Colossians 1:9-20

[Hidden In Him]

Christ's Deliverance Of The Church From The Kingdom Of Darkness

     We now come to a subject matter that was very important to the theology of the early church, but is today rarely taught: Christ's deliverance of the saints out of the Underworld, and how it related to the saints of God during his time and even today. Without an accurate understanding of this great spiritual event Paul was now describing, the next twelve verses in Colossians become virtually impossible to comprehended.
     As Paul would now inform them:

     We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying all the time for you, having heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints because of the hope reserved for you in Heaven, which you heard about beforehand in the recounting of the truth of the gospel... [and] from the day in which we heard we do not cease praying for you, and asking that you may be filled with the recognition of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding to walk worthily of the Lord unto all acceptability, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the recognition of God, being empowered with all [supernatural] empowerment by virtue of the dominion of His glory to manifest all endurance and long-suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father, the One having made you fit for a share of the inheritance of the saints in light, who delivered us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. (Colossians 1:3-5, 9-12)

     What "light" was Paul referring to here? Light in the kingdom of Heaven. And by mentioning Christ as having delivered them from the authority of darkness and having transferred them up into the kingdom of God's Son, what he was describing would come to be referred to in church tradition as the "Harrowing of Hell." As we shall see this title was actually somewhat misleading, since He did not actually descend into "Hell" after His crucifixion but into the Underworld, more specifically the Paradise side of Sheol, where He preached to the spirits of the righteous who were still awaiting the day when the the Lamb of God would be slain for their sins. This alone made it possible for them to enter the presence of a Perfect and Holy God in Heaven.
     Thus, by the time Paul was writing these words, the Old Testament saints had already been taken in spirit from Sheol up into Heaven with Him, while the body of Christ on earth remained. Hence, Paul was teaching in these next verses that God had reconciled the whole church unto Himself, whether those now in Heaven or those still on earth. This is why Paul stated how God had, "delivered us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love." For the Old Testament saints this had already happened literally, and since he was combining or lumping the whole church together under one umbrella here, he was including those who were still alive as having now been transferred into Heaven as well by the power of God:

     Giving thanks to the Father, the One having made us fit for a share of the inheritance of the saints in light, who delivered us from the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation. For in Him was everyone created, whether those in Heaven or those on the earth, those who are visible and those who are invisible, whether thrones, or lordships, or rulers, or authorities, all have been created through Him and unto Him. And He is before all, and in Him all have [their] organization. And He is the Head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, that He might become preeminent amongst us all, for in Him all the Fullness was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile everyone unto Himself, whether those on earth or those in Heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:12-20)
     
     An article in Wikipedia describes Christ's Harrowing of Hell like this:

     In the context of Christian theology, the Harrowing of Hell (Latin: Descensus Christi ad Inferos, "the descent of Christ into Hell") is the Old English and Middle English term for the triumphant descent of Christ into Hell (or Hades) between the time of His Crucifixion and His Resurrection, when He brought salvation to all of the righteous who had died since the beginning of the world... The realm into which Jesus descended is called Sheol or Limbo by some Christian theologians, to distinguish it from the Hell of the damned. (The Harrowing Of Hell, wikipedia.com)

     As we shall see, numerous times in the New Testament the apostles made reference to this deliverance of the entire church corporately, whether past, present or future, from the depths of Hades into Heaven. For believers still alive on the earth, this happened figuratively through their participation in water baptism, which represented death to the flesh, and through their baptism in the Holy Spirit, which represented being resurrected up with Christ in Spirit into Heaven after the resurrection.
     The spiritual significance of this analogy where believers were concerned was that they were to see themselves as now having died to the flesh, for which reason they should "mortify their members on the earth" (Colossians 3:5). As Paul would also tell the Galatians, "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with its affections and lusts" (Galatians 5:24). By these statements, he was teaching that they needed to bring their flesh under subjection, in particular through fasting, as if putting it to death, and to walk in newness of life through the anointing of the Holy Spirit that now rested upon them. The fact that such things are not taught today is in my opinion a big part of why sin still dominates much of the modern church.   


