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QUESTION 177
When did Christ pay for our sins, when He died, or during the three days He spent in hell?

ANSWER:
This is a lengthy question, for the short space I have to answer it. However, when Christ died on the cross. He said, "It is finished" There was no more to do. It was all finalized in those three words. The idea of Him suffering in hell is relatively new and likely comes from some T.V. preachers. The Gospel is how He died, not suffered in hell, for our sins, 1 Corinthians 15:3

He suffered agonies untold on the cross, and eventually died, but it was not sufferings that put away sin, but His sacrifice. Hebrews 9:26, "..but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."

The hell/hades that Christ went to in Acts 2:31, was not the lake of fire. It was a place described in Luke 16:23 called hell/hades in Greek. A place of departed souls after death. It had two compartments. One for the lost and another for the saved. He, and the thief, went to Paradise that day. Luke 23:43 The root of word "paradise" says it was a Persian garden and was a very beautiful and pleasant place. It is called "Abraham bosom" in Luke 16

Further, the concept of Christ paying for the sins of the world isn't exactly right. He made a propitiation for the sins of the world. 1 John 2:2. The word "propitiation" means a "satisfaction or appeasement." It has more the idea of a "provision" and not a payment. Although, that being so, yet the Bible speaks of a price the Lord Jesus paid for sinners. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. This is only spoken of those who are saved." In other words it would seem that the sacrifice of Christ was a provision for all mankind, but the sins of any are only paid when they trust Him as their Saviour. If all sins were paid for all mankind, then God could not justly demand it again.

Dear reader, God has made the provision, have you accepted it as the payment for your sins?

All comments and questions to: Harold Smith

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Updated July 2009, by Shelly Allen