Christ Descended into Hell
(Explanation
of the doctrine of the descent into hell, 8-12)
8.
“DESCENDED INTO HELL”
But
we ought not to omit his descent into hell, a matter of no small moment in
bringing about redemption. Now it appears from the ancient writers that
this phrase which we read in the Creed was once not so much used in the
churches. Nevertheless, in
setting forth a summary of doctrine a place must be given to it, as it
contains the useful and not-to-bedespised mystery of a most important
matter, bat least some of the old writers do not leave it out.
From this we may conjecture that it was inserted after a time, and
did not become customary in the churches at once, but gradually. This much
is certain: that it reflected the common belief of all the godly; for
there is no one of the fathers who does not mention in his writings
Christ’s descent into hell, though their interpretations vary. But it
matters little by whom or at what time this clause was inserted. Rather,
the noteworthy point about the Creed is this: we have in it a summary of
our faith, full and complete in all details; and containing nothing in it
except what has been derived from the pure Word of God. If any persons
have scruples about admitting this article into the Creed, it will soon be
made plain how important it is to the sum of our redemption: if it is left
out, much of the benefit of Christ’s death will be lost. On the other
hand, there are some who think that nothing new is spoken of in this
article, but that it repeats in other words what had previously been said
of his burial, the word “hell” often being used in Scripture to denote
a grave. I grant that what
they put forward concerning the meaning of the word is true: “hell” is
frequently to be understood as “grave.” But two reasons militate
against their opinion, and readily persuade me to disagree with them. How
careless it would have been, when something not at all difficult in itself
has been stated with clear and easy words, to indicate it again in words
that obscure rather than clarify it! Whenever two expressions for the same
thing are used in the same context, the latter ought to be an explanation
of the former. But what sort of explanation will it be if one says that
“Christ was buried” means that “he descended into hell”? Secondly,
it is not likely that a useless repetition of this sort could have crept
into this summary, which the chief points of our faith are aptly noted in
the fewest possible words. I have no doubt that all who have weighed this
matter with some care will readily agree with me.
9.
CHRIST IN THE NETHER WORLD?
Others
interpret it differently: that Christ descended to the souls of the
patriarchs who had died under the law, to announce redemption as
accomplished and to free them from the prison where they were confined. To
back up this interpretation, they wrongly adduce evidence from a psalm:
“He shatters the doors of bronze and the bars of iron” [Psalm 107:16].
Likewise, from Zechariah: “He will redeem the captives from the
waterless pit” [Zechariah 9:11 p.]. But the psalm foretells the
liberation of those who are cast into bondage in far-off countries;
Zechariah, moreover, compares the Babylonian disaster, into which the
people had been cast, to a deep, dry pit or abyss, and at the same time
teaches that the salvation of the whole church is a release from the
nether depths. Thus, it has happened in some way or other that later
generations thought it to be a place under the earth, to which they gave
the name “Limbo.” But this story, although it is repeated by great
authors, and even today is earnestly defended as true by many persons,
still is nothing but a story. It is childish to enclose the souls of the
dead in a prison. What need, then, for Christ’s soul to go down there to
release them? I readily admit that Christ shone upon them with the power
of his Spirit, enabling them to realize that the grace which they had only
tasted in hope was then manifested to the world. In this way the passage in Peter can probably be explained
wherein he says: “Christ came and preached to the spirits were in a
‘watchtower — commonly rendered ‘prison’” [1 Peter 3:19, cf.
Vg.]. The context leads us to suppose that believers who died before that
time shared the same grace with us. For Peter extols the power of
Christ’s death in that it penetrated even to the dead; while godly souls
enjoyed the present sight of that visitation which they had anxiously
awaited. On the other hand, the wicked realized more clearly that they
were excluded from all salvation. Now, while Peter does not clearly
distinguish between the godly and the ungodly, we are not therefore to
understand that he mixes them indiscriminately. He only means to teach
that both groups have a common awareness of Christ’s death.
10.
