March 28

For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay. — Ps 16:10 BSB

When our Lord voluntarily laid down His life, His final words were, “Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit.” Here, "spirit" refers to His human soul, which immediately went into paradise, into the direct presence of God, as He had foretold: “And now come I to You” (John 17:13). However, Christ did not go there alone. Soon, a trophy of His grace followed Him—the soul of the repentant thief, who shared in His suffering and, by sovereign grace, became His companion in glory.

Though there was a separation of Christ’s body and soul in death, this did not destroy or alter the union between His Deity and His humanity. That union remained intact as His holy soul entered paradise in union with His Deity, making Him as much God-man in paradise as He was at the tomb of Lazarus or at the Last Supper. His sacred body, though lifeless after death, remained "that holy thing." Death could not taint His body any more than sin could when He was conceived in the Virgin’s womb. As promised, "You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption."

Christ’s body was inherently incorruptible, being begotten of the Holy Spirit through the supernatural conception in the Virgin Mary. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all involved in ensuring that corruption would not touch Christ’s body in death. The Father, who promised, fulfilled His word by His almighty power. The Son, by His divine nature, preserved His body in the grave, and the Holy Spirit, who had formed the body at conception, maintained it untainted, even in the tomb.

These truths are indeed difficult to grasp or fully comprehend, but they are heavenly mysteries. Faith accepts them, even when reason, sense, and unbelief may struggle to understand. The consequences of allowing any taint of corruption to touch Christ’s body would have been tremendous. A tainted body could not have been resurrected, and corruption would have marred it as it will with ours. How could a corrupt body have become the dwelling place of the Son of God again? Often, we are preserved from error not only by knowing and feeling the power of the truth but also by recognizing the serious consequences that denying fundamental truths would bring.