Additionally, the Corporal Death Christ Endured in the Flesh included a Death in His Soul, Equal to a Spiritual and an Eternal Death, though not a Death of His Soul.
The Eternal Death Jesus sensed was when He, as a Human being, was separated from the Father, saying,
"My God, My God, why hath Thou Forsaken Me", while still United to The Infinite Eternal Being of the Son, the Second Person in the Triune Godhead, in
Matthew 27:46,
"And about the ninth hour Jesus Cried with a Loud Voice, saying, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast thou Forsaken Me?"
Jesus' Soul did not Die, but He experienced a Separation from everything Good and Benevolent that Jesus had Enjoyed in Fellowship and Communion with the Father and the Spirit from all Eternity Past.
That is where it is said in Isaiah,
"He hath Put Him to Grief", when Jesus not only didn't have the Complacency, Peace, and Joy of His Fellowship throughout Eternity with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, but since God could not Look upon Iniquity",
"Thou Art of Purer Eyes than to Behold Evil, and canst not Look on Iniquity", from Habakkuk 1:13, Jesus then Suffered the Grief of the Infinite Suffering the children God Gave to Him , which means a pure sensation of an Eternal Hell.
"The Sorrows of Death Compassed Me, and the Pains of Hell gat hold upon Me: I found Trouble and Sorrow." Psalm 116:3.
And then in
Psalm 13:1; the Psalmist also expresses Jesus' Deep Sense of Abandonment and Longing for God's Presence:
"How Long, O LORD? Will You Forget Me Forever? How Long Will You Hide Your Face from Me?", and this mentions that the Sorrow He Endured was equivalent to an Eternity of Sorrow, as it also says there, "Will You Forget Me Forever?", as the answer to "How Long Will You Hide Your Face from Me?
So, by looking at verses like these, we get an even clearer understanding of what took place where the Bible says "when Thou shalt Make His Soul an Offering for sin" in
Isaiah 53:10
"Yet it Pleased the LORD to Bruise Him; He hath Put Him to Grief: when Thou shalt 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." Isaiah 53:10.
As John Gill said, Jesus Suffered the equivalent of an Eternal Death IN HIS SOUL.
While, Jesus, of course, did not experience an actual death OF HIS SOUL.
If you want to know how Jesus could say "It is Finished", when He was still Alive. He was still Alive Physically, but it was when Jesus' "Soul was Made an Offering for sin" that It was Finished, "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He Bowed His Head, and Gave Up the Ghost."
What's more, does anyone notice how Gill is stating contradictory things here?
That Christ endured a death of His soul, equal to a spiritual and eternal death, yet He did not?
I started to capitalize these prepositions but thought it was too tacky.
Here it is again,
As John Gill said, Jesus Suffered the equivalent of an Eternal Death IN HIS SOUL.
While, Jesus, of course, did not experience an actual death OF HIS SOUL.
If He did, He would be suffering in Hell along with the rest of those who are there, and be cast into the Lake of Fire along with them when death and Hell are cast into it ( Revelation 20:13-15 ).
No, you're right. Jesus never went to Hell.
“There are some things in them that are hard to understand” (2 Pet. 3:16).
The reference below is sometimes misinterpreted by some who fall into believing something like that.
"For 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, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water." (1 Pet. 3:18–20)
What, is Peter saying? He’s saying that Noah, in the course of building the ark, bore testimony to the coming Judgment of God. He was the
“herald of Righteousness,” as Peter says in his second letter
(2 Pet. 2:5).
Noah preached in the Power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit whom Peter has earlier called
“the Spirit of Christ” (
1 Pet. 1:10). But the men and women of Noah’s generation, notwithstanding
“God’s Patience” in delaying Judgment, spurned that proclamation. Because of their
“former” disobedience, they are presently
“in Prison.” That is, their souls, upon their deaths, were justly committed to Hell to be Punished for their sins.