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| Which Death Will
You Choose? |
 From
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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