THE “DESCENT INTO HELL” AS AN EXPRESSION OF THE SPIRITUAL TORMENT THAT
CHRIST UNDERWENT FOR US
But
we must seek a surer explanation, apart from the Creed, of Christ’s
descent into hell. The explanation given to us in God’s Word is not only
holy and pious, but also full of wonderful consolation. If Christ had died
only a bodily death, it would have been ineffectual. 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 judgment. For this
reason, he must also grapple hand to hand with the armies of hell and the
dread of everlasting death. A
little while ago we referred to the prophet’s statement that “the
chastisement of our peace was laid upon him,” “he was wounded for our
transgressions” by the Father, “he was bruised for our infirmities”
[Isaiah 53:5 p.]. By these words he means that Christ was put in place of
evildoers as surety and pledge — submitting himself even as the accused
— to bear and suffer all the punishments that they ought to have
sustained. All — with this one exception: “He could not be held by the
pangs of death” [Acts 2:24 p.]. No wonder, then, if he is said to have
descended into hell, for he suffered the death that, God in his wrath had
inflicted upon the wicked! Those who — on the ground that it is absurd
to put after his burial what preceded it — say that the order is
reversed in this way are making a very trifling and ridiculous objection.
The point is that the 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 forsaken
man.
11.
DEFENSE OF THIS EXPLANATION FROM SCRIPTURE PASSAGES
In
this sense Peter says: “Christ arose, having loosed the pangs of death,
because it was not possible for him to be held or conquered by them”
[Acts 2:24 p.]. Peter does not simply name death, but expressly states
that the Son of God had been laid hold of by the pangs of death that arose
from God’s curse and wrath — the source of death. For what a small
thing it would have been to have gone forward with nothing to fear and, as
if in sport, to suffer death! But this was a true proof of his boundless
mercy, that he did not shun death, however much he dreaded it. There is no
doubt that the apostle means the same thing when he writes in the Letter
to the Hebrews: Christ “was heard for his …fear” [Hebrews 5:7 p.].
(Others render it “reverence” or “piety,” but how inappropriately
is evident from the fact itself, as well as the form of speaking.) Christ,
therefore, “praying with tears and loud cries, …is heard for his
…fear” [Hebrews 5:7 p.]; he does not pray to be spared death, but he
prays not to be swallowed up by it as a sinner because he there bore our
nature, and surely no more terrible abyss can be conceived than to feel
yourself forsaken and estranged from God; and when you call upon him, not
to be heard. It is as if God himself had plotted your ruin. We see that
Christ was so cast down as to be compelled to cry out in deep anguish:
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” [Psalm 22:1; Matthew
27:46]. Now some would have it that he was expressing the opinion of
others rather than his own feeling. This is not at all probable, for his words clearly were drawn
forth from anguish deep within his heart. Yet we do not suggest that God
was ever inimical or angry toward him. How could he be angry toward his
beloved Son, “in whom his heart reposed” [cf. Matthew 3:17]? How could
Christ by his intercession appease the Father toward others, if he were
himself hateful to God? This is what we are saying: he bore the weight of
divine severity, since he was “stricken and afflicted” [cf. Isaiah
53:5] by God’s hand, and experienced all the signs of a wrathful and
avenging God. Therefore Hilary reasons: by his descent into hell we have
obtained this, that death has been overcome. In other passages he does not
differ from our view, as when he says: “The cross, death, hell — these
are our life.” In another place: “The Son of God is in hell, but man
is borne up to heaven.” And why do I quote the testimony of a private individual when
the apostle, recalling this fruit of victory, asserts the same thing, that
they were “delivered who through fear of death were subject to lifelong
bondage”? [Hebrews 2:l5 p.]. He had, therefore, to conquer that fear
which by nature continually torments and oppresses all mortals. This he
could do only by fighting it. Now it will soon be more apparent that his
was no common sorrow or one engendered by a light cause. Therefore, by his
wrestling hand to hand with the devil’s power, with the dread of death,
with the pains of hell, he was victorious and triumphed over them, that in
death we may not now fear those things which our Prince has swallowed up
[cf. 1 Peter 3:22, Vg.].
12.
DEFENSE OF THE DOCTRINE AGAINST MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND ERRORS
Here
certain untutored wretches, impelled more by malice than by ignorance, cry
out that I am doing a frightful injustice to Christ. For they hold it
incongruous for him to fear for the salvation of his soul. Then they stir
up a harsher slander: that I attribute to the Son of God a despair
contrary to faith. First,
these men wickedly raise a controversy over Christ’s fear and dread,
which the Evangelists so openly relate. For before the hour of death
approached, “he was troubled in spirit” [John 13:21] and stricken with
grief, and when it came upon him, he, began to tremble more intensely with
fear [cf. Matthew 26:37]. To say that he was pretending — as they do —
is a foul evasion. We must with assurance, therefore, confess Christ’s
sorrow, as Ambrose rightly teaches, unless we are ashamed of the cross.
