Jesus willingly gave His life on a Friday afternoon before sunset when the Sabbath began. It is known as Good Friday because He forgave all sin on the Cross and conquered death. Not much is said about the Sabbath day that followed His death and preceded Easter resurrection morning in modern Western churches. Yet it is a profound and central truth of Christianity.
Some do not believe that Jesus went to Hell after His crucifixion. Yet, throughout church history, the day has been celebrated along with Good Friday and Easter Sunday as the Great Sabbath, Holy Saturday, Joyous Saturday, and the Saturday of the Glory/Light because it was the day Jesus descended into Hell while His physical body lay in the tomb, and proclaimed victory over satan and death. The medieval English term for His descent is the 'Harrowing of Hell' (Matthew 12:40; Acts 2:24,31; Romans 10:7; Ephesians 4:9; Colossians 1:18; 1 Peter 3:18-19,4:6).
The ancient world viewed the underworld as the place where the dead went and the "prison" of satan and the evil angels. The word "hell" in Greek is 'hades.' The New Testament uses a few different terms, including the place of eternal torment of the unrighteous, known as the Abyss, Gehenna, Hades, and Sheol.
Jesus assured the thief on the Cross Friday that "today" he would "be with" Him "in paradise" (Gk: 'paradeisos,' which means an enclosed park or garden and is also used to refer to Heaven, the home of God) (Luke 23:43; 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 ESV). "Paradise," also known as "Abraham's Bosom, was one of several metaphorical terms used in the Bible referring to the place/prison where the departed saints of old were placed until the resurrection of Jesus when He "descended into the lower regions," unlocked the gates with the "keys of hell and death, "just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale," and liberated the captive saints there who died waiting for the Messiah and, at the same time, subdued their demonic captors (Matthew 12:40; Ephesians 1:21,2:1,4:8-10). It was part of Hades (aka Hell, or Sheol, in the Old Testament - see Psalm 16:10; 63:9), which was the realm of the dead who were conscious and aware. Hades and Paradise/Abraham's Bosom had a gulf between them (Luke 16:19-31).
Jesus descended to Hell and experienced death like all people do. His body was buried, and His spirit/soul departed from it. He did not descend into the place of torment and experience the horrors of Hell, where those who reject Him as Lord and Savior go to experience the just and righteous wrath of God for eternity.
"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in ever respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15 ESV).
In the early church, there were two prominent statements of similar belief, The Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed. Years after it was written, the Apostles' Creed added the words "he descended into hell [hades]" because it refers to the physical state of death. The terms were used to fight against a growing heresy known as Apollinarianism that taught Jesus had a human body and sensitive human soul, but a divine mind and not a rational human mind, with the Divine Logos taking the place of the latter.
THE APOSTLE'S CREED
The Creeds are one of the church's most ancient confessions. To this day, they are still used by many denominations. The traditional language version affirms that Jesus, as fully human and full God, "descended into hell," and the contemporary version states that Jesus "descended to the dead."
"I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hell. The third day, he rose again from the dead. He ascended to Heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic (or universal) church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen."
These words are to remind and guide us as we acknowledge our trusting-faith in Jesus and understanding of the essential doctrines of Christianity. When we confess that Jesus "descended into hell," we are confirming an event that happened in the past and making a claim that He lives in and through us today and that the One who dwells in us did not consider death and the prison of Hell as barriers blocking Him from saving us.
It also means that we make a radical claim that when Jesus died, He was truly dead. His fate was no different than any other human being. He traveled the final infernal path of all humans. Jesus descended into every dark, terrifying corner of the human dilemma.
The Bible tells us what happened to Jesus between His life, death, and Resurrection:
"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into Heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him." (1 Peter 3:18-22 ESV)
On the Cross, Jesus died a substitutionary death for each of us. He saved us by embracing physical death that comes as a consequence of our sin (Genesis 2:17). He took upon Himself a physical body so that He could die in it as God. As a result, "Death has been swallowed up in victory" and has no power over those who receive Jesus as Lord and Savior and become Born-Again (John 3:3; 1 Corinthians 15:54). He now holds "the keys of Death and of Hades" (Revelation 1:18).
