The line in the Apostles’ Creed “He descended into hell” often suffers one of two fates. It is either misunderstood in a dramatic, almost mythological way, as though Christ literally entered the place of the damned after his death in order to finish the work of redemption, or it is ignored altogether, hurried past as an awkward phrase that Protestants tolerate but rarely explain. Neither approach is satisfying. The phrase is old, the doctrine touches the heart of Christ’s humiliation, and the pastoral comfort contained in it is too important to lose.

The question is not really whether we believe Christ descended into hell. Christians who confess the Apostles’ Creed do say these words. The better question is, what do we mean when we say them? This distinction matters. If by “hell” we mean Gehenna, the place of final punishment, then the phrase becomes deeply problematic.¹ Christ did not go to the place of the damned after the cross to suffer further punishment, complete an unfinished atonement, or offer salvation to those who had already died. When he cried, “It is finished,” he did not mean, “It will be finished after one more work below.” His once-for-all sacrifice was accomplished at Calvary.

The older language of the Creed is more nuanced. The Latin phrase is descendit ad inferna or inferos, referring not necessarily to the place of torment but to the lower regions, the realm of the dead, the unseen state. Likewise, Scripture distinguishes between Gehenna, the place of judgment, and Hades or Sheol, the realm of death. Much confusion has come from flattening these distinctions.

Historically, the phrase was not part of the earliest forms of the Apostles’ Creed. Early summaries of the faith, such as those reflected in Irenaeus and Tertullian, confessed Christ’s incarnation, suffering, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension but did not include the explicit phrase “descended into hell.” The phrase appears in Rufinus, around AD 390. But here is the important historical detail: In Rufinus’s form of the Creed, the phrase seems to stand where “was crucified, dead, and buried” would otherwise be expected. Rufinus himself noted that the clause was not in the Roman or Eastern forms of the Creed and suggested that it was implied in Christ’s burial. In other words, its earliest creedal use may not have been an additional event after burial but a way of confessing the reality of Christ’s death and burial.²

This matters because the medieval imagination later expanded the doctrine. The “harrowing of hell” came to be pictured as Christ’s triumphant descent into the underworld to release the Old Testament saints from a kind of holding place.³ In Roman Catholic theology, this became connected with the idea of limbo in some of the fathers and, more broadly, with doctrinal developments surrounding purgatory.⁴ Reformed Christians have rightly resisted that trajectory. Scripture does not teach that Old Testament believers were saved in a fundamentally different way from New Testament believers nor that they were kept from heaven until Christ’s descent. There is one covenant of grace, one Savior, and one way of salvation: by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.⁵

This is why several biblical passages often brought into the discussion must be handled carefully.

• Ephesians 4:8–10 says that Christ “descended into the lower regions, the earth.” But Paul’s contrast is between Christ’s humiliation and exaltation. The One who ascended is the One who first descended, not necessarily into hell but into the lowliness of incarnation, suffering, and death. The phrase “the lower regions, the earth” most naturally points to Christ’s descent to earth in humiliation, not to a postmortem descent into the place of punishment.
• First Peter 3:18–19 is more difficult: Christ was “put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.” Some have taken this as proof that Christ descended into hell to preach. But within the Reformed tradition, many have understood this differently. One common Protestant interpretation is that Christ, by the Spirit, preached through Noah to that disobedient generation, who are now “spirits in prison.” With this reading, Peter is not describing an evangelistic mission after death but Christ’s Spirit speaking long before through the preaching of Noah (the “herald of righteousness” in 2 Peter 2:5). Others, such as Bavinck, connect the proclamation more with Christ’s triumph and exaltation.⁶ In either case, the passage does not require the idea that Christ suffered in hell or offered a second chance to the dead.
• First Peter 4:6 also requires caution: “The gospel was preached even to those who are dead.” This does not need to mean that the gospel was preached to people after they died. It may mean that the gospel had been preached to those who were now dead, so that although they died according to the flesh, they live according to God in the spirit. Calvin drew pastoral comfort from this: Death does not rob believers of the saving power of Christ. The gospel does not expire at the grave. Those who die in the Lord are not lost.⁷
• Psalm 16:10 is another key text: “You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” Peter applies this to Christ’s resurrection in Acts 2. The point is not that Christ’s human soul entered the place of torment but that Christ was not abandoned to death. His body did not see corruption. The grave could not hold him. Death received him truly but not finally.
• Revelation 1:17–18 gives the triumphant conclusion: “I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.” Christ possesses authority over death and Hades not because he needed to suffer there after the cross but because by dying and rising he conquered death. The keys are his because the victory is his.