His Descended Into Sheol After The Crucifixion

     Jesus did not die alone. He was crucified together with two thieves, one on His right and one on His left. As He hung there dying on the cross, the word of God records the conversation He had with these two men:

     But one of the criminals who had been hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If you are the Christ, save yourself and us." But the other, answering [and] rebuking him, said, "Do you not even fear God, seeing that we are under the same judgment? And we indeed are justly receiving the due recommence for what we have done, but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said to Jesus, "Remember me, when You come into Your kingdom." And Jesus said to him, "Truly I say to you, This day shall you be with Me in Paradise." (Luke 23:39-43)

     Where did Jesus tell the thief he would be going after death? His exact words were, "This day shall you be with Me in Paradise." Where, then, was Paradise at this time? In Heaven? According to the scriptures, Paradise was located in the Underworld, or what the Jews referred to as Sheol. Paradise itself they referred to as "the Bosom of Abraham," for it was where father Abraham was waiting to greet every righteous person who died in Old testament times.
     A place of torment also already existed in Sheol, but in a different part of the Underworld. As the story Jesus told about Lazarus and the rich man confirmed, Paradise was actually located near Hell, right next to it in fact, such that wicked souls who were suffering in torment could see the souls of the righteous in Paradise and vise versa, yet neither could pass from one side over to the other:

     And [Jesus] said to them... "Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, being festive during the day in splendor. And a certain poor man named Lazarus was laid at his porch, being full of sores, and desiring to be filled with whatever fell from the rich man's table. But coming, even the dogs licked his sores. And it came to pass that the poor man died, and was carried away by the angels into the bosom of Abraham. And the rich man also died, and was buried. And having lifted up his eyes in Hades, being in torment, he saw Abraham from afar, and Lazarus in his bosom. And crying out, he said, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool mu tongue, for I am in pain in these flames. But Abraham said, "Son, remember that you received your good things during your lifetime, and Lazarus likewise received evil things. But here he is comforted, and you are in pain. And amongst those here, between all of you and all of us, a great chasm has been firmly established, so that those who wish to pass from here to all of you are unable, nor can anyone pass from there to us." (Luke 16:15, 19-26)

     Had this teaching been somehow heretical, the Pharisees to whom Jesus addressed it would have quickly seized on the opportunity to accuse Him of being a false teacher for saying such things. But the scriptural text gives no indication of them objecting to this teaching. Why? Because all Jews were well aware that the souls of the righteous went down into the earth just as the souls of the wicked did. This is clear from what the patriarch Jacob declared after learning of the presumed death of his son Joseph:

     And the sent for the long coat that reached to the feet, and took it to their father and said, "We have found this. Look now. Is it your son's coat?" And he knew it, and said, "My sons' long coat! An evil beast has eaten him. Surely Joseph is torn in pieces." And Jacob tore his clothing, and put sackcloth on his loins. And he mourned many days for his son. And all his sons and daughters tried to comfort him. But he refused to be comforted, and said, "I will go down to Sheol mourning my son." And his father wept for him. (Genesis 37:32-35)

     By this last statement, Jacob was essentially saying, "I will mourn for him until the day I die, and descend into the Underworld." That the righteous descended to the Underworld after death is also confirmed by the Septuagint, or Greek translation of this Old Testament passage, where the word Hades is here subtitled for the Hebrew word Sheol:

     And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days. And... would not be comforted, saying, "I will go down to Hades mourning my son." (Genesis 37:34-35)

     So where, then, did righteous Jacob and the rest of the Old Testament saints go after death? Down into Sheol, i.e. Hades, more specifically into the Paradise side of the Underworld, or what the Greeks referred to as Elysian Fields. 
     So, too, did certain Messianic prophecies confirm that Christ Himself descended into Hades after His crucifixion. On the Day of Pentecost, the apostle Peter got up and began preaching in the streets of Jerusalem to proclaim to all of Judea that Christ was indeed the Jewish Messiah. During his sermon, he quoted a Psalm of David as being a prophetic reference to Christ where it said:

     For David said... "My flesh shall rest in hope, for you will not abandon My soul in Hades, nor give your Holy One to see corruption." (Acts 2:26-27)

     Here again the Greek word Hades was substituted for the Hebrew word Sheol in the original Old Testament text (see Psalm 16:10 in the original Masoretic). Thus, the terms Hades and Sheol were synonymous. Both referred to what the ancients understood to be the Underworld, the place where all souls, good or bad, descended after death.


