He descended into hell
Heidelberg Catechism
Heidelberg Catechism Question 44. Why is there added: “He descended into hell”? That in my severest tribulations I may be assured that Christ my Lord has redeemed me from hellish anxieties and torment by the unspeakable anguish, pains, and terrors which he suffered in his soul both on the cross and before.
Study Catechism
Study Catechism Question 44. What do you affirm when you say that he “descended into hell”? That our Lord took upon himself the full consequences of our sinfulness, even the agony of abandonment by God, in order that we might be spared.
- Mark 15:34 “At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”
- Heb. 9:26 “He has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
- Rom. 4:24-25 “It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.”
Study Catechism Question 45. Why did Jesus have to suffer as he did? Because grace is more abundant — and sin more serious — than we suppose. However cruelly we may treat one another, all sin is primarily against God. God condemns sin, yet never judges apart from grace. In giving Jesus Christ to die for us, God took the burden of our sin into God's own self to remove it once and for all. The cross in all its severity reveals an abyss of sin swallowed up by the suffering of divine love.
- Rom. 8:1, 3-4 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.”
- 1 Cor. 1:18 “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
- Rom. 5:8 “But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
- Col. 1:20 “Through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”
- James 2:13 “For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.”
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