THE ULTIMATE PRICE

“The soul that sinneth, it shall die…” Ezekiel18:20

The law demanded that everyone who sinned had to die. The penalty for sin is death and hell.

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans6:23

We had to die because of our sins. And not only die but also to go to hell, the abode of the wicked. This was the just punishment for the sins that all of us committed. Jesus as our sin offering had to experience this for us so that we would be delivered from it.

Jesus paid the ultimate penalty for our sins. As a person who had become the sins of all of us, He died the death that we should have died, He was alienated from His Father and He went to hell as we should have. This was what was supposed to happen to all of us because of the sins we commit. But it happened to Jesus as part of the exchange.

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin…” 2Cor5:21

Jesus died in sin, as a sinner. He had become sin. He had taken in Himself all of the sins of all of the world.

Because He died as a sinner, Jesus went to hades alienated from God. As a sinner He had to go there. He went there so that we would never have to go.

This is foreshadowed in the Old Testament story of Jonah the prophet as Jesus told the Pharisees;

The sign of Jonah the prophet;

Matthew 12

39 But he 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

The scribes and Pharisees even after observing Jesus doing miracles which were clearly from God still refused to believe that He was the Messiah. Instead they said He was casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub the ruler of the demons.

Jesus responded by warning them about their continuous unbelief even in the face of all the evidence provided. If they weren’t careful, there would be no more pardon for them. Their time was running out. So they asked Him for a sign to prove that He was Messiah. His answer was to rebuke them as wicked and adulterous.

He told them the only sign they would see was the sign of Jonah. In other words, His death and resurrection.

40 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.

After His death on the Cross, Jesus went into the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. Many theologians teach that the heart of the earth here referred to the grave. This is true if we are speaking of Jesus as the physical body he was in. however we know that the body was just a vessel. When He died, He departed from that physical body and descended into hell for 3 days and 3 nights.

Psalm 16:9 “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”

This is a prophecy by David about the Messiah who was coming. He says that He would die and go to hell but He would not see corruption. In other words, He would be resurrected.

The apostle Peter while preaching says that David was speaking of Jesus and not of himself;

Acts2

25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: 27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.

These are the confessions that Jesus made while in hell. He wasn’t lamenting. He was declaring His faith in the faithfulness and goodness of God.

29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. 30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; 31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. 32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.

David foresaw the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and He prophesied it in the Psalms. Indeed there are several psalms that speak about the Cross. He saw that Jesus would descend into Sheol.

Until the resurrection of Jesus, Sheol was divided into two places. One part was Hades, a place of torment also called the abode of the wicked. The second was paradise which is also called Abraham’s bosom. The people who died trusting God went to paradise. The wicked went to hades. Luke16:26 tells us that there was a great gulf between the two places. You could see from one to the other but you could not cross over.

When Jesus died, He went to Hades, the abode of the wicked. He went where we all deserved to go because we were sinners who deserved to perish and be separated from God forever. For 3 days and nights Jesus was in hades.

Then in resurrection, Jesus went to the second part of Sheol where he preached to those saints who had died in faith about His sacrifice and the New Covenant (1Peter3:19), they believed Him and got born again and He led them out of there into heaven. Psalm 68:18 and Ephesians4:8-10.

As a result, Sheol stayed as the place of torment for the wicked who die in their sins. This is the place we call hell today. At the last judgment, death and hell will deliver up the dead which are in them, and then they will be cast into a lake of fire where they will be tormented forever (Rev. 20:11-15).

Therefore, by studying the story of Jonah, we can see what really transpired when Jesus was buried and descended into hell for those 3 days and 3 nights. We can see what He was doing there and how it concerns us.

First of all it is no small matter that Jonah was swallowed by a fish as he ran away from an assignment to Nineveh. This is very significant. The people of Nineveh worshipped the fish god. The fish swallowing Jonah was the ultimate death and yet Jonah overcoming that death and coming out of the fish symbolized an even greater miracle. He conquered and defeated their god. His God was greater and more powerful than the fish god and even death.

This is one of the reasons why when he spoke to them they listened and responded. It was because he conquered the fish god. It was because His God was greater and mightier than theirs.

And yet this is a story about Jesus. At the Cross He suffered and paid the ultimate price as a sinner and died the death that we all deserved. Not only did He die but He also descended into hades as we all should have because of our wickedness. And yet three days later He came out of hell and death victorious.

Jonah 2:

1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly, 2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.

This is a prophecy of Jesus in the grave. Even when Jesus was in the grave alienated from God, He still clung to the promises of God and still had faith in them.

Jesus even though He was someone who died in sin still believed the promises of God even in hell. He never let go of the faithfulness of God. In Hades He was still quoting the promises of God.

3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. 4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. 6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.

Jesus is saying this while still in hell. He is confessing the Word while in hell. He never gave up on the Word and on God because He knew the faithfulness of God. no matter how bad the situation got, He persisted in His faith toward God.

7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. 8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

A lying vanity is a circumstance in which you are that is contrary to the promises of God for you. A situation that denies the truth of what God has said to you and promised you. Your heart has to be steadfast and fixed in the promises of God. You should aim to get to where your heart is unmovable in the promises of God. Every circumstance will change when subjected to faith. The Word of God has the power to change anything and to conform any situation to the will of God.

Isaiah 55:11 “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

The Word of God can never be voided or made null by a circumstance. It will always succeed in doing whatever it says. As long as we believe it in our heart and don’t quit on it.

Luke 1:37 AMP For with God nothing is ever impossible {and} no word from God shall be without power {or} impossible of fulfillment.

This verse tells us that The Word of God has the capacity to accomplish whatever it says if believed. Every promise of God has power within itself to fulfill and manifest what it says. Our job is to put it in our heart and believe it.

This is what Jesus did. No matter what circumstance He was in and however hopeless it appeared, Jesus never let go of the promises of God for Him.

9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD. 10  And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Jesus operated in faith. He took the promises of God and refused to accept anything contrary to them. He refused to accept the conditions of hades, he refused to accept the hopelessness of hell. He took God’s promises and considered them as the only reality He would accept. The Word was His only source of truth. And He never let go of the truth.

And by His faith, God raised Him from the dead. And by His faith we too are raised from the dead.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Galatians2:20