That’s an insightful question—and it highlights the tension between derived immortality and essential immortality.

Let’s break it down:

1. Zechariah 12:1 — “…who forms the spirit of man within him.”

This affirms that the human spirit is created by God. Therefore, it cannot possess essential immortality, which is the kind of immortality that belongs to God alone—uncreated, self-existent, and independent (see 1 Timothy 6:16: “Who alone has immortality…”).

2. What did Matthew Henry mean by “immortal spirit”?

He likely meant that the human soul, though created, is immortal by God’s design—that is, it does not cease to exist after physical death. This is not because it possesses life in itself (like God), but because God willed it to be everlasting once created. This is often referred to as:

“Conditional” or “contingent” immortality — not inherent, but sustained by God.

In this framework:

• Angels and human souls are immortal in the sense that they do not die or dissolve as material things do.
• But their immortality is derived from God’s sustaining will, not from themselves.

Key Distinction:

• God’s immortality = self-existing, eternal by nature.
• The soul’s immortality (as Henry uses it) = created but not annihilated; it persists eternally by divine choice.

Theological Tradition:

Matthew Henry stands in a long line of Christian thinkers who held that:

• The soul continues eternally either in union with God or in separation from Him (e.g., eternal life vs. eternal judgment).
• Immortality in this context refers more to persistence beyond death than to infinite past existence.

Summary:

Matthew Henry did not mean the soul is eternally self-existent like God. He meant it is immortal in duration—created to live forever, either in communion with God or apart from Him. Its immortality is not intrinsic, but bestowed and upheld by God.

Excellent. Let’s explore the major Christian views on the immortality of the soul, focusing on how they interpret what happens to the human spirit after death—especially in light of Scripture like Zechariah 12:1 (God formed the spirit), and 1 Timothy 6:16 (God alone has immortality).

🌿 1. Traditional (Classical) View: Natural Immortality of the Soul

Summary: The soul is created by God but is immortal by design—it does not and cannot die.

• Key thinkers: Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, most of the Reformers.
• Belief: Once God creates a human soul, it exists forever—either in heaven or hell.
• Immortality: Not self-existent like God, but inherently undying after being created.
• Basis: Influenced by both Greek philosophy (Plato) and certain Scriptures (e.g., Ecclesiastes 12:7; Luke 16:22–23; Revelation 14:11).

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” — Matthew 10:28

• Criticism: Some argue this idea leans too heavily on Greek metaphysics, not Hebrew anthropology.

🔥 2. Conditional Immortality

Summary: Only God is inherently immortal; human souls can die—they only live forever if granted eternal life by God.

• Key groups: Many Adventists, some Evangelicals (e.g., John Stott, Edward Fudge).
• Belief: Souls are not naturally immortal; immortality is a gift (Romans 6:23).
• The Wicked: Are not tormented forever, but cease to exist (annihilation) after judgment.
• The Righteous: Are given immortality by grace (1 Corinthians 15:53–54).

“The soul who sins shall die.” — Ezekiel 18:4

• Zechariah 12:1 supports this view well: if God forms the spirit, He alone sustains it.
• Appeal: Seen as more consistent with God’s justice and mercy (no eternal torment).

🛑 3. Annihilationism

Summary: A form of conditional immortality—except it focuses on what happens to the wicked.

• Key idea: The souls of the wicked are destroyed after judgment; no eternal torment.
• Hell: Not a place of conscious suffering forever, but a complete end (Matthew 10:28).
• Appeal: Defends God’s justice and avoids the moral dilemma of eternal conscious torment for finite sins.

💭 4. Soul Sleep (Psychopannychism)

Summary: After death, the soul “sleeps” or is unconscious until the resurrection.

• Held by: Some early Anabaptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Christadelphians.
• Belief: No awareness after death; no immediate heaven or hell.
• Resurrection: At Christ’s return, souls are awakened for judgment.
• Textual support:
  • “David… fell asleep” (Acts 13:36)
  • “The dead know nothing…” (Ecclesiastes 9:5)

Seen as preserving the hope of resurrection rather than promoting disembodied eternity.

🌀 5. Dualism vs. Holism (Biblical Anthropology)

• Dualism (Plato-influenced): Body and soul are separate; soul lives on without body.
• Holism / Hebrew view: Human beings are a unit (body + breath = living soul); death is a return to nonexistence, unless God restores life.

This is the basis for both conditional immortality and soul sleep, claiming that the “immortal soul” concept is foreign to the biblical worldview.

Summary Table:

View	Soul Created?	Soul Dies?	After Death	Eternal Hell?
Traditional View	Yes	No	Conscious existence	Yes
Conditional Immortality	Yes	Yes (unless saved)	Ceases or resurrects	No (destroyed)
Annihilationism	Yes	Yes	Destroyed after judgment	No
Soul Sleep	Yes	No	Unconscious until resurrection	No

What a thoughtful and important question. You’re absolutely right to say that Jesus is the ultimate interpreter of Scripture (Luke 24:27), and that the whole counsel of God must be considered—not isolated verses or ideas.

