ROMANS 10:7

“or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”

This is a misunderstood passage which, if read without further study, would suggest Christ descended into hell at His death before He was resurrected. Nothing is further from the truth. Paul is continuing the use of the Deuteronomy 30:11-14 passage but takes some liberties in its application in this letter. Paul is trying to show the overall meaning of the passage – that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

The word Paul uses for “abyss” is abussos. The Topical Lexicon explains the word this way. “employs the abyss rhetorically: “Who will descend into the Abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). Paul quotes Deuteronomy 30 to stress the nearness of the gospel. By equating the abyss with the realm of death, he proclaims that Christ’s resurrection has already conquered that depth, making human attempts to secure salvation unnecessary and impossible.”

APPLICATION

That is the point of Paul’s words here. Christ has already conquered death (the abyss) so there is no need for us to try to raise Him from the dead. What a perfect passage for this week as we are in Holy Week. In fact, tomorrow would have been the day when Christ was crucified. He lay in a tomb for three days and then burst forth on Sunday morning. We can argue until we are blue in the face about where Christ was those three days. None of us know exactly. He was in the place of the dead which was commonly called “the abyss.” We do know, however, that He defeated death and returned to earth.

Listen, Christ died once and was raised once for our sins and our promise of eternal life. There is no reason for us to go back and back and back asking God to save us. Once we ask Jesus to be our Savior and Lord, nothing can separate us. We read earlier in this letter to the Romans in 8:38-39, “38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

When you are at your lowest, Christ has gone even lower for you. There is no depth at which He cannot reach you. There is no depth at which you cannot reach Him. This Easter, as you celebrate Christ’s resurrection, remember how low He went for you. He conquered death for us all. Hallelujah!

I thank You, Lord, for what You did for me and continue to do for me each and every day.

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