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Bored with the Resurrection of Jesus

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the resurrection of JesusI used to be bored with the resurrection of Jesus. You know … it was one of those “Familiarity breeds contempt” doctrines.

Sure, I believed in the resurrection of Jesus.

Yes, I was glad it happened.

But every time I turned to those passages in Scripture which talked about the resurrection of Jesus (which are everywhere!), I shuttered an inward groan. โ€œI get it, God!โ€ I often thought. โ€œJesus was raised from the dead so I can have eternal life. Thatโ€™s awesome, and I thank you for it, but canโ€™t we get on to something that will help me with my life here and now?โ€

Instead, I just keep reading and hearing about the resurrection of Jesus.

Then, one day, it hit me: While the resurrection of Jesus is about God making eternal life available to those who believe in Him for it, this is only a tiny scratch in the surface of what the resurrection is really about.

The resurrection is primarily about exactly what I was looking for: help with living my life here and now.

The Resurrection of Jesus is the Answer to Everything

The resurrection of Jesus is the answer to all of lifeโ€™s questions: how to live my life, how to make decisions about work and finances, how to get along with my spouse, how to raise my kids, what is the meaning of life, how to treat other people.

It also is the answer to lifeโ€™s tough questions, like why there is evil, and what, if anything, God is doing about it, and who is responsible for it, and what happens when we die, and is there life after death.

The resurrection of Jesus is what gives meaning, significance, and purpose to life. The resurrection is how peace can come to the world, how economies can be fixed, and how leaders can lead with wisdom and justice.

I know it may seem that I am overstating the case, but I do not think I am. Lots of people have bumper stickers which say, โ€œJesus is the answerโ€ and while that is true, I would like to modify it and say, โ€œThe resurrection of Jesus is the answer.โ€ The resurrection speaks to questions about any number of topics, including questions about life, morality, economics, government, religion, family, and many more.

I cannot even begin to answer these questions in a short blog post, so in a Resurrection post later today, I will summarize some of the truths of the resurrection that can be applied to all of these situations.

The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!

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Does the Resurrection of Jesus Prove He is God?

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Jesus Christ ResurrectionMany people believe that the resurrection of Jesus proves that Jesus was God. There is one main problem with this view and it is this: the resurrection of Jesus does not prove He was God.

At least, not directly.

Eventually you can get to the divinity of Jesus from the resurrection of Jesus, but it is a little less straightforward than most suppose.

No one would concludeโ€”not then or nowโ€”that someone was God simply because they had been raised from the dead. If I came to you and said, โ€œI died in a car accident yesterday, but now I have come back to life,โ€ you might think I was crazy, but even if you believed me, you would not conclude that I was God. One does not logically lead to the other.

So does the Resurrection of Jesus prove He is God?

Well, it is not so much the resurrection of Jesus that proved He was God, but what Jesus said and did before the resurrection which was then verified by the resurrection of Jesus.

Iโ€™m not talking about His claims to be God. Critics say He never made such claims. While I believe Jesus did explicitly claim to be God, for the sake of argument, let us just concede the point and move on.

The means by which Jesus implicitly made His claims to be God incarnate was through His actions of replacing the Temple and fulfilling the Torah. In Judaism, the Temple was the closest thing to incarnation that they had. It was where heaven and earth came together as one, where God could meet with man, where sins could be forgiven.

Jesus Replaced the Temple and the Torah

Jesus, through many words and actions indicated that the Temple ministryโ€”including the priesthood and sacrificesโ€”was being relocated in Himself. In forgiving sins, pronouncing lepers clean, and announcing judgment upon the Temple, Jesus was showing that He was the replacement for the Temple.

The same thing happened with the Torah. While many Jewish teachers used tradition and consensus to determine what the Torah meant and how to live it, Jesus simply declared on His own authority what it meant and how to apply it. Furthermore, in many of His teachings, He went beyond the Torah, and offered new commandments and further instructions. In such a way, He not only made the claim of being an infallible interpreter of the Law, but the actual Lawgiver Himself.

Again, some critics will want to deny that Jesus ever said or did such things. But with their constant denials of anything and everything that Jesus did, they very soon leave themselves in a an impossible situation: they are left with a Jesus who does and teaches some nice things, but which would barely get noticed by the populace, much less crucified. Eventually, these critics must give up their denials, or come up with a believable scenario for why Jesus was crucified.

In other words, Jesus had to have said and done something to get people angry enough at Him to crucify Him. If He never claimed to be God, either implicitly or explicitly, and never challenged traditional Jewish thinking or theology, then what possible scenario is there which would have led to His crucifixion?

The Crucifixion of Jesus

I agree with what NT Wright has written. The primary reason for the crucifixion was that โ€œJudaism had two great incarnational symbols: Temple and Torah, [and] Jesus seems to have believed it was His vocation to upstage the one and outflank the otherโ€ (NT Wright, Challenge of Jesus, p. 120).

For the early believers, the resurrection of Jesus vindicated these claims of Jesus. For Jesus to make such outlandish claims about Godโ€™s Temple and Godโ€™s Torah and then to die is not surprising (if He was wrong). That is the just judgment of God.

