With the death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, the understanding of death and the afterlife changed radically for the saints. Here it is important to understand our Lord’s seventh saying on the cross: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46). This final saying was a statement of consolation and filial trust. It was an act of offering His human spirit to His heavenly Father (meantime, His divine nature remained united with His human nature, even as He lay in the grave; see Belgic Confession 19). By making this final statement on the cross, Christ gives us an affirmation of the uninterrupted life.

What is this place called Sheol for the Old Testament saint? In most Old Testament references, “Sheol” is used to describe human fate. A pallid aura hovers over the concept. Sheol is often described by the righteous as a place that one does not want to go to—an “unwelcome fate,” such as in Psalm 30:3. Often, when the psalmists refer to Sheol, what they most feared was not death per se, nor that they might lose themselves in death. Rather, they feared that they might lose contact with God. For example, Psalm 6:5 says, “For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who will give you praise?” The number of words for this place of the dead is striking in the Scriptures: “Sheol,” “pit,” “grave,” “depths,” “place of perdition,” “land of oblivion,” “Abaddon.”