From Mark 15:42-47 / He Descended into Hell – The Apostle’s Creed as it is most often cited contains the phrase “he descended into hell.” Historian and theologian W. G. T. Shedd notes that this phrase was not in the original. Irrespective of the complexities of how it came to be, there is no question as to why it come to be. It was meant to assert that Jesus had really and truly died. Died so as to be buried. Died so as to be truly dead. Not swooning. Not merely nearly dead. Not faking anything. But dead. Life had left His body. He had taken “the wages of sin”, our sin, completely. He left nothing undone in His sacrifice. We cannot, we dare not try to add anything to it. Sometimes when we fail we imagine we need to add some sort of personal suffering to His to deal with our sin. But it is not so. Our faith must be grounded in His finished work in this matter, and not in just having made some sort of entrance that we must then somehow fill up ourselves. As though He wiped the slate clean, but when we sin, we have to wipe it clean again ourselves by some form of penance and personal suffering. The words of Elvina Hall’s grand hymn say it so clearly. Trust Christ and His finished work – alone.
- I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”Refrain: - For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb. - And now complete in Him,
My robe, His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest. - Lord, now indeed I find
Thy pow’r, and Thine alone,
Can change the *leopard’s spots [*leper’s]
And melt the heart of stone. - When from my dying bed
My ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
Shall rend the vaulted skies. - And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down,
All down at Jesus’ feet.- Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.
- Jesus paid it all,
ResponsiveReiding 
2 responses to “He Descended into Hell”
This is a fascinating area of study in Christology and historical theology. For some background besides Shedd see John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, Library of Christian Classics, gen. eds. John Baillie, John T. McNeill, and Henry P. Van Dusen (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), Vol. I, pp. 512–520 [2:16:8–12]; see esp. I:515n23 [2:16:10n23].
The Creeds of Christendom With a History and Critical Notes, ed. Philip Schaff, rev. David S. Schaff, 6th ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, n.d.; 1990 reprint from 1931 Harper & Row ed.), I:21, 21n6; II:45-50, 46n2, 50n4.
Documents of the Christian Church, ed. Henry Bettensen, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University, 1963), pg. 24.
Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics, rev. and ed. Ernst Bizer, trans. G. T. Thompson (Grand Rapids: Baker, n.d.; 1978 reprint of 1950 original, from Reformed Dogmatik), pp. 490–494.
Richard A. Muller, Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms Drawn Principally from Protestant Scholastic Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1985), pp. 89–90, s.v. descensus ad inferos.
Reformed Dogmatics, ed. and trans. John W. Beardslee, III (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1965), pp. 101–102, s.v. Johannes Wollebius, Christianae Compendium Theologiae (1626), Book I, Ch. XVIII: “The Humiliation of Christ the Mediator,” Proposition XVII.
Reformed Standards of Unity (Grand Rapids: Society For Reformed Publications, 1952; and Grand Rapids: Rose, n.d.), pp. 11, and 33.
H. B. Swete, The Apostles’ Creed: its relation to primitive Christianity, 2nd ed. (London: C. J. Clay and Sons, 1894) pp. 56–63; on Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/TheApostlesCreed [accessed 28 MAR 2023].
For more resources on this subject see my PDF file linked from the “Public” folder of my Dropbox at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/80c98ura2oy1u7wtcyc3w/He-Descended-Into-Hell-resource-file-on-the-Descensus-Ad-Inferos-rev-ed-22-JUN-2023.pdf?dl=0&rlkey=917kquyb7foamic8uq4g436gj.