August 7, 2009

What do we mean when we confess in the
Apostle’s Creed, “He descended into hell”

That’s a good question. First, let’s state
what we do not mean, i.e., what the Bible does
not teach. Remember, a confession or creed is
only as good as it is biblical, and we Presbyteri-
ans believe that the Apostle’s Creed, Nicene
Creed, and Westminster Standards are biblical
– or else we wouldn’t affirm them. Our expla-
nation of the phrases of the creeds must be
based upon Scripture. When we say that Jesus
descended into hell: 1) We do not mean that
the soul of Jesus went to a physical hell until the
resurrection; rather, the Bible teaches that the
human body of Jesus went into His grave, and
His human soul went immediately into heaven
to be with His heavenly Father. As He told the
thief on the cross, “Truly I say to you, today
you shall be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).
He had committed His soul into the hand of the
Father (Luke 23:46). 2) We do not mean that
the soul of Jesus went into hell to release Old
Testament saints from spiritual captivity or to
give unconverted souls a second chance to hear
the gospel again from Him or to declare His
triumph over the forces of darkness. This un-
derstanding of the phrase flows from a misun-
derstanding of I Peter 3:18-22 (as well as I Peter
4:6 and Ephesians 4:9-10). I Peter 3:18-22 is
speaking of the preaching of Jesus to the people
of Noah’s day, during Noah’s day, and through
Noah (cf. II Peter 2:5). The spirits are now in
prison, but Jesus’ proclamation to them oc-
curred when they were still alive on earth.
So what does the phrase mean? Well, there
have been at least two main ways to understand
the phrase biblically, depending on whether you
take the word “hell” as referring to. Some refer
it to the spiritual anguish and hellish torments
which He suffered, particularly on the cross
(e.g., Calvin, Institutes, II.xvi.10 – “If Christ had
died only a bodily death, it would have been ineffec-
tual. No – it was expedient at the same time for
him to undergo the severity of God’s vengeance, to
appease his wrath and satisfy his just judg-
ment…[T]he Creed sets forth what Christ suffered
in the sight of men, and then appositely speaks of
that invisible and incomprehensible judgment which
he underwent in the sight of God in order that we
might know not only that Christ’s body was given as
the price of our redemption, but that he paid a
greater and more excellent price in suffering in his
soul the terrible torments of a condemned and for-
saken man.”). Others maintain that it is driving
home the reality of Christ’s death and pertains
to His state of death, the time between His
death and resurrection from the dead (e.g., the
Westminster Larger Catechism #50 – “Christ’s
humiliation after his death consisted in his being
buried (I Cor. 15:3-4), and continuing in the state of
the dead, and under the power of death till the third
day (Psa. 16:10; Acts 2:24-27, 31; Rom. 6:9; Matt.
12:40); which hath been otherwise expressed in
these words, he descended into hell.”). The latter
fits better with the word “hades/sheol,” upon
which the language of a descent into hell (or
more properly translated, “the grave/place of the
dead”) is based (see Psalm 6:5; 16:10; Acts 2:31).
But Francis Turretin (1623-1687), an Italian theo-
logian in Geneva a century after Calvin, has
noted that this is a disagreement in which we do
not need to take sides: “If it is asked which of
these two opinions ought to be retained, we answer
both can be admitted and be made to agree per-
fectly with each other. Thus by the descent into hell
may be understood the extreme degree of Christ’s
suffering and humiliation, both as to soul and body;
and as the lowest degree of humiliation as to the
body was its detention in the sepulcher [grave], so as
to the soul were those dreadful torments he felt. And
thus this last article will be apposite [fitting] for ex-
pressing the last degree of Christ’s humiliation,
whether as to disgrace of body or as to anguish of
soul” (Institutes, Q.xvi).
To confess that you believe that Christ de-
scended into hell is to say that Christ has suf-
fered fully and perfectly for your sins, taking
upon Himself the wages of sin that we earned,
that we might know life abundant and eternal.
He has been humiliated to the uttermost, that
we might be exalted with Him on high. Confess
this truth with your lips and your heart and re-
joice that you have such a Savior!
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