A Commentary on the Third Article of Religion

Article Three: As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also is it to be believed, that he went down into Hell.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the faithful men and women of the Old Testament? Where are they? If, as we say, faith in Jesus Christ is the only way to find eternal life what was their fate?
The third article, I think, points us toward the answer to this perplexing question.
It is a very short Article compared to the previous two and, at first glance, seems straightforward.
The first two affirmations in the third article, that: 1. Christ died on our behalf and 2. was buried have already been discussed and expounded in the previous article. These two affirmations are vital. They cannot, in fact, be discarded without discarding Christian faith altogether. They are core and essential to the Faith
But it is with the very same necessity, according to the third Article, that Christians must affirm that Christ descended into “Hell.”
On its face, this is a difficult Article for many contemporary Christians to accept.
“Hell”, in the modern mind, has been relegated to the mythical realm of grim fairy tale along with Satan and his demons. It is rarely mentioned except, perhaps, as an off-hand curse. 
But when the topic does arise in serious conversation the general attitude is one of skepticism. How, it is asked, can a loving God allow the existence of Hell?  Surely a God whose character consists of perfect love would not permit the eternal torment of his creatures?
And it is true that God is the very origin and measure of love. God is not simply “loving” as if love were some external quality that might be used to describe him, but as John says, “God is Love.” (1st John 4:8)
And yet love is not all that God is. As Dr. RC Sproul points out in his book, “The Holiness of God,” the one attribute of God revealed in the superlative sense is not “love” but “holiness.” In Isaiah 6, for example, God is not just described as “Holy” but as: “Holy, Holy, Holy”. The thrice-repetition of an adjective is the Hebrew equivalent to our superlative: “most”.  God is “most” Holy. This is not to say that God is anything less than the perfectly superlative measure of love. It is to say, not to labor the point, that alongside his perfect love, God is also Holy. And elsewhere in the scriptures we learn that he is “just” and “righteous” and that sin provokes his “wrath”. God’s character, then, certainly includes love but love is not his sole attribute.
As we discussed in last week’s article, all of God’s attributes; love, wrath, justice, righteousness, come together perfectly on the cross where God’s just and holy wrath against human wickedness is exhausted or “propitiated” on himself in the person of his Son Jesus Christ. And, in his perfect love, God in Christ willingly bears it.
Through this, his own substitutionary sacrifice to propitiate his own just wrath at human sin, God has made a way for human beings to escape the wrath we all naturally choose and justly deserve. In him, in Christ, those who come to faith do not face the eternal and infinite consequences sin because Christ bears those consequences for us. There is no more wrath for those in Christ Jesus. 
But while this eternal blessing and benefit of the cross is commonly acknowledged, what is often forgotten is that the cross stands as a stark and fearful warning that God, in his justice, does not leave sin unpunished. The infinite cup of God’s wrath that the infinite God in Christ willingly drained to the dregs on the cross remains full, it is brimming with judgment, for those who are unwilling to repent, cry out, and seek refuge and salvation in the Son.
Thus, throughout the New Testament, the promise and proclamation salvation in Christ Jesus is accompanied by a warning for those who refuse and reject it.

Hell is the place where those who have not surrendered to Christ bear the infinite wrath of God.
But, some may ask, what of those who have never had the opportunity to surrender to or reject the gospel of Jesus Christ? Will they be subject to the wrath of God for repudiating a Savior about whom they have never heard?
No. The scriptures teach that all will be judged in accordance with the light they have received.

First, those who have never heard the gospel will be judged by the measure of their stewardship of the knowledge of God they have been given:

“18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:18-21)

And second by their stewardship of their conscience:

12 For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.  (Romans 1:12-16)

 
The extent, then, to which those beyond the reach of the gospel have submitted to and followed both the light of natural conscience and the natural or general revelation of God will be the measure by which they are judged. 
There is a declaration and a promise associated with this judgment.
The declaration is found in the book of Acts where Paul, teaching in the Areopogus, tells the assembled philosophers that:

“24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; 

God has sovereignty placed all human beings in such a manner that wherever they live, they might seek him.
And promise is given by Christ in the book of Matthew toward the end of his sermon on the Mount:

“7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 5:7-11)

If anyone anywhere in the world truly seeks the Truth, the promise of God is that he will find him.
We can, I believe, on the basis of these declarations and promises be assured that anyone in the world who seeks God will, either by human instrument or direct revelation, be given knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That is the good news.
The bad news is that we do not, of our own accord, seek God. 