But for Jesus to make such outlandish claims, and then not only to die, but also to rise from the dead, proves once and for all that God was in what Jesus said and did, and therefore, Jesus was the embodiment, the manifestation, the incarnation of the one God of Israel.

So the resurrection of Jesus by itself does not mean that Jesus was God, but the resurrection of Jesus is one link in the chain that gets us there.

For more on this, read The Challenge of Jesus by NT Wright โ€“ Chapter 5. See a fuller treatment in Jesus and the Victory of God.

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Did the Resurrection of Jesus Really Happen?

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the resurrection of JesusThe main problem in proving the resurrection of Jesus happened is in how to prove an historical event.

How would you prove, for example, what you had for breakfast this morning? It cannot easily be done, except through witnesses (who can lie or be mistaken) and documents (which can be forged).

But with the resurrection of Jesus, while we have witnesses and the documents they wrote, it is not so much what they say that convinces us of the historical fact of the resurrection, but the simple fact that such witnesses and documents actually exist which provides the greatest evidence for the resurrection.

Initially, this argument seems to make no sense. Just because someone writes a story about seeing a purple-polka-dotted elephant doesnโ€™t mean that they actually saw one.

Precisely.

Many people claim that the early church invented stories about the resurrection of Jesus in order to support their new belief system and practices.

But that is exactly the point.

Stories about the Resurrection of Jesus Help Prove the Resurrection of Jesus

Prior to the resurrection of Jesus, no Jewish person believed that the Messiah would die and rise from the dead. But beyond this, nobody except Jewish people believed that people rose from the dead, and even among Jews, they believed the resurrection would happen all at once, at the end of time, for all Jewish people.

While there are “pagan” stories of resurrection, they are always stories about deities rising from the dead, not human beings. Everybody knew that when people died, they stayed dead.

And while there are occasional stories within Judaism of someone actually rising from the dead, these people still died later, and are awaiting the final resurrection to this very day.

So nobody believed that the Messiah would die, and therefore, nobody believed that He would rise. To talk about such things was almost exactly like telling a story about a purple-polka-dotted elephant. Talk about a dying and rising Messiah was just as ludicrous to a first-century audience as talking about a purple-polka-dotted elephant.

Which means that if the early church wanted to gain credibility as a movement, they never would have invented stories about a dying and rising Messiah.

If the church really wanted to gain credibility among the Jews, the Greeks, and the Romans for its new beliefs and practices, the last thing they would do is invent stories that sounded to everyone like fairy tales.

We cannot and must not say that the early church invented these stories about the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah in order to support and defend their new religion. Doing so would be like me telling you about a purple-polka-dotted elephant appearing in the sky as a way to prove to you that I had French Toast and coffee for breakfast this morning. Such a story might be creative, but hardly believable.

If you want people to believe what you say, you do not begin by creating outlandish tales which everyone knows to be false.

Yet this is exactly what the early church seems to have done if we say that they invented the stories about Jesus.

If the church had invented stories about Jesus rising from the dead, their message would have been doomed from the start.

Nobody Would have Invented Stories about the Resurrection of Jesus

Therefore, the only other reason for them to write about the death and resurrection of Jesus is because they believed it was true. If they had really wanted to โ€œinventโ€ stories which declared Jesus as the Messiah, the stories about Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead are not the stories they would have invented.

Does this prove that the resurrection of Jesus actually happened? Not exactly. But it does prove that the early Christians who wrote about the resurrection of Jesus did not invent these stories. If the church was inventing stories about Jesus, death and resurrection stories were not the sorts of stories they would have invented.

In his book, The Challenge of Jesus, NT Wright puts it this way:

The only way forward for us as historians is to grasp the nettle, recognizing that we are of course here at the borders of language, of philosophy, of history and of theology. We had better learn to take seriously the witness of the entire early church, that Jesus of Nazareth was raised bodily to a new sort of life, three days after his execution (p. 148).

So if you believe that the resurrection did not happen, but that the early church was wrong, you cannot simply say they invented the stories. Another explanation is required. Some have tried, but the explanations get more outlandish and illogical than simply believing in the resurrection of Jesus.

For more on this line of reasoning, read The Challenge of Jesus by NT Wright, or the more detailed explanation in Jesus and the Victory of God.

The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!

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Death precedes Resurrection

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the resurrection of JesusWhy don’t we see resurrection today?

I don’t mean bodies of people actually coming forth from the grave. That is the physical resurrection which will happen at the future resurrection of all people. We shouldn’t expect to see that sort of resurrection today.

What I means is, “Why don’t we see lives of Christ-followers being radically transformed and changed into new creations?” Why don’t we see the “resurrection life”?

The Resurrection Life

It seems almost expected today that when a person believes in Jesus, not much will change. Oh, they might start going to church, and maybe reading their Bible and praying, and if they are really zealous, they will talk about Jesus to their friends. But typically, within a few months, old habits creep back in, old ways of living continue. Not much changes.

So whatever happened to the resurrection? Whatever happened to being raised to new life in Christ? Whatever happened to being a new creation? People talk about living the “resurrected life,” and sing about it, read about it, preach about it, and even pray for it, but it rarely seems to happen.

