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    Life or Death - This article is broken into segments for your convenience  

        This article was submitted on 08/22/03   

Life or Death     Prelude - What is the crux of the matter?

        What is it all really about? Perhaps this question can be answered with another one asked a long time ago. If a man dies, shall he live again? (Job 14:14). While many of us grapple with the questions of life and some even seek for it’s meaning, what will be disregarded is the reality that every one of us carries the baggage that we have been picking up since we can remember. We have all been brought up in such ways as to form presuppositions and biases as to what really are the big questions and the arrival to there answers. In other words, we have all been “tainted” in our understanding of how things are and how they really work in Gods world. It would be wonderful if we could just go to the heart of the matter. But all too often the obstacles of our presuppositions, which we have learned from our early childhood, will keep us from seeing what really is the question we need to be asking.

          While we ponder this and absorb what this might mean to us, we need to take into account who it is that wants to keep us from asking the right question and seeing the bigger picture. The great mastermind of deception, Satan, who is the devil, the serpent, is without question the father of lies. So ask yourself, what one “thing” would the devil want you to believe? If you could mentally draw up a short list, what do you suppose would be at the top of your list? Perhaps that God does not exist? Or maybe that he, the Devil himself does not exist? The answer to the one “thing” is found in the words recorded when the Serpent spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3. Play close attention, and you will notice that the serpent does not deny the existence of God, or the existence of evil. In fact, he corroborates them both. But what he does initiate is a direct attack on something God has said, and we don’t want to miss it. Because it is there that the number one thing he wants you to believe can be found.

 (Gen 3:1-5 NRSV)  Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

What the serpent wants us to believe more then anything else in this present reality that we all share, is what he said to Eve in the garden on that fateful day, "you will not die". This is the one “thing” at the top of his list. God said to Adam that he would surely die (Gen. 2:17), Satan said to Adam, "You will not die. This is the lie, it is the forerunner of all lies since, and is the basis of the deception at which the human heart is described by God himself as being deceitful above all things (Jer. 17:9) Truly this is a life versus death proposition and it is the crux of the matter. Between God and man the bottom line when it all comes right down to it is, “…Did God say?”

The message of the Bible is the story of the redemption of God's people. It is the account and record of there salvation from death. This is the Gospel message, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,..." ( Rom.6:23). 

When the apostle Paul stood before the Greek thinkers of his day, he boldly proclaimed, “…but now( God) commands all men every where to repent:” Acts 17:30. "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved”, Acts 16:30

“because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”.  Rom 10:9

“Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you--unless you have come to believe in vain." 1 Cor 15:1,2

We need to know and understand what that message is folks, we need to believe it, unless as Paul speaks here, “you have come to believe in vain”.  Does not the possibility seem very real? The reality is very sobering when we consider the word God spoke through Isaiah, “Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? (Isa 53:1 KJV) When Isaiah uttered these words they were not directed to those who were 'outside the circle', they were directed to those whom the world around them considered as the people of God, those to whom pertained the covenants and the promises. Isaiah speaks louder then ever in our day as the message echo's and resonates within the church.

The next question is, who (what) will you believe. #Return to the Top                           revised 9/26/04

 

 Life or Death

 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."  Gen. 2:16,17

The issue at stake is life versus death:   