And surely, unless his soul shared in the punishment, he would have been
the Redeemer of bodies alone. But he had to struggle to lift up those who
lay prostrate. His goodness — never sufficiently praised — shines in
this: he did not shrink from taking our weaknesses upon himself. Hence, it
in nowise detracts from his heavenly glory. From this also arises the
comfort for our anguish and sorrow that the apostle holds out to us: that
this Mediator has experienced our weaknesses the better to succor us in
our miseries [Hebrews 4:15a].
They
claim that it is unworthy to attribute to Christ something evil of itself.
As if they were wiser than God’s Spirit, who harmonizes these two
things! “Christ in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without
sinning.” [Hebrews 4:15b.] There is no reason why Christ’s weakness
should alarm us. For he was not compelled by violence or necessity, but
was induced purely by his love for us and by his mercy to submit to it.
But all that he voluntarily suffered for us does not in the least detract
from his power. These detractors are, moreover, deceived in this one
point: they do not recognize in Christ a weakness pure and free of all
vice and stain because he held himself within the bounds of obedience. Our
fallen nature, whose violent and turbulent emotions know no bounds, is
without moderation. Hence, our opponents wrongly measure the Son of God by
that standard. But since he was uncorrupted, a moderation that restrained
excess flourished in all his emotions. Hence, he could be like us [cf.
Hebrews 2:17] in sorrow, fear, and dread, yet in such a way as to differ
from us by this characteristic.
Our
opponents, refuted, jump to another misrepresentation: although Christ
feared death, he did not fear God’s curse and wrath, from which he knew
himself to be safe. But let godly readers consider how honorable it would
be for Christ to have been more unmanly and cowardly than most men of the
common sort! Thieves and other wrongdoers arrogantly hasten to death; many
despise it with haughty courage; others bear it calmly. What sort of
constancy or greatness would it have been for the Son of God to be
stricken and almost stupefied with the dread of death? Something commonly
considered miraculous was related about him: from the fierceness of his
torment, drops of blood flowed from his face [Luke 22:44]. And he did not
do this as a show for others’ eyes, since he groaned to his Father in
secret. This banishes all doubt: he had to have angels descend from heaven
to encourage him by their unaccustomed consolation [Luke 22:43]. What
shameful softness would it have been (as I have said) for Christ to be so
tortured by the dread of common death as to sweat blood, and to be able to
be revived only at the appearance of angels? What? Does not that prayer,
coming from unbelievable bitterness of heart and repeated three times —
“Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” [Matthew 26:39]
— show that Christ had a harsher and more difficult struggle than with
common death?
From
this it appears that these quibblers with whom I am contending boldly
chatter about things they know nothing of. For they have never earnestly
considered what it is or means that we have been redeemed from God’s
judgment. Yet this is our wisdom: duly to feel how much our salvation cost
the Son of God.
Suppose
someone should now ask whether Christ descended into hell when he prayed
that death be averted. I
reply: this was the beginning from which we may gather what harsh and
dreadful torments he suffered, when he knew that he stood accused before
God’s judgment seat for our sake. Although the divine power of his
Spirit remained hidden for a moment to give place to weakness of flesh, we
must know that the trial arising from the feeling of pain and fear was not
contrary to faith. And in this way the statement in Peter’s sermon was
fulfilled: “He could not be held by the pangs of death” [Acts 2:24
p.]. For feeling himself, as it were, forsaken by God, he did not waver in
the least from trust in his goodness. This is proved by that remarkable
prayer to God in which he cried out in acute agony: “My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?” [Matthew 27:46]. For even though he suffered
beyond measure, he did not cease to call him his God, by whom he cried out
that he had been forsaken. Now this refutes the error of Apollinaris, as
well as that of the so-called Monothelites. Apollinaris claimed that
Christ had an eternal spirit instead of a soul, so that he was only half a
man. As if he could atone for
our sins in any other way than by obeying the Father! But where is
inclination or will to obey except in the soul? We know that it was for
this reason that his soul was troubled: to drive away fear and bring peace
and repose to our souls. Against the Monothelites, we see that he did not
will as man what he willed according to his divine nature. I pass over the
fact that, with a contrary emotion, he overcame the fear of which we have
spoken. This plainly appears to be a great paradox: “‘Father, save me
from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father,
glorify thy name” [John 12:27-28]. Yet in his perplexity there was no
extravagant behavior such as is seen in us when we strive mightily to
control ourselves.
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
(Philadelphia, 1960), Book II, Chapter 16, pp. 512-520