In olden times, radio was the only entertainer and then came the cassette player. To make them an easy access, the inventors brought a “two-in-one” model for the music lovers. Pondering over this, suddenly one day, my thoughts shifted towards the “three-in-one” model, one of the “good” creations of our Father God. This “Three-in-One” model is Man!
To elaborate on that, let me take you to the very last minutes of Jesus as a human on earth. At Golgotha, outside the city, Jesus was nailed to the torture stake along with other two criminals. Just before His last breathe, we read in Luke 23:44-46 - Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’” Having said this, He breathed His last.
We know that Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying that its all finished. He did'nt stop there but He also committed His spirit [“pneuma" in Greek] into His Father’s hand. The prime connection of Jesus with His Father [or God] was through His spirit. The Holyspirit remained in Jesus’ spirit from the time He was baptised by John the Baptist in the River Jordan (John 1:32).
Once Jesus died on the cross, His body had to be taken for preparation before laying in the tomb. We read that Jesus’ body was taken by His disciples in John 19:38-42 - After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus. And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews’ Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.
After laying His body, everyone went back to their dwelling that night. What was Jesus doing after His death on the cross? The disciple of Jesus named Peter explained on the Day of Pentecost to the people in Jerusalem boldly about Jesus, He brought out the Psalmist [David] saying, [Acts 2:25-27]
"For David says concerning Him:
‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad;
Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave my soul in Hades,
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.’”
and he also says in
1 Peter 3:18-20, "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.” From the above Peter’s scriptures, we gather that the Soul of Jesus went to the parts of Hades and proclaimed the divine truth to the spirits in prison who lost their original positions during Noah’s period.
I could look at the Spirit of Jesus, the Soul of Jesus and the Body of Jesus from the above accounts clearly that were spoken through the Apostles, who were inspired to write by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16). Did it stop there? Not at all; we get to read what Apostle Peter says from Acts 2:29-33, “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he
is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear."
Hallelujah! Though Jesus’ Spirit and Soul got separated from the Body at the death on this planet, they were united as ONE (Three-in-ONE) when He was resurrected! The three parts of Jesus - the Spirit, the Soul and the Body was glorified as ONE and Jesus rose up with His glorified Body that contains His Spirit and Soul. I remember the first Adam who became a living soul was a Spirit having a Soul living in a Body. The Last Adam who was a Life-giving Spirit has a Soul living in a glorified Body.
HALLELUJAH !!!
Amen!