“Jesus went to hell for me?!” The voice was full of astonishment, unbelief, and awe! “How could this be that the Son Of God would go to the depths of hell for me!”
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” (Ephesians 2:4-5) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
The Scriptures say, “Now this, ‘He ascended’—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?” (Ephesians 4:9) Jesus not only ascended to the right hand of the Father, but He also descended into the lower parts of the earth! When He cried out with a load voice, “IT IS FINISHED!!”, He died that death and descended into hell for you and me.
How could that be that He cried out with a loud voice for all to hear? When He was crucified, His hands and feet were nailed to that cross, arms spread out, all for us! Naturally speaking, He would have to push up on that spike through His feet to breathe. His body in a hanging position, hanging from spikes in His hands (wrists) would not allow air to enter His lungs. To get His next breath, He must relieve the pressure on His chest by pushing up, or He would die of asphyxiation (lack of air). Certainly, no one dying from asphyxiation would have the breath to cry out with a loud voice. But Jesus was not “crying” in pain, agony, or hopelessness. He was crying out from His spirit a declaration of faith that our bondage to corruption was over!!
Then as His spirit and soul left that body hanging, He stepped into hell. Into the worst, deepest, darkest places of hell He went for you and for me. In hell is weeping and gnashing teeth. In hell is the total absence of God and the knowledge of God. Hell is absolute torture, torment, crying, unbearable heat, with thirst, hunger, and pain that cannot be quenched or helped in any way. It is the bottomless pit, a perpetual feeling of falling with no end to it, screaming with no utterance, running away with no escaping.
But Jesus, stepping into that deep, dark Godless existence, lifted up His hands to God and starting praising and rejoicing over the perfectly completed work He had accomplished in the cross, stripes, and crown by God’s Grace for our total and complete triumph! The Passion Translation captures the moment gloriously:
“He canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all—our sins, our stained soul—he deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved! Everything we once were in Adam has been placed onto his cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation.
Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were his!”
(Colossians 2:14-15TPT)
Referring to the time God brought His people out of Egypt through Moses, Psalm 105:37,43 declares, “He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among His tribes. He brought out His people with joy, His chosen ones with gladness.”
If God could bring His people out of Egyptian slavery through Moses with the spiritual force of Joy, how much more God, through the Joy and Praise of His own Son could bring us forth out of hell, saved, changed, and with our inheritance from God and not a feeble one among us!
There is a hell to shun, but also a heavenly divine destiny for your life to gain! How can we not praise and celebrate with Jesus the Great Salvation Victory He won for us!
Praising God was His action of faith that He had just finished a complete and perfect work in the cross, the stripes, and the crown for you in a place where there was no evidence at all that He had accomplished anything! If He could do that for three days for you, surely you can lift your hands praising and thanking Jesus for five minutes every morning and night for what He did for you! Just as Jesus did as His action of faith in hell, you can do now as your action of faith believing you have RECOVERED ALL!!