Why is the resurrection life so rare?

Death of JesusI believe it is because we have forgotten a vital element in the truth of the resurrection, and it is this: There can be no resurrection without death. Death always precedes resurrection. If you want to see resurrection, you must hang out with the dead, and if you want to experience resurrection in your own life, you must die.

Yet very few of us like to think much about dying, and fewer still like to hear pastors and preachers call for us to die.

Preaching, teaching, writing, and singing about resurrection is wonderful. It is joyful. It is happy and uplifting. But preaching, teaching, writing, and singing about death? Not so much. Yet by definition, resurrection requires death.

To Live the Resurrection Life … Die!

If you get a chance, look through the Gospels and the writings of Paul and Peter, and try to find every reference to resurrection, the new life in Christ, and becoming a new creation. I haven’t yet done this myself, but I predict that almost always, within a few verses of talking about such exalted themes, the author will also mention the requirement of death.

You must die to your old self before being raised to new life. We are buried with Christ before we are raised with Him. We must crucify the old man and the lusts of the flesh, before the new man rises from the grave.

This may be one of the most prominent themes in Scripture. Almost every single time God makes a promise for something great — a new son, a new nation, a new kingdom, a new restoration — the humans to whom He makes the promise try to accomplish the promise in their own strength and ability, until finally, they give up all hope, and die to the promise. Only then does God step in and resurrect the shattered dream and the (seemingly) broken promise up out of the ashes into a glorious new life.

So you want to experience resurrection? Die.

Not literally, of course. Die to your dreams, your ambitions, your goals, your old habits and patterns. Die to yourself. Because resurrection reigns only where there is death.

The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!

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Good God, Bad God (On the Penal Substitution Theory of the Atonement)

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good-cop-bad-copThe way many of us view the death of Jesus on the cross is like some poorly scripted “Good Cop, Bad Cop” scene from a crime thriller movie, except now it is “Good God, Bad God.”

You’ve seen these movies, right? Prior to questioning a suspect, the two cops agree that one will be the “Good cop” and the other will be the “bad cop.” Usually the bad cop starts questioning the suspect, and in the process gets a little unhinged and starts to threaten the suspect with death, torture, or a life sentence in prison. Then the good cop steps in with a soft voice and a soothing tone and says that he can rescue the suspect from the bad cop and all his threats if the suspect will just tell them what he knows.

In much of Christian theology, this is sort of what happened between God and Jesus as they prepared to send Jesus to earth for our deliverance. I imagine the scene to be somewhat like this:

In a back room of heaven (before the foundation of the world) God and Jesus realize that they need to get the bad guy in the interrogating room (all humans) to confess to our numerous crimes. Here is how the planning went:

God: I know what I’ll do. I’m going to tell him that although I’m only looking out for the good of the universe, and since I’m so holy and just, I just cannot stand evil and sin, and I’m gonna have to shoot him.

Jesus: Yeah! And then I’ll come in, all humble, meek, and mild, full of love and care, and say, “God loves you so much! But you are so sinful, He’s gonna have to shoot you if you don’t fix up your life and tell us all the bad stuff you’ve done.”

God: That’s good. And then maybe when he says that he is doing a pretty good job, and he doesn’t know why he’s been arrested since he hasn’t broken any law, you can raise the bar on him a bit. Blame it on me, though. Because I’m so holy.

Jesus: Okay. I could say that although you commanded them not to commit adultery, what you are really concerned about it lust. And although you said, “Don’t murder,” if they call someone a fool, it’s the same thing.

God: Right. Improvise a bit on that. Just make sure you blame it on me and my holiness. That’s key. And then, after this goes on for a while, I’ll step into the room, pull out my gun, and yell, “Enough! This man is evil. Stop beating around the bush and make him confess!” Then I’ll point the gun at his chest and pull the trigger. I’ll shoot him.

Jesus: Sounds good. That’s when I jump in front of the bullet, and die in a bloody mess right there in front of everybody. It will be great. I’ll get on the news. I’ll be the talk of the town for thousands of years. People will write books about me. Of course, you’re not going to leave me dead, right?

God: Don’t be silly. Of course not. The resurrection is the grand finale. After I shoot at the man, and then you step in front of the bullet, he will be so shocked at your love for him, especially after you laid all that guilt on him, that he will be amazed at your love. And then when I raise you from the dead — oh man, he’ll just drop down and start worshipping us. It will be awesome!

Is that how it went down? Not even close.

How it all went down

First of all, while there was a plan, the plan did not include God and Jesus playing off each other like this. They were of one mind and will toward humanity, with love as the primary motivation.

Second, while God is just and holy, and while the death of Jesus did satisfy the holiness of God in regard to our sin, this was not the only — or even the primary — reason for the death of Jesus on the cross. This is called the “appeasement theory” or “penal substitution theory” of the atonement, and is the idea that the death of Jesus appeased the wrath of God.

Such an idea comes more from Greek Pantheistic mythology than it does from Scripture. The Greeks believed (as do the people of most religions) that the gods are angry and need to be appeased (aka bribed) in order to act nicely toward humans. To appease the gods, we need to do great things for them or offer valuable possession to then, such as our prize cow, firstborn son, or virgin daughter. If the gods are impressed enough with our achievements or our sacrifice, they won’t be angry any more.

