Why Jesus had to go to Hades?

Question:

Why did Jesus have to go to Hades after His time on the cross?

ANSWER:

Jesus’ time in the grave was not the payment for our sins or the reason we can now avoid eternity in Hell.

Jesus was only dead for three days. God’s word decrees eternal death (separation from God) for anyone who rejects Christ and dies in sin. Jesus’ time in the grave served a totally different purpose.

1. He was NOT paying for our sins in hell - Jesus was not serving time like one serves time in prison for a crime committed.
   When Adam was told not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, God promised that if he disobeyed, Adam would die, later in REv. 20:14 we find out that the death God was talking about in Genesis was what is called “the Second death”. This is an eternity spent in the lake of fire.  This is God’s promised outcome for sin. It’s not a time of restitution or penance or a time to “pay off our debt”. Instead, it is the future existence God decreed for anyone who disobey His word.

2. The payment for our sin (wrath of God) was satisfied on the cross with Christ alone. God did not need Jesus to go to hell but Jesus chose to for the fulfillment of prophecy.  He committed no sin in his life and therefore could not be condemned or justified in an eternity in hell/hades.

NOW… for the real question… why did he go there at all:

1. Jesus spent three days in the grave to prove that he was the true Messiah.  PSA 16:9-10 / Hos 6:1-2 / Matt 12:38-40 /      Jesus’ three-day visit to Hell did away with any charges that may be made that he “faked his death”.  Three days was more than enough time to pass to establish that he was truly dead. That way, when he would be resurrected…. there would be no other explanation to be made.

2. Secondly, Jesus uses this time in the grave, to preach to those in Sheol. This is the half of Hades called “Abrahams Bosom”. This is a place of comfort… not torment. Read Luke 16    
   Prior to Christ’s death and resurrection, Old Testament Saints (believers) who died were not able to enter heaven. They were credited righteousness from their faith we are told in the OT, however, God’s wrath for mankind had not been satisfied until Christ’s blood was spilled as our sacrificial lamb once and for all. It was only after this act from Christ that He now made a way for these to enter the gates of Heaven. (The heavenly tabernacle). While they waited, God was kind enough to create a “place of comfort” in the center of the earth.
   
   After Christ’s death, he descended in spirit form into Sheol and into Abraham’s Bosom (place of comfort). Jesus never experienced “hell”, or the other side of Sheol. Peter says that Jesus used the three days in the grave to “preach” to the Old Testament saints and to the unbelievers held in the other side of Sheol, hades, which is a prison for unbelievers as they await their judgment day: 1 Peter 3:18