What Happened to the Soul of Jesus

 

Jesus was the Son of Man as well as the Son of God.  Like all men, he had lived in a body, and possessed both a soul and a spirit.

 

We know that Jesus' died on the Cross for the sins of mankind.  Before dying, he prayed, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" (Lk. 23:46 NKVJ).  We know that the Father is in heaven, so when he breathed his last, Jesus' spirit went to the Father in heaven.  His body was taken down from the cross, wrapped in gravecloths and laid in the tomb of Joseph of Arimethea where it remained until His resurrection three days later.  [Note:  Ecclesiastes 12:7 teaches us that the body returns to the earth and the spirit of man returns to God.]

 

This is what we have heard of the suffering of Jesus Christ in a nutshell.  However, there has been a missing link throughout Christianity that the Spirit of God is now bringing to light.   There is fresh revelation that is echoing into the earth out of heaven.   He who has an ear to hear, let him hear!

 

BEFORE Jesus goes to the Cross, he first agonizes in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, simultaneously fulfilling many O.T. prophecies, types and shadows and revealing to us the vital role his soul had to play to secure our salvation.   The eagle-eyed prophet foresaw this moment and wrote, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, He shall prolong his days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. ¹¹ He shall see the labor  [or travail] of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities. ¹² Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors," (Isaiah 53:10-12  NKJV).

 

Listen carefully to Jesus' word to the only three disciples he permitted to accompany him to this place: "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death" (Mt. 26:38; Mk. 14:34). 

 

 

Jesus Didn't Just Go to the Garden to Pray; He Went there to DIE!

 

Jesus died in the Garden!  That is, his SOUL was poured out unto DEATH, according to the scriptures.  You see, every part of Jesus' being had its role to play;  and we have greatly undermined the role of His soul, as we will soon learn.  We will spend some time with Jesus in the Garden and we will also go with him beyond the grave.  That's right.  BEYOND the grave, all the way into the very depths of hell, for that is the journey of his soul.  While his body lays in the tomb and his spirit communes with the Father in heaven, it is the soul of Jesus that experiences the ultimate wrath of God against sin in hell.  Consider the testimony of the Messianic psalm, "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption" (Palm 16:10) to which the New Testament bears witness that this was speaking of Jesus (cp. Acts 2:27).

 

No wonder when he was victorious over death, hell and the grave, he was given a name above every name in heaven, in earth and beneath the earth.  All three parts of Jesus' were simultaneously occupying all three realms of existence:

 

- His Spirit in Heaven ("Father, into thine hands I commit my spirit")

 

- His Body in a tomb (Mt. 27:59-61)

 

- His Soul in hell (Psalm 16:10)

 

Jesus was as dead as dead gets.   A simple definition of physical death is "separation".  When the spirit and soul leaves, departs or separates from the body, when the blood stops flowing...life stops flowing (the life of the flesh/body is in the blood - Lev. 17:11).   There are those who are alive in the body but dead in their human spirit and soul because they are living apart from the Father.  Being separated from Him brings spiritual death. 

 

To have all three parts of himself separated and disbursed to all three dimensions at once was for him to be as separated, or as dead as anyone could possibly be.  Jesus experienced TOTAL death for you and I.  Yet, He had to all pay the price for our sin by taking on the penalty in terms of agony.

 

In our next blog, we'll take a further look into what the soul of Jesus suffered while in hell.  We'll begin to show the O.T. scriptures that typify what he was going to have to go through to bring us salvation.   There are those who do not believe Jesus went to hell or that He suffered there if he did go.  We will look at what they believe is their  biblical basis and give understanding as to why their interpretations are misconstrued.  This is not for the sake of controversary or argument within the Body of Christ, but for clarity.   Every Christian should have all the facts and allow the Holy Spirit within them to bear witness to truth.