"For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned" --
 Romans 5:10-12

We are saved from death by his (Jesus) life unto life who is life. This is the core message of the Scriptures. But this message has been shrouded under the lie that began back in the garden when Satan told Eve that she would not die if she eat the fruit from the forbidden tree, “you shall not surely die, but you will be like gods knowing both good and evil”. This was the first and foremost of all lies coming from the father of lies. The question Satan posed, “Has God said”, coupled with the lie, “you shall surely not die” was insidiously mixed with the truth,  “…you will be like gods knowing both good and evil”, has since bound man with the true knowledge of what is good and evil, and the false belief that man in his essence is immortal. Prior to Adams disobedience he was innocent in so far as to knowing the difference between good and evil. He was in fellowship with God and knew of nothing beyond that. Having the fellowship broken was to introduce evil into his understanding. The measure of evil is the absence of God in anything.  God had directly warned Adam of partaking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which He had purposely put in the garden. Adam along with his progeny would from that day forward would live in the evil condition of being separated from God. It was Satan’s greatest triumph. Eve believed the lie, and was deceived (1 Tim 2:14). While Adam, with his eyes wide open in rebellion to God’s command, took the forbidden fruit from Eve’s hand, thus introducing sin into the world and death through sin "for the wages of sin is death...". Satan with his masterstroke of deception  drew Adam and his progeny into the lie of the immortality of man... “you shall not surely die,...", His lie has since played a part in every culture and religion that history has brought forth.
  #Return to the Top          revised 9/26/04

Adam (man) became a living soul: The living soul Adam became was as a result of God breathing into the man, whom he formed from the dust of the earth, the breath of life. “God breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a living soul” (Gen.2:7). It was the combination of the dust from which God formed Adam and the breathing into him the breath of life that resulted in Adam becoming a living soul. Without the breath of life, the result would be that man would cease to be a living soul. The life that is from God, would return to God because that is where it came from, all life is of God. (Eccl 12:7 NRSV)  “and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.” Adam ceased to be a living soul when the life that God had breathed into him, left his body. The result of Adam dying was his ultimate return to the dust; this was the word of promise from God, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return."  (Gen 3:19b). Adam was condemned by God, and that condemnation was in the decree he would return to the dust. There should be no doubt as to the fate of Adam. Adam can be found in the dust; this is where he is today, it is simply the word of God to be believed. Simply put, Adams essence (as all men are), is from the earth, the dust from which he was made. Adams life came from God, as does all life, for life is of God, for God is life. The Soul does not and cannot exist apart from the body, for it requires life (breath) that is of God.
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Adam (man) was not made immortal: The immortality of man is the lie that Satan spawned that day in the garden of Eden when he told Adam and Eve that they would not die. The lie is alive and well and continues to live on today. The lie that began in the garden is the greatest success story of all time, speaking on the level of men. Every culture that history has brought forth believes in the immortality of man. Simply put, man lives beyond the grave in some sort of "afterlife". The very term afterlife speaks loudly for itself. The body may cease to function and disintegrate, but depending on the culture of the time the "real essence" of the man moves on into either a higher or lower plane, but in some fashion keeping with him his thoughts, memories, desires, longings and regrets. The magnitude of this cannot be sufficiently comprehended, as the belief of an afterlife has infected our minds, even to the extent that men will and have built huge and costly burial sites in preparation for the afterlife, and many others have and will continue to sacrifice their lives for the "promises" that there convictions hold of a better beyond. Case in point are the many Islamic extremists who become human bombs for there faith. These people would not do this if there was not a promise of reward in the afterlife according to there belief system; immediately following there physical death. The truth is, no man but one can claim to be immortal. Jesus Christ is that man; and He alone has immortality. “…which he will bring about at the right time--he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”   1Tim 6:15-16
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Adam lost life, death is the consequence: Adam walked in life while in the garden, for he was one with God. Adam, although naked, was unashamed before his maker as he enjoyed oneness and fellowship with God. Adam lost far more then just fellowship with God for his disobedience. Regaining fellowship is not the gospel message of the church. Eternal life through Jesus Christ is the message of the church and the promise of God. Adam forfeited life when he failed to protect Eve as her head from the seductions of the serpent.  (1Tim 2:14) “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.”  Eve was in transgression, but it was Adam through which sin entered the world. “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” (Rom 5:12).  Because of death, Adam returned to the dust as God promised him. “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Gen. 3:19). For if we are to take God at His word, then the dust is where Adam is to be found today. Death took the first man as it does all men and returns them to the dust from which they came. Solomon in his God given wisdom reveals this truth with these words "..before the silver cord is snapped, and the golden bowl is broken, and the pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it" (Eccl 12:6,7). Before this happens, Solomon admonishes his readers; make sure that you are found standing in the fear of God who is able and does kill the soul that sins. (Ecc. 12:13, Ezek. 8:4,18) For it is ultimately God who has the power over life and death; to say otherwise is to impugn his sovereignty in the creation of all things for his glory.

