Nelene--In Peter's sermon on the first Pentecost he says, beginning in 2: 23, "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.  But God raised him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him."  

In this passage we see that the sentence passed on Jesus by an earthly court and carried out by the Roman authorities has been reversed by a higher court.  The Jewish leadership and Roman Law put Christ to death, but God raised him from the dead, [literally] from the "bonds" or "cords" [Greek, odin] of death." The Greek odin is used to translate the Hebrew heble in Psalms 18: 4 and 116:3, "the cords of death," and in Psalm 18: 5, "the cords of the grave."  The Greek word odin is associated with painful struggle and travail, as in childbirth, and hence is often translated as "pain" or "agony."  As God ordained Christ's suffering and death, so did he ordain his resurrection and glory.  "The abyss can no more hold the Redeemer than a pregnant woman can hold the child in her body" (G. Bertram, TDNT, P.673).