The Gates Of Hell Did Not Prevail Against Them

     So what exactly then happened after Christ's crucifixion, when He was in the grave for three days and three nights? A passage in First Peter describes the first thing that took place: He descended to the Paradise end of Sheol to announce to the righteous dead that He was One prophesied about in the scriptures, the long-awaited Savior and Redeemer:

     For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring you to God, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in Spirit, in which He went and preached to the spirits in prison who were once disobedient in the days of Noah when the long-suffering of God waited as an ark was being prepared, into which a few, that is, eight souls were saved through water, an antitype of the baptism that now also saves you, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, He having ascended into Heaven with angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. (1 Peter 3:18-22)

     In this text, Peter was referring specifically to Christ descending and preaching to Noah and his family, the eight souls who survived the flood. But Peter mentioned this particular group of souls to use a theological analogy related specifically to them. It was understood that Jesus actually preached to all the righteous dead, from Adam and Eve all the way to John the Baptist, who died not long before Christ Himself would be crucified.
     Why were the Old Testament saints referred to here as being in prison? Because although they were in the Paradise end of the Underworld, there was no way out to it. The way leading out of the Underworld was guarded by the Gates of Hades, which Jesus would refer to by name in a conversation He had with the apostle Peter. After hearing Peter profess that he believed Jesus was "the Christ," i.e. theMessiah, Jesus informed him that flesh and blood had not revealed this to him but God had, and upon this revelation that He was indeed the Messiah of the Jews, Jesus would build His church, and the Gates of Hades would not prevail against it. By this, He meant that He would preach the message that He was the Christ to the spirits in prison, and then break down the Gates of Hades, presumably through the power of His angels, and lead them with Him up into Heaven:

     And having come into parts of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus was questioning HIs disciples, saying, "Whom do men declare the Son of man to be?" And they said, "They say John the Baptist. And they say Elijah. And others say Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." He said unto them, "But whom do you say Me to be?" And having answered, Simon Peter said, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God." And having answered, Jesus said to Him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you, but My Father in Heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:13-18)

     Christian paintings form Medieval times always illustrated these "gates," usually as wooden doors, but the illustration is never missing. Moreover, the Eastern Orthodox Church to this day still conducts a ceremony to commemorate the Harrowing of Hades, in which the symbolic breaking down of the gates plays a part. According to Wikipedia:

     In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Harrowing of Hades is celebrated annually... At the beginning of the service, the hangings in the church and the vestments worn by the clergy are all somber Lenten colours (usually purple or black). Then, just before the Gospel reading, the liturgical colors are changed white and the deacon performs a censing, and the priest strews laurel leaves around the church, symbolizing the broken gates of Hell. This is done in celebration of the harrowing of Hades then taking place, and in anticipation of Christ's imminent resurrection... [One] icon shows Jesus, vested in white and gold to symbolize His divine majesty, standing on the brazen gates of Hades (also called the "Doors of Death"), which are broken and have fallen in the form of a cross, illustrating the belief that by his death on the cross, Jesus trampled down death (see Paschal troparion). He is holding Adam and Eve and pulling them up out of Hades... Jesus is surrounded by various righteous figures from the Old Testament (Abraham, David, etc.). The bottom of the icon depicts Hades as a chasm of darkness, often with various pieces of broken locks and chains strewn about. (The Harrowing Of Hell, wikipedia.com)

                                                       

     Having broken down the Gates of Hades, scripture says Christ then "led captivity captive," that is, He led the Old Testament saints who were prisoners of the Underworld up out of Hades and into Heaven, which the apostles also taught was referred to prophetically in another of the Psalms:

     But to each one of us was given grace according to the measure of the gifting of Christ. Wherefore it says, "Having ascended up on high He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." But if He ascended, what could it be except that He first also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the same who ascended above all the heavens, that He might fulfill all things. (Ephesians 4:7-10a)


All The Church Both Died And Ascended With Christ

     But here is where we come to the real spiritual significance of these teachings. As stated in the introduction, the teaching of the New Testament church was that when Christ delivered the Old Testament saints out of Hades, He figuratively delivered the entire church, past, present and future, up out of Hades with them as well and into Heaven. For believers, their death and descent to Hades took place at water baptism, and their resurrection took place immediately after they came up out of the water and were baptized in the Holy Spirit.
     The implication of this teaching was that believers were now dead to the flesh, and therefore needed to die to sin by bringing the body under subjection through fasting, not in their own strength but through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus did after the Spirit descended upon Him. They were, therefore, to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof" (Romans 13:14). As Paul would likewise teach in this letter, they were to "mortify their members on the earth," by this referring specifically to their sexual members, as the full passage bears out:

     And having become filled, you are in Him who is the Head of all rule and authority, in whom you also were circumcised with the circumcision not made by hands in the divesting of [your] body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the supernatural operation of God, who raised Him from among the dead. And you, being dead in offenses and the uncircumcision of your flesh has He made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our offenses...
     If therefore, you were raised with Christ, seek those things above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Be mindful of the things above, not things on the earth. For you died, and your life has been hidden with Christ in God. Whenever Christ our life may be made manifest, then you also will be made manifest with Him in glory. Mortify, therefore, [your] members upon the earth: Sexual immorality, uncleanness, physical passion, evil lust, and [sexual] covetousness, which is idolatry, on account of which things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. (Colossians 2:10-13, 3:1-6. See also Ephesians 2:5-6)

