No Hell Fire for Jesus

I want to address in short order today a teaching that is not uncommon in the Pentecostal community, and has been upheld by notable men of God for at least nearly a century. Did Jesus go to hell and suffer hell fire for us? Like any doctrine, this has to be measured by the scriptures, and if it’s true it can be backed up consistently by the scriptures, and cannot be refuted by any consistent evidence of the scriptures. So like I said, let’s allow the scriptures to address this doctrine in short order. Short order I say, because short order is all that is needed on the matter. First of all the scriptures clearly tell us what the penalty of man is for sin: “For the wages of sin is DEATH” (Rom. 6:23). With that said, let me also say that there are NO scriptures that say Jesus went to hell, and there are NO scriptures that says “the wages of sin is death AND hell.” That isn’t there. But we DO know that Jesus suffered the penalty of DEATH for us [If you need scripture for that, then it would be better for you to study the Bible than for me to list them]. Yeah, I know many are already saying, “But the Bible says ‘he went and preached unto the spirits in prison’ [hell]” (I Pet. 3:19). That is correct, the Bible DOES say that, as quoted. The scripture also says this in regard to the topic: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Mat. 12:40). The truth of the matter lies in a story that Jesus told about someone who DID go to hell, and I’ll quote part of that story: “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom [bay]: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom [i.e. bay]. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence” (Lk. 16:22-26). Someone who believes there is no devil and no hell tried to tell me several years ago that God showed him that this is “just a parable.” In response I asked him, “So Jesus was a part-time fictional story teller? What else did he speak of that was just fiction?” The truth is Jesus did not and does not deal in any fiction at all, any time at all. Jesus IS THE TRUTH, and he can speak nothing but truth!

What we CAN see from this passage of scripture is that paradise, which is the abode of the righteous dead, is directly across a great divide from hell fire; both of which are “in the heart of the earth.” Not only so, but people, or at least Abraham who resides over paradise, can communicate with people in hell, but they can’t go from one place to the other. That brings me to the account of Jesus and the thief on the cross, who said this: “And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Lk. 23:42,43). So while Jesus did go “to the heart of the earth,” and he did “preach to the spirits in prison;” he did NOT go to hell fire. He preached to those who were in hell from paradise, which is exactly where he said he was going. From just a logical standpoint it makes no sense at all to believe that Jesus suffered hell fire for us. The faithful saints of old who lived before Jesus, were not even in hell fire; and the true sacrifice of their sins had not yet been offered, which sacrifice Jesus was and is (Heb. 9:15). Neither were they able to die in true holiness with divine life dwelling in them, seeing true holiness and divine life were not available to them (Gal. 3:21; Heb. 7:19; Heb. 10:4). Not only so, but all who are in Christ now still die the natural death, despite having true holiness and divine life (Heb. 9:27). If Jesus had to to pay the price of suffering hell fire so that we don’t go there, then how is it that we still die? We know that if we die in holiness we will be raised from the dead at his coming (Rev. 20:6). Does that mean we will have to be resurrected from hell also when he comes? Does that sound confusing? That’s because it IS confusing. Let’s not complicate a simplistic Gospel message. The apostle Paul summed it up like this: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” I Cor. 15:1-4). And what was it that “he rose again” from? “When therefore he was risen FROM THE DEAD, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said” (Jn. 2:22). So if you are familiar with that doctrine, you should be able to sufficiently put it to rest now. These are the things that the scriptures tell us on the matter. Amen.