This is a good and interesting question.  Let’s begin to answer your question by reading 1 Peter 3:18, “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.”  What an act of grace!  The Lord Jesus suffered and died “that he might bring us to God.”  Death is when the spirit and soul is separated from the body.  We see clearly here that the Lord Jesus was “put to death in the flesh.”  The Lord gave up the ghost (Matthew 27:50) and His heart stopped beasting.  He was dead.  His body was taken from the cross and laid in a rich man’s grave as we read in John 19:38-40, “And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.”  There is no doubt that the Lord Jesus died physically, but did He die spiritually?

Colossians 1:20 tells us the Lord Jesus “made peace through the blood of his cross.”  This means that all the suffering the Lord endured for our sins was done while He was on the cross.  It was at the end of His six hours of suffering that the Lord cried, “It is finished.” (John 19:30).  Here, He declared that His time of suffering was over.  It was finished.  The payment of our sin debt had been paid!  No more suffering was needed! 

Some teach that the Lord Jesus descended into Hell to continue to pay our sin debt.  This completely contradicts the scriptures we have already looked at.  When was the sin debt canceled, blotted out, wiped away, erased?  It was taken care of on the cross, not in Hell and not by Jesus suffering there.  Nowhere does the Bible teach that our redemption was finished in Hell.  This is so serious that anyone teaching that the redemptive work was not finished on the cross is denying the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.  Who teaches such a thing?  In our day, people such as Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price, Kenneth Hagin, etc. teach the Lord had to go to Hell to finish paying for our sins. For example, Fred Price said, ““Do you think that the punishment for our sin was to die on a cross?  If that were the case, the two thieves could have paid your price. No, the punishment was to go into hell itself and to serve time in hell separated from God.”  Pure blasphemy! 

Separation from God would be spiritual death, and we know that God did, indeed, forsake the Lord Jesus while he was still on the cross, suffering for our sins.  We read in Matthew 27:46, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  So, it was while the Lord Jesus was still alive that He was forsaken of God.  But we also know from the Bible what happened to the Lord Jesus at the moment of His death.  He said in Luke 23:46, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”  The Lord Jesus went to be with His Father.  He had told the repentant thief beside Him on the cross, “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43).  TODAY!  That very same day the Lord would be in paradise (Heaven) and that repentant thief would be there with Him.  Hebrews 12:2 tells us, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”  This clearly shows the Lord Jesus endured the suffering and shame of the cross and is “set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” 

Let me caution you that there are many, many erroneous thoughts about the Lord Jesus, His person, and His work.  This is the work of the enemy…Satan.  However, “…we are not ignorant of his devices.” (2 Corinthians 2:11).  My dear fellow believers, may we all become serious students of the Word of God.  May we read our Bibles every day.  Knowing God’s Word will help us to become aware of Satan’s lies and give us strength to resist his lies.  3 John 4 tells us, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”  Let us learn and walk in God’s truth!  (CC)  (601.4)