As Jesus was breathing His last breath on the Cross, the atmosphere around Him became dark, an earthquake occurred, and the Veil in the Temple, which represents the barrier between the Most Holy God and us, was torn in two from top to bottom as Jesus spoke His last dying words, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:33,38; Luke 23:44-46)
The torn Veil and Jesus descending into Hell are the same, as the Veil had been a way to separate people from God. Jesus's death, burial, and resurrection are the way anyone can come before the Father without needing an animal sacrifice or priesthood. Jesus removed all barriers that could hinder the person who receives Him as Lord and Savior from going directly to Heaven.
Jesus consciously descended to the place of the dead to proclaim the message of victory over death, the last enemy of humanity, and liberate the souls of the righteous who satan had imprisoned. His victory as King included the Angels of Heaven, the fallen angels, the living, and the dead (See Genesis 6; Jude 6-7). He did not descend into the place of the righteous dead to experience the full impact of human suffering caused by sin because He became the sin bearer on the Cross as the atonement for human sin. He descended because of the work He had already accomplished on the Cross (Isaiah 53:6).
The early church fathers, such as Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus, taught that Jesus went down into the underworld to preach His victory over death and Hell and to release the righteous dead of the Old Testament from the bonds of death.
THE DESCENT INTO HELL
Jesus' descent into Hell is great news and confirms:
- Jesus conquered death and satan. As the second Adam, He reversed the fall of the first Adam and its eternal effects by victoriously liberating those held captive, including Adam and Eve, the prophets, patriarchs, and the righteous. The gates of Hell could not, and cannot, withstand the power of Jesus! (Matthew 16:18)
- Jesus has not forgotten us because of His undying love and affection to rescue fallen people. He did not die for just His people on Earth after He came to Earth. He died for His people in Hell before He came. His descent tells us that He does not forget those who die and that He literally died and came back to new life from a place people usually do not return from without His help.
- Death is a biological fact and the wage of sin. Eternal death is a brutal spiritual consequence of rejecting Jesus as Lord and Savior. To die in one's sins is to be eternally abandoned by Jesus with no hope of returning.
- God is light; no darkness can escape being touched by His never-ending affection and love for us (1 John 1:5). There is no darkness we have endured that Jesus has not experienced.
THE RESURRECTION
The Resurrection of Jesus was from both physical and spiritual death. He alone rose from the place of no return and emerged from it.
"But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held by its power… 'He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption'…This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses" (Acts 2:24-32 ESV).
By His Resurrection, Jesus applied His finished work on the Cross to His human life and ministry on the Earth and declared Himself King over everything, including all of Heaven, Earth, and the kingdom of the enemy and death. These facts were essential to the early church because they fought against rising heresies, which remains important today. Because of Jesus' resurrection, the nature of Paradise/Abraham's Bosom has changed. The righteous dead are no longer waiting for the Messiah because He is currently in their midst.
THE ASCENSION
At His Ascension to Heaven, Jesus applied all of His work to save and declared Himself as Lord of all to eternity and ruler over all things under the Earth, on the Earth, and in Heaven. Because of the Ascension, He is in the midst of those who are Born-Again, the living righteous. He is on His throne in Heaven, and they are positionally with Him.
"And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:9-11 ESV)
Jesus' death and resurrection mean we no longer have to go through rituals or prepare sacrifices to enter God's presence. The ultimate sacrifice has been made and He was it! He willingly was put to death and entered the place of the righteous dead. He didn't stay there. He rose again and will return to take the Born-Again righteous with Him to Heaven for all of eternity!
The "gates of Hell shall not prevail" against us"! (Matthew 16:18) We have nothing to fear from any external enemy, including death and Hell! There is absolutely nothing that can "separate us from the love of" Jesus! (Romans 8:35)
Whether or not you believe that Jesus descended into Hell does not change the fact that by His death, He proclaimed victory over satan and proved that death is not the end for people after they leave Earth. For those who are eager to be with Him and accept His sacrifice by receiving Him as Lord and Savior, the grave is only a short passageway to Heaven and the complete avoidance of Hell. Jesus claimed the keys of Hell from satan so that he would no longer have any control over where a person goes upon their death, while God always did, and always will, have control. That is Great News!
