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 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 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 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.
Michael E.B. Maher
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