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Transcript 323A — Did Jesus Actually Descend into Hell?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes. Ephesians 4:9 & 10 say, "Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first, into the lower parts of the earth." And I Peter 3:19 says, ''By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison." Jesus said, when He was on the cross, when He died, "Father, into Thy hands I comment My spirit."
Now there is some teaching that says that Jesus did suffer for men the penalty of sin, and that He also went to hell for us. And then there are some who say that because Jesus said, "It is finished," and "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit," that He did that, and that He did not go to hell for us. And I'd just like to know which is correct. And I'll take my answer on the air.
HC: All right. Fine.
The question is raised: How are we to understand passages like Ephesians 4, which indicates that Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth, and from there led captivity captive? Or I Peter 3:19 or 20, where it says that in the spirit He preached to the souls in Hades, who formerly did not obey in the days of Noah? How do we put all this together?
I think most of the misunderstanding on this particular question is a result of a lack of understanding of what Christ did for us on the cross. A lot of people talk about the fact that He shed His blood for our sins. That's a very Biblical statement. A lot of people talk about the fact that He died for our sins. That's very Biblical. A lot of people talk about the fact that He hung on the cross. That's very Biblical.
But when it comes to the fact that He descended into the lower parts of the earth, or as Jesus put it in Matthew 12, "I must be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth," they have no understanding really of what this is. You see, the problem that Christ faced was the judicial statement of God that "the wages of sin is death." And the death that God had in view not only was physical death, but eternal damnation in hell. This is the penalty that had to be paid if He were to be our Savior.
Mankind is destined for hell, he is committed to hell, because we're all sinners. And in order to save us, it was necessary for God not only to find us in our depraved and desperate condition, sentenced to hell. But He also must pay the equivalent of an eternity in hell on our behalf.
Actually, therefore, from the time that He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He said, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death," and He threw Himself to the ground, and the sweat was pouring off His body like great drops of blood, into the ground, until Resurrection morning, Christ was enduring hell for our sins. He was enduring the wrath of God for our sins.
Now it is true that at the end of the world there will be a place called hell, where all of the unsaved will be cast, along with Satan and all the fallen angels. Presently there is no hell, at least insofar as we can determine, as an actual place. The Bible teaches that the unsaved, when they die, go down into a place of silence. This is also called Hades in the Bible.
It is not the place "hell," however, where the unsaved go eternally. At least they are not suffering there. At least they're not experiencing the wrath of God there. They are simply waiting for the judgment of the last day. However, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus found in Luke 16 eternal damnation is spoken of as Hades.
The angels who have fallen, along with Satan, also are spoken of in the Bible as being in pits of hell, or consigned to hell. But in physical location they are active in the world, deceiving the hearts of men. So neither are they in a physical, literal place called hell. They're identified with hell because there is no hope for them. They are consigned to hell, and therefore the Bible speaks of them as if they are in hell. But in actuality, in physical location they are not in a place called hell.
Insofar as I can tell from the Bible, a literal place called hell will only be in existence at Judgment Day, and it must be there because the unsaved must be removed from this earth so that God can redeem it, so that He can destroy it by fire and recreate it New Heavens and a New Earth. And so there has to be a place where the unsaved can exist eternally, under the wrath of God. And that is a physical place called hell.
Hell, however, in its actual essence is not a place. Hell is a relationship with God. Hell is to be under the wrath of God and to experience the wrath of God. Hell is described in the Bible in all kinds of ugly language. But ultimately it is all focusing on this point, that those who are subject to hell are in terrible trouble with God, and His wrath is being poured out upon them.
This is what Jesus experienced, from Gethsemane until the resurrection morning. He experienced the wrath of God, so that He was enduring hell. It was as if He had gone down to hell while He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, and while He stood before Pontius Pilate, and while He hung on the cross. And we of course see this in its climax as the cry is wrenched from His lips, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" That's hell.
Specifically, therefore, when we look at Ephesians 4, and it declares that He descended into the lower parts of the earth, it is simply indicating that He had to come where those who are destined for hell dwell. That's in our presence. He rescued us from the path that was leading directly into hell. And in order to rescue us He had to Himself endure hell for our sins.
"He led captivity captive." Before we are saved we're slaves of Satan. We are entirely under his jurisdiction and his domain. He is our master. But when we are saved, we are freed from bondage to Satan, and we become bondservants of the Lord Jesus Christ. We become His captives, and He takes us out of hell. And He did this by going to the cross, so that we have eternal life and are forever His people.
Jesus, therefore, never did go to a place called hell. The fact is, when we look at Him on the cross, when would He have done this? He was a complete personality until He finally said, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." And He said, "It is finished." But at that time, in His spirit He went to be with the Father. His body, however, was put in the grave, where it did not see corruption. And this was part of the suffering that was involved in paying for our sins. For this reason Acts 2:31 indicates that Jesus' soul was not left in Hades. Hades in this context has the meaning of eternal damnation. The fact that His body did not see corruption seems to emphasize that the victory of the cross was accomplished. The fact of the resurrection emphasized that the penalty of eternal damnation had been paid in every sense.
But at no time is there a time when He could have gone down to some place. Now I Peter 3:18 or 19 is not saying that He in His spirit descended into hell. It is simply saying that in His spirit, at one time, He spoke to the spirits in prison. Actually, the word hell is not found in I Peter 3. It's actually the word prison.
Now in I Peter 1 we read in verse 10: "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching for what manner of time the spirit of Christ, which was in them, did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow."
In other words, the spirit of Christ spoke through the Old Testament prophets, including Noah, to the prisoners (the spirits in prison) in their day. Now the spirits in prison were the unsaved of their day. Jesus in His spirit did preach to the spirits in prison, but not when He was on the cross, not when He was paying for our sins. He did this all through the Old Testament period, as He spoke through Noah, and as He spoke through Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Abraham, and so on, even as today the spirit of Christ is speaking to the spirits in prison, as we bring the Gospel. This does not require a physical descent of Christ into hell.
I hope this will clear up that question just a little bit.