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Death and the grave: Death and the Grave are the curse of God; they were both created by God. Again, to say otherwise would be to put death and the grave outside of God which is ludicrous.  “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist" ( Col 1:17). Death and the grave are certain realities which we may not like to think about but to say they could not be of God would impugn upon His sovereignty. At the same time, Death is not our friend as the early Greek philosophers wrote as they built there religions around the afterlife as all cultures do. They were created by God and are the just penalty of the first Adams disobedience. There are those in the church who oppose the idea that God could be the originator of such evil things or the idea that God would create something for the purpose of judgment. Yet the scriptures are clear...“For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? (Rom. 9:7-9).

     It is in the will and purpose of God that he has made Death the great enemy, for as God has created them He will also judge them. The scriptures declare that God will cast them into the fire that is eternal; our God is a consuming fire, death and Hades will be destroyed. In other words, there will be no place found for them. Death and the grave will pass out of mind and existence. For now, Death is the place of darkness, silence and no remembrance. (Psa. 6:5)  “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks? (Eccl 9:10)  Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”  No man carries with him into the grave his thoughts, his memories, his desires, not even his regrets. The cry and hope of the believing faithful under the Old Testament was that God would remember them in the grave.  “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!” (Job 14:13).  Sheol is the place of the dead. But there is no transportation system in our modern world that can take you there for a visit. Sheol is not a holding place for the conscious souls of men after they have died and left their bodies for the worm to feed on. Sheol, the grave, is the place of what should not have been, and someday the place that will not be.
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 David is still with us, in the Grave:  What should be an obvious truth and often will escape our attention because of the presuppositions that we are brought up with; needs our serious consideration. In Acts chapter 2 Peter brings to the Church the first sermon. Peter points in the direction to the tomb of David for everybody to behold, and says, "Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. (Acts 2:29) and in, (Acts 2:34)  "For David did not ascend into the heavens,…” We need to stop for a moment and consider what Peter has just said. We need ask ourselves this very important question, Where is David? What does the church teach today concerning David's whereabouts? Understanding the answer to this question is key to understanding what death is. We can say confidently as believers that David is in the place where God promised he would be. The 90^th Psalm puts this in perspective. 90:1-  "Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.  Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You turn us back to dust, and say, "Turn back, you mortals."  For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night. You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning; in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers. For we are consumed by your anger; by your wrath we are overwhelmed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance. For all our days pass away under your wrath; our years come to an end like a sigh."

This Psalm reflects the understanding and underlying view of death and the fate of the individual as it was some two to three thousand years ago in ancient Israel . With this in mind and Peter quoting Psalm 110 in Acts 2; makes it clear that what David speaks in the Psalm, could not be referring to David the writer, although at first glance that’s what the Psalm appears to be saying. Peter tells us through inspiration that David… “Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, 'He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.' (Acts 2:30,31)  Peter's point that he was making on the day of Pentecost was that David was still in the grave in contrast to Jesus the Messiah who was raised from the dead. In contrast David was abandoned to hades where his flesh saw corruption and resides in the grave, until the last trumpet is blown and Jesus Christ returns to raise the dead.

