Immediately after the death of His body, Christ was made alive in His Spirit and went to proclaim God’s victory to the spirits in prison, who had formerly disobeyed; we praise the Lord as the One who has the keys of death and of Hades, and we are one spirit with Him today!
Lord Jesus, we praise You for going through death and coming out in resurrection victoriously! Praise the Lord, Christ died on the cross, was buried, and resurrected three days later, overcoming death! Hallelujah, Christ has the keys of death and of Hades, and we today are joined to Him in spirit! Amen, Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You today. We want to proclaim Your victory. We proclaim Your triumph over sin and death! Jesus Christ is Lord, and Christ is victor over death and the grave! Hallelujah!
We believers in Christ have been regenerated unto a living hope. We were dead in sins and offenses, alienated from the life of God and without any hope in the world.
But the gospel was preached to us, we touched something of Christ, and we opened to receive the eternal life.
This life we received, the life of Christ, is a death-overcoming life. Christ said that He became dead but behold, He is now living forever and ever.
He became dead, for He was subjected to the death on the cross and died in His flesh; however, He could not be held by death! Praise the Lord!
He came out in resurrection, and He is victorious over death. He is the living One in our spirit, and He makes us living. We believers in Christ are the living testimony of Jesus on the earth today.
He is living, we are living, and together we are living; we live because He lives, He lives in us, and together we are the testimony of the living Jesus.
When others want to see Jesus, they need to come to the church. As we open our being to the Lord, as we open to Him and live in the mingled spirit, we simply live Christ. We live Christ and He lives in us.
He saturates us. He permeates us. He makes His home in us. We are one with Him. He lives in us. We live in Him.
In this organic union, it is us who live, yet we live Christ; Christ lives in us, yet we live, and He is expressed through us. We are His continuation, His reproduction, and His increase.
We express Him, He is testified in us in a living way, and the more living we are, the more we are the living testimony of Jesus. Hallelujah!
In His Burial Christ went and Proclaimed God’s Victory over Satan to the Spirits in Prison
As we are prayerfully considering the matter of Christ going through death, coming out in resurrection, and having the keys of death and of Hades, we need to see what does the Bible tells us concerning the Lord’s burial.
On the one hand, we see that Christ died on the cross for our redemption; He paid the price to redeem us and He shed His blood for us.
On the other hand, His human body was buried, and He remained in the tomb for three days. What happened during this time, while He was buried?
Something must have happened, and the Bible gives us a glimpse of this in 1 Peter 3:18-20. There must have been many things that took place in this time, but the Bible tells us only of some of these things.
Immediately after the death of His body, Christ was strong and active in His Spirit, and He went to proclaim His victory to the spirits in prison. Wow!
The fact that He was made alive in the Spirit doesn’t mean that He was made alive in the Holy Spirit but it refers to the Spirit that is Christ’s spiritual nature (Mark 2:8; Luke 23:46).
After Christ was buried, His human body was put in a tomb, and He was made alive in the Spirit.
He went in His living Spirit to proclaim God’s victory to the spirits in prison; He proclaimed God’s victory through His incarnation in Christ and in Christ’s death in the flesh, over Satan’s scheme to derange the divine plan. Wow!
First of all, the fact that Christ died on the cross is amazing; He is the very Creator of man, the source of life, yet He as a man was put to death.
The crucifixion put Christ to death only in His flesh, which He received through His incarnation; in His Spirit, the essence of His being, He can never be put to death.
Instead of dying on the cross with His flesh did, the Spirit of Christ was made alive; He was enlivened with new power of life, so that in this empowered Spirit, Christ would make a proclamation to the fallen angels after His death, in His burial, and before His resurrection. Hallelujah!
We need to open to the Lord and allow Him to shine on us so that we not only understand but also Amen and enter into the reality of what He has done.
When Christ was buried in the tomb, His flesh was there, resting; however, He in His empowered Spirit, went before His resurrection to the abyss to proclaim God’s victory to the rebellious angels.
Christ’s Spirit, after He died in His flesh, was still active. It is impossible to kill Christ as the Spirit, for He is resurrection and life, and He overcomes death.
However, since He had to be held by Hades for a period of time, He was enlivened in His Spirit and proclaimed His victory over the enemy. Hallelujah!
He made a proclamation to the spirits in prison. What are these spirits? There are great teachers of different schools who had varying interpretations concerning these “spirits in prison.”
The most acceptable one, based on 1 Peter. 3:18-20, is that these spirits do not refer to the disembodied spirits of dead human beings held in Hades but to the angels who fell through disobedience at Noah’s time.
All human beings who die are held in Hades until the day of judgment; the spirits in prison here do not refer to such disembodied spirits of dead human beings.
What the spirits in prison refer to is a particular kind of beings, those angels who, at Noah’s time, fell through disobedience.
They are the angels who left their place, came down to earth, and used human bodies to commit fornication with the daughters of men, thus polluting the human race and producing giants (Gen. 6:4).
They left their place as angels and came and polluted the human race. Therefore, they were imprisoned and put in Tartarus, the deep and gloomy pits (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6), where the fallen angels are kept.
The Lord Jesus in His burial went to these spirits in prison and proclaimed His victory over Satan and his schemes.
He did not proclaim the gospel or the good news; He proclaimed His victory, even His triumphant victory, over the enemy. Wow, this is quite amazing!
There are many things we do not know about Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, but this one detail we do know.
When Christ died on the cross for our redemption, He was put to death in His body, and at the same time, He was enlivened and empowered in His Spirit, even before His resurrection! Amen!
