HOLY SATURDAY MEDITATION

On Holy Saturday we remember what we affirm in the Apostles’ Creed, that after Jesus died he descended into Hell. It directs our attention to the period between the death of Jesus and his resurrection. What did he do, and where was he, in the days between noon on the first Good Friday, and his resurrection on Easter Sunday morning? It also addresses the subject of, what we call the Intermediate State, what happens between death and resurrection. There is much conjecture about this subject, and many various interpretations of the Scriptures cited, so that theologians, preachers and teachers find it wise to refrain from claiming more than is absolutely necessary about what is a great mystery. I will give you an idea of the possible interpretations so that you can draw your own conclusions.

The statement, “He descended into hell”, made its first appearance in the Apostles’ Creed in 570, but it was used in other creeds from 359. The use of the word “Hell” has changed its sense since the English form of the Creed was fixed. Originally ‘hell’ meant the place of the departed as such, corresponding to the Greek Hades, and the Hebrew Sheol. Modern forms of the Creed substitute “the dead”. Since the seventeenth century “hell” has been used to signify only the state of final retribution for the godless, for which the New Testament name is Gehenna. J.I. Packer writes,

“Descended” does not imply that the place of the dead is down into the ground, any more than “rose” implies that Jesus returned to surface level at the resurrection. “The language of descent is used because Hades, being the place of the disembodied, is lower in worth and dignity than is life on earth, where body and soul are together and humanity is in that sense whole.” (The Apostles’ Creed, p.54)

This article in the Creed states that Jesus, at his death, went to be with those who had died. He experienced, not only death, but departure from his body, before he assumed a new body in the resurrection. This is called, in Christian theology, the Intermediate State. That part of us, called soul, or spirit, by the will of God, and his power upholds and preserves us from dissolution. This soul, exists after death, separated from the mortal body, is really and truly in some place, present there, and not elsewhere, cf. Matt.10:28; 2 Cor.5:1-5). The English Divine, John Pearson (1613-1686), says about this state:

“That separate existence after death, must not be conceived to sleep, or be bereft and stripped of all vital operations, but still to exercise the powers of understanding and of willing, and to be subject to the affections of joy and sorrow. Upon which is grounded the different estate and condition of the souls of men during that time of separation; some of them by the mercy of God being placed in peace and rest, in joy and happiness; others by the justice of the same God left to sorrow, pains, and misery…. It will appear to have been the general judgment of the Church, that the soul of Christ, contradistinguished from his body… after a true and proper separation from his flesh, was really and truly carried into those parts below, where the souls of men before departed were detained; and that by such a real translation of his soul, he was truly said to have descended into hell.” (An Exposition of the Creed, 1847, pp.356,357)

The primary passage of Scripture on which this statement in the Creed is based is Psalm 16:10, which is quoted by Peter in his sermon at Pentecost: “you will not abandon me [my soul] to the grave [Sheol or Hades], nor will you let your Holy One see decay.” Peter applies this to Jesus as a prophecy: “seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave [Sheol or Hades], nor did his body see decay.”(Acts 2:26-31)

If the soul or person of Christ were not left in Sheol or Hades at the resurrection, then he was there before his resurrection; therefore after his death and before his resurrection, he descended into the place of the departed. If this is so, what did he do there? What was the purpose of his going there? Many theologians say that it merely means that he experienced everything that we experience. He totally identified with us in our death experience. Others point to 1 Peter 3:18-4:6 “He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah…. The gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged.”

In the early Church it came to be believed that this is what Jesus did during his time in the place of the departed. He preached the Gospel to those who had died. Does this give the departed a second chance to believe? Or is the Gospel only preached to the saints of the pre-Christian era, so that they might see the promises fulfilled in Christ? Or does this mean that those who had never heard of Christ in their day, get an opportunity to do so? These questions became issues of controversy, and the medieval church created elaborate scenarios that speculated beyond the truth of Scripture.

One popular belief was called The Harrowing of Hell. In the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, Christ breaks down the doors of hell, binds and tramples upon the foul spirits, and, taking Adam by the hand, conducts the saints to Paradise. This text had an enormous influence on the art and literature of the Middle Ages.

The core of truth in these Medieval fantasies is that Jesus perfected the spirits of Old Testament believers, and those who had trusted in the Savior without knowing him by name (Hebrews 11:40; 12:23). He made Hades into Paradise for the penitent thief, and for all others who died trusting him during his earthly ministry, just as he does now for the faithful departed (see Philippians 1:21-23; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8). His preaching to the spirits in prison, was of his kingdom and judgment, proving his supreme authority over all spirits: angels or demons. His actions in the place of the departed brought about great changes. He disarmed the powers and authorities, triumphing over them. (Colossians 2:14) He descended to the lower, earthly regions so that he might ascend on high, leading captives in his train, and giving gifts to men. (Ephesians 4:8-10) The widespread belief of the early Church was that the Lord released the souls of the Old Testament saints, and carried them with him to heaven.

