The Nights God Burned in Hell: And Why the Cross Was Only the Beginning

Hearken, O ye people, wherever you are. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, there is none like unto the LORD our God. And great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). Yet have we not handled the word of life as men who search for it as for hid treasure, no, not even close (Proverbs 2:4)? We have adorned the cross and set it up on high, and it is right that we should do so — for it is written that God forbid we should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Galatians 6:14).

Nevertheless, that which was done upon the hill was not the whole of the work. The cross was the altar. But the altar is not the furnace. And the burnt offering is not finished until the fire hath done its full work. The greatest thing our Lord did in the days of his flesh was not at Golgotha between the sixth and the ninth hour (Matthew 27:45). It was done in fire and in darkness, in the lowest pit, in the deep places beneath all things. He went into hell. And the greater part of them that love him have never been told this.

Let him that hath ears to hear, hear (Matthew 11:15).

Let no man think this is written for vain disputation or for the doubtful mind (Romans 14:1). This is not a matter for them that are at "ease", that speak vanity one to another "with flattering lips" (Psalm 12:2). This is the foundation. For the apostle himself declared: 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 (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). A partial gospel is a snare.

A man who knoweth not the depths of what was paid knoweth not the Lord. The LORD hath not given us a saviour that did a half-work and left the remainder for us to supply. He gave us one who descended into the lowest hell, who satisfied every jot and every tittle of the law (Matthew 5:18), and who rose in power — and the knowledge thereof is not given to the few, but is meat that belongeth to every soul that calleth upon his name (Romans 10:13).

The word of God is not yea and nay (2 Corinthians 1:18). It is yea and amen.

The Law That Must Not Be Passed Over

Now search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of him (John 5:39). And they that would understand what he accomplished must not begin in the latter books. They must go back — back to the smoking altars, back to the blood of bulls and goats, back to the law of Moses, which was a shadow of good things to come (Hebrews 10:1).

For God commanded by the hand of Moses, saying: The burnt sacrifice shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night unto the morning (Leviticus 6:9). All night. Not an hour. Not until the priests grew weary. All night. And again he spake: The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out (Leviticus 6:13). This is the law of the burnt offering. It is not parable. It is not poetry. It is a statute for ever throughout your generations (Leviticus 6:18).

And consider now the passover lamb, which every man of understanding knoweth to be a figure of Christ our passover who is sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7). When the LORD gave Israel the ordinance of that first night in Egypt, he said plainly: Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire (Exodus 12:9). And that which remained of it until morning — burn with fire (Exodus 12:10). Fire was the end of the matter. Fire was the seal of acceptance. Without the fire, the offering was not finished.

Then let every soul that readeth ask this one question that most sermons dare not raise: where is the fire in the sacrifice of Jesus? He was stricken, and smitten of God, and afflicted (Isaiah 53:4). He poured out his soul unto death (Isaiah 53:12). He was cut off out of the land of the living (Isaiah 53:8). His body was laid in the tomb. But where was the fire that the law demanded? Where was the furnace that the offering required?

It was beneath all things. It was in the lowest hell.

Three Days and Three Nights in the Heart of the Earth

And Jesus answered and said unto them: An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. 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 (Matthew 12:39-40).

The sign of the prophet Jonas. Mark well what that sign is.

For Jonah cried out of the belly of hell (Jonah 2:2). The waters compassed him about, even to the soul (Jonah 2:5). The depth closed him round about, and the weeds were wrapped about his head (Jonah 2:5). That is the testimony to which our Lord pointed — not to a place of rest, not to a quiet chamber, but to the belly of hell, to anguish, to the deep. That was the sign Jesus gave. Let us receive it as he gave it.

And the apostle Paul, writing by the Holy Ghost, expounded it thus: Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? (Ephesians 4:9). The descent was required before the ascent. The lowest place before the highest place. This is the order of the sacrifice, and it is not incidental. It is the very marrow of the gospel.

The Fire of the Wrath of God

The LORD himself hath spoken of the fire that his wrath kindleth. For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains (Deuteronomy 32:22). This is not the speech of a poet reaching for a figure of speech. This is God describing the consequence of sin, the execution of his own righteous judgment — the fire that burneth unto the lowest hell.

