“Thank You, Lord Jesus, You have gone to the depths of Sheol to deliver us from the clutches of death. This life that we now live has been procured for us from Hades. We live in Your presence, always giving glory to Your name. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.”
Acts 2:29-31 “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. (30) Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, (31) he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.
Jesus had to go to Hades and pay the price of our death. From the place of death, Jesus was raised from the dead by the Father, by the Holy Spirit. The Father did not leave the soul of Jesus in Sheol. We need to be always in a state of appreciation and thanksgiving for what Jesus has provided for us.
Jonah 2:2-7 And he said: “I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, And He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. (3) For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. (4) Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ (5) The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. (6) I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD, my God. (7) “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple.
Jonah was in the belly of the fish and there Jonah experienced the horror of death. Therefore, when Jonah shares his experience with us, we get an idea of how terrible it must have been. This was only the belly of the fish but Hades is a place that is unimaginable in its revulsion. This is where Jesus went on our behalf.
The Lord delivered Jonah, in the same way, we too, in Christ, are delivered from the clutches of death.
Psalms 116:6-9 The LORD preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. (7) Return to your rest, O my soul, For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you. (8) For You have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, And my feet from falling. (9) I will walk before the LORD In the land of the living.
When we say, “we walk before the Lord in the land of the living”, it comes from a deep understanding that it is from death that we have been brought to life. This is the fullness of life that we now live before the presence of the Lord. Every moment of our lives is in this deep consciousness that our lives have been redeemed from the grip of death.
Hosea 13:14 “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes.”
Not only have you and I been delivered from the power of the grave, but the Lord has also vanquished death itself. This is the terrible fear of death that grips the people of the world. Only Jesus provides victory over death.
I Corinthians 15:57-58 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (58) Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Since Jesus has given us victory over death, we are now free to serve the Lord by being steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord. There is much work for us to do here on earth, as we await to put aside our earthly habitation and be clothed with our heavenly habitation. Our labour for the Lord is not in vain for our labour produces results for His eternal kingdom.
Ephesians 4:8-10 Therefore He says: “WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE, AND GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.” (9) (Now this, “HE ASCENDED”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? (10) *He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.
To abound in the work of the Lord, we have been given gifts. These gifts, Jesus could give us by leading captivity captive. We were once in the captivity of death but death itself has been defeated and death has been made captive.
Hebrews 2:9-10 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. (10) For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Jesus is the Captain of our salvation, through the suffering of death. He is now crowned with glory and honour.