William Barclay comments:

“Here in symbolic language and picture is the answer to the question that has always exercised the minds of thinking people: What happens to the millions upon millions of men who have never heard of Jesus Christ? What happens to the great and good figures of the past who in every age and generation and in every race and nation lived nobly, but never had the opportunity to receive the Christian gospel because they lived before Jesus came? This doctrine means symbolically that either in this life or in the life beyond death all men are offered the gospel of the truth and love of God.” (The Apostles’ Creed, p.108)

J. Paterson-Smyth (1852-1932) celebrates this understanding of the descent to the dead.

“This was one of the gladdest notes in the whole Gospel harmony of the early Church for five hundred years… It was a note of triumph. It told of the tender, thoughtful love of Christ for faithful souls who had never seen Him. It told of the universality of His Atonement. It told of victory, far beyond this life. It told that Christ, who came to seek and save men’s souls on earth, had continued that work in the world of the dead while his body lay in the grave. That He passed into the unseen world as a saviour and conqueror. That His banner was unfurled there and His cross set up there in the world of the departed. That the souls of all the ancient world who had never known Him, and WHO WERE CAPABLE OF TURNING TO HIM (i.e., who in their earthly probation, in spite of all their ignorance and sin, had not irrevocably turned away from God and good), might turn to Him and live. That the spirits of the old-world saints and prophets had welcomed Him with rejoicing. That even men of much lower place had yet found mercy. That even such men as those who had perished in the flood in God’s great judgment, BUT HAD NOT HARDENED THEMSELVES AGAINST HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LOVE, were not shut out from hope. In the ‘many mansions’ was a place even for such as they. To the teachers of the early Church, I repeat, it was one of the triumphant notes in their gospel – the wideness of Christ’s Atonement.” (The Gospel of the Hereafter, p.61f.)

James F. Kay of Princeton Seminary, writing on this article, quotes John Calvin’s view that the descent into hell refers to the sufferings of Christ on the cross:

“The point is that the Creed sets forth what Christ suffered in the sight of men, and then appositely speaks of that invisible and incomprehensible judgment which he underwent in the sight of God in order that we might know not only that Christ’s body was given as the price of our redemption, but that he paid a greater and more excellent price in suffering in his soul the terrible torments of a condemned and forsaken man…. Christ died in the place of sinners (Isa.53:4-6). As such, he suffered in body and soul the torments of damnation, of God’s severity, wrath and judgment. ‘No wonder, then, if he is said to have descended into hell, for he suffered the death that God in his wrath had inflicted on the wicked!’ This is shown in the ‘cry of dereliction’ from the cross: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Ps.22:1; Matt.27:46). Calvin comments, ‘And surely no more terrible abyss can be conceived than to feel yourself forsaken and estranged from God, and when you call upon him, not to be heard.’ In other words, hell in the Creed is defined by the cross of Jesus Christ. Hell is godforsakenness. To enter into this state is what it means to descend into hell.”

This interpretation does not give any encouragement to those who put off following Christ in the present, or who fail to seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness in their lifetime. The Scriptures teach that there is no opportunity of repentance beyond the grave or second offer of salvation for those who reject Christ in this life (Hebrews 6:4-6).

The great biblical scholar Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901) made this comment on the descent of Christ into Hades.

“It carries light into the tomb. But more than this we dare not say confidently on a mystery where our thought fails and Scripture is silent. The stirring pictures which early Christian fancy drew of Christ’s entry into the prison-house of death to proclaim his victory and lead away the ancient saints as partners in his triumph; or again to announce the Gospel to those who had not heard it, rest on too precarious a foundation to claim general acceptance. We are sure that the fruits of Christ’s work are made available for every man: we are sure that he crowned every act of faith in patriarch or king or prophet or saint with perfect joy; but knowing how and when we know not, and, as far as appears, we have no faculty for knowing. Meanwhile we cling to the truth which our Creed teaches us. To the old world, to Jew and Gentile alike – and it is a fact too often forgotten – ‘the Under World,’ ‘Sheol’ the place of spirits, was a place of dreary gloom, of conscious and oppressive feebleness. Even this natural fear of the heart Christ has lightened. There is nothing in the fact of death, nothing in the consequences of death, which Christ has not endured for us: He was buried, He descended into Hades, the place of spirits.”

Jesus went into the regions of darkness so that our souls might never come into those torments that are there. By his descent he freed us from our fears. “By his death he destroyed him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Heb.2:14)