Ephesians 4.9b-Jesus Christ's Descent into Hades After His Death and Before His Resurrection
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday January 25, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4.9b-Jesus Christ's Descent into Hades After His Death and Before His Resurrection
Lesson # 220
Ephesians 4:7 Now, however, to each one of us grace was given corresponding to the incomparable Christ’s proportionate gracious giving. 8 Therefore, it says, “When he ascended to the highest place, he captured captives. He generously gave gifts to certain members of the human race.” 9 In other words, what is the meaning of the statement, “he ascended?” Namely that, he also descended into the lower regions, which are part of the earth? (Lecturer’s translation)
I interpret the expression eis ta katōtera merē tēs gēs (εἰς τὰ κατώτερα [μέρη] τῆς γῆς), “into the lower regions, which are part of the earth” as referring to Jesus Christ’s descent into Hades after His physical death on the cross and before His resurrection.
Hades or Sheol contains four compartments:
(1) Paradise: the place of the departed souls of believers before the resurrection of Christ (Lk. 23:39-43; Eph. 4:8-9) who were transferred to heaven after the resurrection and ascension of Christ (Eph. 4:10).
(2) Torments: the temporary fire for the souls of unbelievers from all dispensations (Lk. 16:19-31) who will be transferred to the Great White Throne Judgment that concludes human history and from there will be cast in the Lake of Fire forever (Rev. 20:11-15).
(3) Tartarus: the abode of the fallen angels of Genesis 6 who possessed unregenerate men during the antediluvian period in order to have sex with unregenerate women in order to corrupt the character of the human race and thus prompt God to judge the human race and consequently prevent the incarnation of the Son of God (1 Peter 3:18-22; 2 Peter 4; Jude 6).
(4) The Abyss: the place of imprisonment for the demons who violated certain rules for angelic creation and will be released during the Tribulation (Lk. 8:30-31; Rom. 10:7; Rev. 20:1-3).
Prior to the resurrection, ascension and session of the Lord Jesus Christ, Old Testament saints when they died did not go to the third heaven but rather to Paradise.
These Old Testament saints such as Abraham ascended with Jesus Christ into heaven as part of our Lord’s triumphal procession as victor in the angelic conflict and were part of the booty from our Lord’s victory that was accomplished through His death and resurrection.
As we noted in detail, in Ephesians 4:8, Paul quotes Psalm 68:18, which predicts that when Jesus Christ ascended to the highest place, he captured captives, who were the Old Testament saints that were located in the Paradise portion of Hades.
This passage also asserts that he brought them to heaven.
Those believers who died before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, like the thief on the cross, were brought to heaven by Him along with the dead Old Testament saints (Lk. 23:43).
That the expression eis ta katōtera merē tēs gēs (εἰς τὰ κατώτερα [μέρη] τῆς γῆς), “into the lower regions, which are part of the earth” refers to Jesus Christ’s descent into Hades after His physical death on the cross and before His resurrection is supported by the contents of 1 Peter 3:17-22.
The latter speaks of Jesus Christ after His physical death on the cross and before His resurrection proclaiming His victory over sin and Satan at the cross to unregenerate human beings who are now located in Torments.
1 Peter 3:17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if God wills it, than for doing evil. 18 Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit. 19 In it he went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20 after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water. 21 And this prefigured baptism, which now saves you—not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of a good conscience to God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who went into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers subject to him. (NET)
The NET Bible has the following note on this passage, they write, “The meaning of this preaching and the spirits to whom he preached are much debated. It is commonly understood to be: (1) Christ’s announcement of his victory over evil to the fallen angels who await judgment for their role in leading the Noahic generation into sin; this proclamation occurred sometime between Christ’s death and ascension; or (2) Christ’s preaching of repentance through Noah to the unrighteous humans, now dead and confined in hell, who lived in the days of Noah. The latter is preferred because of the temporal indications in v. 20a and the wider argument of the book. These verses encourage Christians to stand for righteousness and try to influence their contemporaries for the gospel in spite of the suffering that may come to them. All who identify with them and their Savior will be saved from the coming judgment, just as in Noah’s day.”
