By Pastor Matthew Everhard
The Apostle’s Creed says…
The Apostle’s Creed says…
He suffered under
Pontius Pilate
Was crucified, dead,
and buried.
He descended into
Hades
On the third day, He
rose again…
What do we mean by "He descended into Hades"? Did Jesus go to hell after the cross? As to His mortal body, this is
an easy question. It remained in the grave. But what about His soul? Did Jesus
go to hell during that “Silent Saturday” between crucifixion and resurrection?
The Apostles' Creed seems to suggest that He did. This is an interesting point in our
theology, as we confess these lines each Lord's Day.
First of all, let’s
remember that all Creeds are subservient to Scripture. Actually the AC rose out of the teaching of the
Apostles but did not come from the pen of any one Apostle. It was an early church
confession, probably a proto-baptismal formula. The first occurrence being in the early 200’s AD.
What was called the “Old
Roman Creed” simply said, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, and in
Christ Jesus His Son , our Lord, and in the Holy Spirit, the holy Church, and
the resurrection of the flesh.”
Irenaeus (130-200) records for us an
early form of the AC in his writings. We know that “He descended to hades/hell”
was NOT in the earliest manuscripts, and did not appear until about 390 almost 200
years after the first version. Ironically, some versions at that time had “He was
buried” and others “He descended to Hades,” (the Greek translation of the Hebrew sheol, meaning the state of death, or the grave). This suggests that both lines meant the same thing. Only the 390AD version had both.This troublesome line did not appear in other manuscripts again until almost 700AD.
We then
enter into another problem. If Jesus went to hell, was it to suffer more on behalf of sinners? Was the cross not sufficient? We must eliminate this possibility from consideration because that would
make His vicarious suffering on the cross insufficient for our atonement. We cannot go that direction. No further punishment needed to be made.
John Calvin writes, “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 justice. 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.” (Institutes 2.16.10).
Thus, Calvin indicates
that the phrase “He descended into Hades” is completely appropriate and worthy
of our confession, provided that we understand this to be a summary statement
of what precedes it: Jesus “descended into hell/hades” is a summary of the
full wrath of God placed upon Christ in his suffering death and burial. In other words, "suffered" + "died" + "buried" =
full wrath of God (descended into Hell).
The Westminster Confession, too, avoids interpreting the Creed as a literal descent into the fires of hell. Question #50 asks, "Wherein
consisted Christ's humiliation after his death?
A. Christ's
humiliation after his death consisted in his being buried, and continuing in
the state of the dead, and under the power of death till the third day; which
has been otherwise expressed in these words, he descended into hell.
Although many Reformed churches profess the AC, most theologians in our tradition do not view this line to indicate a literal descent into hell, but rather that Jesus bore the full brunt of God's wrath and anger for us.
Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Follow him on Twitter @matt_everhard.
Matthew Everhard is the Senior Pastor of Faith Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Follow him on Twitter @matt_everhard.
No comments:
Post a Comment