“both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

We are, as Paul says in Ephesians 2, “dead in sin” and by nature “objects of wrath.”

The warning of Hell, then, is a deadly serious one and it must necessarily accompany the proclamation of the gospel because those who are not in Christ and continue to walk the path of rebellion must be made aware not only of the benefits of eternal life in Christ Jesus but the infinite torment toward which their current path(s) inevitably lead.
As a young pastor I have often been warned not to mention hell from the pulpit and not to teach on it—to keep the message positive by focusing on the benefits of Christ that are more “relevant” to people’s lives. In speaking or teaching on the doctrine Hell there is a danger that people may be turned off and turn away. And they may. I understand these fears and feel them. But if we were to let that objection determine the course of Christian preaching it would mean first departing from the pattern of preaching found in the New Testament (see below) and second reducing the proclamation of the gospel to the level of commercial persuasion.

We would be forced to preach Christ in the same way that companies sell products. “Buy Jesus, he’ll make your life better.” It is true. Jesus does and will make your life better eternally.  But it’s only half the truth. The other half is that those don’t “buy” Jesus will be eternally and infinitely worse. That part of the message cannot be lost because if it is and when it is, those who do not yet believe do not and will not see the very real and very personal and quite “relevant” danger of unbelief.
I am not, in this, advocating a return to sort of proclamation associated with Cotton Mather or Jonathan Edwards (both fine preachers), but rather, I am suggesting a return to the preaching modeled by Christ and the apostles. In fact, the person who warns most about Hell in all of scripture is not some Old Testament prophet, but our Lord Jesus Christ as his words are recorded in the Gospels. 
In Matthew 5, during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that whoever looks at a woman who is not his wife lustfully has committed adultery in his heart. And he goes on to advise hyperbolically:

“If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” (Matthew 5:29)

In Matthew 10, Jesus, without hyperbole, warns:

“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28)

Elsewhere Jesus describes hell as a “fiery furnace” (Matt 13:42, 49-50) and as place where there is “gnashing of teeth”, an expression of intense turmoil and angst.
In Mark 9:48, however, Jesus describes Hell as the place where the “worm never dies.” This is perhaps one of the more horrible revelations regarding the nature of Hell’s torment. The worm to which Jesus most likely refers is the worm that feeds on rotting flesh. When a corpse is finally and fully consumed, the worms die. If the “corpse,” however, is a living corpse then the flesh is never consumed and the worm never dies. Hell is a place of living death; a place where one dies for eternity. Jesus makes this eternality explicit in Matthew 25:45 where he says that hell is a place of “eternal punishment.”
The only way to avoid the reality of the existence of Hell as a place of eternal torment for all those who are not in Christ, is to deny both the veracity of the scriptures and the divinity and perfection of Jesus Christ. Many are so anxious to hide from the reality of the justice of God that they do so readily and zealously.

But the church cannot and must not acquiesce. Hell is real, God’s justice perfect, and Judgment comes to all. If the Church will not sound this warning who will?

But if Hell is a place of eternal torment, why did Jesus descend to it? Did he, as some say, go to release those condemned to eternal punishment prior to his coming? Were Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and David and the other Old Testament Saints waiting in torment for the coming of Christ? Is this what Peter means when he writes:

“18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison…” (Peter 3:18-19)

The question involves the historical translation of two Greek words by one English word. The first Greek word, “gahenna” means “place of torment”. This is the word that Jesus uses in the various texts cited above. 
The second Greek word is “Hades” which essentially means the “place of the dead.” Hades has a meaning somewhat consistent with the Hebrew word “Sheol”. Both Sheol and Hades are catch-all generic words for describing the condition of death although, as the definition implies, both are many times used to point to a location or an abode of some sort. 