 #Return to the Top           revised 9/26/04

 The last Adam, the giver of Life:   Of all the many truths found in the word of God surely it would be agreed upon that all life is from God. From the beginning it is taught that God is the creator and originator of life. There is no life outside of God.  Acts 17:24, bears this truth out.  “The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.”  If there are alien creatures watching over and spying on us, ( I am not advocating pro-alien life, I am only using this as an example) then they are life that God has created. There life came from God. Because God is life, all life returns to him. Ecc. 3:20  “All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. Who knows (asks Solomon, can you or I answer this, can anybody answer this?) “the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?” What we can get from this passage is that life in itself cannot be destroyed. "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him is the glory forever. Amen." (Rom 11:36). When you say that life cannot be destroyed, it is in the context that all Life is of God; God is life. “In him was life, and that life was the light of men" (John 1:4). 
#Return to the Top        revised 8/26/04

The last Adam, the faithful Husband: The last Adam, who is the life giving spirit, protects his bride by being a faithful husband. Like Eve, we will sin, and do sin, as Christ’s bride, but he remains ever faithful to protect his bride that He has espoused to himself. Because of Jesus Christ’s faithfulness, his bride has the promise from being deceived with the lies and falsehood of the father of lies.  "For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect" Matt 24:24. No true child of God can be drawn into deception whereby his soul would be jeopardized, for Christ will not have one of His lost. “And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day" (John 6:39). “I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed one forever" (1 Sam 2:35). When Jesus spoke to the disciples (i.e. the church) at the last supper; he spoke as a Bridegroom to His bride. "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am" (John 14:2,3). This is one of the most quoted passages at funerals today, and yet this passage is misused by so many, both by believers and unbelievers. Jesus makes it very clear that His people cannot go to be with him, just the opposite from what is being taught at so many funerals; for in fact He is preparing a place, a place that you or I have no business to be at present (i.e. wither alive or dead). It is only when He does come back, which all true believers look forward too, that then they will be with him.  “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever" (1 Th 4:16).
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The Last Day, life regained: The gospel message is the hope of the promise of God to raise those from the grave who believe in Jesus Christ the author and giver of life. The believer dies in the Hope that God will remember him and not leave him in the grave. This was the cry of the faithful in the Old Testament.  The Old and New Testament is replete with the idea that the believer is asleep in death.  “ For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep"  1Cor 11:30, "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed –1 Cor 15:51, , "For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” 1Thess 4:4.  "Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light " Eph. 5:14, This quote from Paul here in Ephesians was taken from , “your dead shall live; Together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in dust; For your dew is like the dew of herbs, And the earth shall cast out the dead”  Isaiah 26:19. The believer is not waiting somewhere in a conscious state to be reunited with the body. The believer clearly dwells in the dust as the promise (the curse) of God said he would. It is in the hope and promise of Life that we look forward to, when Jesus who is our life will appear on that appointed day. Our life at present is hid in Christ, and when He appears as promised, then we will also appear with him. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Col 3:3,4). Salvation will be complete when the savior comes to redeem the bodies of the faithful believers. “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom 13:11).
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The resurrection is the great hope:  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” 1 Peter 1:3. Ours is a living hope for the believer, outside of God the world has no hope. The promises of God are not apart from the resurrection in Christ. All else pales to the ultimate goal of the believer which is to stand in the presence of Jesus Christ and in his face behold God. Found there, is the mercy of God from which he has “birthed” us again; the living Hope of the resurrection. As it stands now we are dead men walking in "the valley of the shadow of death", destined to die from the moment of our conception. There is simply no life outside of the resurrection. Even creation itself waits for day of resurrection, “Because the creature (creation) itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.”  Rom. 8:21-23

    Jesus Christ is the first fruits in the promise of the resurrection from the dead; it takes rising from the dead to get to that place of promise: to see the holiness of God in the face of Jesus Christ. There is no other way to God and there is simply no other life apart from him. Without God’s mercy there is no hope, only the place that all men will eventually return, to the dust, the grave; the place of the dead.  Martha, the sister of Lazarus understood the hope of the believer from the promise of the Old Testament scriptures… Martha said to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. " On the last day of this age, the fulfillment of the promise of the resurrection will take place. Jesus said, "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice "and come forth -- those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” John 5:28-29   .
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What if - there was no Resurrection: What if there was no resurrection? The apostle Paul dealt with this critical issue in the Corinthian church. Some were teaching that there was no resurrection of the dead. Paul wants his listeners to understand if this were the case then faith would be useless, “…if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; and worse then this... you are yet in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:15-18). Not only would the believer be found to be in his sins if Christ had not risen from the dead, nullifying any hope of the resurrection, but those who had died in their faith are perished, “Then they which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished” 1Cor.15:18.  This is the same word used in the case of the wicked,  “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” (Luke 13:5).