This sort of thinking has crept into Christian theology as well, so that many Christians today think that something similar went on in the death of Jesus on the cross. It goes like this: God was angry. We tried to appease Him by obeying the law and giving him bulls and goats, but it wasn’t good enough. He was still angry at our sin. Since He knew that we could never obey Him well enough or give Him a sacrifice good enough to fully satisfy our debt, He sent Jesus to pay the penalty instead. Jesus stepped in, died for us, and paid the debt. Now God loves us, just as He always wanted.

While this way of thinking fits well with pagan theology and pagan deities, it could not be further from the truth regarding the God of Scripture.

Why did Jesus die?

Jesus did not die to appease God, but to cleanse us from sin, and deliver us from its power. Jesus died to defeat sin, death, and devil.

The death of Jesus was a rescue operation where He broke into the prison of our bondage where we were rotting in filth and decay, and through His life, death, and resurrection, demolished our chains, picked us up on His shoulders, and carried us to freedom outside of the prison walls.

If we want to liken what Jesus did to a movie, it is not a “Good Cop, Bad Cop” scene we should imagine, but Chuck Norris breaking Prisoners of War out of a military prison camp — except without all the shooting and killing. On second thought … maybe Chuck Norris isn’t the best example, but you get the idea.

The death of Jesus on the cross was to break the power of sin in our lives, and recapture for us the relationship with God that they have always wanted with us. And that is something that is Oscar-worthy. Or worship-worthy.

The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!

Transform your life and theology by focusing on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus:

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The Substitute God and Substitutionary Atonement

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Substitutionary AtonementWhen you think of the word โ€œsubstituteโ€ what do you think of? Substitute sugar? Substitute teacher? Around this time of year, you might think of Jesus as our substitute on the cross. But what does this mean?

I have often said in my preaching and teaching, and have heard many others say the same, that Jesus died in the cross so that we donโ€™t have to. It is often explained that because of sin, and since the wages of sin is death, everybody who sins must die.

God must punish sin, we are told, and so since we are sinners, God must punish us. But Jesus came along and took our place on the cross, so that we would not have to suffer and die like He did. Godโ€™s wrath against us was poured out upon Jesus instead.

Typically, that is how penal substitutionary atonement is explained. ย But is this correct?

Well, parts are. But other parts, not so much.

The Correct Parts

First, the parts that are correct. Yes, we are all sinners. Yes, the wages of sin is death, and so yes, all must die. Yes, Jesus died on the cross, and yes, it is there in Jesus that God dealt with our sin. Jesus took our sin upon Himself so that we might gain His righteousness.

That much is correct.

…And Not So Much

But what about the โ€œnot so muchโ€ parts?

The main issue is why Jesus died on the cross as our substitute. Again, to reiterate what is often taught, many say that the reason why Jesus died on the cross was because God had to punish someone for our sin. He had to pour out His wrath upon someone. And so rather than condemn and punish us, He condemned and punished Jesus.

But does this ever strike you as somewhat…unjust? As somewhatโ€ฆabusive? As somewhatโ€ฆungodly? And also, as somewhat…unbiblical?

Steve Chalke, in his book, The Lost Message of Jesus, points out the problem better than I:

The cross isnโ€™t a form of cosmic child abuseโ€”a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for an offense he has not even committed. โ€ฆIf the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but borne by His Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesusโ€™ own teaching to love your enemies and refuse to repay evil with evil (p. 182f).

Substitution is not the idea that God wanted to punish us but punished Jesus instead. No, God wanted to condemn sin, which He did in the Jesus Christ (Rom 8:3). Jesus bore the condemnation of sin in His body rather than in ours. As NT Wright says in one of his online articles:

The multiple strands of idolatry, sin, evil, wickedness, oppression, violence, judgment and all the rest throughout the Old Testament come rushing together and do their worst to Jesus. He takes their full force, and do so because that was Godโ€™s purpose all along.

God never wanted nor desired to deal with sin in our own bodies, primarily because He never would have been successful in doing so. Because we are sinners, God could not defeat sin in us. When we die, even if we were to die a horrible death on a cross like Jesus, sin would not be defeated. Instead, sin would forever be victorious.

The only way for God to deal with sin is to deal with it himself. He must take it on. He must fight the battle.

crown of thornsIt is not, as many of us like to say, โ€œBecause of sin, someone must suffer, either Jesus or us.โ€ No, for even if we suffered, it would accomplished nothing. Once sin entered the world through Adam, there was only way to defeat it, and that was for God to take it upon Himself, which He did in Jesus Christ. Again, this was not because He is mad or angry at us, and transferred this anger upon Jesus, but rather, He did this because of His great love for us, and because He desired to see us freed from sin and death.

Why does it matter?

It matters because we must not get the wrong picture about God from what happened on the cross.

God is not an angry, wrathful, bloodthirsty being who wants to torture and kill people when they disobey Him, but Jesus came along and convinced God to pour out this wrath on Himself instead of upon us.

