What is Life?

Before we can understand death, we must first understand life.

1 Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The above verse reveals much to us regarding the state of 'being alive', for in it we see that we are comprised of three parts...
  1. Spirit.
  2. Soul.
  3. Body.
Genesis 2:7
Then the LORD God formed the man of (1) the dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the (2) breath of life (The Spirit), and the man became a (3) living soul.
This same process takes place today in the womb... where the Mother gathers together the dust of the ground (the elements) and God breaths upon this wonder His Spirit, and it becomes a 'living Soul'.

What is Death?

Having understood that the life we now live comprises of three parts (Spirit, Body and Soul), the next question we need to ask ourselves is 'What is death?'

Ecclesiastes 12:6-7
6 - Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.
7 - and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
...and the dust returns to the ground it came from. (Ecc 12:7a)
Judges 8:32
And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age, and was buried (OT6912) in the sepulchre (OT6913) of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abi-ezrites.

John 12:17
The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave (NT3419), and raised him from the dead, bare record.
The two verses above both refer to where the body goes after death, one taken from the old Testament’s Hebrew and the other from the New Testament’s Greek. In both cases they refer to ‘The Grave’. A place that has location, a place we can visit. That the body can be returned to the Earth in various forms is irrelevant... be it buried, burnt, eaten by wild animals or destroyed in some horrific explosion, in each case the elements that make-up our bodies return once again to the physical Earth from where they came.

...and the spirit returns to God who gave it. (Ecc 12:7b)

This statement is plain, thus needs little explanation, suffice to say that the ‘life giving spirit’ or better said ‘the breath of life’ that once held the union together... returns to God who gave it.

...and the man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7b)

But what of the third element, what shall become of the ‘living soul’ when this union breaks?

Job 21:13
“They spend their days in prosperity, and suddenly they go down to Sheol” (OT7585).

Matthew 11:23
“And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades (NT86); for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it [the city Sodom] would have remained to this day”.
The Old Testament word ‘Sheol’ and the New Testament word of ‘Hades’ both refer to the same place... which we could call ‘The under World’, they are distinctly separate from the word ‘Grave’. It is noteworthy to mention that Hades/Sheol has location relative to our location, and that is ‘down’ within the Earth.

Before the Cross ‘all’ who died entered into Hades... some entered believing God’s promise of a coming saviour who would redeem them from the power of Death and Hades, the rest entered having rejected this message. These two groups were kept apart.

Luke 16:22-23
22 - And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 - And in Hades he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

However, after the Cross... after the price for sin had been paid, this arrangement would change.

Hades/Sheol is the very same place Jesus had earlier prophesied He would enter into when His union of Spirit, Body and Soul should break on the Cross, a place that He intended to conquer that He should break the power of Death and the authority of Hades over those who trusted in Him.

Matthew 12:39-40
39 - He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 - For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man [Jesus] will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”.
Thus upon death, as promised Jesus entered into Hades for us. However... sinless Hades was unable to detain Him having authority only over the guilty.

We have recorded in 1 Peter 3 an account of Jesus entering Hades and proclaiming to the generation of Noah this victory, who in times past mocked God's message in the days Noah was preparing the Ark.
1 Peter 3:19-20
19 - in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison [Sheol/Hades],
20 - 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.
Therefore we can state that before the Cross all who died [believing and unbelieving] were held in Hades, Hades having authority over the guilty... and as scripture testifies...
Romans 3:23
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Before the Cross... just as today, the message of salvation had been preached, even that God would send a saviour who would lay down His life as a sacrifice for sin [for the penalty for sin is death]. Yet then, as today... not all believed. However just as God had promised Christ came and fulfilled all that which was written of Him in offering Himself up as a ransom for the sins of many. For immediately upon death Jesus descended into the lower parts of the Earth, even into Hades where two groups gazed in wonder upon Him. One overjoyed at His coming who had waited patiently in trusting in His appearing. Still another fearing... bound to them the sins of an unrighteous life because of unbelief.

And with Christ alone guiltless, having the testimony of a perfect life. The Father proclaimed Him righteous before all by raising Him to eternal life, but not with His previous mortal, corrupt and weak body... but with a new immortal and glorious one!

Revelation 1:18
I am the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
And with the sin of those who had trusted on their Messiah now washed away by His precious blood [His death on the Cross] He set those captives free, drawing them with Him into the heavenlies... where they remain today!
Ephesians 4:8
8 - This is why it says:
“When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.”
9 - (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?
10 - He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)
For God’s Son became ‘flesh and blood’ that He might through death enter Hades, yet not to be detained as a sinner but to conquer and take authority over that place... and this by a righteous life. And once entered to triumph over death and defeat him who had the power of death, even the Devil.
Hebrews 2:14
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he [Jesus] also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.

Hades Today

Today, Jesus holds the keys of Death and Hades, detaining all before and after the Cross who refusing to acknowledge their sin, rejected God’s sacrifice. However for those today after the Cross who acknowledging their fallen state turn to the God of mercy, their is a sacrifice for sin that can be laid hold of through faith in Him who offered it, who need never see Hades but upon death are transported immediately to Heaven to join those that had entered before them.
Luke 23:42-43
42 - And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
43 - And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
These Jesus shall bring with Him to the Earth at His prophesied ‘Second Coming’, who shall like He receive immortal and incorruptible bodies... this is the ‘First Resurrection’.
Zechariah 14:5b
Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.

Revelation 5:10
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

2 Corinthians 15:54-55
54 - But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.
55 - O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?”
Make no mistake... All sin MUST be accounted for, because our God is a righteous God. Either we accept by faith the payment of our sins by God's Son at the Cross, or we pay for them ourselves, the choice is ours, why...
Acts 17:31
because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed [Jesus]; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
On that terrible day... everyone found in Hades whose name isn’t recorded in the ‘Book of Life’ will be judged by everything recorded in the accounts of their lives.
Revelation 20:13-14
13 - And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
14 - Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire [Hell].
Though we count ourselves alive today... this isn’t life as God had intended it, but...
John 17:3
...this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.