Peter Toon
After he had borne in his own soul and body the sins of the world (reflected in his Cry of Dereliction from the Cross), expressed his desire for full restored Communion with the Father (“I thirst” – for thee my Father), and announced the victory over evil, sin and darkness (“It is finished”), Jesus died (“Into thy hands, I commit my spirit”). And he died as the sacrificial Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. He voluntarily handed over his human spirit to the Father, remaining in death the Lord of life. On Good Friday his body and soul separated, the body to be given burial in Jerusalem and the soul/mind/spirit/human nature to remain in perfect union with the divine nature in the one Person of the Incarnate Son.
Thus the Son of God incarnate lives without his body for the period from between 3 – 4 p.m. on Friday until say 1.a.m. on Sunday. He remains in full communion with his Father continuing to do the work that the Father gave him to do. For this period of time his work is proclaiming his Victory wrought on the Cross, that is preaching the Gospel of the New Covenant, sealed by his shed blood. He proclaimed this Gospel to those of the old covenant who had died in faith looking for the Messiah to come, so that they could embrace him as their Messiah and Lord and go with him to the heaven at his exaltation to the right hand of the Majesty of the Father. He also proclaimed to others, the disobedient, this same Victory.
The Apostles’ Creed confesses that Jesus the Son and Lord was crucified, dead and buried. Then, before moving on to the Resurrection, it declares: “descendit ad inferna” (“he descended into hell”). This is a reference to where Jesus spent the time from his expiry on the Cross to his resurrection from the dead and exaltation into heaven. He entered the underworld, Hades, and according to 1 Peter 3:18f., he “preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey.” Or as St Peter put it, “the gospel was preached even to the dead” (1 Peter 4:6; cf., Ephesians 4:6; Revelation 1:18). The saving work of Jesus extends not only to those alive when he was on earth, but also to those who had died before the Incarnation.
His Atonement has an infinite and eternal value covering all space and all time and all humanity.
On Easter morning, the Incarnate Son was raised from the dead – that is, the Father restored to him his body so that soul and body became one again. But while it was in essence the same body which was crucified it was also a changed body, for now it was an immortal body, a resurrection body, a body of glory and a supernatural body – a body for the new heaven and the life of the age to come, and a body to be the model for the resurrection bodies of his people.
He rose victorious from the grave. By his resurrection the Father proclaims to the world that the victory of the Son over sin, evil, death, darkness and satanic forces is accomplished. Now – the now of grace - there is salvation in him and him alone and this salvation is for all, Jew and Gentile, who believe this Gospel.
The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon M.A., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
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