What Happened to Jesus’ Physical Body in Death?

Jesus’ dead body stayed in the tomb, lifeless and motionless, during those three days and nights before His resurrection.

The Prophet Isaiah wrote the following Messianic prophecy some 700 years B.C.: “And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth” (Isaiah 53:9). As a carpenter, Jesus was a poor man. His family was so destitute that they could not purchase a tomb for Him! We read about a “rich man,” “Joseph of Arimathaea,” a disciple of Jesus, who begged Governor Pilate for Jesus’ corpse. Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, “and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock” (Matthew 27:57-60; Mark 15:46).

Psalm 16:9-10 contains two more Messianic verses, written by King David over 1,000 years before Jesus Christ spoke them to the Father concerning His death:

“⁹Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. ¹⁰For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (Gk. hades, the grave); neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”

Strangely, the Bible says there was not the slightest evidence of decomposition (“corruption”) on that body. After four days in a similar rock tomb, or cave, Lazarus’ carcass began to stink (John 11:39). Only dead for three days, Jesus’ body never emitted a foul odor. Once those three days and three nights expired (cf. Matthew 12:39-40), the Lord Jesus Christ burst forth, alive and well! God the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit raised Jesus’ physical body from the dead (Romans 8:11).

What Happened to Jesus’ Soul?

The soul is the “real” us, our individual person, our ‘self.’

Jesus said that the repentant thief crucified on a cross next to Him, “Verily I say unto thee, To day thou shalt be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43 KJV), but we know that Jesus’ soul went down into “the heart of the Earth” … not to paradise and neither did the believing Thief go to Paradise that day. The comma after “thee” should have been placed after the words “to day,”! This then eliminates a common misconception concerning the Thief going to Paradise on that day; he like all the Kingdom believers, would only go to Paradise in the “first resurrection” of Rev. 20:6, at Jesus 2^nd coming, along with the other O.T. saints.

“³⁹But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: ⁴⁰For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:39-40).

Existing only prior to Calvary, “the heart of the Earth” was a place in the lower parts of the Earth where all souls at that time went who died having ‘the faith of Abraham.’ It was place for believers, not lost people. These were the saints of old who lived in anticipation of God’s earthly kingdom to be established through Israel.

Exactly what Jesus’ soul did for the three days and three nights, the Scriptures do now explicitly say. I rather expect that just Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, slept in the tomb (John 11:11-14) before being resurrected, so also Jesus’ soul ‘slept,’ awaiting His resurrection at the hand of Father God.

Paul writes of this “sleep” of dead believers of this age of grace when he writes to the Thessalonians;

¹³ But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. ¹⁴ For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. ¹⁵ For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ¹⁷ Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so, shall we ever be with the Lord. ¹⁸ Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 (KJV)

What Happened to Jesus’ Spirit?

The last statement Jesus uttered from the cross of Calvary is found in Luke 23:46: “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost (Spirit).” Once Jesus gave up His spirit, it went back to the third heaven, to God the Father who gave it.

“Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?” (Ecclesiastes 3:21).

“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

The “spirit” is the spark of life in man, which “giveth life” to the physical body, and they together produce our “living soul” (Gen 2:7). Thi sis much like the invisible electricity in a physical light bulb, energizes the bulb, producing light. When the electricity ceases… the light goes out. The spirit is the part of man that communicates with Father God, who “is spirit” (John 4:24).

What Happened at The Resurrection of Jesus?

On the resurrection on Sunday, Jesus’ soul and spirit reentered His physical body while in the tomb, and the tomb was vacated. Jesus glorious resurrected body lived on planet Earth for some hours before appearing as He was to Mary Magdalene, then ascending to the Father in heaven (John 20:11-18). Jesus came back down to Earth, where doubting Thomas touched His wounds eight days later (John 20:24-29). About 30 days after that, Jesus ascended to the Father’s right hand to remain… until His 2^nd coming (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9-11).

Jesus spent 40 days total on Earth post-resurrection (Acts 1:3). The Lord Jesus Christ has physically been at His Father’s “right hand” in the “third heaven,” as a King in Royal exile for the last 2,000 years (Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1).