Where was Jesus for the three days between His death and resurrection? | GotQuestions.org

Today's question is, where was Jesus for the three days between His death and resurrection?

In this video I'll answer that question from a biblical perspective. Then afterwards, as always,

I'll share some helpful resources, so stick around until the end. After Jesus said it is finished on the cross,

He bowed His head and gave up His spirit John 19, verse 30. His dead body remained on the cross until it was taken down and placed in a nearby tomb

John 19, verses 40 -42. His spirit, however, was elsewhere.

Three days later, His body and spirit were reunited, and He rose from the dead

John 20. There is some speculation about where Jesus was, that is, where His spirit was for the three days between His death and resurrection.

The clearest indication we have in Scripture of where Jesus was between His death and resurrection comes in His conversation on the cross with one of the thieves crucified next to Him.

The believing thief asks to be remembered when Jesus comes into His kingdom,

Luke 23, verse 42. And Jesus replies, "'Truly

I tell you, today you will be with Me in paradise' So, after His death,

Jesus went to the place of blessing where God is, heaven. And that's where the believing thief went too.

In the discussion of where Jesus was for the three days between His death and resurrection, another passage is often mentioned.

First Peter 3, verses 18 -20 says, Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the

Spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey, when

God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared. Some take this to mean that Jesus sometime between His death and resurrection went to hell or Hades and made an announcement of some type to the spirits in prison there.

Within this interpretation, the spirits Jesus addressed could be either demonic or human.

If the spirits mentioned in 1 Peter 3, verses 19, are fallen angels, then those spirits were probably imprisoned because they were involved in a grievous sin before the flood in Noah's time.

Peter mentions Noah's flood in verse 20. Peter does not tell us what Jesus proclaimed to the imprisoned spirits, but it could not have been a message of redemption, since angels cannot be saved,

Hebrews 2, verse 16. If these were fallen angels, what Jesus proclaimed was probably a declaration of His victory over Satan and his host, 1

Peter 3, verse 22. But there is another interpretation of the 1

Peter passage. In this interpretation, the spirits are people currently in hell, but Peter is not saying

Jesus made a special trip to Hades or hell to preach or proclaim anything. Rather, Peter is giving parenthetical information about something

Jesus had done previously in history—namely, that He had in spirit preached to the people of Noah's day while they were still living on earth.

That wicked generation heard the message, rejected it, perished in the flood, and are now in prison.

The word now in 1 Peter 3, verse 19 is provided for clarity in the

Amplified Bible and the New American Standard Bibles of 1977 and 1995, and it contrasts with the long -ago

NIV and formerly ESV of 1 Peter 3, verse 20. According to this alternate interpretation,

Christ was in Noah spiritually when Noah preached to his doomed neighbors. To better explain, here is a paraphrase of 1

Peter 3, verses 18–20. Jesus was put to death in the flesh, but He was made alive in the

Spirit. It was through this same Spirit that Jesus long ago preached to those who are right now in prison—those souls who disobeyed during the time of God's great patience, when

Noah was building the ark. According to this view, Jesus preached spiritually to the people of Noah's time, and He did this through the prophet

Noah, in much the same way that God speaks through us today when we proclaim God's Word. Ephesians 4, verses 8–10 is another passage used in the discussion regarding Jesus' activities in the three days between His death and resurrection.

Quoting Psalm 68, verse 18, Paul says about Christ, "...when He ascended on high,

He took many captives." Ephesians 4, verse 8. The ESV puts it that Christ led a host of captives.

Some say this refers to an event not elsewhere described in Scripture, namely, that Jesus gathered all the redeemed who were in paradise and took them to their permanent dwelling in heaven.

That is, after securing their salvation on the cross, Jesus brought Abraham, David, Joshua, Daniel, the beggar

Lazarus, the thief on the cross, and everyone else who had previously been justified by faith and led them from Hades, the abode of the dead in general, to their new spiritual home.

Another view of Ephesians 4 is that, "...ascended on high..." is a straightforward reference to Jesus' ascension.

Christ returned to heaven victoriously as God. In His triumph, Jesus had defeated and taken captive our spiritual enemies, the devil, death, and the curse of sin.

All of this to say that the Bible gives scant information about what exactly Christ did for the three days between His death and resurrection.

The only thing we know for sure is that, according to Jesus' own words on the cross, He went to paradise.

We can also say with confidence that His work of redemption finished. Jesus did not have to suffer in hell.

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