Kingdom Ready Blog

…continued from earlier post.  Jesus cried out ‘It is finished!’ His work was done. His suffering was over. The onus was now on the Father to fulfil his promise and raise his Son to life again. Meanwhile, Jesus went to hell and took the keys to death and hell from the devil

In the box below is the following scriptural account of when and how this took place:

That’s right. There is no scriptural backing for this myth. Jesus was given the keys to release the dead from the place where the dead are stored, but it was his Father that gave them to him, certainly not the devil!

John 5:21, 25-26, 28-29
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.
25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;
28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

Revelation 1:18
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Teachings that Jesus was tormented in hades or that he went to the kingdom of the enemy and took keys from him… (etc. etc. etc.) are all based on a misunderstanding of the Biblical definition of the word hell resulting from the confusion of the words ‘gehenna’ and ‘hades’. Any teaching that Jesus was active during his death, whether praising God or warring with the devil calls into question a most foundational fact of our salvation.

By casting doubt upon the genuineness of Jesus’ death, the genuineness of his resurrection is also called into question. The truth is really simple. Jesus died and God the Father brought him back to life. You either accept this or reject it- but don’t you dare mess with it! Any other teaching, which contradicts these cardinal truths is in danger of being ‘another gospel’.

What did God sacrifice? The true gospel of Jesus Christ was prefigured in the Old Testament most strikingly in the testing of Abraham

Genesis 22:1-2
1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.
2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

This is the first place in the Bible where love is mentioned. God chose to test the measure of Abraham’s love for him by asking him to sacrifice what was most precious to him in all the world- the life of his own son. And Abraham obeyed. Many men in the Bible willingly gave their own lives, but Abraham’s sacrifice remains supreme causing even God to call out:

Genesis 22:12
“Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me”.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is given in the same terms:

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

God, having tested the love of Abraham, subjected his own love to the same measure. More so, because as Jesus hung on the cross gasping for air, his back ploughed like a field and the beard ripped from his face, there was no command to stop. That’s the sacrifice God was willing to make out of his profound love for humanity.

Romans 5:8
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

You may well marvel: “But Jesus- so perfect, so sinless, so noble… how can God have been willing to exchange him for me?”

2 Peter 1:17
For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

That’s the love of God. If you and I, being sinners and not having seen Jesus are able to love him- how much more his heavenly Father! God saw all his works, and read even his heart. Imagine how pleased he was with his beloved Son! God, who is love, had in the man Christ Jesus the worthiest and most deserving subject for his love out of all his creation. Imagine how the Father loved the Son!

John 3:35
The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.

John 5:20
For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.

And yet he exchanged him for you and I. All this, while we were yet sinners. The greatness of God’s love is expressed in the greatness of his sacrifice. To say that God was merely ‘disrobing himself of flesh’, or that it was only the flesh of the Messiah that died while the ‘God’ lived on belittles both the sacrifice God made, making it less than Abraham was willing to do, and the sacrifice of Jesus, who gave his all, even pouring out his life blood. The Son of God was not ‘God playing a human role’. His body was more than just some fleshly box. He agonised in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus did not want to die:

Mark 14:33-36
33 And he taketh with him Peter and James and John, and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy;
34 And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.
35 And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
36 And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.

If there was some alternative way for Jesus to have avoided the cross and still save mankind. If that were possible, he would have chosen it. But no:

Hebrews 5:7-9
7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

Jesus was not just a helpless pawn. He dreaded the death of the cross- but because of love overcame his fear and did it anyway.

John 10:18
18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

To refuse to believe in Jesus’ good news of the kingdom of God is to turn down God’s plan for mankind, planet earth and the entire creation. To reject the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection is to reject the greatest demonstration of love that has ever taken place. Refusal of this twofold gospel entails a denial of the love, mercy and free forgiveness of God given to us in his sacrifice of his beloved Son. Take hold of this lifeline God has extended to the human race to be saved from the fire of ‘Gehenna’. To choose otherwise is to fall under the condemnation of the prophet:

Jonah 2:8
They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

THE END