Lenten Quote: The Divine Scandal

By Jim | March 16, 2007

I’ve often puzzled over the “he descended into hell” phrase of the Apostle’s Creed. Here are, perhaps, some helpful words from Emil Brunner:

God goes to the end. He reaches the goal. To be sure, this end is exactly the opposite of what we fix as our goal. We wish to climb up to heaven: God, however, descends – down to where? To death on a cross. This is why Jesus Christ has to descend into hell. He had to go the way to its very end. Our rightful end is hell, that is, banishment from God – godforsakeness. Only there has God completely come to us, there where he has taken upon himself everything, even the cursed end of our way.

Jesus Christ has gone into hell in order to get us out of there. For with everything he does, that is his goal, that he may get us out, reconcile us with God, and fill us with God’s Spirit. He had to despair of God for us (”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) so that we do not have to despair of God. He has taken this upon himself so that we may become free of it.
Emil Brunner

healtheland

What is "hell" exactly? Is it the grave? Is it the lake of fire? Or is it simply where the souls of those who died outside of Christ are awaiting final judgment? And if that be the case, where do the souls of people who died in Christ go until final resurrection?

Mark A Hershberger

Given that Hell is where God is not, the statement is even more paradoxical. God went to where he isn't.

Of course, I prefer the iconic image of Christ opening the gates of Hell but the concept is the same: Freedom from Death.

Jim

Healtheland,

Do our souls go anywhere; I mean when we say "hell" are we really talking about some distinct physical place? I'm not inclined to speculate on where the souls of those who die in Christ go before resurrection, it's just not all that clear from scripture.

Back to Brunner's quote...from the rest of what he says in the source from which this quote came, "hell" is being in wrong relationship with God and others, and in its ultimate and final form, "hell" is banishment from God. I take that to mean that hell is a death that begins for us in this life.

Brunner stresses that since we cannot give our all to God, God in Christ gives his all to us. Descending to the very depths of hell so that we might be freed from it. And consequently that we might have eternal life, that begins for us in this life.