Was there a substitution that took place? Absolutely. But it was not us for Jesus; it was rather our sin for His righteousness. He took our sin, and in His own body, on the cross, condemned sin, destroyed death, and rose victoriously from the grave, because of Hisโ€”and Godโ€™sโ€”great love for us.

For more on this, see the following:

After His Death, Jesus Retraced the Steps of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement

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Jesus our High PriestWhat happened to Jesus our High Priest after He died, but before He rose from the dead? Where did He go for three days? What did He do? Was He just sitting in heaven (or hell) twiddling His thumbs and checking His watch while the hours ticked by until He could rise?

Jesus our High Priest (Leviticus 16; Hebrews 9)

No. I believe Jesus our High Priest was retracing the steps of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement as recorded in Leviticus 16.

The author of Hebrews writes that the actions of the priest on the Day of Atonement are followed by Jesus in His death, resurrection, and future return (Hebrews 9:24-28).

The High Priest Entered the Tabernacle

First, the tabernacle that Jesus our High Priest entered was not the earthly tabernacle, but a heavenly one (Hebrews 9:24). As such, it was a better tabernacle which required both a better priest and a better sacrifice. Jesus acted as both.

The High Priest Changed Garments

Second, before any sacrifice was made, the High Priest removed his beautiful and ornate garments that he normally wore, and put on simple, plain linens. This represents Jesus putting aside His divinity to become human.

The Activities of the High Priest

Finally, there were three primary activities of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement:

  1. Making sacrifices,
  2. Offering blood on the mercy seat in Godโ€™s presence,
  3. Appearing before the people who were waiting outside the tabernacle.

The various sacrifices at the altar represent the death of Jesus our High Priest on the cross.

  1. Offering His blood in the presence of God symbolizes what Jesus did during His three days in the grave.
  2. His resurrection was like the appearance of the High Priest after the offerings were complete, proving that the sacrifice had been accepted by God.
  3. Hebrews 9:28 indicates that we are waiting for a second appearance as well, when He will come apart from sin.

The High Priest Appeared Before the People

It might be dangerous to read too much into the details of the steps of the High Priest in Leviticus 16, but it seems that he also appeared twice to the people. The steps of the High Priest are as follows, with a short description of how the steps of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement were fulfilled in Jesus Christ through His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection.

  1. The High Priest takes off robes, and puts on linen clothes (Lev 16:3-4). Jesus emptied Himself of His divinity, and became human (Php 2:7-8).
  2. The High Priest kills a bull as a sin offering for himself (Lev 16:11). This activityโ€”and the following four activitiesโ€”were accomplished by Jesus on the cross and during His three days in the tomb. All of these are done alone, without any other person present in the tabernacle (Lev 16:17).
  3. The High Priest takes blood from the bull into the Holy of Holies and sprinkles it on the Mercy Seat (Lev 16:12-14).
  4. The High Priest exits the Holy of Holies, and kills the goat as a sin offering for the people (Lev 16:15).
  5. The High Priest takes blood from the goat back into the Holy of Holies and sprinkles it on the Mercy Seat (Lev 16:15).
  6. The High Priest exits the Holy of Holies, and sprinkles blood from both the bull and the goat on the altar to purify it (Lev 16:18-19).
  7. When these steps are complete, the High Priest returns to the people waiting outside (Lev 16:20-21). While some think that this appearance represents the resurrection of Jesus, this does not fit the events well, since all of the sacrifices for the Day of Atonement are not yet complete. He still has to send the scapegoat out of the city. Therefore, it seems possible that this appearance of Jesus might be His appearance to another group of people who were also waiting for the once-for-all sacrifice to be completed, namely, those who believed in the coming Messiah, but who died before His death and resurrection. It is they, apparently, who were possibly in โ€œAbrahamโ€™s Bosomโ€ (cf. Luke 16:19-31). Though they were not technically in hell, the final sacrifice for their sins had not yet been made, and so they could not go to God. So maybe Jesus appeared to them, preached to them, and took them with Him at His resurrection (cf. 1 Peter 3:18-20; 4:6; Matt 27:52-53; Eph 4:8).
  8. The High Priest now lays the sins of the people on the second goat, and the goat is led out of the city and into the wilderness (Lev 16:21-22). While this could represent how Jesus was led out of Jerusalem to be crucified, it may also reveal what Jesus did with the sin of the world that was laid upon Him. If He went to Hades, which is a place away from the tabernacle, outside the camp, then maybe He left sin there. He took sin upon Him on the cross, and then carried it to where it goesโ€”Death and Hadesโ€”and left it there. He was the only one able to escape death because He Himself did not sin.
  9. After the scapegoat is released, the High Priest enters into the Tabernacle one more time, takes off his linen clothes, and puts back on his glorious clothes (Lev 16:23-24). This represents the resurrection of Jesus, and His return to His place at the right hand of God the Father in heaven.
  10. The remains of the bull and goat that were sacrificed are now carried outside the camp, and they are completely burned up (Lev 16:27). Again, if these sacrifices represent Jesus then it may be true that in some sense, Jesus descended into hell with the sin that He took upon Himself.

What do you think? The author of Hebrews shows that there are some parallels in Hebrews 9, but do you have anything to add?

The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!

