Jesus Buried and Descended Into Hell
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
3/12/2017 AM
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Text:
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Psalm 16;
Lord's Day 16
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Psalters: |
137, 339, 102, 28 |
- Buried.
- Jesus’ burial was a part of the humiliation required by our sins and the punishment they deserve.
- It was not necessary in order to prove that he was actually dead.
- Rather, Jesus was buried because the grave is a part of death; burial belongs to the experience of death.
- Jesus was buried to show that He experienced all of death, and that He conquered it too.
- Jesus entered the grave with His burial to show us that the grave has no victory over us.
- Jesus’ burial was different from ours because He had finished the payment of sin.
- As proof that He conquered the grave, Jesus changed the grave into a garden, a seedbed.
- Jesus’ deepest humiliation was His descension into hell.
- There are errant views about Christ’s descension into hell taught by Roman Catholics and by Lutherans.
- Both views are in error.
- The meaning of I Peter 3:18-20.
- The Reformed faith has always believed that the Apostles’ Creed presents a logical order of severity, not a temporal order.
- This statement expresses powerfully the Bible’s teaching on our Lord’s suffering.
- Jesus suffered the agonies of hell (God’s wrath), without needing to go to the place of hell.
- Therefore it is listed last in the Apostles’ Creed because it is the worst of His humiliation.
- Jesus’ descension into hell provides great comfort to God’s people.
- The knowledge of hell makes us appreciate the wonder of Christ’s death.
- In the times of our greatest temptations and personal crises we may know that Christ went to hell for us.