Jesus tells Peter that the gates of “Hades” will not prevail in Matthew 16:18. The rich man in the story of the rich man and Lazarus died and was buried in the generic location “Hades” where he finds himself in “torment.” But looking up, the rich man sees once poor Lazarus who had (and this seems to be the implication) also been buried in “Hades” with “father Abraham” far from the rich man’s place of “torment.” Lazarus cannot be sent to cool the rich man’s tongue with a drop of water because a dividing river of fire prevents those in torment from reaching those with Abraham or vice versa. But both, apparently, are in “Hades”
What are we to make of all this?
Hell, as we understand it as contemporary English speakers seems to be the place of torment and everlasting death consistent both with the word “gahenna” used by Jesus in the texts cited above and the location of the rich man in Luke 16.  “Hades,” however, seems to be consistent with the general condition of death and it is not necessarily tied to fire or punishment. In fact, Paul in Philippians 1 looks forward to the condition of death because he knows that as a believer to die is “gain.”

“Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”

Paul believes that his death will bring joy like that of Lazarus in Jesus’ story above because he will “be with Christ” in apparently much the same way that Lazarus was with Abraham. 
If we are to harmonize all of these texts, then death itself, “Hades,” leads one either to “Gahenna”, the place of torment, or to Christ, a place of bliss. Souls in both locales remain until the final resurrection wherein body and spirit are reunited for the final judgment where the prior conditional spiritual location is made permanent and physical. Those previously in torment experience, in their bodies, the second death that lasts forever and those with Christ receive their resurrected bodies and live with him, also forever, in the New Jerusalem.
The special problem associated with the third article, however, is that in 16th century English one word “Hell” was used generally to translate both “Gahenna” and “Hades”. So, it is difficult, sometimes, to determine which location is being described by the one word. I do not think it so difficult in our case.
Almost certainly the “hell” used in the third article refers to Hades not Gahenna. There is nothing in the scriptures to support the notion of a descent into Gahenna.
If so, then Jesus descended to the “dead”, not to “Hell” as we, today, understand it. He truly experienced the condition of death for us and with us and in so doing he “released the prisoners” held in bondage to it.
Jesus’ human soul, his spirit, went to Hades where, like the poor man Lazarus, he remained with his Father in what was called in the Old Testament the “bosom of Abraham.”
As Fr. Sam Pascoe points out in his commentary on the Articles, this doctrine provides great comfort to believers facing death. You will suffer no trial, tread no path, in life or in death that your Lord and Savior has not also endured and trod. He has experienced the shutting down of his body. He has gone down to our death. He is, then, there in your waking and he is there in your sleeping. Hades cannot and will not separate you from his love or his presence.
But this raises a question. Why would the Articles speak of Christ’s descent to the “dead” after article 2 has already clearly indicated that he died?

I think the answer to this question is tied to the passage from 1st Peter 3 quoted above and it relates to a question often asked by believers, namely, “What happened to the Old Testament saints?”

Christ’s death freed all those who trust in him whether they lived before his coming or afterwards from the bonds of death.

The Old Testament often describes those who die as descending to “Sheol” which, as I noted above, seems consistent with the idea of “Hades.” The Old Testament saints departed for Sheol, or, Hades, at their deaths. The third Article affirms that Christ also made this descent and I believe this affirmation is intended to point us to 1st Peter 3. In 1st Peter 3:18-19 Christ’s descent and proclamation to the “spirits in prison,” as Peter says, freed them from bondage. The “prison” is probably “death” or Hades.
If this is so, and I think it is, third article affirms that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his sons, Moses and David and all those prior to the ministry of Christ who died trusting in and seeking the Promise of God have received in Christ’s descent into Hades the inheritance for which they longed. They did not, as the author of Hebrews tells us, see the promise with their eyes, but they lived for it and longed for it. Now Christ, the Promise given to Abraham, has come. In and through his death, believers living after the coming of Christ find salvation in the Promise revealed. And, likewise, those who died prior to his coming have inherited their salvation in the Promise concealed. But both those before Christ and those after Christ trust in the same Promise, Christ Jesus, and both are released from the prison of death through his going down to the grave.

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