Transform your life and theology by focusing on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus:

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Did Jesus Descend into Hell?

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Hell Lake of Fire

Many believe that after Jesus died on the cross, He descended into hell. The Apostleโ€™s Creed certainly says this, but as for myself, I am undecided. Letโ€™s look briefly at the evidence.

Acts 2:31

In Acts 2:31, Peter says that God did not leave the soul of Jesus in Hades, but raised Him up from the dead. The term โ€œHadesโ€ does not actually refer to hell as many believe, but is โ€œthe place of the dead.โ€

Sometimes, it refers to the underworld where the souls of men walk around like shadows. Frequently, โ€œHadesโ€ simply refers to the grave. It is not a mystical place, but is simply the hole in the ground where your body goes when you die. Most translators and Bible scholars believe that this is what Peter is referring to, and translate โ€œHadesโ€ as โ€œthe grave.โ€

Ephesians 4:8-10

This verse is often brought up as defense that Jesus descended into hell, but this is not the best understanding of this passage. In Ephesians 4:8, Paul talks about how Jesus ascended into heaven, and to explain this, Paul reminds His readers that Jesus was simply returning to where He came from, that is, heaven.

He only ascended from earth to heaven because He first descended from heaven to earth. The descent of Jesus was not from earth into hell, but was from heaven to earth.

1 Peter 4:6

Some believe that 1 Peter 4:6 indicates that Jesus descended into hell and preached the Gospel to those who are there.

If this is true, the question then is, โ€œWhy?โ€ Was he giving them a second chance? Was He taunting them? Neither option makes much sense. Whatever this verse means, it must be understood in the context of other passages in the letter, such as 1 Peter 3:18-20. This text says that by the Spirit, Jesus preached to spirits who were in prison, who rebelled in the days of Noah.

While this could mean that Jesus descended into hell to preach to people in prison, why are the people who were alive in the days of Noah singled out? Some believe it was Noah who was doing the preaching by the Spirit, and he was preaching about Christ, but they did not believe, and so are now dead and in prison.

This passage is notoriously difficult, and is therefore a weak foundation upon which to build any doctrine about what Jesus did or did not do after His death and before His resurrection.

Miscellaneous Passages about Jesus’ Descent into Hell

Finally, some point to various other texts of Scripture such as the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), and the report that at the resurrection of Jesus, many who were formerly dead were raised to life (Matt 27:52-53) as evidence that Jesus did go preach to some spirits in hell, or in a โ€œsuburb of hellโ€ called Abrahamโ€™s Bosom, and some were raised back to life.

One of the verses used against the idea that Jesus descended into hell is Luke 23:42-43 where Jesus tells the thief on the cross that today, the thief would be with Jesus in paradise. If Jesus went to hell, how could He also be with the thief in paradise. Of course, some believe that the “paradise” to which Jesus refers was a “suburb” of hell called “Abraham’s bosom,” and this is the “hell” to which Jesus descended and preached, and from which He led captives in His train (Eph 4:8).

So did Jesus descend into hell? All of the evidence is fairly inconclusive.

So what do you think? Did Jesus descend into hell?

If so, why did He go there and how long was He there?

We will look at one more passage later which might possibly shed some further light on the subject.

Edit: 04/29/2011 – Here is a post I found which explains some of the background for this belief: Did Jesus Go to Hell?

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The Case for a Thursday Crucifixion

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I believe that Jesus was crucified on Thursday instead of Friday. The following post explains why. I must hasten to add, however, that it is not super important to know for sure the day on which Jesus died. What is most important is to know that He died.

The day on which Jesus died is not nearly as important as the fact that He did die.

CrucifixionChurch tradition states that Jesus was crucified on a Friday. This is why we call it โ€œGood Friday.โ€

Friday Crucifixion

The main reason for this tradition, as far as I can tell, is that the disciples of Jesus were intent upon burying Jesus before the Sabbath arrived (Mark 15:42-43; Luke 23:54; John 19:31). As most people equate the Sabbath with Saturday, it is believed that Jesus was crucified on Friday.

The primary problem with this, however, is that Jesus said He would spend three days and three nights in the grave (Matt 12:40). Many historians rightfully point out that by Jewish reckoning, any portion of a day was considered the whole day, this explanation still does not get us to three days and three nights.

Traditional Counting
Day 1: Jesus was crucified and buried on Friday before the sunset.
Night 1: He stayed in the grave Friday night.
Day 2: Saturday.
Night 2: Saturday night.

But this is all we can get. John 20:1 says that Jesus rose before sunrise on Sunday, when it was still dark. This means we cannot get a third day, let alone a third night. Some scholars say that since Jewish days actually begin at sundown, then any portion of that twenty-four hour period from sundown to sundown counts as the entire โ€œday and night.โ€

Only in this way can scholars have Jesus in the tomb for three โ€œdays and nights.โ€ He was in the tomb before sundown on Friday, which counts as Thursday night (night 1) and Friday day (day 1). Then He spends Friday night (night 2) and all day Saturday (day 2) in the tomb. Finally He rises before sunrise on Sunday, which counts for both Saturday night (night 3) and Sunday day (day 3). So even though Jesus was not in the tomb for any portion of Thursday night or Sunday day, they still get counted.

