Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 18 through 20 and chapter 4 verse 6:
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.
The great Christian thinker and essayist G.K. Chesterton once wrote a story about a man who died and went to hell. His business agent went down to the gates of hell to try to get his release. He pleaded with the devil, "Let him out!" But to no avail. Then the man's priest came to the gates of hell and did the same, "Let him out!" But, again, to no avail. The gates of hell remained firmly shut. Finally, the man's mother came to the gates of hell. But she did not beg for her son's relapse. "Quietly," Chesterton wrote, "and with a strange catch in her voice, she said to Satan, 'Let me in.' Immediately the great doors swing open upon their hinges -- For love goes down through the gates of hell and there redeems the damned."
That's not only a good story; it's also a true story. Today's lesson tells us that Christ went down to hell and preached good news to all those killed by the Great Flood. Or, as the creed put it, "He descended into hell." He was willing to go all the way to hell and back that no soul should be lost.
If that's not enough to tell us there's no such thing as a hopeless case, then I don't know what would be. If the very gates of hell can't prevail against Christ, then we dare not write anybody off. Not the prisoner. Not the drunk. Not the "thug". Not the racist. Nobody's beyond redemption because nobody's beyond Christ's reach.
"For love goes down through the gates of hell and there redeems the damned."
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