     Take also the passage in First Peter already quoted above. In context, the full passage follows a similar pattern. Because they had died to sin and been risen with Christ through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, they were to consider themselves as having "suffered (i.e. died) in the flesh," and thereby ceased from sin. For this reason, they should no longer engage in sins of the flesh such as sexual indulgence and drinking parties, which were standard practice among sinners during Roman times:

     For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring you to God, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive through the Spirit, in which He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who were once disbelieving in the days of Noah when the long-suffering of God waited as an ark was being prepared, into which a few, that is, eight souls were saved through water, an antitype of the baptism that now also saves you, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, He having ascended into Heaven with [all] angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.
     Forasmuch, then, as Christ has suffered in the flesh, you equip yourselves with the same mind also, for the one who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, to no longer satisfy the lusts of men but the will of God [his] remaining time in the flesh. For the time that has passed is sufficient to have worked out the will of the Gentiles, having walked in sexual licentiousness, lusts, drunkenness, partying, drinking bouts, and unlawful idolatries. (1 Peter 3:18-4:3)

     Among all the Old Testament saints, the apostle Peter picked out Noah and his descendants for a specific reason. Their lives drew a more perfect parallel to what was now happening among New Testament saints. Peter was saying that, in Noah's time, God was being long-suffering in waiting for his saints to prepare to escape the judgment that was coming in the flood. God was likewise now patiently waiting for His saints to fully prepare to escape the coming judgment of Fire. But just as Noah and his sons had to die to the world they once knew, so too would believers need to die to the life they knew through water baptism and the subsequent death of their fleshly lives, paralleled by how the flood waters brought an end, not just to Noah's former life, but the entire sinful world that existed before the flood.
     By implication, then, Peter was saying this was part of the message Christ supposedly preached to the spirits in prison when He descended into Hades after death, to inform all the righteous dead from Old Testament times that He was the long-awaited Messiah, and the ark that would now bring them all to eternal safety in Heaven.


Exposing Pagan Gods As Frauds And Deceivers

     The Harrowing of Hades is one of the many reasons why the God of the Jews was now exposing the gods of the Gentiles as liars and frauds. Like all Gentiles, the Colossians were familiar with the legends concerning Hades, Tartarus and Elysian Fields, but never had they heard of any of their gods descending there to deliver multitudes of people out of the darkness of the Underworld. Now they were hearing that the Son of God had not only risen from the dead Himself but also led many of the dead out with Him, something never accredited to any of the pagan gods. Nor did they want this message getting out, since the gods of the Gentiles were demons, and as such would be exposed a frauds. Thus they had no desire for mankind to know that the righteous saints of the Jewish Old Testament had been delivered out of the darkness of the Hades.
     Bu because the God of the Jews was now proving Himself to be All-powerful and able to deliver souls out of the Underworld, Paul urged the Colossians to grow the recognition of the True and Living God:

     [and] from the day in which we heard we do not cease praying for you, and asking that you may be filled with the recognition of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding to walk worthily of the Lord unto all acceptability, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the recognition of God. (Colossians 1:9-10)

     This is because the Gentiles were coming to the recognition of the True God from a position of spiritual blindness. Their "gods" had blinded them to the truth, so Jesus ordained the apostle Paul to "open the eyes of the Gentiles, and turn them from spiritual darkness to light," as He informed him on the road to Damascus:

     And I said, "Who are You Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise up and stand on your feet, for I appeared unto you for this reason, to appoint you a minister and a witness, both of what you saw and of what will be shown to you, delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I [now] send you, to open their eyes to turn from darkness to light, and from the authority of Satan to God, they they might receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me." (Acts 26:15-18. See also Isaiah 42:6-7, on how the Messiah Himself was prophesied to do similar things).

