Easter Sunday. The ancient affirmation “The Lord is risen indeed!” (given in response to the primary Resurrection declaration, “The Lord is risen!”) used to puzzle me a little, but in looking back, I suspect that I was just thinking too small. Anyone who has ever looked at the center of our galaxy through even a junkbox telescope knows that God does nothing by halves. To me, “indeed” here means to me that God's redemptive mission is complete, absolute, and unconditional: If Jesus didn't save everybody He saved nobody. We live in an extravagant universe, which to me at least points to an extravagant God, who settles for nothing other than the restoration of all things to Himself, what we call apokatastasis.
Many fans of Hell argue tortuous circles around the embarrassing Bible statement that Jesus descended into Hell to preach to those imprisoned there, but I take it at face value, and I suspect that what Jesus told them started out something like this: “Guys, listen up: There's a way out of here. Take notes.” [Jeff Duntemann's ContraPositive Diary]