Matthew 12:40 “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Just before Jesus breathed His last breath on the cross, He gave up His spirit to the will of the Father, for He said “Father into Your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46). The will of the Father for our Lord Jesus Christ after He died, was that His Son should be taken down into the lower parts of the earth. In the above quoted passage of scripture Jesus confirms this truth for us, when He tells us that He would be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. The heart of the earth that Jesus was referring to in this passage is also known as Hades or Hell, which is located in the centre of the earth. Only those who are spiritually dead and separated from the life of God are taken into hell after they die. Sadly, as we have already discussed, when our Lord Jesus died on the cross He was spiritually dead and separated from the life of God, and therefore incurred the same penalty that all sinners incur, i.e. being taken down into hell.
Psalms 88:6-7 “You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the depths. (7) Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and You have afflicted me with all Your waves.”
So why did God the Father deem it necessary to commit His Son to the lowest depths of Hell? Our Lord Jesus answers that question for us in the above quoted passage of scripture, for we can clearly see from this passage that it was the will of the Father that Jesus be taken down to the lowest pit of hell for the express purpose of suffering the wrath of God. The reason that Jesus had to suffer the wrath of God was because He had taken upon Himself the sin of the world, and He therefore had to pay the price for those sins, as if He Himself had committed each one of them. The suffering therefore, that Jesus experienced on the cross, was only a part of the total suffering that our Lord went through for the sins of the world, for the full extent of suffering that Jesus incurred was the wrath of God that was poured out on Him in the lowest pit of Hades for three days and three nights. And so we see that the wrath that Jesus suffered was the righteous judgement of God for the sins of the world.
Romans 4:24-25 “but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, (25) who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.”
Finally at the end of the three days and nights, in which Jesus incurred the wrath of God in the heart of the earth, every sin had been accounted for. And God could raise His Son from the dead because the debt of mankind had been paid. The above quoted passage of scripture confirms the truth to us that Jesus was raised from the dead because mankind was now justified in the eyes of God. In other words, justice for the sins of the world had been met.
Jesus came alive once again
Acts 2:26-27 “Therefore My heart rejoiced, and My tongue was glad; moreover My flesh also will rest in hope. (27) For You will not leave My soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.”
Once all the sins of mankind had finally been dealt with, Death no longer had the legal right to hold the Lord Jesus in the centre of the earth. In the above quoted passage of scripture our Lord reveals to us that even though it was God who had committed Him to Hades to suffer for the sins of mankind, that the Father would not allow His Son to remain there any longer than was absolutely necessary. And so it was that after suffering for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, that God delivered His son from Hades and from Death.
Psalms 18:16-24 “He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. (17) He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me. (18) They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. (19) He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me. (20) The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands He has recompensed me. (21) For I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. (22) For all His judgments were before me, and I did not put away His statutes from me. (23) I was also blameless before Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. (24) Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.”
Jesus had gone into Hades because of the sin of the world and not because of any sin that He had committed, for as we have already discussed, Jesus lived a sinless life before God. And so once the sin of the world had been accounted for, God could now deal with His Son according to His own righteousness. The above quoted passage of scripture reveals that exact truth to us, for it states that God rewarded Jesus according to His righteousness. Up until that moment Satan had held the keys of Hades and of Death, for God had given them to him as the one to whom God had given the power of death (Hebrews 2:14). And so because Satan had been deceived into thinking that Jesus had in fact committed sin, he took Jesus down into the lower parts of Hades to suffer for His sin. Satan and his angels were under the impression that Jesus would be held there for all eternity, because Satan controlled the keys and had received the mandate from God that none who entered Hades for their sins were ever to be allowed out. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Lord Jesus commented about those who were too strong for Him. Our Lord Jesus was referring to Satan and his angels in that comment, for during the three days and three nights He had been made a little lower than them for the purpose of His suffering death for the sin of the world (Hebrews 2:9). Nevertheless, our Lord also said in the same passage that God delivered Him from those who hated Him and were too strong for Him. God could do that once the sins of the world had been dealt with, because as there was no sin in Jesus, Satan and his angels no longer had any power over the Him.
Revelation 1:4-5 “John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, (5) and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.”
And so when the last sin of mankind had been paid for, God made His Son alive in spirit once again, which is why the above quoted passage of scripture describes the Lord Jesus as being the firstborn from the dead. In other words, Jesus was the first one to be born-again. When that happened, Jesus was no longer lower than Satan and his angels, and He then proceeded to destroy him who had the power of death, i.e. the devil. It was at that time that Jesus disarmed Satan and his angels, making a public spectacle of them before all the angels, triumphing over them in the victory that He had won (Colossians 2:15). It was also at that time that Jesus took the keys of Hades and of Death from Satan, and the Lord Jesus now holds those keys for all eternity (Revelation 1:18). And so what Jesus said when He walked in the flesh came to pass, i.e. He laid down His life and He took it up once again, just as He had received the command from His Father (John 10:18).
Michael E.B. Maher
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