And into this went the LORD God made flesh. Willingly. For it is written: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). Every judgment of God's holy law, every debt owed by every soul of man, was laid upon him — for the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). He bore it down into the lowest hell and he burned in that fire — not as one who observed it from a distance, not in shadow or in figure — but in truth and in fullness. Upon the wicked God shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest (Psalm 11:6). And the Son of God descended into that place and received it on our behalf.

The cross was the altar. The lowest hell was the furnace. And in that furnace, the burnt offering was completed.

What the Prophets Saw Before the Morning

The prophets of old saw these things, and they wrote them down by the Spirit of God. The eighty-eighth Psalm is a word that will make a man tremble if he readeth it with an honest heart — for it describeth the condition of one laid in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps, upon whom the wrath of God lieth hard (Psalm 88:6-7). And this one is described as a man that hath no strength (Psalm 88:4). The Son of God, through whom all things were made, and without whom was not any thing made that was made (John 1:3) — reduced to a man with no strength, in the lowest pit, in darkness. The Holy Ghost preserved this in scripture that we might know it, not that we might pass over it.

And it is written further of the sorrows of hell and the snares of death (2 Samuel 22:6; Psalm 116:3). These were not empty words. They were the cry of the redeemer in the midst of his redemption work.

But then — and here is the hinge of all things — the word saith: his soul was not left in hell (Acts 2:31). Read that carefully and with fear. Not left there. He was there. And then he was not left there. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption (Psalm 16:10). At the moment the debt was paid in full, God loosed him.

When Death Could Hold Him No Longer

Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it (Acts 2:24).

Not possible. Death had its hands upon him — and then it could not hold. Why? Because the sacrifice was complete. The fire had done its full work. Every requirement of the law was satisfied, and there was no more legal ground to hold the prisoner. It is finished (John 19:30). Therefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name (Philippians 2:9).

He was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit (1 Peter 3:18). The resurrection was not merely a wonder. It was the Father's declaration that payment had been received, that the account was settled, and that the Son was free. He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4).

The Great High Priest Who Entered Heaven With His Own Blood

Yet even the resurrection was not the last act.

For the law of Moses set forth this pattern: once a year, the high priest alone passed within the veil into the holiest of all, not without blood (Hebrews 9:7). He carried the blood of beasts and made atonement for the people. That was the shadow.

Now consider him who is the high priest of our profession (Hebrews 3:1) — even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec (Hebrews 6:20). He entered not into the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us (Hebrews 9:24). The true sanctuary. The heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22). And he did not go in empty-handed. He entered by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12). And it was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices (Hebrews 9:23). His blood speaketh better things than that of Abel (Hebrews 12:24).

The Priest Who Is King — After the Order of Melchisedec

The order of Melchisedec is given to us in the scripture for our understanding, and it is no light matter. Melchisedec was King of righteousness, and also King of Salem, which is, King of peace, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God (Hebrews 7:2-3). He was not a priest by the lineage of the tribe of Levi, nor by carnal commandment, but by the power of an endless life (Hebrews 7:16). His priesthood doth not expire, nor rotate by year, nor require repetition.

Therefore the atonement he accomplished is not called yearly, nor temporary, but eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12). One priest. One offering. One blood. For ever.

The Full Counsel of What He Accomplished

Consider now the whole work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the days of his flesh:

He died upon the cross as the passover lamb — Christ our passover is sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7). He descended into the lowest hell and endured the fire of divine wrath as the burnt offering, fulfilling all that the law had foreshadowed since the days of Moses. He was raised from the dead when every debt was paid and every statute satisfied. He ascended into the heavens and entered the true holy of holies as the eternal high priest after the order of Melchisedec. And he sprinkled his own blood upon the heavenly altar and obtained eternal redemption, once for all.

The cross was the beginning. The lowest hell was the furnace where the work was done. The heavenly sanctuary was the place where it was sealed.

This is the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). Not a partial death. Not a symbolic descent. A complete, sufficient, and eternal sacrifice that went down to the lowest place in all of creation — that he might fill all things (Ephesians 4:10) — so that thou shouldest never have to go there thyself.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

That love is worthy of more than a bumper sticker. It is worthy of a man's whole soul, and all his strength, and all his days.

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift (2 Corinthians 9:15).