(Perish= Strongs number, 622. apollumi, ap-ol'-loo-mee; from G575 and the base of G3639; to destroy fully (reflex. to perish, or lose), lit. or fig.:--destroy, die, lose, mar, perish.)  

    For emphasis and because this truth is so very critical in our understanding of what the resurrection has accomplished, it must be stated again that apart from the resurrection there is no life. This is what Paul is saying when reminds his readers that if Christ be not risen then you are still in your sins, which means that Jesus death on Calvary's cross was not enough to bring life to dead men. We are all but dead men waiting for the ground to absorb us back into the dust from which we came. All those believers who have died in there faith are perished, (destroyed fully) if there is no resurrection. Resurrection equals life, period.

    Surely, if the 'souls' of those departed ones were in heaven at the Lords side waiting for a return to the body, then Paul apparently missed an opportunity to explain and bring it out in the open in clear language. He could have carefully explained at this point in his argument the difference between the real person as a soul and the body in which it resides. But he does not. The truth being that when a believer dies, the believer returns to the dust from which he or she came, he has literally perished in that he, the man, has been unmade, i.e. the curse. The faithful who die in the Lord and in the hope of the resurrection are remembered in the mind of God and until the last trumpet is blown, he sleeps in the dust. It is the believer in Jesus Christ who faces death in the hope that God will remember him and not leave him in death. This is what the scriptures teach.  “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Th. 4:13-18) 

 “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:51-55).

    The blood stained cross was were justice was satisfied and the death of Christ provided for the sin problem of Gods people. But it took the resurrection, whereby, “… his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1 Peter 1:3).  It was in the resurrection whereby, “… the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,” (Rom 1:3). The hope of the believer is the living hope that God will remember him in death. This was the dying thief’s request when he turned to Jesus on the cross,  "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
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The Resurrection takes a back seat: With the lie well entrenched that man is intrinsically immortal meaning the soul lives beyond the grave in some afterlife, the recourse is that the  resurrection has taken a back seat in the church. The resurrection must lose its prominence if man is found to be immortal and living apart from his body in a conscious state after he dies. The idea of conscious existence simply reduces the resurrection of the scripture to the reuniting of the immortal essence of man with the body that has returned to the dust; death is thus defined and taught to be a separation from the body with the true essence of the man which is immortal. If this is found true, then eternal life, who is Jesus, is relegated to a quality of life and the very heart of the Gospel is compromised. The scriptures do not teach that death is a separation, but it is the undoing of the man as God said he would when he pronounced the curse in Genesis chapter 3. Solomon credited with being the wisest man who ever lived puts the issue at rest. “…and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the breath returns to God who gave it.” (Eccl 12:7). The psalm writer clinches it with,  “You turn us back to dust, and say, "Turn back, you mortals." (Psa 90:3). The alternative to the scriptures is Satan’s lie that you will not die, i.e., the immortality of the soul. To reject the scriptures is to give validity to his lie. As you can see by now these issues are critical and touch the most essential truths that we can consider; the good news of the gospel is at stake.
 #Return to the Top    revised 8/29/04

The Judgment and Justice of God:  Death is the judgment of God. Death entered into the world through Adam as the consequence of his disobedience and all men since have fallen to death. God said that Adam would die and return to the dust from which he was made and that is exactly what happened to Adam and where he can be found today. “In the sweat of thy face shall you eat bread, till you return unto the ground; for out of it were you taken: for dust you art, and unto dust shall you return” (Gen. 3:9). What has developed over time is the teaching that God's justice can only be met by or through the ongoing  punishing and suffering of the disobedient and unbelieving. This is the underlying view in all religions from all time, reaching back to the ancients right to the pulpits of our day. 

