Did Jesus spend Saturday in Hell?

Ok, this one was bothering me this week – and this is a bizzar first post to my new blog! But who will read this?

What do we mean when we talk about Jesus descending into hell, as in the Apostle’s Creed – “[He] was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He arose again from the dead.”

Today I was preaching on Acts 2:31ff, where Peter asserts that David prophesied that Jesus would not be abandoned to Sheol (quoting Ps. 16). The KJV translates this as “Hell”, reinforcing in the minds of many that Jesus, before his resurrection, went into hell, possibly “to preach to the spirits in prison” or possibly to experience the fullness of the Father’s wrath.   This wasn’t the theme of the sermon, by any means, it was a total aside, which might have been best left out.

My argument (that this is a wrong conclusion) is twofold:
Psalm 16 suggests the exaltation of Jesus begins at the moment of his death, meaning he couldn’t be humiliated more, by his soul subsequently entering hell.
Jesus himself, moments before his death, cried out, “It is finished.” Therefore it would be unwise of us to see further vicarious suffering beyond that point.

This is not in any way seeking to undermine the extent of Jesus’ suffering on the cross – I subscribe unreservedly to the Reformed doctrine of penal substitution, that Christ suffered in our place sufficient to satisfy divine justice! But I do find it difficult to accept that his soul at death went anywhere other than to be with the Father.

My main point here was this: This is surely the first fruits of the experience of all believers at death! I was thinking that the resurrection and assention of Jesus are pretty much squashed together in Reformed thought, both are part of his exaltation, which believers share in. So Jesus experience at death must be a guide for what happens to us – he goes to be with the Father, we go to be with him and the Father – entering what Boston calls the intermediate state.

What bothered me with this is that Psalm 16 suggests Jesus’ body didn’t decay – but ours do.

Anyway, I was happy to read wiser than me making the same point.