Acts 2:31. His soul was not left in hell. That means His soul was in hell. Temporarily. On purpose.
Ephesians 4:9-10. Read it slowly.
“Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.”
Down through the compartments, Part 1 mapped out for you. Hell. Abraham’s Bosom. The pit.
And the first thing He did was preach.
1 Peter 3:18-19.
“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.”
He preached unto the spirits in prison.
Not people. Spirits. Not the unsaved dead in hell. The spirits in prison. Who are they?
2 Peter 2:4.
“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.”
Jude 1:6.
“And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”
Fallen angels. Chained under the earth in darkness. Reserved for judgment. These are the ones who crossed the line in Genesis 6 and have been in chains ever since.
Jesus Christ went down and preached to them.
The word is not “evangelized.” The word is proclaimed. Heralded. Announced.
He was not offering salvation to fallen angels. There is no salvation for fallen angels.
He was announcing a verdict. The blood had been shed. The atonement was complete. They lost. He walked into their prison and told them to their face.
This is the part your church never drew on the whiteboard.
Ephesians 4:8.
“Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”
He led captivity captive. He went to the place where the captives were and took them out.
Abraham’s Bosom. The paradise under the earth, where every Old Testament saint had been waiting. Abraham. Isaac. Jacob. Moses. David. Daniel. Every soul that died in faith before Calvary. Comfortable. But locked in.
Part 1 covered why. The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. God could forgive, but He could not clear the guilty. Not until Calvary.
And now it had been.
So He went down. He had the keys.
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.”
Keys mean doors. Doors mean rooms. He opened Abraham’s Bosom. He emptied it. Every faithful soul from Genesis to Calvary walked out with Him.
Matthew 27:52-53.
“And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.”
That is not a metaphor. That happened. The Old Testament saints came up. They were seen. In Jerusalem.
Before the cross, paradise was down. Luke 23:43. Jesus told the thief on the cross, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” And Matthew 12:40 tells you where Jesus went. The heart of the earth. Paradise was down.
After the resurrection, paradise is up.
2 Corinthians 12:2-4.
“I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven... How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”
Same word. Paradise. Different direction. Caught up. Into the third heaven.
The cross moved paradise. The holding cell is empty. Abraham’s Bosom is vacant. When Christ ascended, He took every soul in that compartment with Him.
That is why Paul writes what he writes in 2 Corinthians 5:8.
“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
No waiting room. No holding pattern. If you are saved on this side of Calvary and you die, you go straight up. The map changed because Jesus Christ changed it during those three days in the heart of the earth.
Luke 24:39.
“Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”
Read that again. Flesh and bones.
Not flesh and blood. Flesh and bones.
Where is the blood?
Hebrews 9:12.
“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
He took His own blood into the holy place in heaven and applied it to the mercy seat. The eternal atonement was sealed.
1 Corinthians 15:50.
“Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”
The resurrection body has no blood in it. It has flesh. It has bones. It can be touched. It can eat. It can walk through walls. The blood was applied in heaven, on the mercy seat, once and for all.
That is not a metaphor. That is the text.
Revelation 20:13-14.
“And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
Hell is not the final room. It is a holding cell. Death and hell deliver up the dead at the Great White Throne. Then death and hell themselves get thrown into the lake of fire.
Hell has an expiration date. The lake of fire does not.
Your Bible has a geography most churches have never drawn on a whiteboard. You just walked through part of it. He descended into the lower parts of the earth, preached to fallen angels in chains, opened the doors of Abraham’s Bosom, emptied paradise, relocated it to the third heaven, rose in a body with no blood, and applied it on the mercy seat in heaven.
That is what happened between Wednesday afternoon and Sunday morning. Almost nobody teaches it.
