The WESTMINSTER LARGER Catechism

WLC 50. Wherein consisted Christ’s humiliation after His death?

A. Christ’s humiliation after His death consisted in His being buried,1 and continuing in the state of the dead, and under the power of death till the third day;2 which hath been otherwise expressed in these words, He descended into hell.

Proofs

11 Cor 15:3–4; 2Ps 16:10; cf. Acts 2:24–27, 31; Rom 6:9; Mt 12:40

We have seen how the Lord humbled Himself in the events leading up to His death. But His humiliation was not yet completed. He humbled Himself in death in two ways yet.

First, He humbled Himself by condescending that His body be buried. The Lord, we must remember, is fully God and fully man. As man, He has an immortal soul and a mortal body. At His death, His soul would no doubt have returned to heaven as He told the penitent thief: "To day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Lk 23:43). His body, on the other hand, was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah that: "he made his grave… with the rich in his death" (Isa 53:9).

Secondly, Christ humbled Himself in "continuing in the state of the dead, and under the power of death till the third day." Because "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23), it is essential that the Lord suffered both physical and the equivalent of spiritual death (which He experienced in the 3 hours of darkness and the resultant cry of dereliction).

With the Lord’s giving up the ghost in His physical death, His sacrifice was completed and accepted. This was why "the veil of the temple was rent in twain" (Mt 27:51; cf. Heb 10:19-20).

But since His sacrifice was completed, there was no need for Him to remain any longer in the grave than for it to be known that He truly died, and for the fulfilment of His prophecy that He would be raised from the dead on the third day. His humiliation of remaining under the power of death until the third day, is therefore, for our sakes, rather than something that is required by strict justice.

Now, our catechism speaks of how the Lord’s burial "hath been otherwise expressed in these words, He descended into hell." This is with reference to the rather controversial phrase in the Apostle’s Creed, which was probably added only in A.D. 650 (see Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 2, [Baker, reprinted 1993], 52).

The Heidelberg Catechism, answering Question 44: "Why is there added, He descended into hell?" says:

That in my greatest temptations, I may be assured, and wholly comfort myself in this, that my Lord Jesus Christ, by his inexpressible anguish, pains, terrors, and hellish agonies, in which he was plunged during all his sufferings, but especially on the cross, hath he delivered me from the anguish and torments of hell. (Italics mine).

Our Catechism holds to a different view. Johannes G. Vos explains well:

This expression has been understood in various ways. Some hold that Christ literally descended into hell, not the hell of the devil and the wicked angels, but a place where the Old Testament saints were thought to be waiting. There, they say, he preached to those spirits and opened the way for them to enter heaven. This interpretation, which is held by the Roman Catholic Church and by some Protestants, is unsound and is based on a misunderstanding (wrong interpretation) of 1 Peter 3:18-20. Some Protestants hold that the words "He descended into hell" refer to Christ’s suffering on the cross, that is, that he descended into hell, not as a place, but as an experience of suffering.

 

While this idea is doctrinally sound, it is historically unwarranted because the word translated "hell" in the Apostles’ Creed is not Gehenna (the place of punishment) but Hades (the realm of death). Our catechism teaches that the words "He descended into hell" refer to Christ’s being buried, and continuing under the power of dearth for a time, the word hell being understood as "the realm of the power of death."

So, then while it is right for us to think that the Lord suffered the pains of hell on our behalf while He hung on the cross of Calvary, we must not confuse this thought with what is expressed in the Apostle’s Creed.