Where was Jesus for the three days between His death and resurrection?

The Lord’s spirit was in hades between the time of His death and His resurrection. He Himself asserted where His spirit would be and in doing so proved where the believer’s would be for He said to the dying thief:

The Lord’s spirit was in hades between the time of His death and His resurrection. He Himself asserted where His spirit would be, and in so doing proved where the believer’s would be, for He said to the dying thief: “Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me IN PARADISE” (Luke 23:43).

At death the soul and spirit Of the Lord Jesus left His body and were in the presence of the Father, though in Sheol (or Hades—the Greek equivalent). Sheol is not a place, but the condition of the soul and spirit in being separated from the body, just as death is not a place, but the condition of the body as being separated from the soul and spirit. Thus, the soul and spirit of the Lord Jesus, though in Sheol for three days, were not left there, but in resurrection were reunited with His body Speaking of the body of the Lord Jesus then it is said, "Nor will you allow your Holy one to see corruption." Death brings corruption to others, but not to Him. "The path of life" has led Him into fullness of joy in the presence of God, now at God's right hand enjoying pleasures forevermore (v. 11). Precious Lord!

But the Lord Jesus promised Him much more than he asked, with the positive declaration that, not in the distant future, but on that very day he would be with Christ in paradise. This is decisive! Though their bodies were buried, yet their spirits and souls were that day in paradise. Paradise is the third heaven, as 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 declares and Revelation 2:7 confirms; that is, the very presence of God. Some have been confused by the wording of the King James Version of Scripture in its quoting Christ as saying, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption" (Acts 2:27). The word "hell" in that verse is not "Gehenna," the lake of fire, but "hades" (or in Hebrew "sheol") which does not indicate a place, but a state. It is the unseen state of the soul and spirit as separated from the body. His spirit and soul were therefore in the unseen condition called "hades," but in the place called "paradise," the third heaven. In resurrection His soul would not be left in this unseen condition, nor His body allowed to see corruption: both would be reunited.

By "the heart," or "lower parts," of the earth, we understand the grave. Our Lord not only died, but was buried" and "rose again the third day." Of this Jonah was a sign. Ps. 139:15 may serve to guard us from a too literal interpretation of the words which would seem to indicate that by the lowest parts of the earth is meant what is plainly out of sight — "in secret." The sepulchre was made sure and the stone sealed (Matt 27:66). Thus no human eye should peer into that holy domain where lay the body of Jesus.

Many a Christian believes that the Lord, between the crucifixion and resurrection, went down to hell, and, during the time that His Spirit was absent from the body, preached in hell to the spirits who had been disobedient in Noah's time. But it is very peculiar that Christ should preach only to the disobedient of Noah's day, and leave all the rest. He would not have been so particular as to His audience, I trow, had he gone there, but I do not believe he did. He says elsewhere, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades" (Ps. 16:10). That His soul went into hades is certain from this scripture, but we must bear in mind that "hades" is a condition, not a place. There is a hades of the blessed dead, as well as a hades of the wicked dead. Into the hades of the blessed Jesus undoubtedly passed, for He said to the dying thief, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise," and eventually, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:43-46). We may. safely conclude that the hades He went to was not the "prison" in which the spirits of the godless of Noah's day are chained.

The Spirit of Christ in Noah really preached to the people in Noah's day. How the Spirit of Christ? We have seen in the first chapter of this epistle that very expression (1 Peter 1:10-11). The Spirit of Christ in the prophets could write Scripture, and then search Scripture. So the Spirit of Christ in Noah could proclaim the Gospel to the antediluvians, while they were men on the earth. In Genesis 6 God says, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." This is the very word. The Spirit of the Lord strove with them for a hundred and twenty years. The Spirit of Christ in Noah proclaimed the Gospel all that time. It was the preaching of righteousness and coming judgment. The spirits of these men are in prison now, because they were disobedient to the word preached to them then.

It is evident that our Lord could not go to a place of torment, but it is evident that His soul was disembodied whilst His precious incorruptible body lay in the grave those memorable three days. Seeing the Lord was perfectly sinless, we can understand how His blessed holy body saw no corruption, for corruption is the effect of sin. Seeing that the blessed Lord had effected the full settlement of the question of sin by his atoning death on the cross, death could have no further claim upon Him. When sinful bodies die, death holds its sway and the process of corruption sets in at once.

One sees hence the rashness of Bishop Horsley, who says, "Paradise was certainly some place where our Lord was to be on the very day on which He suffered, and where the companion of His sufferings was to be with Him. It was not heaven; for to heaven our Lord, after His death, ascended not till after His resurrection, as appears from His own words to Mary Magdalene. He was not, therefore, in heaven on the day of the crucifixion; and where He was not, the thief could not be with Him. It was no place of torment; for to any such place the name of paradise never was applied. It could be no other place than that region of repose and rest where the souls of the righteous abide in joyful hope of the consummation of their bliss." The fallacy running throughout is due to the want of understanding that the ascension is spoken not of the separate spirit but of the whole man, of body as well as spirit and soul. The conquerors are certainly not promised their final recompence in an intermediate state, yet it is to be in paradise. And there beyond controversy entered the spirit of the Lord Jesus, and with Him that of the converted robber on the day of crucifixion. John 20:17 speaks of His ascension in bodily presence, but in no way negatives the going of His spirit there at death. (Compare Luke 23:43 and Rev. 2:7)

Nevertheless it is an error to depreciate the blessedness of those who, absent from the body, are present with the Lord. When the word of truth in its simplicity and its fulness speaks out, this may not be touched. To the dying robber, who prayed the Lord to remember him when He should come in His kingdom, Jesus said, "Verily I say to thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise." He thus proffers a blessing beyond and better than he asked, to the renewed mind a dearer prize than any outward display, however glorious: the joy of being that very day with Christ Himself, where the Father delights to love and honour the Son. It is not that the presence of Christ will be lacking in the kingdom, nor shall we be less able to enjoy it in that day. But He promised him this blessed companionship at once on high before He comes in His kingdom. This none should disparage: no honour or reward can equal it; and thanks be to God, we shall have it for ever.

This truth is not confined to the present portion of our Gospel. We have similar teaching elsewhere. Does not the account of the rich man and Lazarus intimate the same thing? Yea, more; not only the existence of the soul separate from the body, after death, of course, but also blessedness and misery at once. They are not absolutely dependent on the resurrection. Besides, there is the final publicly adjudicated portion of misery for body and soul before the great white throne. But, in Luke 16, blessedness and misery at once are felt by the soul in the dissolution of the link with the body. The figures, no doubt, are taken, as they must be, from the body. Thus we find the desire for cooling of the tongue, which men of speculative mind use to prove that it was the time of being clothed with a real body. Nothing of the sort. The Spirit of God speaks to be understood, and (if He is to be understood by men) He must deign to use language adapted to our comprehension. He cannot give us the understanding of a state which we have never experienced, unless it be by figures taken from the present state. A similar truth appears also later on in the case of the converted thief. The point there is just the same — immediate blessedness, and not merely when the body is raised from the dead by and by. That is what he looked for when he sought to be remembered, when Jesus comes in His kingdom. But the Lord adds more — immediate blessedness now: "This day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Depend upon it, we cannot be too stringent in maintaining the importance both of the resurrection, and of the immediate blessedness or misery of the soul separate from the body before the resurrection. To give up the reality of the soul's existence in either misery or blessedness at once is only a stepping-stone to materialism; and materialism is but a prelude to giving up both the truth and the grace of God, and all the awful reality of man's sin and Satan's power. Materialism always is essentially infidel, though far from being, the only form of infidelity.