The scriptures teach that the condemnation of God is eternal, but this means that there is no turning back from it, there is no way out of it, no higher court to appeal to, it is final and forever. But no where can we see in the scriptures the ongoing suffering and ongoing punishing of the condemned sinner. The justice of God was met on the cross in the person of Jesus Christ who with his own blood has saved us from the wrath of God.  “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” (Rom. 5:9,10).

 Jesus, the Son of God died, He laid in the tomb for three days and nights dead, just as the scriptures said he would; just as He said he would. It was there in His death that justice was satisfied; that God was satisfied. "Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities”  (Isaiah 53:10,11).

    But Jesus did not stay in death, this is important to see, because justice was satisfied in the shedding of His blood and entering death, whereby he laid in the grave for three days and nights. It was there that death was defeated, conquered, the great enemy that has a future appointment with God who will cast death and the grave into the lake of Fire and forever will be lost to all memory.  “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev.20:4,5). Death and the grave will have no place in the purged Kingdom of God . Who can imagine that the casting of death and hell (the grave) into the lake of fire will endure them to any kind of suffering as though they had some kind of personality with feelings, longings, desires, and hopes. Death and hell will be consumed in the fire that is eternal and will perish along with all those who have not been delivered from them at the resurrection on the last day. The result of men (all) who do not repent and believe the gospel is that they will perish. Both the new and old testament scriptures teach this. "Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goes forth, (back to God who gave it) he returns to his (the) earth; (as dust) in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: ( who will remember him in death, to be raised at the last day)"  (Psalm 146:1-5). 

 “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”  (John 3:15,16).

    These are but a couple examples for there are numerous such places that teach the view of death and the fate of those who do and who do not trust God. 

    If the teaching was true that men are to endure ongoing suffering then would it mean that God's justice could  never be satisfied? And would it mean that God himself could not be satisfied no matter how long the punishing lasted? And perhaps worse, would it mean that God thus created perhaps billions of people in His omniscience for the soul purpose of punishing them for ever? (Surely God knew from the beginning who would believe and those who would not believe). With this underlying view in mind, it is no wonder that many look upon the Christian God as a monster.
  #Return to the Top     revised  8/28/04

The motivation: Considering the penalty of sin which is death, the justice of God which was met in Jesus, and the command to believe the gospel; what is it that motivates a man to believe? Perhaps even more important, what was it that motivated you to believe?

 The teaching that is most popular and which abounds today from the many denominations that the church has been broken into, is the threat of the ongoing punishment of Hell. Several centuries ago this was popularized with the "hellfire brimstone" preaching; (Jonathan Edwards - Sinners in the hands of an Angry God, c.e. 1720's) today it is "unfashionable" and pits itself against the wealth&health preaching, and all the other popular "gospels" which have taken the place of the true evangelical preaching of the cross. But the underlying threat is alive and well in the pulpits and simply put, the teaching with it's underlying philosophy is that God is in the business of punishing and will send you to Hell where you will suffer forever the punishing effects of God's justice. Men will burn forever and suffer forever, feeling the wrath of God forever. This is supposed to be the great motivation whereby we persuade men to turn from there sin and turn to God. 

    The scriptures teach differently. It is not a motivation of treat but one of love that draws and brings a man to his knees before his maker.  “For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died” (2Cor. 5:14). It is absolutely true that God always moves first toward the man to bring him to himself, but it is always by love that He does so...  “and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Rom 5:5). The threat of hell fire and ongoing punishing is not a scriptural bases for motivation. It is the Love of God that brings a man to God in obedience to His call.

