Are You Saved?

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

According to Romans 6:23, our souls do not receive eternal life unless payment has been made for our sin. "The wages of sin is death", but does "death" here mean spiritual death, or physical death? Let's consider both cases. If "death" as compensation for sin means a "physical death", then every person who dies pays for his own sins by his own physical death. His soul, free of its debt and no longer deserving death, should have eternal life immediately upon death of the body. Jesus's physical death on the cross would not be required for us to have eternal life.

Mat 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

However, if death as compensation for sin means a "spiritual death", then the very act of paying the price, the spiritual death itself, precludes the possibility of eternal life -- the soul forfeits eternal life by the act of paying "the wages of sin". In this case, Jesus's spiritual death, not his physical death, is the payment for our sins. But according to Christian doctrine, Jesus never died a spiritual death. That is, Jesus's soul never ceased to exist. His death on the cross was only a physical death since the story goes on to recount Jesus's 3-day visit to Hell and his subsequent ascension into Heaven where he dwells for eternity.

Act 2:31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

Jesus was alive (spiritually) during the 3-day period between his death on the cross and the time he rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven.

1Pe 3:18-19 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison.

But doesn't descension into Hell constitute a spiritual death? If not, then Jesus never died spiritually and therefore did not pay the "wages of sin" for us. However, if descension into Hell does indeed constitute a spiritual death, then our own descension into Hell is our own payment for our own sins. Upon entering Hell and having then paid for our sins, we are at that moment debtless and we would then have the right to ascend from Hell into Heaven without the need of a savior... unless only an eternity in hell constitutes the spiritual death. Since Jesus did not spend eternity in Hell, he did not die the spiritual death that is required to pay for our sin.

Are You Saved?

If Romans 6:23 is true, then the only way we cannot save ourselves is if the price of sin is death and "death" means the annihilation of the soul. In that case, Jesus's sacrifice was not the spiritual death required for our salvation. In all other cases, we each pay for our own sin upon our own death and we are therefore "saved" without a savior.