“Back to the basics: Descended into hell”
I Peter 3:18-20
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
Born in June of 1925, the seventh of twelve children, Audie Murphy was an American soldier, rancher, actor and songwriter. And in time, he became the most decorated combat soldier of World War II, receiving numerous awards for heroism from the United States, France and Belgium. He even received the Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest award for valor, at the age of nineteen!
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, his sister helped him to change his birth certificate so he could enlist in the Army. Then off he went to war, first in France and then in Sicily.
But in January of 1945, while he was commanding his company of men on the border between France and Germany, the Germans scored a direct hit on his tank destroyer, setting it on fire. And as he ordered his men to retreat into the woods, he stayed at his post, shooting his M1 and then his .50 caliber machine gun at the Germans while the Germans fired on him. And over the next hour, till he ran out of ammunition, he killed or wounded as many as fifty German soldiers. And even though he’d been shot in the leg, he managed to lead his men back to fight off the Germans.
If you want to know more, you can read his book or even watch the movie, To Hell and Back.
The Apostles’ Creed talks about Someone Else who went to hell and back. And you can read His story in the words of I Peter chapter 3. I’ll begin at verse 18: “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” (I Peter 3:18-19).
Let me backtrack for just a moment. As you probably already know, the Apostles’ Creed is one of three creeds of the Christian church, right alongside the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed. It dates back to as early as three hundred years after Christ, as men sought to put into words what they believed by faith.
And though you won’t find the Creed in Scripture, it’s based completely on Scripture. For example, “I believe in God the Father almighty” comes from the words of Isaiah chapter 63 and Matthew chapter 23, and “Maker of heaven and earth” comes from Genesis chapter 1. “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord” comes from Psalm 2 and John chapter 1, and “Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary” comes from Isaiah chapter 7 and Luke chapter 1. “Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried” comes from Isaiah chapter 53 and John chapter 19. And now “He descended into hell” comes from I Peter chapter 3.
Also you should know that, now that we’ve come to these words, “He descended into hell,” something’s changed. Up until now, most of the phrases have been in the passive voice: “He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, was crucified…was buried.” These words describe things that happened to Jesus or things that were done to Him by others.
But now, when the Creed comes to this phrase, it switches from the passive voice to the active: “He descended into hell.”
What’s that mean? It means that while so many other things had been done to Him, this is something He did on His own initiative. He who was the highest of the high left heaven, came to earth, and in His death and burial, descended to the absolute lowest place of all. It didn’t happen by accident. He did it intentionally, on purpose. It was all part of His design.
Also you should know that, when Peter wrote these words, he was writing to a church that was under attack. Like so many believers, they thought that, because they believed in Jesus and that Jesus was victorious, they too should be experiencing the same joy and success and victory in their lives here and now.
But they weren’t. They were suffering hatred and hostility from the world around them. Their marriages and families were far from perfect, and tensions and divisions were common in their church and their homes. As far as anyone could tell, the devil was winning and they were losing.
So how would he encourage them and comfort them for the days ahead? He didn’t promise that it was all going to get better. He didn’t guarantee that if they tried really hard the suffering would all go away. Instead, he calmly and clearly told them that suffering was an inevitable part of life in a broken, sinful world. Then he pointed them to Christ.
That’s why he wrote: “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” (I Peter 3:18-19).
So what do these words mean, “He descended into hell”? I mean, after all, how did He “descend” into hell and why and when? And what “hell” did He descend into? And exactly to whom did He preach when He went there? And what happened after He left?
First, let me say what these words don’t mean. They don’t mean that Jesus simply died and was buried. “Put to death in the flesh” and “proclaimed to the spirits in prison” mean so much more than just that.
And neither do they mean He came to give anyone a second chance. After all, the book of Hebrews says, “It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
So what do these words mean, “He descended into hell”?
First, let’s ask, what’s hell? What does the Bible say?
First, let me say what it’s not. It’s not annihilation, it’s not a temporary place of purging, it’s not the grave, and it’s certainly not some cute little story or scare tactic the church uses if and when it feels like it. Instead, hell is a real place filled with real fallen angels and real people.
The Bible says hell is eternal. It’s forever. You’ll find that in the book of Revelation chapter 20: “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). Paul wrote in his first letter to the Thessalonians: “They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power” (II Thessalonians 1:9). And he wrote to the Galatians: “If anyone preaches a gospel other than what we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” (Galatians 1:8).
