WLC 50: Was original intent that Christ's body remained under the power of death?

[Semper Fidelis]

Q. 50. Wherein consisted Christ’s humiliation after his death?
A. Christ’s humiliation after his death consisted in his being buried,200 and continuing in the state of the dead, and under the power of death till the third day;201 which hath been otherwise expressed in these words, He descended into hell.

I've always understood that Christ's body remained under the power of death until the third day but His reasonable soul was in paradise (Luke 23:43). This is how Vos understands it in his exposition of the WLC as well.

Are there any Reformed who have posited that Christ's soul remained under the power of death until the third day? Also, am I right to assume that the WLC teaches that Christ's body, and not His soul, was under the power of death?

 

[KMK]

Beattie:

It is in this connection that the phrase in the Apostles' Creed, "and he descended into hell," which is alluded to in the Larger Catechism, properly comes up for some brief remarks. This much-discussed phrase does not mean that Christ, in his disembodied spirit, actually went, after his death and prior to his resurrection, to the spirit world, and to that region of the unseen abode where the spirits of the saints of the Old Testament dispensation were held for the time, to declare the full gospel message to them, and so to bring them into the enjoyment of the felicity of the heavenly state. Nor does the phrase mean that the human soul of Christ went really into hell, there to secure a victory over Satan in his own proper abode. Nor, again, can it be rightly taken to signify that his human soul actually went to that place of punishment where the souls of the lost are kept, that he might there fully endure all that was needed to make a full penal satisfaction for sin. To understand the phrase, the meaning of the word hell must be observed. It does not mean the place or state of the finally lost, but it rather denotes the invisible world of departed spirits. Hence, the meaning of the phrase is, that during the period between his death and his resurrection Christ's human spirit, or soul, was in the region of departed disembodied souls in the unseen world, and at the same time his body was lying in the tomb. In his case, of course, the departed human spirit would go to the estate of the blessed, for he had said to the thief on the cross, who died penitent, that they would be together that day in paradise. And all through even these experiences, the personal union of the human and the divine natures was not destroyed in the God-man. This completes the teaching of the Standards in regard to the humiliation of the Redeemer. Presbyterian Standards, Chapter 13

Beattie seems to say that his is the final word.

 

[MW]

Souls cannot die; they are divinely gifted with immortality. Souls are said to die when they are imprisoned in hell. Christ certainly was not imprisoned in hell, but went to paradise; therefore it is quite erroneous to teach that His soul remained under the power of death in the sense that He was consciously present in hell.

OTOH, there is a soul-body unity, such that it is impossible to speak of the effects of death touching the body without also reaching the soul. A soul under the power of death is one in which it is stripped of its material body. Hence the souls of the redeemed are presented as crying out, How long? They have immediately passed into glory, but they are not complete without their bodily element. Therefore, to say that our Lord's soul was in paradise without His body is to declare that His soul likewise suffered the effects of death until the third day. The key point here is to avoid any insinuation that the Lord was consciously present in any place other than paradise.

 

[MLCOPE2]

Souls cannot die; they are divinely gifted with immortality. Souls are said to die when they are imprisoned in hell. Christ certainly was not imprisoned in hell, but went to paradise; therefore it is quite erroneous to teach that His soul remained under the power of death in the sense that He was consciously present in hell.

How, then, should 1 Peter 3:18-20 be interpreted if not referring to the period of the grave?

I am not attempting to be snide, I am truly curious as to the meaning of this passage if your above statement is true.

 

[MW]

How, then, should 1 Peter 3:18-20 be interpreted if not referring to the period of the grave?

The proper interpretation of the passage depends upon establishing the time-frame of the activity of preaching. Because the apostle goes on to speak about divine longsuffering "in the days of Noah," it is clear that the preaching by the Spirit is to be understood as taking place at that time. They are mentioned as being in prison because that was their present condition at the time the apostle wrote.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Souls cannot die; they are divinely gifted with immortality. Souls are said to die when they are imprisoned in hell. Christ certainly was not imprisoned in hell, but went to paradise; therefore it is quite erroneous to teach that His soul remained under the power of death in the sense that He was consciously present in hell.

OTOH, there is a soul-body unity, such that it is impossible to speak of the effects of death touching the body without also reaching the soul. A soul under the power of death is one in which it is stripped of its material body. Hence the souls of the redeemed are presented as crying out, How long? They have immediately passed into glory, but they are not complete without their bodily element. Therefore, to say that our Lord's soul was in paradise without His body is to declare that His soul likewise suffered the effects of death until the third day. The key point here is to avoid any insinuation that the Lord was consciously present in any place other than paradise.

First of all, Matthew, I'm very disappointed in you. I can't believe you actually used OTOH. What is this world coming to when a man who uses proper English uses a Web abbreviation?!

Seriously, thanks for confirming a thought I couldn't complete. As I was discussing this with another, the idea that the hope of the redeemed is the resurrection of the body and that our hope was not complete until that blessing was consummated was in my thinking but I don't know that I had all the pieces I needed. I think I still need to study and meditate on the hope of the resurrection of the body because I believe many of us (and I mean that to include me) struggle with a latent gnosticism that thinks of the hope of heaven as paradise without a body. The idea of man being body and soul and that man was a "living soul" when God breathed the breath of life into him is not always easy to wrap my head around.

I think we get so accustomed to the body decaying that we tend to think of the hope that we have as leaving a body behind not realizing that our eschatological hope is our soul united with incorruptible flesh.