And in this enlivened and empowered Spirit, Christ in His burial went to proclaim to the rebellious angels God’s victory over Satan, their leader. Hallelujah!
Lord Jesus, unveil us to see what happened when You went through death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Bring us into a proper appreciation of who You are what You have done for us. Amen, Lord, thank You for dying for us on the cross to redeem us. Hallelujah for Christ’s redemptive death for us on the cross. Thank You, Lord, for being willing to be put to death in the flesh, even to die in Your body on the cross. Thank You for being willing to be buried and remain in the tomb for three days. Hallelujah, after His death in the flesh, Christ in His living Spirit as His divinity went to the abyss to the rebellious angels to proclaim God’s victory! Praise the Lord for His victory accomplished through His incarnation in Christ’s death in the flesh! Christ has won the victory over Satan’s scheme to derange the divine plan. Amen, Lord, we praise You for being the victorious One! Praise the Lord, Christ is the Victor! Hallelujah, Christ gained the victory through His incarnation and death on the cross!
Stand one with Christ and Proclaim His Victory over Satan: Christ is the Victor!
It is quite amazing to see a window into what happened at the cross when Christ died for us, and also to see what Christ did in His burial.
When a man is buried, his human life and achievements are all done; there’s nothing that remains, he simply waits in Hades for the day of judgment.
But here was a God-man, Jesus Christ, who died in His human part and, in His divine part, was enlivened and empowered, and He went to proclaim God’s victory over Satan! Hallelujah!
Today we as believers in Christ need to stand one with the Lord, even stand in His victory, and we need to proclaim His victory.
Our Christian life is a life by faith; by faith, we are joined to the Lord. When He died, we died with Him, and when He was buried, we were buried with Him.
We are one with Him in His incarnation, human living, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.
In our Christian life, we can stand one with the Lord and proclaim His victory. Many times we are in places where we see death; the shadow of death is present around us and even in us.
On the one hand, Christ is shepherding us through such situations; on the other hand, we can stand one with the Lord and proclaim His victory over Satan and his schemes.
Satan tries to delay the fulfilment of God’s plan; he tries to obscure God’s plan, darken our understanding, and usurp us so that we would not cooperate with God.
Sometimes this happens in our life or in the life of some of the saints we care for; Satan simply blinds them, distracts them, usurps them, and renders them useless regarding God’s purpose.
In such situations, we need to exercise our spirit and declare Christ’s victory. We can overcome because He has overcome. The enemy can and will be defeated because Christ has already overcome him!
Christ in His incarnation defeated Satan, put him to shame, and in His human living He undid the works of the devil. Even more, in His death, Christ destroyed the devil (Heb. 2:14).
Satan tried to destroy Christ, but actually Christ destroyed him on the cross. Satan was completely destroyed on the cross.
Most likely, this is what Christ proclaimed in His burial, to the spirits in prison. And today we see this, we stand one with the Lord, and we declare this.
Even in situations where it seems that death is all around us, when we feel as if we are buried and there’s nothing we can do about it, we can proclaim Christ’s victory, and we can stand one with the Lord in His victory over Satan! Hallelujah, Christ is victor!
When we focus on Him, when we lift up our eyes and focus not on our death situation or pitiful condition but on Christ with His achievements, we will be victorious, one with Christ.
Our victory is in Christ, and we are joined to Him as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).
What He has accomplished and attained, we enjoy and participate in. What He has overcome, we also have overcome, and we are seated with Him in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6).
Even though outwardly we may not see a change in our situation, even though we may remain in waters of death, we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, we partake of His victory, and we are one with Him to proclaim His victory!
This is the reality we should be in today: one with the Lord, one with Him in His incarnation, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.
Through His death, Christ not only accomplished redemption for us but also gained the victory over Satan and his followers. We believe this and we proclaim this! Praise the Lord!
Lord Jesus, we praise You for obtaining the victory over Satan! Hallelujah, Christ’s death not only accomplished redemption for us but even more, gained the victory over Satan and his followers! Amen, Lord, we praise You for Your incarnation and human living through which You destroyed and undid the works of the devil. We praise You for Your death through which You destroyed the devil! Hallelujah for Christ’s devil-destroying death! Amen, Lord, we stand one with You today. Even though we may be in a death situation and there is much darkness and death around us, we stand one with You. We proclaim Your victory over Satan! Praise the Lord, Christ has gained the victory, Satan has been defeated, and we are one with the victorious Christ! Hallelujah, the enemy, Satan, in us and around us has been defeated! Amen, Lord, we stand with You and we proclaim God’s victory over Satan today! Praise the Lord! Jesus is Lord! Christ is victor! Hallelujah!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas on this topic, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 72, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (4) (2025 December Training), week 38 (msg. 2), Christ Having the Keys of Death and Hades – day 3.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Praise Him! praise Him! Christ is Victor! / He has won the victory! / Sin is judged, old Adam finished, / Full redemption now we see! / Vanquished all the evil powers / Thru the Cross triumphantly! (Hymns #124 stanza 1)
– Buried with Christ, and raised with Him too; / What is there left for me to do? / Simply to cease from struggling and strife, / Simply to walk in newness of life. / Glory be to God! (Hymns #483 stanza 1)
– I am one with Thee, Lord Jesus, / One in spirit now with Thee; / All Thyself I now possess, Lord, / All Thou art now lives in me… / One with Thee in crucifixion, / On the cross I died in Thee; / I am dead unto the world, Lord, / And the world is dead to me. (Hymns #474 stanza 3)
