According to Hebrews 2:14-15, one of the stated missions of Christ is to destroy the works of the Devil, who is described as having the power of death.
Since, therefore, the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” — Hebrews 2:14-15
Death is separation. It is applied to the loss of fellowship with God and describes those whose status is defined as having no hope and being without God in the world (Eph. 2:2). The souls of the departed dead before the new covenant were also said to be housed in the hadean world, the grave. This is hardly a place where man has the same communion with God that Adam and Eve shared in the garden. Death did not restore them. Though there may have been the release from the pains of earthly life and a conscious state of bliss, the condition of the dead souls does not compare to the future glorification. The best the Jewish mind could hope for in that world was to rest in the bosom of Abraham (Luke 16). The departed souls under the altar of Revelation were waiting for their reward and vindication by the execution of God’s wrath upon their unbelieving persecutors. Whatever may be said of that world to which souls were consigned after death, it was not in the presence of God. Heb. 2:14 teaches that Christ came to destroy the works of the devil and take from him the keys of death and hades (Rev. 1). Before Christ came and the end of the age with its fulfillment, that had not occurred. After Jesus’ coronation as King of kings and Lord of lords, He is presented in the image of Revelation one as an awesome and powerful God and as a lion of the tribe of Judah who will return with dominion and might, not as a lamb, but as a lion. In this introduction of Him in the opening of the book, He has those keys in His possession.
The hope of the gospel is that death is swallowed up in victory. Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 quotes, “neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption – a reference to resurrection. By the time of the writing of 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us that the last enemy that will be conquered is death (1 Cor. 15:26). Therefore, He is the first to come out of the bondage of the grave by his own power and authority. Death could not hold him was Peter’s claim. Before his death and entrance into the hadean world, Christ commanded dead Lazarus to come forth. While it demonstrated His power over Satan and the grave, Satan still held power over death and hades at that point and Lazarus will still be subject to the bondage of death. Jesus did not have the keys of death and hades.
Spiritual death is a break of fellowship with God. Those souls who died in that condition before Christ’s resurrection died with no hope. This condition began with Adam and Eve who were separated from God and His presence. The result of this separation (spiritual death) from the garden and God was pain, physical death, and the grave. Conversely, living forever in this sweet fellowship with God and access to the tree of life also meant that they could have lived forever in Eden. However, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam’s violation of the law (cf. Romans 5:14).
In Christ, the fellowship can be restored and the blessings of that fellowship. Part of this blessing is a resurrection of incarcerated souls in hades to a bodily existence. To suggest this in no way indicates a physical body, but a body that represents each one’s identity, like our physical bodies do today. Being in the garden was not just a spiritual reality. It was a physical reality that gave them access to the tree of life and God. While it is true that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom as we are no longer subject to a physical world after the resurrection, we must not conclude that every form or body must be physical. The restoration, which is the hope of Israel, is a resurrection of spirits to indwell a body fashioned to the present glorious body of Christ (Phil. 3:21). Don Preston speaks in derision of the thought of a physical Jewish body being raised. He is right if one accepts a physical resurrection. Yet, because one believes in a literal resurrection or coming to life does not infer that the resurrected body be physical. Paul refers to a spiritual, incorruptible, and eternal body. It is like a seed sown in the ground in that what is sown is not the fruit that is produced from it. While that does not satisfy our curiosity about what we shall be, we do know that we will be like Him (1 John 3:1-3).
The restoration of Israel was the hope of Israel and included the creation of one body from both Jew and Gentile. Seeing that justification is accomplished by his blood through faith, the restored fellowship with God is certainly a spiritual reality. But another effect that is ignored is that the physical resurrection of Christ not only guarantees spiritual resurrection and restored fellowship, but it opens the door for a future glorification in heaven which includes a new dwelling for our spirits. As we focus on what Jesus accomplished as the pioneer that grants us the same hope, we cannot stop with just the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. We must also include His glorification at the Father’s right hand. In His likeness, we, too, must enter our glory. While this is a spiritual reality, as being with God in Eden, there are rewards for those in fellowship with God that includes a new body – that is, a form as a means of expression.