     This then explains similar statements Paul made to the Ephesians about growing in the recognition of the True God and how they now had an inheritance among the saints in light:

     Because of this I also... do not cease giving thanks over you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may grant to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the recognition of Him, the eyes of your heart having been enlightened for you to know what the hope of His calling is, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance among the saints are, and what the surpassing greatness of His power is toward us, those believing in light of the dominion of His strength, which He manifested in Christ in having raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in Heaven. (Ephesians 1:17-20)


Unfortunately, Satan Is Blinding Humanity Once More

     These things were clearly taught by some ancient Christian theologians, who understood the teachings the apostles were giving, and continued to hand them down as part of the true Christian tradition. As Ambrosiaster is recorded as teaching: 

     Freed thus from the condition of darkness, that is, plucked from the infernal place, in which we were held by the Devil both because of our own and because of Adam's transgression, who is the father of sinners, we were translated by faith into the heavenly kingdom of the Son of God. This was so that He might show us by what love God loved us, when, raising us from the deepest Hell, He led us into Heaven with His true Son. (Ambrosiaster, Commentary On Colossians, as quoted in the Ancient Christian Commentary, V.IX, P.8 )

     So why do even most Christians know almost nothing about these things today? Because Satan has blinded their minds to the knowledge of spiritual realities (2 Corinthians 4:3-4), such that Hell seems out of place in most Christian preaching these days. Very few even mention Hell anymore, making educating believers on the Harrowing of Hades even more unnatural in today's spiritual climate. Many assume it has no significance or relevance, when in fact it has tremendous spiritual relevance to the true Christian walk, as we shall see in later studies.
     Because Jesus knows the importance of this historical event to an understanding of the true gospel, He is Himself once again preaching about it in the visions of Hell He his giving to believers in our time. As the following passages from Kathryn Baxter's A Divine Revelation Of Hell illustrate, the Spirit of God Himself is conforming once again that the Harrowing of Hades did indeed take place some 2,000 years ago:

     Jesus said, "I came to save all men. I desire that all who are lost will repent and call upon My name... In these cells, as far as you can see, are souls in torment.  Each time the cells are filled, Hell enlarges itself to receive even more souls.  You have all your senses in Hell.  And if you were blind on earth, you will be blind in Hell.  If you had only one arm on earth, you will have only one arm in Hell." Jesus said, "I took the keys of Hell away from Satan many years ago. I came and opened these cells and let My people out. For in the time of the Old Testament before I actually gave My life on the cross, paradise was situated close to Hell. These cells were once in paradise. Now Satan uses them for his evil purposes, and has made more. (Baxter, A Divine Revelation Of Hell, P.94-97)

     We went again to the belly of Hell and began to walk toward a small opening. I turned to look where we were entering and found that we were on a ledge beside a cell in the center of Hell.  We stopped in front of a cell in which was a beautiful woman. Over the top of the cell were the letters "B.C." I heard the woman say, "Lord, I knew you would come someday. Please let me out of this place of torment." She was dressed in the clothes of an ancient era, and she was very beautiful. I knew that she had been here for many centuries but could not die. She began to pull at the bars and cry.
     Softly Jesus said, "Peace, be still." He spoke to her with sadness in His voice. "Woman, you know why you are here."
     "Yes," she said, "but I can change. I remember, when You let all those others out of paradise. I remember Your words of salvation. I will be good now," she cried, "and I will serve You." She clenched the bars of the cell in her tiny fists and began to scream, "Let me out! Let me out!" (Baxter, A Divine Revelation Of Hell, P.147-148)

     "Behold, My child,” Jesus said, "I am going to take you by My Spirit into Hell so that you may be able to make a record of the reality of it, to tell the whole earth that Hell is real, and to bring the lost out of darkness and into the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ." (Baxter, A Divine Revelation Of Hell, P.15)

     Those with ears to hear need to wake up to what the Spirit of God is again saying to the churches, for by allowing Satan to eat away at true New Testament teaching we have come to the place where accurately understanding the New Testament itself has in many ways become a virtual impossibility.
     As one author wrote:

     The traditional doctrine of Hell now bears the mark of odium theologium - a doctrine retained only by the most stalwart defenders of conservative theology, Catholic and Protestant. Its defenders are seemingly few. The doctrine is routinely dismissed as an embarrassing artifact from an ancient age - a reminder of Christianity's rejected worldview.
     The sudden disappearance of Hell amounts to a theological mystery of sorts. How did a doctrine so enshrined in the system of theology suffer such a wholesale abandonment? What can explain this radical reordering of Christian theology?
     The answer to this mystery reveals much about the fate of Christianity in the modern world, and warns of greater theological compromises on the horizon, for as the church has been continually reminded, no doctrine stands alone... Take out the doctrine of Hell, and the entire shape of Christian theology is inevitably altered. (Morgan and Peterson, Hell Under Fire, P.16)

     The trend toward spiritual blindness in the church (read Revelation 3:17) will continue until believers once again begin having their eyes are opened to fully recognize what Jesus accomplished for them when He descended into the Underworld after His crucifixion. Hades is still real, and the entire church of Jesus Christ would still be down there to this very day had not Christ died on their behalf to deliver them from the authority of darkness.





Source Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrowing_of_Hell