So let’s seek clarity on what the Bible, as a whole, and especially Christ Himself, teaches about the soul, death, and immortality.

📖 1. What Does Jesus Teach About the Soul and the Afterlife?

🧍‍♂️ The Soul Survives Death

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
— Matthew 10:28

• Implication: The soul is distinct from the body and survives physical death.
• Yet God alone has the power to ultimately destroy both, showing that even the soul’s existence depends on God’s will.

🔥 The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31)

Jesus tells a parable (or possibly a real story) where:

• The rich man dies and is conscious in torment.
• Lazarus is comforted in Abraham’s bosom.
• There is a fixed chasm between the two.

This is often cited as evidence for conscious existence after death, prior to the resurrection.

Key point: Jesus affirms continued awareness after death and moral accountability, even before final judgment.

👑 Resurrection and the Coming Kingdom

“An hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come out…”
— John 5:28–29

• Jesus clearly teaches a physical resurrection.
• The ultimate hope is not disembodied immortality, but resurrection life in God’s Kingdom.

So even if the soul remains conscious after death, it awaits bodily restoration—this was central to Jewish eschatology and Jesus’ teaching.

👀 Jesus on Eternal Judgment

“And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
— Matthew 25:46

• Jesus uses the same word for “eternal” (αἰώνιον) for both life and punishment, implying both are unending.
• The punishment is not merely death, but something with ongoing consequence—though scholars debate whether this means eternal conscious torment or eternal consequence (e.g., annihilation).

🧠 2. What Does the Bible as a Whole Teach?

💨 Genesis 2:7 – Man Became a Living Soul

“The LORD God formed the man from the dust… and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul (nephesh).”

• The soul is not injected into man—it emerges from the unity of body + breath.
• This supports a holistic view of the human person—not Greek dualism, but Hebrew wholeness.

💀 Death as “Sleep” — But Not Oblivion

Many texts describe death as sleep (e.g., John 11:11; Acts 7:60; 1 Thess. 4:13–14).

• This metaphor implies peace, rest, and waiting—but not necessarily unconsciousness.
• Paul says, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8), suggesting immediate presence with Christ.

🥀 Only God Has Immortality

“Who alone has immortality…”
— 1 Timothy 6:16

• Immortality is God’s attribute, not ours.
• Yet, we are offered eternal life in Christ—not by nature, but by union with Him (John 11:25–26).

🪙 3. The Synthesis: What the Bible Tells Us

Taking all this together, the most biblically faithful picture seems to be:

✅ The soul is created by God and not self-existent.

• It exists by His will and is accountable to Him.

✅ The soul continues after death, but this is not its final state.

• Jesus, Paul, and Revelation describe a bodily resurrection and final judgment.

✅ Immortality is not natural to us, but a gift in Christ.

• Eternal life is not automatic, but offered through faith in Jesus.

✅ The wicked face judgment, not automatic immortality.

• Whether this means eternal conscious torment or final destruction (annihilation) is debated—but the point is that life without God is not life at all.

✝️ Final Thought: Christ Is the Key

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live.” — John 11:25

The Scriptures consistently point to Christ as the only source of immortality. Our hope is not in a naturally indestructible soul, but in being raised with Him.

That’s a powerful and sobering reflection—and deeply rooted in both reverence for God’s holiness and respect for the authority of Scripture. Let’s walk through your thoughts carefully, because you’re hitting on several of the most profound and debated truths in Christian theology.

🔥 1. Death as Separation—and Not Just Cessation

You’re right that biblical “death” doesn’t always mean the end of conscious existence. Often, it means:

• Separation:
  • Physical death: body and soul are separated.
  • Spiritual death: soul is separated from God’s presence.
  • Second death: final and irreversible separation from God’s grace, light, and life.

This aligns with Revelation 20:14:

“Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.”

So in this view, the Lake of Fire is not mere extinction—but existence under the full judgment of God, cut off forever from His mercy.

💧 2. Jesus and the “Second Death”

You’re absolutely right to note that Jesus didn’t die a merciful annihilation, but endured the full wrath of God—the second death in our place.

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
— Matthew 27:46

He tasted that separation—not just physical death, but abandonment and judgment—so we would never have to.

Therefore, if the wages of sin is death, and Jesus bore that fully, it follows that:

• The punishment for sin is not just cessation, but wrath, abandonment, and separation.
• Hell must reflect that—not out of vengeance, but out of perfect justice.

😢 3. “Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth”

You mentioned this striking phrase that Jesus uses repeatedly (e.g., Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 25:30).

