Whatever one believes Jesus did or didn’t do while in the
tomb, is of no consequence to their relationship with God. No one can say for
certain what Jesus did while absent from his body. The scripture does not
specify any event which may have taken place. We are to believe that Jesus,
lived, died, was raised from the dead, and through Jesus we are the children of
God. That basically is the gospel, or translated, good news.
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Was crucified, died and
was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the
dead; he ascended into heaven,
Book of Common Prayer
(1662) Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell. Book of Common
Worship (2000). Was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.
was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the
dead. alternative reading: he descended into hell.
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Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people." (When it says, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)[1]
Shout for joy, O heavens, for the LORD has
done it! Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into
a shout of joy, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it.[3]
But the righteousness that comes from faith
says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven? (that is,
to bring Christ down or 'Who will descend into the abyss?'"
(that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).[4]
In later Judaism the Hebrew word tehôm
signified 1. The original flood; 2. The depths of the earth, in which corpses
causing defilement; and 3. Under the influence of Persian and Hellenistic
conceptions, the place in which runagate (renegade) spirits are confined.[5]
We find the third meaning of abyss mentioned above in the
writing of Peter:
For if God did not spare angels when they
sinned, but cast them into hell (the deepest abyss)[6] and committed them to pits of darkness,
reserved for judgment;[7]
And angels who did not keep their own domain,
but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness
for the judgment of the great day,[8]
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And war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, proclaiming, "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah, for the accuser of our comrades has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life even in the face of death.[10]
The important point is that victory over Satan was
accomplished by “the blood
of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they did not cling to life
even in the face of death.” Paul told the Roman believers that by their
lives, Satan would be defeated, “The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet.”[11] This looks back to the
curse God put on the snake in the garden of Eden.[12] The Hebrew writer said, “through death Jesus might render powerless him who
had the power of death, that is, the devil.”[13] “The blood of the Lamb” and “the
death of Jesus”, are synonymous in the context of victory over Satan. Jesus was
the supreme sacrifice, through which people have access to God.
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One of the thieves crucified at the same time as Jesus said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in Paradise.”[14] The word paradise means a garden or park. The name Eden referred to the location of the first paradise. Jews in New Testament times combined paradise with “end of the world” hope. In his writing Paul referred to a man who “was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words,”[15] To the faithful Jesus said, “To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.”[16] The language used suggests that the thief was looking ahead to the event of Jesus return in his kingdom, not to an immediate event connected to traditional thought on where the dead go.
Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.[17]
The response of Jesus saying, “today you shall be with me in Paradise”, tells us
that he himself would be in that same place. One has to consider Jesus’ last statements on
the cross;
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a
loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My
God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"[18]
And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said,
"Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." Having said this, He
breathed His last.[19]
Therefore when Jesus had received the sour
wine, He said, "It is finished!"[20]
According to John, Jesus had completed what he came to do.
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For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.[22]
This is why he was proclaimed to those who
have died; it was so that, although physically they would receive the judgment
common to all humanity, they might live by the Spirit in the way that God has
provided.[23] (CJB)
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would
justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham,
saying, "All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you."[24]
It is important to remember that there were no chapters or
verses in the original texts. It is also helpful to read other translations of
the Bible. The King James version was originally written in 1611. 1Pet 4:6 is
in the same context as 1Pe
3:18-20, “He went and
made proclamation to the spirits in prison, who once were disobedient”
and “the gospel has for this
purpose been preached even to those who are dead”. There is no second
chance:
Jesus told a parable of two
men; a poor man named Lazarus
and a rich man:
...the poor man died and was carried away by the
angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. In
Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and
Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have
mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water
and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.' But Abraham
said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and
likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in
agony. 'And besides all this, between us and you
there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to
you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to
us.' And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my
father's house—for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that
they will not also come to this place of torment.' But Abraham said,
'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' But he said, 'No,
father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will
repent!' But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the
Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the
dead.'"
Jesus was, as in other
parables, using the Jewish beliefs of the day concerning where people go when
they die. The main point of the parable was to emphasize that what you do in
life affects where you go in death. Another key point is that there is no
second chance for people after death.
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[1] Eph 4:8-10
[2] Mat 28:18
[3] Isa 44:23
[4] Rom 10:6, 7
[5]
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
[6]
Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries
[7] 2Pe 2:4
[8] Jud 1:6
[9] Luk 10:17-19
[10] Rev 12:7-11
[11] Rom 16:20
[12] Gen 3:15
[13] Heb 2:14
[14] Luk 23:42, 43
[15] 2Co 12:4
[16]
Rev 2:7
[17] Mat 16:28
[18] Mat 27:46
[19] Luk 23:46
[20] Joh 19:30
[21] 1Pe 3:18-20
[22] 1Pe 4:6
[23]
1Pet4:6
[24] Gal 3:8
[25] Heb 9:27
