Salvation 2025 | Day 8
“For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”
Psalm 16:10 KJVS
When Jesus declared, “It is finished,” He meant every word. That statement was not a sigh of resignation but a shout of victory. Through His death, the power and penalty of sin and death were fully conquered. His blood was the currency that purchased the freedom of humanity. The cross was not a mere execution site; it was the altar upon which the eternal exchange was made. Redemption was not accomplished in His descent into Hades but at Calvary, where the price for our salvation was paid in full.
His descent into Hades was not to suffer further. It was a royal procession into the realm of the dead to proclaim His authority and to declare the liberation of the righteous souls who had waited for the promise of God to be fulfilled. What looked like defeat on earth was, in truth, the unfolding of divine mystery. The silence of Friday night and the stillness of Saturday were not voids of action, but the sacred pause before the eruption of eternal victory.
Jesus did not descend into Hell, the place of final torment, but into Hades. Hades is the Greek term that corresponds with Sheol in Hebrew, the place of the dead. According to Scripture, Hades has two compartments. The first is the abode of the righteous, often referred to as Abraham’s Bosom. The second is the place of the wicked, characterized by torment and darkness. Both are temporary states, awaiting the final judgment. Ultimately, all souls will arrive at one of two eternal destinies: the New Jerusalem or the Lake of Fire. Where one is placed in the temporary realm after death foreshadows where one will spend eternity.
Jesus Himself confirmed this mystery when He said to the repentant thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Paradise, in this context, is not Heaven. Heaven is the dwelling place of the Father, and Jesus did not ascend to the Father until after His resurrection. This distinction matters deeply, for it underscores that the work of Christ did not end with the crucifixion. His spirit went to Paradise, while His body, though buried, saw no decay. He remained uncorrupted, just as Jonah remained alive in the belly of the great fish. That prophetic image of Jonah prefigured the power of the resurrection. As Jonah emerged to proclaim repentance to Nineveh, Christ rose to declare the dawn of a new redemptive age.
We do not serve a Christ who was bound by the torment of Hell. We serve the risen Lord who bore the wrath of sin, broke the grip of death, and emerged triumphant. He now holds the keys of death and the grave. What happened in that holy silence between the cross and the empty tomb was not a pause in purpose but a thunderous, though unseen, victory in the depths.
This is the glory of the Gospel. Not only that Christ died for our sins, but that He proclaimed liberty in the realm of the dead and rose again as the firstborn from the grave. His silence was filled with action. His stillness was charged with conquest. His rest in the tomb was not the end but the gateway to resurrection and eternal dominion.
Further reading: Matt 12:40, Luke 23:43, Acts 2:27–31, 1 Peter 3:18–20, Ephesians 4:8–10, Rev 1:18
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