CHRIST IS RISEN … From Hell
A Resurrection Day message from Dr. Galen Currah, April 4, 2021
Bible quotations from the English Standard Version (2016)
Music by Natrix
Wordwatchers.currah.us

From the fifth century CE, Christians have recited together the Apostles’ Creed, which affirms:

“Credo … in Iesum Christum … qui … crucifixus, mortuus, et sepultus, descendit ad inferos, tertia die resurrexit a mortuis, ascendit ad caelos, sedet ad exteram Dei Patris omnipotentis.”

“I believe ... in Jesus Christ ... who … was crucified, died, and was buried, descended into hell, rose again from the dead on the third day, ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”

The phrase “descended into hell’ derives from the New Testament in the First Epistle of Saint Peter, chapter 3:


“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,

in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,
because they formerly did not obey,
when God's patience waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was being prepared,

in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you,
not as a removal of dirt from the body
but as an appeal to God for a good conscience,
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,


who has gone into heaven
and is at the right hand of God,
with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.” 1 Peter 3:18-22

We can summarize this passage in chronological order, as follows:

1. Disobedient spirits sinned in the days of Noah.
2. God patiently waited for Noah to build a boat.
3. God saved eight humans through the great flood.
4. God imprisoned disobedient spirits in the underworld.

5. Christ the Just suffered for the unjust.
6. Though Christ died physically, yet he lived spiritually.
7. Christ went down to the spirits imprisoned in the underworld.
8. Christ made a proclamation to those spirits.

9. Christ has risen from death.
10. Christ has gone into heaven.
11. Christ is seated at the right side of God.
12. Christ has subjected ruling spirits to himself.

13. Noah’s boat and the flood are a pattern of baptism.
14. Christians baptize humans in water.
15. In baptism, humans request of God a good conscience.
16. God saves humans through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Some fifty days after he had seen Jesus crucified in public, and, three days later, saw, heard and touched Jesus risen from death to life, Peter instructed Jews in Jerusalem:

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. … Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” Acts 2:38-40

That promise remains in effect to this day, as the Apostle Paul wrote to Jewish and Gentile Christians at Rome:

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” Romans 10:9-10