A Lenten thought from The Church Geek…

March 16, 2007

Jim Bonewald is small-church Presbyterian pastor in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, whom I “met” online through his blog, The Church Geek. Blogging pastors tend to be pretty cool, and Jim is no exception: I’m even taking advantage of his online appeal to join in a March Madness bracket pool called “Decently and in Order.” Did I mention that Jim is a Presbyterian…

Jim has a good thought up on his blog today about that phrase of the Apostles’ Creed “he descended into hell…” that I thought you might enjoy:

I’ve often puzzled over the “he descended into hell” phrase of the Apostle’s Creed. Here are, perhaps, some helpful words from Emil Brunner:

God goes to the end. He reaches the goal. To be sure, this end is exactly the opposite of what we fix as our goal. We wish to climb up to heaven: God, however, descends - down to where? To death on a cross. This is why Jesus Christ has to descend into hell. He had to go the way to its very end. Our rightful end is hell, that is, banishment from God - godforsakeness. Only there has God completely come to us, there where he has taken upon himself everything, even the curse end of our way.

Jesus Christ has gone into hell in order to get us out of there. For with everything he does, that is his goal, that he may get us out, reconcile us with God, and fill us with God’s Spirit. He had to despair of God for us (”My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) so that we do not have to despair of God. He has taken this upon himself so that we may become free of it.
Emil Brunner

This Lenten season, the Adult Ed class that I’m leading is tackling the “Seven Last Words from the Cross.” Its been a challenging class, but that’s because what God does on our behalf from the Cross is challenging to us.

Posted in Faith