Here is a wish for your weekend to be happy and blessed ! If you put God and Jesus first in your life, you will be happy and blessed ! Life can be difficult and downright unfair sometimes, but your attitude concerning what befalls you determines whether you will be happy or not. If you are focused on Jesus and on God's Word, that alone will keep your attitude on the right track.
While making my post here last weekend, it occurred to me to do another post about exactly where Jesus went after His death on the cross; so this is my endeavor to do just that. Did He go to heaven? Did He go to hell? (Hell being the grave or where the dead await resurrection......not the lake of fire).
Let's first take a look at 1 Peter 3:18-20. "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; which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." This is quoting from the KJV; the NIV and the New American Standard Bible says, instead of "preaching" to the spirits in prison, that Jesus made a "proclamation" to them. This difference is important when you consider just who the spirits in prison are. So I will digress a moment here and discuss that first. In the Bible, human beings are not called spirits; they do possess a spirit and a soul, however. So it could not mean that Jesus proclaimed to deceased humans, or "preached" to them in order to lead the spirits in prison to repentance. The fate of people in hell is settled; there is no second chance. The only possible explanation is that the spirits in prison were the fallen angels, and salvation is not a possibility for them. So to say that Jesus "proclaimed" to them is a better translation; He proclaimed His victory over them... and over death.
We need to read Genesis 6:1-4 to find out more about these fallen angels. "And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."
Most scholars agree these sons of God were angels that disobeyed God and left heaven and married human women. All of this and the subject of giants, is food for another post later. But this disobedience was probably instigated by satan in an attempt to pollute the human bloodline so that the Messiah could not eventually be born; in other words, the hybrid bloodlines between humans and the fallen angels could not produce a sinless seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15).
Now back to where was Jesus after His death on the cross and before His resurrection; Jesus' body was still in the grave waiting for His resurrection but, as 1 Peter 3:18 and 19 says, Jesus was quickened by the Spirit, meaning He was alive in the Spirit when He preached to the spirits in prison. Later, on Resurrection Sunday, body and spirit joined in the risen Christ. With God all things are possible ! Matthew 19:26.
The main thing is that Jesus died to pay our sin debt, making a way to have eternal life through faith and belief in Him and in His resurrection. He is risen! Death has no victory over sinless persons. Jesus redeemed us and sanctified us. We have much to rejoice about ! Much to praise God about and to worship Him in awe and in much thanksgiving !
"Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: Come before His presence with singing." - Psalm 100:1-2.
There is still much beauty and goodness to be thankful for and to enjoy in this world. Below is a video of beautiful scenery with soft music to quiet your soul and give you rest from the cares of life on this glorious weekend.
"O LORD, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: The earth is full of thy riches." - Psalm 104:24
