- 1 - The Apostles Creed Week 6 He descended into Hell. The Apostles Creed

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1 - 1 - The Apostles Creed Week 6 He descended into Hell The Apostles Creed I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. This week we come to the most asked about phrase in the Apostles Creed He descended into hell. When people ask about the Apostles Creed they generally ask two questions: Why do we say we believe in the Holy Catholic church? and What is the meaning of he descended into hell? Of the two, the meaning of the phrase he descended into hell is the more difficult. Some denominations and or churches don t even include it in the Apostles Creed, and some chooses not to say it. The answer I give this morning is not going to satisfy you. Deut. 29:29. We are pushing up against the limits of human answers. I have read almost as many different opinions as I have answers (almost every answer was different). Perhaps there are possible 15 nuances. Let me make one side comment on Jesus burial before we begin to talk about the phrase descended into hell. R.C. Sproul points out that Jesus burial by a rich man was indicative of the end of his humiliation and the beginning of his exaltation. Matthew 27:57. Or was at least a pointer to his forthcoming exaltation. There was a hint of Easter even in his burial. Now, onto the words he descended into hell. Main Passages: Read Matthew 12:38-41; Acts 2:27-31 (quoting Psalm 16:10); Luke 16:19-31; I Peter 3:18-20 Read Matthew 12:38-41, Acts 2:27-31

2 - 2 - What is the meaning of He descended into hell? I. First, lets look at the terminology (+ Our typical understanding) Sheol, Hades, and Gehenna The word Sheol was the only word in the OT for the place of the dead. It had negative connotations, but not necessarily the fires of God s judgment. Hades is the NT parallel of the word Sheol. Many times in the NT when you see the word hell it simply means the place of the dead, because it is the translation of the word Hades. Both of these words are equivalent to our modern way of saying a person died. We may say to someone, I am sorry to hear that your relative died. When we say this we are not thinking of their eternal state, we are simply saying that they have passed from this life. Gehenna - There is another word for hell in the NT, and that is the word Gehenna. This word refers to the place of eternal punishment. It was originally the valley of Hinnom, south of Jerusalem, where the filth and dead animals of the city were cast out and burned; but over time it came to mean where the guilty dead were punished. As such it was a fit symbol of the wicked and their future destruction. And it is what we deserve and would get without Christ. According to Donald Cole, the English word hell is derived from the Anglo Saxon word hellan, meaning the unseen or covered place. A few hundred years ago this phrase was the exact equivalent of the words Sheol or Hades. Thus, it meant the place of souls after death. However, over time the word came to mean the place of punishment for the wicked dead. In other words, when we use the word hell we almost always think of Gehanna, and we rarely think of the meaning for Hades. So already I am hinting at what is at least part of the answer to this phrase in the Apostles Creed. It is likely, as Donald Cole says, that the modern English word hell is no longer equivalent of the Biblical words sheol or Hades and is inappropriate in the Apostles Creed. So, when we say he descended into hell, we are not professing that he spent three days in hell paying the penalty for our sins. He did that on the cross. II. Where was his soul? Some central passages When it comes to what happened to Jesus after death, we really have two questions: Where was Jesus body? and Where was Jesus spirit? The first is easy

3 - 3 - to answer. His body was in the grave for three days (really around 36 hours, but three days by Jewish counting). Where was his soul? This is the tricky part. Acts 2, Matthew 12 What can we say from these passages? There is a sense from these scriptures that something occurred between the time of Christ s death and his resurrection. Jesus was crucified, he died, was buried, and we learn from scripture that something happened. There is a time between his death and resurrection that we ve got to categorize, because Jesus himself said, Just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Acts 2:24 says, it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. What does this mean presuppositionally? It means that death had a hold on Jesus. Romans 6:9 says, Since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. Logically, then, death once did have mastery over Jesus, and that would be during the time He descended into hell. There was a time when death had its hold on him, when Jesus was abandoned to the grave. Now what is death? For us, death is the separation of soul and body. We believe those will ultimately be reunited eternally at the last judgment, but immediately after death there are separated. Dr. Ligon Duncan, pastor of First Presbyterian church of Jackson, MS, says this is the very thing the phrase means, that Jesus death was complete to the point of the separation of His body and Spirit. The phrase indicates that His Spirit departed to the realm of the dead. Now, a passage some of you have been anticipating is Luke 23:42, Jesus words to the thief on the cross, Today, you will be with me in paradise. Let s close in prayer! Just kidding! Many interpret the word paradise to mean heaven or the presence of God. So, according to this view Jesus body was in the grave and his spirit went to heaven. According to Donald Cole, the word paradise certainly could have the meaning heaven, but that meaning is not required by the text. The Septuagint, which is a Greek translation of the OT, the word that we translate paradise is translated garden or grove. The Garden of Eden is such a case.