This explanation seems highly unlikely, especially when a much simpler solution is available. What is that solution?

Jesus was crucified on Thursday

Crucifixion crossBut if Jesus was crucified on Thursday, then the next day was not the Sabbath, right? Wrong. John 19:31 clearly tells us that this particular Sabbath was a High Day. In other words, it was not a weekly Saturday Sabbath, but was a special holiday Sabbath.

Readers of the Gospels must understand that there are two kinds of Sabbaths in Jewish years. There is the weekly Sabbath, which always begins on Friday night and continues all day Saturday until sunset. That is the Sabbath those most of us are aware of.

There is also a second type of Sabbath: the holiday Sabbath. It does not fall on a particular day of the week, but on a particular day of the year. Whichever day of the week this holiday falls on is treated like a Sabbath. Think of it like a Federal Holiday. While most Federal offices are closed every Sunday, they will also close on holidays like Christmas, on whichever day of the week it occurs.

This is what happened the year Jesus was crucified. It was the week of Passover, and the first day of Passover, which on the Jewish calendar is Nisan 15, is a holiday Sabbath, on whichever day of the week it occurs. That year, it fell on a Friday, which means that the holiday Sabbath of Passover began Thursday night.

This then, is the order of events:

Wednesday night: Last Supper in the Upper Room, and the arrest in Gethsemane
Thursday morning: Conclusion of Trials and Crucifixion
Thursday afternoon: Death and Burial. Counting of days now begins.
Thursday Day: Day 1
Thursday night: Night 1
Friday Day: Day 2
Friday Night: Night 2
Saturday Day: Day 3
Saturday Night: Night 3
Jesus rises before sunrise, so as not to start Day 4.

Three other points of evidence for this view:

  1. We no longer have a โ€œSilent Wednesday.โ€ Most chronologies of the final week of Jesus have a void on Wednesday, because the Gospels seem to say nothing about this day. But maybe the Gospels are not silent at all, and it is our order of events that is confused.
  2. Jesus was technically in the grave for two consecutive Sabbaths, the holiday Sabbath and then the regular, weekly Sabbath. This fits with Matthew 28:1 which says that the two women came to the tomb where Jesus was buried after the Sabbaths (Plural. In Greek: sabbatลn) were over.
  3. Edit (From Matt Aznoe on my Facebook page): One other point of evidence that is interesting is Palm Sunday. If Jesus was crucified on Thursday (Nisan 14), that would place Palm Sunday on Nisan 10 which is the day set forth in the original Passover law as the day that the people chose their Passover Lamb. The imagery then is striking — on the day that the Passover Lamb is chosen, the people of Jerusalem cry “Hosanna” as the Lamb of God rides in on a donkey. (Thanks Matt!)

This still does not solve the problem of why Jesus celebrated the Passover a day early, but that is still a difficulty whether you believe Jesus died on Thursday or Friday (cf. Matt 26:17; Mark 14:12-16; Luke 22:1, 7-8; and John 18:29; 19:14).

For more on this issue, see these articles:

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Let this Cup Pass – Did Jesus Change His Mind?

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In Matthew 26:39, on the night before His crucifixion, Jesus prayed,

O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will but as you will.

Jesus praying

Though none of us can fully comprehend either the physical or the spiritual suffering that Jesus was about to endure, such a prayer by Jesus confuses many people. Up until this point, it seems that Jesus has known full well what He would face on the cross, and went toward it willingly and resolutely.

And yet now it seems that He is praying for a way around the cross. When Jesus prays, “Let this cup pass” is He asking for an alternate route to redemption?

While some pastors and scholars just say that such a prayer reveals the full humanity of Jesus, I am not sure the answer is that easy. I do not think Jesus changed His mind.

Let’s look at the evidence.

Scripture Evidence

First, the plan of the cross had been established from the very foundations of the world. In Ephesians 1:4, Paul writes about this plan. The fact that it would include the slaying of God’s own Son is recorded in Revelation 13:8. Before Jesus was even born, He knew that He must die on earth.

Second, numerous times during His ministry, Jesus spoke of His coming death in graphic detail and referred to it as “drinking the cup.” In Matthew 16:21 Jesus began to teach His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die (cf. Matt 17:22-23; Luke 9:22). He even knew many of the details, that He would be arrested, condemned, mocked, whipped, spit upon, and killed (Mark 10:32-33).

Furthermore, He occasionally used the imagery of drinking deeply from a cup to describe this painful suffering and death He would endure (cf. Matt 20:22-23). Also, in an earlier prayer, He stated that He would not pray for God to save Him from the suffering that was to come (John 12:27-28).

Third, after the prayer in the Gethsemane, Jesus continued to show willingness to drink the cup. In John 18:11, after Jesus had finished praying, and as He was being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Peter tried to rescue Jesus by pulling a sword on the Temple guards. But Jesus stopped Peter, and asked him, “Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given Me?”

So if both before and after the prayer in the Garden, Jesus knew what His death would entail, and showed complete acceptance of it, how can we understand His prayer in the Garden for the cup to pass from Him? Did He have a moment of weakness? Was He losing His resolve? Was He afraid of the pain? Did He change His mind? The answer to all of these is “No.”

