Jesus Buried and Descended Into Hell

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: Psalm 16; Lord's Day 16
Psalters: 137, 339, 102, 28
  1. Buried.
    1. Jesus’ burial was a part of the humiliation required by our sins and the punishment they deserve.
      1. It was not necessary in order to prove that he was actually dead.
      2. Rather, Jesus was buried because the grave is a part of death; burial belongs to the experience of death.
    2. Jesus was buried to show that He experienced all of death, and that He conquered it too.
      1. Jesus entered the grave with His burial to show us that the grave has no victory over us.
      2. Jesus’ burial was different from ours because He had finished the payment of sin.
      3. As proof that He conquered the grave, Jesus changed the grave into a garden, a seedbed.
  2. Jesus’ deepest humiliation was His descension into hell.
    1. There are errant views about Christ’s descension into hell taught by Roman Catholics and by Lutherans.
      1. Both views are in error.
      2. The meaning of I Peter 3:18-20.
    2. The Reformed faith has always believed that the Apostles’ Creed presents a logical order of severity, not a temporal order.
      1. This statement expresses powerfully the Bible’s teaching on our Lord’s suffering.
      2. Jesus suffered the agonies of hell (God’s wrath), without needing to go to the place of hell.
      3. Therefore it is listed last in the Apostles’ Creed because it is the worst of His humiliation.
    3. Jesus’ descension into hell provides great comfort to God’s people.
      1. The knowledge of hell makes us appreciate the wonder of Christ’s death.
      2. In the times of our greatest temptations and personal crises we may know that Christ went to hell for us.