the agony of Christ, if we are not ashamed of the cross. And certainly had not his soul shared in the punishment, he would have been a Redeemer of bodies only. The object of his struggle was to raise up those who were lying prostrate; and so far is this from detracting from his heavenly glory, that his goodness, which can never be sufficiently extolled, becomes more conspicuous in this, that he declined not to bear our infirmities. Hence also that solace to our anxieties and griefs which the Apostle sets before us: “We have not an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all respects tempted like as we are, yet without sin,” (Heb. 4:15).
These men pretend that a thing in its nature vicious is improperly ascribed to Christ; as if they were wiser than the Spirit of God, who in the same passage reconciles the two things—viz. that he was tempted in all respects like as we are, and yet was without sin. There is no reason, therefore, to take alarm at infirmity in Christ, infirmity to which he submitted not under the constraint of violence and necessity, but merely because he loved and pitied us. Whatever he spontaneously suffered, detracts in no degree from his majesty. One thing which misleads these detractors is, that they do not recognise in Christ an infirmity which was pure and free from every species of taint, inasmuch as it was kept within the limits of obedience. As no moderation can be seen in the depravity of our nature, in which all affections with turbulent impetuosity exceed their due bounds, they improperly apply the same standard to the Son of God. But as he was upright, all his affections were under such restraint as prevented every thing like excess. Hence he could resemble us in grief, fear, and dread, but still with this mark of distinction.
Thus refuted, they fly off to another cavil, that although Christ feared death, yet he feared not the curse and wrath of God, from which he knew that he was safe. But let the pious reader consider how far it is honourable to Christ to make him more effeminate and timid than the generality of men. Robbers and other malefactors contumaciously hasten to death, many men magnanimously despise it, others meet it calmly. If the Son of God was amazed and terror-struck at the prospect of it, where was his firmness or magnanimity? We are even told, what in a common death would have been deemed most extraordinary, that in the depth of his agony his sweat was like great drops of blood falling to the ground. Nor was this a spectacle exhibited to the eyes of others, since it was from a secluded spot that he uttered his groans to his Father. And that no doubt may remain, it was necessary that angels should come down from heaven to strengthen him with miraculous consolation. How shamefully effeminate would it have been (as I have observed) to be so excruciated by the fear of an ordinary death as to sweat drops of blood, and not even be revived by the presence of angels? What? Does not that prayer, thrice repeated, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,” (Mt. 26:39), a prayer dictated by incredible bitterness of soul, show that Christ had a fiercer and more arduous struggle than with ordinary death?
Hence it appears that these triflers, with whom I am disputing, presume to talk of what they know not, never having seriously considered what is meant and implied by ransoming us from the justice of God. It is of consequence to understand aright how much our salvation cost the Son of God.
If any one now ask, Did Christ descend to hell at the time when he deprecated death? I answer, that this was the commencement, and that from it we may infer how dire and dreadful were the tortures which he endured when he felt himself standing at the bar of God as a criminal in our stead. And although the divine power of the Spirit veiled itself for a moment, that it might give place to the infirmity of the flesh, we must understand that the trial arising from feelings of grief and fear was such as not to be at variance with faith. And in this was fulfilled what is said in Peter’s sermon as to having been loosed from the pains of death, because “it was not possible he could be holden of it,” (Acts 2:24). Though feeling, as it were, forsaken of God, he did not cease in the slightest degree to confide in his goodness. This appears from the celebrated prayer in which, in the depth of his agony, he exclaimed, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mt. 27:46). Amid all his agony he ceases not to call upon his God, while exclaiming that he is forsaken by him. This refutes the Apollinarian heresy as well as that of those who are called Monothelites. Apollinaris pretended, that in Christ the eternal Spirit supplied the place of a soul, so that he was only half a man; as if he could have expiated our sins in any other way than by obeying the Father. But where does the feeling or desire of obedience reside but in the soul? And we know that his soul was troubled in order that ours, being free from trepidation, might obtain peace and quiet. Moreover, in opposition to the Monothelites, we see that in his human he felt a repugnance to what he willed in his divine nature. I say nothing of his subduing the fear of which we have spoken by a contrary affection. This appearance of repugnance is obvious in the words, “Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.” (John 12:27, 28) Still, in this perplexity, there was no violent emotion, such as we exhibit while making the strongest endeavours to subdue our own feelings.
