Do You Believe This?

Death is a familiar subject, demonstrating the frequency of the event. On the other hand, death is an unfamiliar subject because so few people have been exposed to Bible teaching. Therefore, they are unacquainted with its cause. Since death is due to the justice of God, there is something more than overpopulation. “Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7). Scripture also says, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

There is a difference between spiritual and physical death. Every person is born spiritually dead before he or she dies physically. Some who are born spiritually dead are made alive spiritually before they die physically. Spiritual birth is determined by God’s eternal covenant of grace (Heb. 13:20, 21).

Death is not, as commonly believed, a debt due to nature. Death is a debt due to the justice of God. Paul said, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed [perfect passive indicative of the verb logidzomai] when there is no law” (Rom. 5:12, 13).

Creatures are mortal by destiny; people are mortal by guilt. People often say, “Let us be positive and talk about living.” The fact is no one is prepared to live until the subject of death has been permanently settled. Physical death is the penalty of spiritual death. Both sinner and saint experience this death.

The solemnity of death occurs when it is considered in relation to eternity. Death is not the extinction of being, but only the termination of one mode of it—stepping out of time into eternity. Eternity cannot be fully explained because it is infinite, but it can be illustrated. Christ said to the Jews, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am [ego eimi]” (John 8:58). Consider the meaning! We have the time before Abraham, the time Abraham was born—2008 years after Adam, and the time Christ spoke. Christ placed Himself before Abraham. He went further by making the time before Abraham the time of Abraham, and the time He was speaking to coincide by using the present active indicative of ego eimi—“before Abraham was born [came into existence], I am” (John 8:58).

Physical death is the house appointed for all living. Job said, “For I know that You will bring me to death And to the house of meeting for all living” (Job 30:23). Paul said to the Romans, “…consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Rom. 6:11-14).

Physical death is the house appointed for all living, and history reveals that fact. Some die unborn, and some as soon as they are born—some infants, some youth, some middle age, and some in old age. It has been said that after age 35 the body begins to decay; after 45, the mind begins to decay in its function; and at 70, the lease is up. The Psalmist said, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away” (Ps. 90:10). Beyond 70, life is but one of labor, pain, and sorrow for the most part.

Only two persons have yet to escape the stroke of death—Enoch and Elijah. Those found alive at Christ’s coming will not feel the stroke of death, but we do not know how nor the degree of suffering we may encounter before the Lord returns.

There is a certain anxiety about the subject of death. The Bible does not undertake to tell us all about everything it contains. It seeks to tell us truth to give us pure light, to bring life out into the light. However, even though it illuminates immensely, yet it leaves more to be seen hereafter. The Bible shines like a lamp—here and there—it does not shine sunlike over the whole purpose of God.

In relating the splendor of Christ’s redemption, Paul would have us to view it from the lowest depths to the highest heights. On account of justification and reconciliation, which he pointed out to the Romans, he now traces condemnation and justification to their historical sources in Adam and Christ. He feels that this must be done before passing on to the Christian life in Romans 6-8. In this way, the foundations are laid on that which the rest of the Epistle is built.

The uneasiness about death has several causes. Some people are apprehensive about the stroke of death itself. Others are fearful of entering a world—the age to come—from which there is no return. Some are doubtful of a genuine relationship through the redemption of Christ to the God of eternity. Finally, there are some who become so occupied with the fact of seeing the Lord face to face that they forget the subjects and promises which enable them to look beyond the fact of judgment to the eternal blessings. The Greek word thanatos (death) is used in the Scriptures. Death is the separation of the soul from the body, the latter ceasing to function and turning to dust. As spiritual life is conscious existence in communion with God, spiritual death is conscious existence in separation from God. The second death is the separation of both soul and body from God eternally.

The nature of physical death is the same in all. Death originated with Adam. To Adam, God said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat from it; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life” (Gen. 3:17). Paul said, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).

Adam was not immortal. Immortality is immunity from death. Adam was warned of death for eating the forbidden fruit. The natural man is alive to the world, but dead to God. The believer is not subject to spiritual death; but physically speaking, he has not yet possessed immortality. Immortality will be experienced by the believer in his resurrection out from among the dead. The expression “the immortality of the soul” is unscriptural. Jesus Christ is the one exception to the universal program in which either incorruption or immortality is attained. Though He died, Christ did not see corruption. His present status is one of incorruption. Peter’s message at Pentecost included, “…Moreover my flesh also will live in hope; because You will not abandon My soul to Hades…” (Acts 2:26, 27). Paul said to Timothy, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (I Tim. 1:17).

Death is not cessation of existence, but separation of existence in time. The body of man was first formed, and then the soul was formed and infused into it. The soul does not die with the body; but in physical death, the soul is released from the body. The reason that death has invaded the physical aspect of man’s being is the fact of sin. There is an important difference between the believer’s act of dying and the sinner’s act of dying. The believer’s act of dying has the comfort of Christ’s presence. The sinner’s act of dying has the horror of experiencing the act alone.

It has been said that death to the Christian is what regeneration is to the soul; as the sinner is passive in regeneration, so is the believer in the act of dying. Therefore, as man perceives not the change that is wrought upon the soul in the act of regeneration, so the believer does not observe the change that takes place in the act of dying.

Great lessons are to be learned by the elect in the study of death. Paul said, “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” (II Tim. 1:8-13).

The death of Jesus Christ is the death of death for the Christian. Therefore, the Bible teaches life instead of death—not life after death. Christ said, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25, 26). Faith untried is weak. It never prospers so much as when there is great opposition to it. Tried faith makes experience real, exposes weakness, keeps us from making idols of our mercies, and drives true faith to God. The Lord takes away our earthly props that we may rest more firmly upon Christ. There is a self-healing principle in nature when a greater trial gets the attention of the lesser trial.

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The NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE—UPDATED EDITION is the source of all Scripture quotations in this message, unless otherwise noted.