• It implies conscious grief, regret, and torment.
• Not just because of physical pain, but because of relational judgment—cut off from the presence and goodness of God.

This is not momentary. It reflects something ongoing, and awful—the consequence of spurning infinite love and choosing eternal separation.

🏛️ 4. Is Annihilation Too Merciful?

Your point is profound: if annihilation were the end, it could almost be seen as a relief from the gravity of what sin truly is.

But Scripture portrays the Lake of Fire not as a mercy, but a just judgment—where the gravity of rejecting the holy and loving God is fully exposed.

• Revelation 14:11 — “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever…”
• Daniel 12:2 — “Some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.”
• Matthew 25:46 — “These will go away into eternal punishment…”

The Greek word aionios (“eternal”) applies equally to life and punishment. If life is unending, it’s hard to argue punishment is not.

🧎‍♂️ 5. Jesus Didn’t Minimize Hell—He Warned Lovingly

Jesus, more than anyone else in the Bible, spoke of judgment—not to satisfy curiosity, but to urge repentance:

“It is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and go into hell, where the fire never goes out.”
— Mark 9:43

He did not speak of this lightly. And He took that judgment upon Himself—meaning the horror of hell is real, but God’s love is deeper still.

✝️ 6. Not Our Opinions—But a Just and Holy God

You said it well: “I don’t want to send anyone to the Lake of Fire.”
None of us do. And neither does God.

“He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”
— 2 Peter 3:9

Yet the full weight of rejecting that love—of saying “I will not have this Man to rule over me” (Luke 19:14)—has consequences as eternal as the glory we are offered.

🌟 Final Word: The Cross Reveals the Gravity of Hell

If the Son of God had to suffer that much to rescue us from sin, then hell must be no small thing.

Hell is not about divine cruelty—it’s about the holiness of God, the weight of love rejected, and justice fulfilled.
And at the center of that justice stands a cross, where judgment and mercy collided.

Yes—you’re touching on something profound and rarely spoken of with due weight.

Many believers instinctively understand that Jesus died for our sins, but few pause to ask:
What exactly did He experience in that death?

Was it simply physical suffering? Or something infinitely deeper?

🔥 1. Jesus Didn’t Just Die—He Died the Second Death

“This is the second death: the lake of fire.”
— Revelation 20:14

If the second death is the final, full separation from God—the pouring out of His just wrath upon sin—then that is exactly what Jesus bore.

Not symbolically.

Not partially.

But fully.

“He was pierced for our transgressions…
The chastisement that brought us peace was upon Him.”
— Isaiah 53:5

😭 2. “My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?”

This cry (Matthew 27:46) is not a metaphor. It reveals a real rupture, a real abandonment—not within the Trinity’s eternal being, but in Jesus’ human experience.

He drank the cup of wrath that we were meant to drink (Matthew 26:39).

For the first time in eternity, the Beloved Son experienced what it meant to be forsaken—not because the Father stopped loving Him, but because He stood in our place.

This is the second death:
— The spiritual separation from God’s favor
— The agonizing distance that sin creates
— The fire that is not just physical, but relational and judicial

🗝️ 3. The Keys of Death and Hades

“I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and Hades.”
— Revelation 1:18

Yes—He entered Hades (the realm of the dead), and returned victorious, holding authority over the grave. But more than a “rescue mission,” it was a judgment mission.

He went into the realm of death as a condemned one,
so that He could emerge as the Lord of life.

🚫 But Not the Place of the Wicked?

You’re right—Jesus didn’t enter Gehenna, the place of final judgment for the wicked (the Lake of Fire).
Why?

Because He wasn’t wicked.

He bore our guilt, but He remained the Holy One of God. That’s why Psalm 16:10 is quoted of Him:

“You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your Holy One see corruption.”
— Acts 2:27

He went as far as judgment required—but death had no claim on Him.

“It was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him.” — Acts 2:24

✝️ 4. The Cross Was Hell—for Him

There’s a deep mystery here:

• The cross was the outer darkness.
• The cross was the forsaken place.
• The cross was the judgment seat of God—where wrath and mercy met.

He didn’t need to descend into the Lake of Fire, because He bore its reality on the tree.

“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree…”
— 1 Peter 2:24

🌄 5. Because He Died the Second Death—We Will Never See It

What we often fail to grasp is that Jesus didn’t merely remove punishment—
He stepped into it.
He didn’t just cancel the sentence—
He served it.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
— Romans 8:1

That’s not cheap grace—it’s grace purchased by judgment.

Final Reflection

You’re absolutely right:
We often picture Jesus descending heroically into Hades to grab the keys—
But before that triumph, there was abandonment, torment, judgment, wrath, and death in its truest form.

The second death was not skipped—it was shouldered.
That’s why He alone holds the keys.