Paradise Then and Now
On the cross, Jesus Christ “bowed his head, and gave up the [πνεȗμα (PNYOO-MAH), spirit] ghost” (John 19:30). Jesus’ spirit and soul left his body. “The body without the spirit is dead” (James 2:26). His spirit did not get buried with his body to sleep in the grave for three days, nor does anyone else who dies.
When Jesus Christ died, his departed spirit and soul went to Paradise where other righteous men’s departed soul-spirits go (Luke 23:43). Jesus’ departed soul and spirit went not only to Paradise, but to “the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40), because at the time of Christ’s crucifixion, Paradise was located deep in the heart of the earth.
In Luke 16:19-31, one deemed ‘righteous’ by God “died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom [κόλπος (Kol-poss), the front area where you hug a person]. Another deemed ‘unrighteous’ “also died, and was buried; And in [ᾄδης (Hah-dace)] he lift up his eyes, being in torments.”
In 32 AD when Jesus was crucified, the soul-spirits of every human went to ᾄδης (Hah-dace) after departing from the body in death. In one chamber of ᾄδης (Hah-dace), an unrighteous one was “tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24).
In another chamber of ᾄδης (Hah-dace), Paradise was located, separated from the tormenting “hell” chamber by a χάσμα (KHASmah) chasm. Paradise was where soul-spirits of all departed righteous went, including Abraham, Jesus Christ, and the penitent former thief crucified alongside Jesus (Luke 23:43). In Paradise, departed soul-spirits of the righteous were “comforted” (Luke
16:25).
That was the situation for all departed soul-spirits before Jesus Christ rose from the grave in 32 AD. Things have changed since then for those bound for Paradise. In 60 AD, by Holy Spirit revelation, Apostle Paul wrote that Paradise is now in the third level of Heaven (2 Corinthians 12:1-4). Scriptures tell how that relocation of Paradise happened.
During the course of his resurrection from the grave, Jesus relocated Paradise, with all the righteous soul-spirits dwelling there, from the chamber of comfort in ᾄδης (HAHdace) “in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40) up to the “third heaven” (2 Corinthians 12:2). That relocation was included in God’s mission for Jesus Christ who descended from Heaven, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended back to Heaven. “Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things” (Ephesians 4:9-10).
After Jesus relocated Paradise from the heart of the earth up to Heaven, “Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8). To be “present with the Lord” Jesus is to be in Heaven, where “He was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9).
When Jesus relocated the Paradise chamber of ᾄδης (Hah-dace), he left the torment “hell” chamber down in the earth. John’s Revelation vision of the future Judgment Day saw “Death and [ᾄδης (Hah-dace)] hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and [ᾄδης (Hah-dace)] hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:13-15).
This Thanksgiving, be thankful because your name is recorded in God’s Book of Life. Because of Jesus Christ, instead of treading lava in the Lake of Fire, you will spend eternity in God’s city with Jesus.