Which Death Will You Choose?

What the Bible says about death and hell and how to escapeFrom my childhood I enjoyed reading tombstones and imagining the lives they represented ? until death intruded itself on my life. When I walked through a cemetery again since, I wept uncontrollably for the pain and loss that I now understood.

From the human suffering represented, my thoughts turned to God. It hadn’t been His plan for humans to die when He created our race. His heart suffers with us. And heaven itself experienced the sting of death when its loved commander, the Son of God, died.

So what exactly is this mysterious thing called death?

The Bible tells us in Psalms 146:4, “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”

Jesus spoke of death as a sleep. “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.” John 11:11-14

The dead are completely unconscious. “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing,” Ecclesiastes 9:5

But this unconscious state is not the only kind of death the Bible speaks of.

The First Death
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” Romans 5:12

This death, which came upon all mankind after Adam’s sin is the one referred to as a “sleep” ? when the breath ceases and the body returns to the dust. All men die this death excepting those rare few who have been and will be translated (taken to heaven while they are alive ? see Heb 11:5). In the normal course of things, this death would have been the end of man. When a man had lived out his appointed years and died at the end of them, that would have been the end of his story.

Another kind of death
There is another kind of death spoken of in the Bible, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins:” Ephesians 2:1

Here is a spiritual death. “Dead in trespasses and sins” cannot mean the death referred to as the first death in which there is no thoughts and no consciousness. Rather this is a life controlled by sin. It is a life without the Spirit of God.

This condition is also the result of Adam’s sin. When Adam sinned in the garden, the Spirit of God departed from him and his nature changed. He became selfish and unhappy. This condition has been passed on to all his descendants who are all born selfish. They are all born without the spiritual life imparted by the Holy Spirit. This is why all men need to be born again. (John 3:3)

This condition of spiritual death refers to the state of a man’s relationship with God. A person cannot be saved in this condition and so, such a person may be physically alive, but since he is not united with the Spirit of God, he is spiritually dead. “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” 1 Timothy 5:6

The only escape possible from this “living death” is to “...reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:11

To be “alive unto God through Jesus...” is to receive His Spirit.

Of ourselves, we are incapable of anything but rebellion and disobedience. But we are told: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

Birth of Sin
The root of all willful sin is unbelief, resulting in separation from God. “...for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Romans 14:23

In every being who has ever experienced this separation, beginning with Lucifer and the fallen angels, then Adam, Eve and their offspring, this separation has immediately resulted in the performance of sinful deeds. It is important that we understand the steps in this downward process of sin so that we may fully grasp what happened when Jesus bore our sins.
1. First there is unbelief - an unwillingness to trust God.
2. This results in separation from God.
3. The immediate consequence is self-centeredness and selfishness
4. The natural and unavoidable result is the committing of sinful actions.

Jesus, however, did not lose faith in God. He never chose his own way (the 1st step) so He did not separate Himself from God (the 2nd step). But God laid our sin upon Him (Isa. 53:6). God imposed the second step, separation, on Christ. The spotless Son of God took the burden of sin. He who had been one with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that sin makes between God and man. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us:...” (Gal. 3:13) This wrung from His lips the anguished cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46.

In every other being who had ever been separated from God the immediate result had been selfishness. The third step in sin had followed rapidly. The desire for self-preservation had immediately become the predominant principle of the heart. Even Adam, who found his whole joy in Eve, found himself immediately accusing her in order to save his own skin after he sinned and lost his connection with God!

Now God left Jesus alone and immediately a horror of great darkness came upon Him. Without the comforting assurance of God’s spirit everything looked uncertain and foreboding. Even the prophecies which related to His resurrection looked vague and intangible. The thought pressed upon Him that if He died, it would be forever. Let us remember that Jesus was not in the comfort of His bedroom studying His Bible with the Holy Spirit illuminating His mind. He was a tortured human being, suffering greatly, deprived of sleep for probably more than twenty-four hours, suffering from loss of blood, and now, worst of all, abandoned by God! There was no ray of light to shine into His mind, no comforter to bring the prophecies back to His thoughts with fresh power. In addition, Satan assaulted Him with wave upon wave of doubt.

The natural, seemingly inevitable result, was that Jesus would take the next step in the path of sin and turn to selfishness - that He would seek to preserve His own life. Any other being in the universe would have done this. But Jesus was fully divine. He was God’s begotten Son, of the same pure, holy, selfless nature as God. He could not become selfish for He was God by nature, and God is wholly good!

Instead of turning to self, instead of taking the next step in sin, instead of bowing to Satan's principle, Jesus died to sin. He resisted sin unto death, in the human nature which we possess. “... God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:” Romans 8:3

Now there is a human life over which sin has no more dominion, a life in which sin took its best shot, but was defeated. Jesus offers to live His life over again in us (Gal 2:20). And this was a life in which unbelief, and selfishness have been defeated.

The first death is unavoidable but it is not the death of no return! Those who by faith in Jesus Christ are willing to enter into His death to sin will not have to experience the final death which the Bible calls the second death.

The final death
The second death is the final destruction of the wicked as well as of all things which are destructive and harmful. It is mentioned in Revelation in four places (Rev 2:11; Rev 20:6; Rev 20:14; Rev 21:8).

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers... and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Revelation 21:8

All who suffer this death “have their part in the lake of fire,” and in Malachi, where the glories of the new earth are prophesied, we are told of their end.

“And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.” Malachi 4:3

There are 4 deaths. All die the first death. All are also born into the state of spiritual death. However, there is a choice. This is to enter into the death of Christ, which is a death to sin (Gal. 2:20). This is through choosing to trust God, wholly surrender to Him and enter into an abiding relationship with Christ (through reading His word and “praying without ceasing” - see the June article on prayer). The condemnation which is a consequence of Adam’s sin is overruled for those that are willing to die to sin, accepting the death and resurrection of Christ and the new life in Christ (Rom. 6:8; 8:1,2; Col. 3:1-3). They will not experience the second death (Rev 20:6).

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