Descended into the Grave

As we begin this morning, let’s recite the Apostles Creed together. We’ve been in a section on the works of Jesus. We’ve seen his deity, his humanity, his suffering, and his sacrifice. And, now, we come to one of two controversial clauses in the Apostles Creed. As we’ve recited this every Sunday, you might have wondered, “Why do we say he was dead and buried, and then turn right around and say he descended into the grave?”  Well, truthfully, I have changed two words in this creed to avoid any misgivings until I could teach on them. One word is in this phrase. In the original version of the creed, it says, “He was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell.” At this, many have freaked out. Some freak out for a good reason, thinking that we are confessing what the Roman Catholics believe. The Roman Catholics believe that the souls of the OT saints were held in Limbo, which was a holding place until Christ could save them. So, they say that when Christ died, he went to Limbo and set them free. But, we are not confessing a belief in Limbo to say that Christ descended into hell or the grave. Others might worry that we are confessing what some other denominations believe – that Jesus preached to those in hell and gave them the opportunity to repent. That would set up obvious problems for our belief in repentance and faith as the only way to receive salvation. But, we aren’t confessing a second chance after judgment. Still others might wonder, how is that Jesus, the Son of God, could suffer the judgment of Hell? You might think, sure, I get that he suffered physical and emotional pain. I believe that all of his life was suffering. But, I just can’t believe that Jesus would face the judgment of Hell? Well, in some sense, that is what we are saying, because that is what the Bible teaches. And, I hope you will see that the spiritual suffering of Jesus was necessary for our salvation.

To see this, we need to answer two questions: what is Hell, and why must Jesus suffer it? First, understand that Hell consists of two important characteristics. One characteristic of Hell is that it is separation. I want to be clear in using this word. Remember, God is omnipresent, which is to say that he is present everywhere. As Psalm 139 says, he is even present in Sheol or Hell. But, the presence of God in Hell is far different from the way we experience him now, and especially the way we will know him in Heaven. In Hell, we are separated from the blessing of God. In Hell, God removes his hand of grace and mercy. In Hell, God does not enable us to flourish. In Hell, there is no hope or faith or love or kindness or gentleness or self-control. We find this form of judgment by separation throughout Scripture. In Genesis 3, when God judged man and woman for their sin, he “cast them out” of the garden. He separated them from the blessing of life that could be found in relationship with him. Because of the sin and shame of Abraham and Sarah, Hagar was cast out into the desert. Due to the jealously of his brothers, Joseph was cast away to Egypt. In the Levitical law, those who sinned in certain ways or had certain diseases were to be cast out of the camp, separated from the life of God’s people and the blessings that came with it. The sacrificial law of the OT also had a ritual of separation. Once a year, the priest would take a goat, lay his hands on the goat’s head, and name the sins of the people. Then, the priests would drive this goat out of the city, out into the wilderness. It was a scape-goat that carried away the sins of the people by being separated in Judgment.

In Matt. 27:46, the Gospel writer records that Jesus hung on the cross in anguish, and in the middle of the afternoon he looked up to heaven and cried out, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani”, which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” Now, I want you to let this sink in. Jesus is the eternal son of God, who has been with the Father from all of eternity past – very God of very God. All he has ever known is the infinite, perfect love of his Father. But now, in this terrible moment, he is forsaken, cast out, shunned, rejected. No wonder darkness had fallen over Jerusalem in the hour of his crucifixion, as heaven and earth felt the weight of the Father’s forsaking.

But, why must Jesus be separated from his Father? To answer this, look with me to 2 Cor. 5:21. Here, Paul draws on the OT concept of the scape-goat to answer this question. The only way that we could receive forgiveness was for the Son of God to become sin for us. As Isaiah 53 says, “He laid on him the iniquity of us all.” In this great moment of physical anguish on the cross, Jesus suffered the spiritual anguish of separation from God because he took on the sins of the world and became an outcast for it. So, we confess that Jesus “descended into the grave”, because we believe that he was separated from the love of God for our sins.

Second, Hell is punishment. In the Parable of the Sheep and Goats from Matt. 25, Jesus prophesies that the Sheep will enter into eternal life, but the goats will go away into “eternal punishment.” The word that Jesus uses to describe Hell in verse 46 of that parable is “kolasis”, which means penalty or torment. Understand, Hell is not just separation from God, for a fool might think that he has gotten off easy at that. No, Hell is also torment. In fact, most times, Hell is represented as both separation and torment in the same sentence. In this parable, he tells the goats to “depart” from him (separation) into eternal punishment (torment). In the parable of the Wedding Feast in Matt. 22, the king commands that the uninvited guest be cast into utter darkness (separation) where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth (torment). Hell is both a physical and spiritual anguish. In Hell, men and women grind their teeth in the pains of guilt, shame, and despair. In Hell, there is no relief from the failures of life, just constant reminders of missed opportunities, lost love, and hopelessness. In Hell, there is the constant sound of weeping over sorrows that cannot be healed.

Luke 22:44 tells us of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before his crucifixion. Knowing what is to come: the judgment of men, the pain of the cross, and the rejection of God, he prays, “Father, if it is possible, take this cup from me. But not my will but yours be done.” Then, Luke records “And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” This sweating of blood was not symbolic. There is a condition under which someone can sweat blood – when a person is so intensely stressed, his blood pressure so high with anxiety, that the capillaries on the surface of his skin burst and seep into his pores. Imagine that level of stress and agony over the judgment of God. Jesus was tormented by the punishment of God to come on him because of the sins of humanity.

So, why must Jesus face the punishment of God? Gal. 3:13 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.” Jesus became a curse for us. He took our punishment, not just with the beatings of a whip or the nails of a cross, but with the torment and anguish of God’s judgment. Jesus took the wrath of God, wrath that flooded the entire earth, that turned a river to blood, turned all the land dark, killed all the firstborn of Egypt, and parted the Red Sea. In the death of Christ, the wrath of God against your sins was satisfied. So, we confess that Jesus descended into the grave, taking the punishment of God for our sins, taking the curse of death for us.

Friend, if you have never trusted in Christ as your savior, the wrath of God is still upon you. A Hell of separation and torment still awaits those who reject Jesus Christ. Won’t you trust in the one who has already faced those things for you?

Brothers and sisters, we have been forgiven through the work of Jesus. We have been set free from the sting of death and the anguish of Hell. May we leave this place and live for the one who has taken our curse for us.