Geneva Catechism (61 - 70)

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Q. 61. Hence it follows that death is no longer to be dreaded as if it were a fearful thing, but we should with intrepid mind follow Christ our leader, who as he did not perish in death, will not suffer us to perish?

A. Thus should we act.

Q. 62. It is immediately added, "he descended into hell." What does this mean?

A. That he not only endured common death, which is the separation of the soul from the body, but also the pains of death, as Peter calls them. (Acts ii. 24.) By this expression I understand the fearful agonies by which his soul was pierced.

Q. 63. Give me the cause and the manner of this.

A. As in order to satisfy for sinners he sisted himself before the tribunal of God, it was necessary that he should suffer excruciating agony of conscience, as if he had been forsaken of God, nay as it were, had God hostile to him. He was in this agony when he exclaimed, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. xxvii. 46.)

Q. 64. Was his Father then offended with him?

A. By no means. But he exercised this severity against him in fulfilment of what had been foretold by Isaiah, that "he was smitten by the hand of God for our sins and wounded for our transgressions." (Is. liii. 4, 5.)

Q. 65. But seeing he is God, how could he be seized with any such dread, as if he were forsaken of God?

A. We must hold that it was in respect to the feelings of his human nature that he was reduced to this necessity: and that this might be, his divinity for a little while was concealed, that is, did not put forth its might.

Q. 66. How, on the other hand, is it possible that Christ, who is the salvation of the world, should have been subjected to this doom?

A. He did not endure it so as to remain under it. For though he was seized with the terrors I have mentioned, he was not overwhelmed. Rather wrestling with the power of hell he subdued and crushed it.

Q. 67. Hence we infer that the torture of conscience which he bore differs from that which excruciates sinners 'when pursued by the hands of an angry God. For what was temporary in him is perpetual in them, and what was in him only the prick of a sting, is in them a mortal sword, which, so to speak, wounds the heart.

A. It is so. The Son of God when beset by this anguish, ceased not to hope in the Father. But sinners condemned by the justice of God, rush into despair, murmur against him, and even break forth into open blasphemies.

Q. 68. May we hence infer what benefit believers receive from the death of Christ?

A. Easily. And, first, we see that it is a sacrifice by which he expiated our sins before God, and so having appeased the wrath of God, restored us to his favour. Secondly, That his blood is a layer by which our souls are cleansed from all stains. Lastly, That the remembrance of our sins was effaced so as never to come into the view of God, and that thus the handwriting which established our guilt was blotted out and cancelled.

Q. 69. Does it not gain us any other advantage besides?

A. Yes, indeed. For by its benefit, if we are members of Christ, our old man is crucified, and the body of sin is destroyed, so that the lusts of a depraved flesh no longer reign in us.

Q. 70. Proceed with the other articles.

A. The next is, "On the third day he rose again from the dead." By this he declared himself the conqueror of sin and death. By his resurrection he swallowed up death, broke the fetters of the devil, and annihilated all his power.

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