I believe that the contents of 1 Peter 3:17-22 refer to the Lord Jesus Christ proclaiming His victory over sin and Satan at the cross to unregenerate human beings in Torments after His physical death on the cross and before His resurrection.
While in Hades, He also released regenerate humanity from Paradise and brought them with Him when He ascended to His heavenly Father.
The text does not support the interpretation that He preached repentance to these people through Noah.
This is indicated by two factors.
First, the term “repentance” is not in the text.
Unregenerate human beings cannot repent after they have died physically and neither can the fallen angels who are incarcerated in Tartarus (2 Pet. 2:4) or the Abyss (Rev. 9).
Secondly, the referent of the neuter singular form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς), “it” in 1 Peter 3:19 is the neuter singular form of the noun pneuma (πνεῦμα), “spirit” which refers to the Lord’s state of being disembodied after His physical death.
This is indicated in that it parallels the noun sarx (σάρξ), “flesh” in 1 Peter 3:18 and speaks of His incarnation.
Thus, the former speaks of the Lord while in the state of physical death and the latter speaks of His incarnation prior to His resurrection.
Thus, 1 Peter 3:19 is speaking of the Lord while in the state of being physically dead prior to His resurrection while possessing a soul and a human spirit.
Therefore, we have a contrast between states with regards to Jesus Christ, namely, state of being alive during His incarnation and the state of being physically dead.
Therefore, in Ephesians 4:9, Paul asserts that Jesus Christ descended into the lower regions of the earth, which took place after His physical death on the cross and before His resurrection.
He descended into “Hades” or as it is called in the Old Testament, “Sheol.”
He proclaimed His victory over sin and Satan at the cross to unregenerate humanity in Torments and to regenerate humanity in Paradise.
The former remained in Torments because they rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior and were thus children of the devil.
However, He released those who trusted in Him as their Savior and brought them to the throne room of God with Him when He ascended to the right hand of His heavenly Father.
As we noted in our study of Ephesians 4:8, the first declarative statement in this verse completes the thought of the temporal participial clause in this verse and together they assert that the Lord Jesus Christ captured captivity when He ascended to the right hand of the Father.
Those whom He captured were those sinners who had been enslaved or held as captives of the sin nature, Satan and his fellow evil spirits who under his authority rule his cosmic world system but were freed from this enslavement through faith in Jesus Christ.
These justified sinners were Old Testament saints who looked forward in faith to the Messiah.
Those believers who died before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, like the thief on the cross, were brought to heaven by Him along with the dead Old Testament saints (Lk. 23:43).
Ephesians 4:9 and 1 Peter 3:19 are not the only passages which speak of Jesus Christ descending into Hades or Sheol after dying physically and before His resurrection but also Acts 2:31 and Romans 10:7 do as well.
Further support for the interpretation that Jesus Christ descended into Hades or Sheol after dying physically and before His resurrection in order to proclaim His victory over sin and Satan at the cross to unregenerate humanity in Torments and to regenerate humanity in Paradise and to bring the latter to the throne room of heaven is Revelation 1:18.
Revelation 1:17 When I saw him I fell down at his feet as though I were dead, but he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid! I am the first and the last, 18 and the one who lives! I was dead, but look, now I am alive—forever and ever—and I hold the keys of death and of Hades! (NET)
“And I have the keys of death and of Hades” speaks of the fact that because Jesus Christ conquered death, He possesses the keys to both death and Hades.
The reference to “the keys” refers to authority and power and in Scripture, a key is a sign of authority and power.
Jesus Christ’s substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths on the cross, which constituted suffering the wrath of God for all of sinful humanity, resolved the problem of physical death because His suffering dealt with the reason for physical death, namely sin.
His resurrection conquered physical death for those who trust in Him as Savior because they are identified with Him in His resurrection body which guarantees the justified sinner a resurrection body and victory over physical death.
He possesses the key to Hades because He has conquered and resolved the problem of physical death in the world.
