Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

ody on the cross and now walks into hell, the herald of his own victory won on Calvary. He
proclaims in the face of all devils hell’s eternal defeat and the redemption of the world. With the
tread of a conqueror He walks round the pandemonium, with His own hands pulling down the
trophies of four thousand years of successful warfare and treading them beneath His triumphant feet.
The tall peers of the pit wail on all sides, acknowledge Him conqueror and beg Him to depart. He
now approaches Satan, the King of Darkness, sitting on his ebon throne in the center of the
pandemonium; seizing him by the throat and dragging him down, puts His foot upon his neck, thus
verifying the first promise made by Jehovah to Adam and Eve in fallen Paradise: “The seed of the
woman shall bruise the serpent’s head.” Having proclaimed His victory in hell, He now crosses that
abyss impassable to finite beings, but not to Him, intervening between the flaming hell of Dives and
the Abraham’s bosom of Lazarus (Luke 16:26), and there, pursuant to His promise on the cross,
meets the thief before midnight, while it is yet Friday, the Crucifixion Day. As the thief died under
the old dispensation, he went to that intermediate paradise, i.e., Abraham’s bosom, the jubilant
rendezvous of all the souls saved under the Abrahamic covenant in the former dispensation, there
in joyful anticipation to await the verification of the covenant by the blood of Calvary. The thief runs
to meet Him with a tremendous shout, Father Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel,
Daniel, the Hebrew children and all the mighty hosts of Old Testament saints rend the firmament
with triumphant shouts congratulating King Jesus on the victory won. Now the good old Jewish
Sabbath sets in, the most wonderful they had seen in four thousand years. Oh! what an ovation!
Golden harps are impoverished in the attempted proclamation. The first day of the week supervenes
at midnight, eternally commemorated by the abolishment of the intermediate paradise, the
emancipation of all the captives (Ephesians 4:8), and the resurrection of our glorious Lord. Here
begins that wonderful ascension (Ephesians 8:9), when our Lord “descended into the lower parts of
the earth” [which never did mean the grave], the Savior leading the way with the patriarchs and
prophets on His right and on His left, followed by the mighty hosts of Old Testament saints, jubilant
and ecstatic, reaching the sepulcher at day-dawn, calling His body into life and re-entering it;
meanwhile the sacramental host, all invisible because they are disembodied spirits, accompanying
our risen Lord the forty days of His abiding with His disciples, and ascending with Him from Mt.
Olivet, constituting the mighty trophy of His victory, whom He leads into the heavenly metropolis
and presents before the Father. David’s prophetic eye in Psalm 24 caught a glimpse of this wonderful
scene, while our Lord, accompanied by the mighty hosts of Old Testament saints, sweeps through
trackless ether, passing rolling worlds, glowing suns, wheeling spheres, and flaming comets, finally
draws nigh the celestial gates, saluted by seraphic voices:
“Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and let the King
of Glory come in.” “Who is this King of Glory?” “The Lord, mighty to save and strong
to deliver.”
The pearly gates fly high and swing wide, multiplied millions of celestial seraphs shout long and
loud, “Welcome home, welcome home, welcome home, O King of Glory, Conqueror of Mt. Calvary.
Heaven is stirred with such an ovation as archangels never knew, infinitely eclipsing the tremendous
shout of the sons of God at creation’s birth. Amid the jubilant congratulations of angelic millions,
the triumphal procession, led by King Jesus, moves through the city and halts before the great white
throne, “Father, here am I, and the children thou hast given me.” Now Abraham mounts a celestial
pinnacle and testifies, followed by the thrilling witnesses to the wonders of redeeming grace, while