4 - 4 - In other words, Paradise could be a word for a part of sheol/hades. Perhaps the realm of the dead is divided into two parts those who are awaiting heaven and those who are awaiting eternal punishment. Another difficult passage is I Peter 3: This passage has four interpretations. That Jesus went to preach a word of encouragement and hope and victory to the departed saints. That Jesus went and preached a word of judgment to those awaiting eternal torment. That Jesus went and gave a second opportunity to repent to all who had not either heard of him or believed in him in this life. That Christ preached in the spirit through Noah in Noah s day. The third is clearly unbiblical. I favor the fourth. It should be noted about this passage that the audience, the speaker, and the place and time of the preaching are all ambiguous. Now, let me sum all this up by giving you some possible meanings of the phrase descended into hell. III. Possible meanings of the phrase He descended into hell. It refers to: 1. Jesus death on the cross, which was hellish. 2. Jesus coming to the earth, the whole of his incarnation. Jesus descent into hell means he came to the lower earthly regions. 3. Jesus descent to Gehenna (the place of torment) to pay for our sins. 4. Some object to the phrase and say He did not descend to Hades. 5. Jesus descent into Hades (not Gehenna) 6. Jesus descent into Hades and visitation of Gehenna to proclaim judgment or offer one more opportunity for people to repent. 7. Jesus descent into Hades and visitation of the saints there. 8. Jesus descent into Hades and transformation of the part of Hades where the saints were into Paradise. Comments: #1 seems to evade the issue and not be a good interpretation. #2, I believe, was Calvin s interpretation. Unfortunately, it seems a strange place for a summary statement. The Creed seems to be speaking sequentially. #3 seems out of the question. This is what Jesus did on the cross and after he died on the cross the curtain in the temple was torn from top to bottom. #4 doesn t take into consideration Act 2 or the sign of Jonah. # 6 comes from a certain interpretation of I Peter 3:18-20 (see above), and from some theological underpinnings. 9. Some believe this preserves God s justice by providing all men to hear the message of redemption from the Word himself, but this seems clearly at odds with Hebrews

5 - 5-9:27. In #7, the idea is that Jesus carried the good news to the godly dead such as Lazarus, the beggar, and the repentant thief, or that He went to preach to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob concerning all the saints and the ending of the world. Again, this is an attempt to reconcile this with a certain interpretation of I Peter 3: # 8 has been set forth by some theologians and pastors, but I don t know much about this. All of this tells us that there is ambiguity here. I personally am most comfortable with leaving it at #5. Jesus went to the place of the dead. His death was complete to the point of the separation of His body and Spirit. His Spirit departed to the realm of the dead. What about you when you die? In Philippians 1:20-24, Paul talks about going to be with the Lord when he dies. I am not sure what happened to OT saints when they died, but the scriptures clearly seem to teach that when believers die now our spirits go to heaven and our bodies remain in the grave until the final resurrection. Application Lessons learned: 1. We are taught to hold the Creeds under the authority of the word of God. This is part of what the Reformation was about. The Catholic church said there were two sources of authority to be held on an equal plane: The Bible and the Church. The Reformers challenged that and said that Creeds and councils do make errors and that the word of God alone is our reliable authority. This position still doesn t help us with the ambiguity of scripture, and our finite mind s capacity to interpret it, but it does help us keep a helpful perspective that the word of God is not on an equal plane with men s ideas or words. 2. We should be dialoging with other believers regarding the meaning of biblical texts. Working through difficulties like this provides and opportunity to learn to dialogue over scripture with other believers in helpful ways. It shows us our need for the body of Christ. 3. Working through difficulties like this keeps us humble, prayerful, and studying the scriptures. This is what the Bereans were commended for in Acts 17: Working through difficulties like this strengthens our faith by causing us to carefully think through what we believe. Richard Phillips, a PCA pastor, says

6 - 6 - this: At this point, many people complain of archaic language and formulations that require lengthy explanations. Shouldn t we have a new, modern, contemporary version of the Apostles Creed that changes the language to make it easier? My answer to that is, No! It is far better for us to get into the habit of asking questions and becoming educated about the history of our faith and the formulations of earlier generations, than it is for us to arrogantly package everything in bite-size meals that fit our appetites. I for one, would rather have an ancient creed that makes me think about my faith, than a contemporary McCreed that makes everything a happy meal for our child-like minds. I used to tell college students, I don t care what you believe as long as you can back your belief up in scripture. Actually this not true, but it sounds good! I did care what they believed, but the point was I wanted them to think about what they believed and be ready to give an answer for their faith. Personally, the principle that we must fully support all our views with scripture requires me to hold many things with a loose hand. Things that are less clear we obviously should not be dogmatic about at all. Donald Cole says, that ultimately, it does not matter where Jesus was between his death and resurrection. If God had wanted us to be more clear about this he would have made it much more clear in his word. The emphasis of the bible is not on the place where He spent three days and three nights. The emphasis is on the truth that he did not stay there. He came back to his disciples. He was raised from the dead, even as he said he would be. We do not have to decide whether Christ went to Hades. What we must believe is that his spirit was not abandoned to Hades. 5. And this is the main application; Christ has tasted every human experience for us, including residence in the abode of the dead. JI Packer says, What makes Jesus entry into Hades important for us is the fact that now we can face death knowing that when it comes we shall not find ourselves alone. He has been there before us and he will see us through. BF Wescott says, Christ, in dying, shared to the full our lot. His body was laid in the tomb. His soul passed into that state in which we conceive that ours shall enter. He has won for God and hallowed every condition of human experience. We cannot be where he has not been. He bore our nature as living; He bore our nature as dead.

7 - 7 - Donald Cole summarizes: Christ tasted every human experience, including residence in the abode of the dead. Thus, He was made like his brethren in all things (Hebrews 2:17). Amen! Thus, we are to live in hope. This is what Acts 2:26 says, Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope Acts 2:27, speaking of Christ, says, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. Because this is true about Jesus, it is also true for us! So, should you say this in the worship service? The Apostle s Creed is a statement of personal faith. You should not say anything you do not believe to be found in the scriptures. One person in this class has told me he does not say this phrase in the Creed. That is a good if it goes against his conscience. I personally believe I can say this phrase in the Creed taking meaning #5 as the true meaning.