This is a doctrine that few know, seek out, or understand - yet the Scripture tells us much about it. Where was Jesus for the three days His body laid in the grave? Jesus Himself said where He would be in ...

(Luke 23.43) "And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise."

Jesus told the repentant thief that he would be with Him in "Paradise" (Greek paradeisos, the "Garden, Grove, or Park"). Was this a reference to Heaven Proper, the abode of God? I don't think so. The Scripture teaches us that Christ now sits on the "right hand" of God the Father, a place of honor:

(Colossians 3:1 KJV) "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where CHRIST SITTETH ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD."

(Hebrews 8:1 KJV) "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who IS SET ON THE RIGHT HAND OF THE THRONE OF THE MAJESTY IN THE HEAVENS;"

But He did not sit down on the Right Hand of the Father until His redemptive work was finished:

(Hebrews 1:3 KJV) "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, WHEN HE HAD BY HIMSELF PURGED OUR SINS, SAT DOWN ON THE RIGHT HAND OF THE MAJESTY ON HIGH;"

(Hebrews 10:12 KJV) "But this man, AFTER HE HAD OFFERED ONE SACRIFICE FOR SINS FOR EVER, SAT DOWN ON THE RIGHT HAND of God;"

The redemptive work of Christ was comprised of two parts: the sacrifice on the Cross, with which His precious blood He paid for our sins, and His resurrection, which was an affirmation by the Father that the work of Redemption was acceptable.

(Romans 8:34 KJV) "Who is he that condemneth? It is CHRIST THAT DIED, YEA RATHER, THAT IS RISEN AGAIN, WHO IS EVEN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, WHO ALSO MAKETH INTERCESSION FOR US."

Had Jesus just died for us, His sacrifice would have been temporal ... but His resurrection, and His seating at the right hand of God the Father after His resurrection ever to make intercession for us ... now here is salvation indeed.

So I don't believe that Jesus was in Heaven proper while His body laid entombed, but He was in "Paradise". Again, where is Paradise, and what was Jesus doing there? In Jewish Theology (Old Testament) "Paradise" was considered to be the place where the Saints went to abide after death to WAIT FOR THE PROMISED MESSIAH. Messiah had not yet been given, so the Old Testament saints were saved by believing on Him who was to come. But since the work of the Cross had not been accomplished, these saints went to a place that was not properly "Heaven", but was also not properly "Hell". Paradise was also referred to, in Jewish Theology, as “Abraham's Bosom”, a place located in the vicinity of hell but void of any torment:

(Luke 16.19-31) “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 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; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

Though some refer to the teaching of Luke 16 as a "parable", I do not believe it to be so. In all other cases a parable was introduced by "and He spoke a parable", or some literary phrase that would designate it as a parable. Jesus recounted an actual incident of an Old Testament saint (Lazarus) and a Old Testament heathen (the rich man), and showed how one went to torment whereas the other was comforted. It was this “Abraham's Bosom” that Jesus taught His disciples about, one in which Lazarus (the downtrodden but saved beggar) rested in after death whereas the rich man (a portrait of the unsaved) was immediately in flames of torment. At this time both Paradise and Hell were in proximity to one another, but God fixed a great guilt in between them. On one side there was great suffering, the other side great rest. The righteous could not, even if they wanted to, pass over onto the side of torment. This alone was reserved for the unsaved. The Old Testament Saints (it was believed) could see across the gulf the sinners on the other side, but were sheltered from any suffering. This place, Abraham's Bosom, was only a TEMPORARY HOLDING FACILITY while the Saints waited for the promised Messiah to come. God’s Justice is absolute, and had to be fully satisfied by the Cross of Christ before man entered into Heaven.

(1 Peter 3.18-20) “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also HE WENT AND PREACHED UNTO THE SPIRITS IN PRISON; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.”

Some theologians (as well as an old country preacher like myself) believe that while Christ's body was “three days in the grave” that His Spirit went and preached to the Old Testament Saints being held in Paradise. He presented Himself as the long awaited Messiah, and they accepted Him as Savior. He then moved both saints and Paradise into the Third Heaven. The passage in Ephesians 4.7-10 illustrates what Jesus did while His earthly body lay entombed:

“But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith, WHEN HE ASCENDED UP ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE, and gave gifts unto men. (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.)”

Christ did not lose even one of the Old Testament Saints. He knew that His Father sent Him for the lost sheep of Israel first (Matthew 15.24-28), and that these Saints were a priority. Before Christ presented His resurrected self before the Father He led captivity captive, taking these Saints with Him to be with the Eternal God in Heaven. The Third Heaven, Paradise, is no longer a holding place, but can be regarded as home for all believers upon their earthly death.

(2 Corinthians 12.2-4) “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. “

(Revelation 2.7) “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

Other theologians argue that Jesus merely went to Heaven for the three days His Body laid entombed. Yet, I reply, if He did He did not sit at the right hand of the Father, for the work was not yet finished. Only after the resurrection did He sit at that place of honor, ever to make intercession for we who believe. The interpretation that I feel is correct, that Jesus went to "Abraham's Bosom" and presented Himself to the Old Testament saints, seems more in tune with the teaching of the Scripture - though I am open to correction if it be Biblical.