4550 Redemptive work of Christ.... "descended to hell...."

January 27, 1949: Book 53

He who allowed Himself to be crucified took upon Himself the sins of all mankind and offered God the atonement for them. This act of greatest human love was unique, for never before has a human being suffered as Jesus did, Whose love was exceedingly great and was returned to Him in the most shameful way. He appealed for the love of His fellow human beings, He did good to them and helped them earthly and spiritually, but this demonstration of love was not enough for Him, He wanted to bring help to humanity for eternity, He wanted to show them the path to eternal beatitude. His love, however, was disregarded and the most shameful thing that could only be done to a human being was done to Him.... He was crucified like a felon.... Satan himself did the work on Him, for those who carried it out were His servants. But the powers of darkness are also subject to God's will, they were to a certain extent involved in Christ's work of redemption, only in evil will, which is why they therefore brought guilt upon themselves, although the work of redemption was accepted by God as atonement for humanity. The will to love of the man Jesus, Who allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross out of mercy for His suffering fellow human beings, was highly valued, for He suffered unspeakably as a human being because everything that was done to Him was perpetrated in hatred and His soul was most sensitively affected by it. He gave love and reaped the deepest hatred in return, He wanted to lead people upwards, to the light, and the darkest figures of the depths met Him and tried to pull Him down; He consciously took the cup and drank it, although His human nature trembled and He prayed to God in deepest fear: "Why have You forsaken Me...." He suffered as a human being, as a pure, sinless human being, Who knew nothing but love and therefore had all power at His disposal.... He did not use the power, but He allowed Himself to be crucified and conceded to the worst fellow human beings the right to dispose of His body.... And they did it to His indescribable agony.... He atoned for the sins of humanity because He wanted to redeem them.

He knew that sin was the greatest evil, that it determined their fate in eternity, and thus He tried to draw people's attention to the great danger they were in due to their sinful way of life through word and deed, yet people neither accepted His teaching nor changed of their own accord. And thus Jesus made the sacrifice by handing over His body, which completely immaculately bowed under the burden of sin, which earthly collapsed because thousands of souls clung to Him, who tried to pull Him down into darkness. But He was stronger, the power of love was stronger than death, He even overcame death and became its victor.... He did not shake off the souls, but He sought to convince them of the power of love.... He also brought salvation to those who were no longer on this earth.... He descended to hell before He ascended to heaven. His love penetrated the deepest depths, and whoever accepted it was saved, he was redeemed from the chains of death. God as the eternal love also wants to save the lost, and therefore He accepted the love of a human being which was so profound that it applied to the whole of humanity and which He wanted to express through His exceedingly agonizing death.... God accepted this sacrifice of love and granted redemption from the unfree state, which was the result of sin, to all those who acknowledge Jesus as saviour and impose their sins on Him. For His love is greater than His wrath, and everything that walks in love finds grace before His eyes and also His mercy. For the sake of Jesus' blood, His gaze turns to the wretched and He forgives the greatest guilt....

Amen

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