So what should Reformed Christians mean when they confess “He descended into hell”?

The Westminster Larger Catechism gives a sober and helpful answer. Question 50 asks, “Wherein consisted Christ’s humiliation after his death?” The answer: “Christ’s humiliation after his death consisted in his being buried, and continuing in the state of the dead, and under the power of death till the third day; which hath been otherwise expressed in these words, He descended into hell.” The Reformed tradition is not united on the meaning of the term, with Heidelberg Catechism 44 placing the emphasis more on Christ’s anguish, pain, and terror of soul, especially on the cross, as the ground of comfort in temptation. In both uses, though, what is denied is the medieval superstition of Christ descending into the place of judgment—hell—and suffering there.

This is the Reformed view in its most careful form. The descent is not a second suffering. It is not purgatory. It is not a rescue mission to liberate saints from a temporary prison. It is not a second chance for unbelievers. It is Christ’s real continuation under the power of death until the third day. He truly died. He truly entered the state of the dead. He truly remained buried. His humiliation did not stop the instant he breathed his last. The Son of God, according to his human nature, went all the way down into death for us.

This is not less meaningful than the more dramatic medieval picture. It is more biblical and, in some ways, more comforting. Christ did not merely appear to die. He did not hover above the grave untouched by its horror. He entered death itself. He sanctified the grave for his people. He knows not only the pain of dying but the humiliation of being dead and buried. And yet death could not keep him.

This is the pastoral heart of the doctrine. The descent tells us that Christ went as low as our salvation required, but no lower work remained after the cross. The resurrection tells us that death exhausted itself on him and lost. The believer does not need to fear that the grave is an unknown country into which Christ has never gone. He has gone there before us. More than that, he has come out the other side with the keys.

So we should not ignore the phrase. Nor should we load it with superstition. Properly understood, “He descended into hell” confesses the depth of Christ’s humiliation and the completeness of his victory. He was crucified. He died. He was buried. He continued under the power of death until the third day. And then, in triumph, he rose again.

For that reason the line belongs not to speculation but to comfort. Christ descended into the depths of death not because his atonement was unfinished, but because his humiliation was complete. And because he rose, those who belong to him may say with confidence: Death is real, the grave is bitter, but Christ has been there, Christ has conquered it, and Christ will bring his people through.

Notes

1. Philip Schaff, ed., “The Apostles’ Creed,” footnote 45, in vol. 2 of The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes (Harper & Brothers, 1919), Christian Classics Ethereal Library, https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds2/creeds2.iv.i.i.i.html.
2. Rufinus of Aquileia, “Commentary on the Apostles’ Creed,” §18, New Advent, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2711.htm.
3. Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§632–33, Vatican, https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1R.HTM.
4. Council of Trent, Session 25, “Decree Concerning Purgatory,” in The Canons and Decrees of the Sacred and Oecumenical Council of Trent, trans. J. Waterworth, Papal Encyclicals Online, https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/trent/twenty-fifth-session.htm.
5. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. Henry Beveridge, 2.16.8–12.
6. Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 3, Sin and Salvation in Christ, ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend (Baker Academic, 2006), 415–18.
7. John Calvin, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles, on 1 Peter 4:6, trans. John Owen, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom45/calcom45.iv.v.ii.html.

©Everett Henes. All Rights Reserved.

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Post authored by:

• Everett Henes

  

  Everett Henes (MDiv, ThM, DMin) is pastor of Hillsdale Orthodox Presbyterian Church, where he has served since 2008. He is husband to Kimberly and father of five children and grandfather of five (and counting!). He teaches US History and Philosophy of History for Jackson College in Michigan. He is currently working towards a PhD in Humanities with a focus in US Religious History from Faulkner University. In his spare time, he enjoys competing in powerlifting and strongman and teaching homeschoolers Taekwondo.

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