Posted by
Michael Scotto on Sunday, March 23, 2008 4:07:03 PM
Overlooking the Three Days in the Belly of the Earth
One
of the most overlooked (and misunderstood) parts of the resurrection
story is Christ's three days in the heart of the earth. Peter stands
before the nation of Israel and makes these three days the center of
his Pentecost message of hope (Acts 2:27-32). Let's pause and think on
those three days.
The Lord Jesus did not see corruption in the
grave. He told us that just as Jonah was three days and three nights in
the belly of the fish so would our Lord spend three days and three
nights in the belly of the earth. The Lord went to the cross, gave his
life back to the Father and then he was laid in the grave (hell). There
He stayed and there He accomplished what no man has accomplished. He
did not see corruption (decay). That is such a glorious fact that Peter
dwells on it richly.
The Great Undoing of Death
In
Adam all are under the curse of dust. In Adam we are all mortal, we are
all corruptible. The Lord Jesus Christ undid death! In His resurrection
we see our resurrection. It is only when we experience our
own "undoing of death" (resurrection) that we will have "put on
immortality" and "put on incorruption" (1 Cor 15).
Because of
the doctrine of the Pharisees, borrowed from the Greeks, teaching that
"souls" float around without bodies, the full glory of what Christ
accomplished in His resurrection has been lost. The relevance of His
three days in the grave, so central to Peter's message to Israel, is
also diminished.
Paul argues that all is meaningless "if Christ
be not raised." Paul rests all of our hope on the resurrection of
Christ and on the hope, found in Him alone, of our own resurrection.
William Tyndale argued that the human tradition of "immortal souls"
reduced the doctrine of the believer's resurrection to a mere footnote.
Our resurrection is not merely a footnote to our redemption, it is the end result of
our redemption. God alone is immortal. Men must be made immortal. That
immortality, as Paul emphasizes, is "put on" in resurrection.
The Comfort of Resurrection
Paul
in First Thessalonians 4 and the Lord in John 11 both comfort the
bereaved with the hope of resurrection. There is no thought of
"bodiless souls" in heaven. When the Lord comforts Martha with the idea
that she will see her brother again, she responds "I know that he shall
rise again in the resurrection at the last day." Our Lord does not say,
"No, Martha, you'll see him in a bodiless form in a heavenly holding
tank" or anything like that. He confirms her belief in the resurrection
and comforts her with resurrection alone.
Our Lord's conquering of the tomb is our comfort. He conquered death and the
grave. His three days in the grave without corruption and His
resurrection from the dead give hope to all who face death. Job's hope
was bound up in the promise that though the worms eat his flesh (in the
grave) "in my flesh I shall see God." Job looked to his promise of resurrection alone.
Peter's great profession of faith in Matthew 16 is met by the Lord's
pronouncement that the "gates of Hades" cannot prevail against it.
Death cannot hold the believer in the grave. A profession of faith in
the Lord is the key to the undoing of death's hold. Death's gates cannot hold in what God will raise.
Victory Over the Grave
We
are all just dust given life (spirit) by God. We will all see
corruption and return to dust. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Our
hope is found solely in the death, burial and undoing of death
accomplished by Christ. He saw no corruption that we may look forward
to the day when we can say in our new, incorruptible bodies, "Death
where is thy sting? Grave where is thy victory?"