The Passover Solution

Last SupperPart of the problem is that we do not understand the Passover imagery which Jesus was using. Jesus and the apostles had just come from eating their Passover meal, during which time they would have drunk deeply from four cups of wine. At that time, the table would usually share one, large, communal cup. The custom was that when the cup came to the place you were reclining, you must drink from it as deeply as you could, before passing it on to the next person at the table.

Before you could “let this cup pass” you had drink deeply from it.

If the was emptied, it would be filled again before being passed on. Often, at the bottom of the cup, there were bitter dregs from the wine. If you were the person to empty the cup, you must drink the bitter dregs as well, before you “let this cup pass.”

So when Jesus prays, “Let this cup pass from me,” He is not saying, “I don’t want to drink it,” but is rather praying, “Let me drink of it as deeply as I possibly can before I pass it on to humanity. Let me empty it. Let me drain it. Let me drink all of it, even the bitter dregs at the bottom of the cup.”

Jesus was not asking God to let Him avoid the cup, but was asking to let Him take on as much of it as He possibly could, and if possible, if it was God’s will, to let Him drink every single drop, down the bitter end.

This is how the statements about not doing His own will, but the will of God, are to be understood (Matt 26:39, 42). Jesus was not praying to bypass the cup of pain and death, but was praying to end the reign of sin and death once and for all, in Himself, on the cross. Jesus was praying to finish the plan, to bring it to completion. Was He looking forward to the pain and suffering? Of course not. But nor was He shying away from it.

The Surprising Will of God

The seeming conflict between the will of Jesus and the will of God in Matthew 26:39, 42 was not, I think, in the will of Jesus, but in the will of God. It was God who was “struggling” with what to do; not Jesus. God was having to face a decision on whether He would let mankind suffer for our own sin, or if He would take all that sin and pour it out upon His one and only, perfectly righteous, everlasting Son. If He did that, their eternal relationship would never be exactly the same.

Which of us could ever make such a decision as God made here? He had to decide between His own Son, and all of wretched, sinful, rebellious humanity.

So Jesus, in His prayers to His Father, is saying,

God, this is why I have come. This is why I am here. This has been our plan from the very beginning. I want this. I want to drink this cup. I want to drink it fully. I want to drink every drop. I will not pass any bit of it on to the rest of humanity. I want to drink fully of the cup of your wrath (cf. Jer 25:17-38; Isa 51:17-23). This is how much I love them. This is how much I long for their redemption and forgiveness. Let me do this. This is my will. But ultimately, God, it is up to you. It is your choice.

If Jesus was uncertain of anything, it was not His own will to drink of the cup, but of the will of God to take the sin of all mankind and pour it out upon His Son. In His prayer, Jesus was asking God to finish what they had started.

This is what I love so much about Jesus. He truly is our Great High Priest, the Mediator between God and man. He did not try to pray Himself out of the pain and suffering of the cross at the last minute. No, He embraced it to the very end, praying and pleading with God to stay the course, despite how painful it would be for both of them to sever their relationship, and make Jesus become sin for us (2 Cor 5:21).

Oh, and by the way, I don’t think God hesitated for a second either. Jesus says that if we have seen Him, we have seen the Father. Therefore, God the Father loves us just as much as Jesus does. There was never any question about what would happen on the cross. Jesus did not change His mind about the cross, and neither did God the Father. Together, they endured the cross, despised it’s shame, so that Jesus could once again sit down at the right hand of God the Father in heaven, and we could be offered eternal life.

Some exegetical evidence for this view on “Let this cup pass”

The word used in Matthew 26:39 for โ€œpassโ€ is parerchomai, which can be translated in a variety of ways. It is used, for example, to speak of the coming to completion or the inability of Godโ€™s word to pass away until all is fulfilled (cf. Matt 5:18; 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 16:17; 21:33).

I am one of those individuals, however, who thinks that in cases such as the Passover meal, and in His prayers, Jesus spoke in Hebrew. What we have then in the Gospels is a Greek translation from the Hebrew that Jesus spoke. There are numerous references in the early church to a Gospel written in Hebrew.

So in Matthew 26:39, in place of the Greek word parerchomai, the Ginsburg Hebrew New Testament contains the Hebrew word abar, which means โ€œto pass through.โ€ This is crucial word in the account of the Passover (cf. Exodus 12:12, 23). In that account, the Lord โ€œpassed overโ€ (Heb. pesach), the houses of the Israelites which had blood of the lamb on the doorpost, but He โ€œpassed throughโ€ (Heb. abar) the houses of the Egyptians which did not.

It appears that when Jesus prayed to let this cup pass, He used the word abar. He was not praying to escape the pain and suffering, and have it pass over (pesach) Him, but was praying to take it on fully, to experience the pain, death, and suffering of the cup of Godโ€™s wrath.

This fits perfectly with the Passover imagery. Jesus, as the Lamb of God slain before the foundations of the world, takes on the full brunt the punishment for sin, allowing His blood to be put on the doorposts of all who believe in Him, so that punishment passes over them.

The cross of Jesus is CENTRAL to everything!

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