Peter SmytheA Different Kind of Word Preacher

Into your hands I commend my spirit. (Luke 23:46, NASB)

For the Jesus Did Not Descend Into Hell crowd, there are a few verses that the theologians have held up to us as virtual trump cards. One of those verses is Luke 23:43 where Jesus says, “I say unto you today, that you will be with me in paradise,” to the thief. In my prior essay, Trouble in Paradise, we saw that this verse is much more of a joker for them than the trump card they claim it is.Luke 23:46 is another one of those verses that theologians slap down, gavel-like, to shush any hubbub that Jesus had to descend to hell (hades) to execute the Plan of Redemption. Here are a few quotes about Luke 23:46:The Theologians

“Finally, the cry, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ (Luke 23:46), also suggests that Christ expected (correctly) the immediate end of his suffering and estrangement and the welcoming of his spirit by God the Father.” Wayne Grudem, Bible Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan 1999) at 258.

“Immediately before His death, Jesus committed his spirit into the hands of the Father (Lk. 23:46). At the moment of his death, he cried out loudly, bowed his head, and ‘yielded up His spirit’ to God.” (Mt. 27:50; Jn 19:30). D.R. McConnell, A Different Gospel (Peadbody, MA: Hendrickson 1995) at 126.

“If we are to take the Bible seriously, we must conclude that Jesus committed His spirit to the Father, not to Satan.” Mark McFall, The Apostles’ Creed and The Descent of Jesus Christ Into Hell at www.frontline.apologetics.com/apostles.creed.htm

Once you swallow this construction of Luke, that Jesus’s separation from God was done and over by this verse, you find yourself standing in front of one of those large maps that shows you “You are Here,” but you see that your exit out is fraught with difficulties. Looking down the corridor to your left, the way that most of our modern theological heroes have gone, you see that it is quite musty, dank, and dark. This is the way that says:

“Yes, my child, Jesus committed His spirit to the Father in Luke 23:46. Yes, He was resurrected on the third day. No, we don’t know what happened between Luke 23:46 and the moment that He was resurrected. God is mysterious and He does not let us know everything. I imagine that is just for us not to know, although I agree with you that our very redemption depends upon it. But what you do is glorify Him, even though you don’t know what He did during those three days.”

Not too palatable to rest the redemption of your soul on a bunch of “I don’t knows,” is it?

The other corridor, the one to the right, seems much more appealing. It’s light, airy, and clean. Not too many a theologian has trudged this route, but that shouldn’t be a problem compared to the alternative. This way is summed up by Wayne Grudem in his article, He Did Not Descend Into Hell:

“These texts [including Luke 23:46] indicate, then, that Christ in his death experienced the same things believers in this present age experience when they die: His dead body remained on earth and was buried (as ours will be), but his spirit (or soul) passed immediately into the presence of God in heaven (as ours will). Then on the first Easter morning Christ’s spirit was reunited with his body and he was raised from the dead, just as Christians who have died will (when Christ returns) be reunited to their bodies and raised in their perfect resurrection bodies to new life.” Wayne Grudem, He Did Not Descend Into Hell, Evangelical Society Journal (March 1991) at 113.

You like this much better than the “We don’t knows,” so you take it. You’d rather have an answer for your faith than look like a South Park caricature. As you traipse down the corridor everything seems not just great, but fabulous. You “get” Luke 23:46 and can describe the “three days in the heart of the earth” like a Chiclet commercial:

“Jesus died pretty much the kind of death we all do. When He died, He immediately went to the Father. He hung around the Father for one day, two days, even three days. Oh, glory! And then on the third day, the Father reached over to Jesus, tapped Him on the shoulder and said, “Jesus, it’s time for you to be resurrected now. You go on your way down to earth and let me resurrect you just like I will all the others.” And Jesus went down from heaven and to the earth and slipped on his body … uhm … wait a minute . . .”

Just when you thought you got it, you know that something isn’t right. Jesus’s resurrection is too clean. It’s too easy. You remember Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:19-20 where it describes Jesus’s resurrection:

“When the Lord Jesus, the Captain (Archegonn, Prince-Leader) of our salvation, was raised from the dead, the act of resurrection was accomplished through ‘the exceeding greatness of his [God’s] power [dunameos], to usward who believe, according to the working [enegian] of the strength [kratous] of His might [ischuos].’ In this working there was such a putting forth of the divine omnipotence that the Holy Spirit through the apostle, requires four words of special significance to bring out the thought. We shall not enter into the expressive meaning and grouping of these words further than to say that their combination signifies that behind the fact of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus there lay the mightiest working recorded in the Word of God.” John MacMillan, The Authority of the Believer (Camp Hill, PA: Wing Spread Publishing 2007) at 6.

How can it be that Jesus’s resurrection was the mightiest act of God recorded in the Word, and it’s supposed to be the same as the rest of us?!? You know that can’t be right. You run back as hard as you can to the map. Eyes flittering over it, you know that there’s got to be another way, but you don’t see it. “Where is it? Where is it?!” And just like in the movies, you hear a whisper from behind you - “Psst. Over here. I’ll show you the way. Come with me.”

[In 1940, the night before their first mass jump, U.S. paratroopers at Fort Benning saw a film about Geronimo, and began shouting his name during jumps, a trend which has caught on elsewhere. Wikipedia]