He Descended Into Hell: What did Christ do between his death and resurrection?

Christ In Storm On Lake Genezareth by Rembrandt

In the explanation that the Heidelberg Catechism provides [in Lord’s Day 16] concerning the words, “he descended into hell,” we read about the inexpressible and hellish suffering that our Savior bore for us during his life on earth. That explanation from Answer 44 is remarkable and comforting. But is it a complete explanation of the words of the Apostles’ Creed? There we find the words “he descended into hell” after we are told of his burial and before we confess his resurrection. It appears as though with these words, the confession wishes to say something as well about Jesus’ activity between his death and resurrection. And that is also the explanation that has become so widespread throughout the Christian churches. Not in opposition to the Catechism, but certainly as an expansion of it.

Some people think at that point of a deliverance of the Old Testament believers from a kind of waiting situation, but nothing is said about that in either the Catechism or the Bible. The most important statement in the Bible in this connection is a statement of our apostle Peter. In 1 Peter 3:19–20 we read this: “He went to the spirits who were sitting imprisoned, in order to proclaim all of this to those who in Noah’s time refused to obey when God waited patiently and the ark was being built.” From these words of Peter it is clear that Christ was showing his victory triumphantly to those who had lived in the world before the flood and had refused to love God.

But who are these “spirits” from the time before the flood? They are either the unbelieving people from that time or (as Van Houwelingen argues in his commentary) fallen angels. Actually, this difference of detail is not as radical as it might appear. In either case it involves the fact that Christ was showing forth and proclaiming his victory. To angels or people from the time of the first (pre-flood) world.

When did he do this? Did he do this by means of his ascension (Van Houwelingen and others)? Of course, a declaration did go forth from the ascension, but in my view there is reason to think in connection with 1 Peter 3:19 first of all of a departure to the realm of the dead in order to proclaim his triumph to the prisoners there (thus Luther and others). To be sure, the verb “depart” that appears in v. 19 is used again in v. 22, there in connection with the ascension; but in v. 22 we are told in so many words that this departure did refer to the ascension (“who had gone into heaven”). In v. 19, however, we read only that our Savior, through the same Spirit whereby he was raised, also “departed to proclaim to the spirits in the prison.” Those spirits in the prison are not in heaven. And “proclaim” is an activity (“preaching”) and is therefore more than a “fact” (such as the ascension). Apparently there was a distinct journey to the place where the spirits from Noah’s time were held captive. That place is not in heaven and not on earth. That must have been a place in the realm of the dead.

Therefore it is not so strange for many to suppose that this must have happened between Christ’s death and his resurrection. For before his death, Jesus was busy proclaiming on earth, and after his resurrection and ascension, he is busy ruling in heaven. A visit to the prison cells of the spirits from Noah’s time must have occurred in the days when our Savior was at work neither on earth nor in heaven. This “descent into hell” was intended, then, to provide there a triumphant proclamation of his victory. And after that proclamation to the prisoners from the first (pre-flood) world, he arose “from the dead ones.” In the New Testament this plural (“the dead ones”) is used: Christ was staying among the dead ones and returned from their midst with the majesty of the Living One. The subsequent words in the Apostles’ Creed, “arose from among the dead ones,” tie in with the preceding words, “descended into hell,” and those words had appeared in turn after the mention of his burial.

At this point some sense a question arising: If there is something like a realm of the dead, then are our deceased loved ones with the Lord? Happily, the answer is: Yes. 1 Peter 3:19 is not talking about Noah and the other (few) believers of his day, but about those who are staying in prison. These are the unbelievers who await the judgment, not the believers. Similarly Moses and Elijah, having come from God’s glory, had been allowed to appear to our Savior and three apostles, on the mount of glorification. But the spirits who before the flood remained impenitent and perished are not dwelling in the glory where Moses and Elijah are permitted to dwell. But neither have they disappeared altogether from the creation: somewhere they are waiting until the Voice calls them for the final judgment. Christ’s descent into hell is a descent to the prison of punishment. Following that comes his return from among the dead ones and his ascension to the Father. There, all the spirits of the justified are dwelling.

In short: even though we may differ about many details in the interpretation of 1 Peter 3, what is clear is that Christ’s victory on the cross led to a shocking proclamation of his kingship in the realm of unbelievers and rebels from the first world. Therefore, the rising of our Savior from the midst of the dead ones is not comparable to the rescue of a drowning person from the water, but with the return of a Conqueror who may wave aloft his banner in the realm of the dead through the same Spirit whereby he later traveled to heaven to live at the right hand of his heavenly Father.

Therefore, his resurrection differs fundamentally from all previous resurrections of the dead. That is the comfort of Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 17, and that is what Christ’s sermon was about.

(This meditation was written by Dr. J. van Bruggen, and is provided here in English translation.)