Christ Is Risen For...

When we confess the historical, credal statement “Christ descended into hell” we ought to consider these words in light of Psalm 116:3 which reads “The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.” This is one of the few ways “hell” is used in scripture, along with the place of the dammed and also the grave.

Here, we do not confess that our Lord went to the place of the dammed (Luke 23:43) nor was his soul confined to the grave (Acts 2:27), rather, we confess that the whole of Christ's humiliation, especially at the end, consisted of a time of great distress and anguish that he endured before his glorious resurrection, which marked the beginning of his exaltation. Because Christ redeems His people both body and soul, his sufferings must have been great, both body and soul. In this way, we can say Christ descended into hell so that we would not have to. We are confessing his great sufferings and public shame that he endured for sinners upon the cross & remaining in a state of death.

2LBCF 8.4 speaks of Christ's ‘enduring most grievous sorrows in His soul, and most painful sufferings in His body; was crucified, and died, and remaining in the state of the dead, yet saw no corruption'

Christ remained in a state of death. This is what the divines stressed, that Christ died and remained dead as an essential aspect of his humiliation.