Hell is a place of unquenchable fire. That’s what John the Baptist said in Matthew chapter 3: “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and will gather His wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Hell is a place of misery, pain, frustration and anger. In hell, there is no illusion about how good you are or what anyone did to deserve this. The reason is perfectly clear. “He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb,” says Revelation 14. And Jesus said in Luke 13, “There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out.”
And hell is a place where there is no hope.
It’s been said that one of the wonderful graces that God gives is hope. Whether you’re Christian or non-Christian, believer or unbeliever, you live with some sense of hope. It’s a gift God has given to humanity. It’s a way to cope.
Things in life often don’t turn out the way we want. Life is full of frustrations and disappointments and unfulfilled ambitions and dreams. And the only way we can survive the tragedies of this life is to hope for something better—a better future, a better career, a better relationship, a better cure. And to live life without hope would make life unbearable.
Imagine what would happen if everything in your life was as bad as it could be? Take everything bad that’s ever happened to you and make it permanent—all the pain, all the disappointment, all the failure, all the hatred, all the bitterness, all the fear, all the anxiety—and experience it to the full. Then add this—there is no hope. It cannot and will not ever get better. And imagine what it would be like to endure the severest torture, the most profound and relentless physical and mental, spiritual and emotional torment, and you suffered it all the time and you knew there would never be even one moment of relief, that nothing would ever change, that’s hell—a place of profound suffering, compounded infinitely by the realization that it will never end, that it will last forever.
In the book of Luke chapter 16, Jesus told a story just like that, about a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus. If you know the story, you know that as poor Lazarus lay at the gate begging, the dogs licking his wounds, he hoped for just a crumb to fall from the rich man’s table. And then there was the rich man, Jesus said, dressed in the best this world had to offer.
And when it came time for each to die, both received their eternal reward, Lazarus resting in the arms of Abraham and the rich man enduring the fires of hell. For all his money, luxury, power and prestige, the rich man could buy a big funeral, but he certainly couldn’t buy his way into heaven.
And what did he say? “Please, father Abraham, I beg you, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.”
Torment. Conscious torment. Forever and ever.
C. S. Lewis was told about a gravestone that read, “Here lies an atheist—all dressed up and nowhere to go.” To which Lewis quietly replied, “I bet he wishes that were so.”
And one day, when Calvin Coolidge was presiding over the Senate, one senator angrily told another to go “straight to hell.” And as the offended senator complained to Coolidge as the presiding officer, he looked up from the book he was leafing through and replied, “I’ve looked through the rule book and it says you don’t have to go.”
But that’s exactly where Jesus went, to the absolute, most dreaded place anyone could go. And not only did He go there, He came back. He lived to tell about it. By His perfect life, His innocent death and His glorious resurrection, He crushed Satan’s head (Genesis 3:15), He destroyed His work (I John 3:8), He abolished his power (Hebrews 2:14), He disarmed his demons (Colossians 2:15), and He sealed his doom forever (John 16:11). That roaring lion who prowls around looking for someone to devour (I Peter 5:8), was defanged and declawed. He can do all he wants--he can tempt us, he can hound us and he can accuse us--but he cannot take the crown of life that Christ has won for us (Revelation 2:10).
As Paul once wrote to the Colossians: “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15).
Sure, the battle will rage on, but the war is over. Satan’s finished! And that’s why we can so boldly and fearlessly say as Luther once said: “Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us, we tremble not, we fear no ill; they shall not overpower us. This world’s prince may still, scowl fierce as he will. He can harm us none. He’s judged; the deed is done! One little word can fell him.”
One more thing--if you think about it, all around us are those who are going to hell, to that very place Jesus went. But there’s only one way to heaven, and that’s through faith in the Lord Jesus, in His death and resurrection, for He is our only Savior and Lord.
That’s the message of Christianity. That’s the only message of Christianity. Tell them while there’s still time.
In the words of Isaiah 55: “Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He’s near. Let the wicked forsake his way, the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).
To show His great power and victory over sin, death and the grave, dear Father, our Savior Jesus once descended into hell. Grant us that same joy in knowing that Satan is conquered and our sins are forgiven, for Jesus’ sake. Amen