Theology 1 - CREED

Lesson 5
 THE FIFTH ARTICLE OF FAITH
He descended to the dead, and on the
third day He rose again
• The hell Jesus descended into wasn’t the hell of
the damned, where Jews and Christians believe
the devil and his demons reside. Hell was merely
a word that Jews and early Christians used to
describe the place of the dead. This passage
affirms that on the third day he rose, meaning
Jesus came back from the dead of his own
divine power. He wasn’t just clinically dead for a
few minutes; he was dead dead — then he rose
from the dead. More than a resuscitated corpse,
Jesus possessed a glorified and risen body.
 The Resurrection
The Resurrection is the historic event of
Christ reuniting His human body and soul,
which had been separated by His death on
Calvary.
Christ had a true human nature, like ours
except for sin. Since he had no sin, He need
not have died. He chose to die. But by the
same free will by which He chose death, He
also chose to conquer death and return to the
human life He possessed before the first
Good Friday.
 TERMS TO REMEMBER
Sheol – where the souls of the dead remain before the resurrection
of Christ Jesus.
 
Heaven – (paradise) the eternal happiness, the dwellings of God. A
spiritual state of everlasting communion with God; a state of thought
in which sin is absent and the harmony of divine Mind is manifest.
 
• Purgatory - an intermediate state after death for
expiatory purification; specifically; a state of
punishment wherein the souls of those who die in
God's grace may make satisfaction for past sins and so
become fit for heaven; a place or state of temporary
suffering or misery.
•  
• Hell - a nether world in which the dead continue to
exist: HADES: the nether realm of the devil and the
demons in which the damned suffer everlasting; a place
or state of misery, torment, or wickedness.
•  
• Cenacle – a place where the apostles gathered for
prayer and fellowship.
 Thomas – the unbelieving disciple or the doubter. He challenged to
believe only if he’ll be able to insert his fingers in the wounded palms
and side of Jesus. It was done, and he believed. “ His word of belief:
“My Lord and my God.”
 
Two Disciples on the way to Emmaus – Jesus appeared to them along
the way. He preached and broke bread with them and they realized
Jesus.
Peter – the apostles who denied Jesus three times and was asked
by Jesus a thee time manifestation of his love. “Peter, do you love
me more than these?” Jn. 21: 15-17. He is the head and
shepherds of the Church.
 
Galilee - is where the final apparition of Jesus before he ascended
into heaven took place. (Mt.28:16-20)
SALVIFIC IMPORTANCE OF CHRIST’S
RESURRECTION
 1. His resurrection confirmed everything Christ had done and taught.
It fulfilled both Jesus’ triple prediction of His Passion, Death and resurrection in the
Synoptics (cf. Mk 8:31; 9:30; 10;32) and His triple prediction of being “lifted up” in
John’s Gospel (cf. Jn 3;14; 8:28; 12:32).
2. Through His resurrection, Christ fulfilled the Old Testament prophesies promising a Savior for the
entire world
(cf. Psalm 110; Dn 7:13).
The history of God’s Self-revelation, begun with Abraham and continuing through Moses, the Exodus,
and the whole OT, reached climax in Christ’s resurrection, something unprecedented totally new.
 3. The resurrection confirmed Jesus’ divinity.
St. Paul preached that Jesus was “designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by
His resurrection from the dead” (Rm 1:4; cf. Phil 2:7-8).
Upon seeing the Risen Jesus, Thomas cried out; “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28).
 
4. Christ’s death freed us from sin, and his resurrection brought us a share in the
new life of adopted sons and daughters of the Father in the Holy Spirit.
“If then we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (Rm
6:8).
 5. The Risen Christ is the principle and source of our future resurrection.
This means Jesus rose not only to a “glorious” higher state of life himself, but also to become the source of this new life for all.
“He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into
subjection to himself” (Phil 3:21).
“In Christ all will come to life again” (1 Cor 15:22).
 
THE RESURRECTION AS JESUS’ PRESENCE
 
Resurrection is the center of our faith.
1. TEACHING AND AUTHORITY
• The Risen Christ commissioned his disciples:
You are to “teach them to carry out everything
I have commanded you” (Mt 28:20)
 2. PAULINE MORAL EXHORTATIONS
 
The Risen Christ’s Paschal pattern of new life through death determines the shape of all Christian life in the Spirit. Christ’s
Resurrection makes spiritually present he to whom every Christian belongs.
Paul writes: Continually we carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be
revealed” (2 Cor 4:10).
4. LITURGICAL WORSHIP
 
• The Risen Christ’s presence was experienced perhaps
most clearly in the sacramental worship of the Christian
community.
• “In Baptism you were not only buried with Him but also
raised to new life with him because you believed in the
power of God who raised him from the dead” (Col 2:12).
 
• The Eucharist, for Paul, makes present Christ’s Paschal
Mystery: “Every time, then, you eat this bread and drink
this cup, you proclaimed the death of the Lord until he
comes” (1 Cor 11:26).
• Christ’s resurrection is the promise and prelude of our
own final resurrection on the last day. As St. Paul tells
us, the first fruits of those who sleep. The mystery of
death, which we all naturally fear, is balanced by the
confident hope that we, too, will rise from the grave.
• Our souls are naturally immortal. When they leave the
body they remain alive, to enter an eternity whose
happiness or misery depends on how well we have
served God during our mortal life on earth.
• “Jesus Christ, yesterday, today, and forever”
has been literally verified until now and is
prophesied into the endless reaches of
eternity.In the next article of the Creed, we
profess to believe in Christ’s ascension into
heaven. But there would have been no
ascension unless there had first been a true
bodily resurrection. So, too, when we reflect on
the Holy Eucharist, the key to understanding
the Real Presence is the fact that God became
man, died, and rose from the dead.