    God is not a monster, He is a God of Love and He demonstrated His love before all creation when He gave His only Son over to death and thus satisfying His justice. There is no threat in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the promise of life if you believe in Him. Outside of Jesus Christ who is our life, there is only death.  When God touches a man and makes him alive by the spirit which he replaces the heart of stone, that man becomes obedient according to the new covenant promise of God, whereby he cries out abba Father. 

“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” (Rom.8:15,16).

“And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” (Gal 4:6,7)

What is set forth in the New Testament writers such as Paul in his letters to the Churches was based upon the promises of God centuries before through the prophets.

"Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah -- "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers (made at Sinai) in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (Jer.31:31-33). 

 “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezk. 36:26,27).

The new Covenant is the foundation for the motivation of the believer.  “And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me”  (Jer. 32:40).

The Hebrew writer tells us that the new covenant is far better and has replaced the old covenant given at Mt Sinai. “In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” (Heb 8:13) 

When the scriptures talk about Covenants think of them as the terms of a relationship. With the old covenant established at Mt Sinai under Moses and the children of Israel, found in the book of Exodus, with the tabernacle built with all its furniture and utensils; in which the Hebrew writer tells us what there purpose was,  "...who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain" (Heb. 8:5). Within this grand tent, was the holy of holies; and in within it, the ark of the covenant in which was placed the law of God written in stone, "....And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments" (Ex.34:28b). Everything that was established under that first covenantal relationship was a shadow, a mere copy of the true form. Along with this "shadowy" relationship that God had established with his people was put in place the sacrificial system with the priesthood and the 600 plus supporting laws who's entire purpose was to support that old covenant relationship. And within all this, was the veil that cried, "stay out, and come no closer". It was upon the threat of death that the veil stood between God and the people of His covenant, which separated His presence from his people indicating that the way to God was not yet known and revealed. The whole relationship was entirely veiled in shadowy types.

 But the way to God has now been revealed. We are no longer in the shadows. We are no longer under the type and the copies of which the true was represented. We have come as believers to be found under the new covenant which was ratified by the blood of Jesus.  Heb. 12:24 (we have come, v.22) ...to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel.” The fear of God is the reverent awe we have for his great mercy that he has shed for us in his love for Jesus Christ. This is what ultimately brings a man before God in belief.    #Return to the Top   revised 9/30/06

The Conclusion: That life and death is clearly the issue at stake is clearly laid out by Paul when he said,  "...for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead,...” (1Cor.15: 21). Clearly the scriptures teach us that death entered into the world through one man, and life came into the world through one man. The life is in stark contrast to the death. There is no life apart from the resurrection. It was through his death and resurrection that life was made possible. (John 10:10) The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Jesus Christ accomplished reconciliation between God and man by entering into death itself. He died the death that was promised to Adam for his disobedience. He took upon himself the very wrath of God, as Isaiah cries out for us..."...he was afflicted, being smitten of God, he was cut out of the land of the living, he poured out his soul onto death, he made his grave with the wicked."  It is Christ that has died. He died the death of a sinner, "...for he shall bear their iniquities, he was numbered with the transgressors".  (Isa.53:12)

    The death that was promised to the first Adam, the second Adam willingly entered into for his people. The judgment and severity is fully expressed in the Isaiah 53 passage and Psalms 22. The death was, that Jesus Christ partook of, was no different then that of the ungodly who die in their sins. The punishment he bore for the sins of His people was no less equal then that of the ungodly who perish in their sins. It is Christ that died. But death could not hold him. God being satisfied with the work of His Son, raised Him from the dead.  “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men every where to repent: Because he has appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained; whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he has raised him from the dead...”  thus becoming the victor over death. (Acts17:30,31)

 Knowing this... "Brothers, what should we do?" (Acts 2:37b)
        Believe, ....Believe God and live. "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life"  (John 5:24). "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life"  (John 3:16).

#Return to the Top            revised 9/27/06

We welcome your comments: We feel that this is a vital truth in our understanding and walk with God.

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                         last updated  09/30/06