Death to Life

What is Death?

Death. Cessation of life (physical death) or separation from God (spiritual death).

Old Testament View. In the OT death was accepted as the natural end of life. The goal of an Israelite was to live a long and full life, produce many descendants, and die in peace with the children and grandchildren gathered about. The OT contains many protests against an early death (e.g., Hezekiah’s, 2 Kgs 20:1–11).

King James Version Chapter 20

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. 2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, 3 I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. 4 And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. 6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake

Hezekiah petitioned God based on his life that God would heal him and he not die. God honored his request and gave him fifteen more years. This seems to be the attitude of many today, Lord heal me! Even those whose loved ones are sick, Lord heal my son, daughter, husband, wife, sister, brother,… We as a society have a very negative attitude to death. However, death is an inevitable part of life. The song writer pinned the words, I have a appointment that I cannot change and cannot cancel. The bible says in Ps 90:12

12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

KJV

The Psalmist wisely turned his attitude to accept death and to strategically make life worth living so that death would not be such a dread.

When God created man Gen. 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Man began to live. God created man in his image Gen. 1:26 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

God created man in his image and gave him dominion over the earth.

The Holy Bible: King James Version. (2009). (Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version., Ge 1:26). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

An early death might appear to be the result of God’s judgment; hence Job saw in the possibility of an untimely death a need to vindicate his character (Jb 19:25, 26). Only in Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20 is outright pessimism expressed in the face of death—and that book probably shows considerable non-Hebraic influence.

A restored jar from Qumran, used for storing scrolls.

Death, although a natural ending to life, was never viewed as pleasant. Death cut one off from human community as well as from the presence and service of God. God may offer comfort in the face of death (Ps 73:23–28), but he is rarely portrayed as present with the dead, and that only in later biblical literature (Ps 139:8). For that reason, suicide is rare in the OT (1 Sm 31:4, 5; 2 Sm 17:23). Death was never viewed as the threshold to a better life.

The relationship of sin to death is seen in the death penalty in the Law of Moses. A serious offender was put to death. The punitive phrase “He shall be cut off” implied that although the nation went on living, the criminal was separated from it by death. The Israelites were warned that to disobey God’s commandments could bring premature death as a consequence of breaking fellowship with God (Dt 30:15–20; Jer 21:8; Ez 18:21–32).

In the intertestamental period, as Jewish ideas of afterlife and resurrection developed more explicitly, so did Jewish thinking about death. Death itself, not just a premature death, came to be seen as an evil result of sin (2 Esd 3:7; Ecclus 25:24; 2 Bar 54:19). Sometimes all death is depicted as the result of the “first sin” (Adam and Eve’s disobedience). In other references everyone dies as a result of his or her own sin. The first clear indication in Scripture of a resurrection of the dead and a final judgment or punishment occurs in the Book of Daniel (Dn 12:2), one of the last OT books to be written. That teaching is echoed throughout the intertestamental period (2 Esd 7:31–44). During that time it was believed that the soul survived death either in some immortal form (Wis of Sol 3:4; 4:1; 4 Mc 16:13; 17:12) or awaiting the resurrection (1 Enoch 102). Some of those extrabiblical writings incorporated Greek ideas that the body was a burden to be gotten rid of, a notion foreign to Hebrew thought.

The concept of resurrection and a life redeemed from death, however, set the stage for the NT revelation focusing on Christ’s resurrection and his conquest of death.

New Testament View. In the NT death is seen more as a theological problem than as a personal event. Death goes beyond the simple ending of physical life, which the authors accept almost without difficulty. Death is seen as affecting every part of a person’s life. God alone is immortal, the source of all life in the world (Rom 4:17; 1 Tm 6:16). Only as human beings are properly related to God’s life can they live. But it has been unnatural for people to be in personal communion with the divine source of life since sin was introduced into the world (Rom 5:12, 17, 18; 1 Cor 15:22). When Adam separated himself from God, that separation brought death. Each human being has followed in Adam’s footsteps (Rom 3:23; 5:12), bringing death for everyone as the absolutely necessary result (Rom 6:23; Heb 9:27). Death, then, is not merely something that happens to people at the end of their lives; it is also the living out of their lives apart from fellowship with God.

The extent of death’s domination is vast. It affects every aspect of culture. All of human life is lived under the shadow of the fear of death (Rom 8:15; Heb 2:15). Death reigns over all that is “of the flesh” (Rom 8:6). Anyone not living in relationship to Christ lives in a state of death (Jn 3:16–18; 1 Jn 5:12). The devil, who rules the world, is the lord of death (Heb 2:14). Death is sometimes personified as a demonic power at large in the world, but finally brought to bay by Christ himself, the only one who could master it (1 Cor 15:26, 27; Rv 6:8; 20:13, 14).

Christ died, was buried, and rose again on the third day (Rom 4:25; 1 Cor 15:3, 4; 1 Thes 4:14). Through that historic event the power of death was broken. The NT in various ways expresses Christ’s subjection to death in payment for sin. He “became obedient unto death” (Phil 2:8); he died as a sacrifice for the sins of all (1 Cor 5:7; 2 Cor 5:15); he descended into Hades, the place of the dead (1 Pt 3:18, 19). The major point of all such passages is that he did not remain dead but defeated the devil, took the power (keys) of death, and ascended in victory (Heb 2:14, 15; Rev 1:17, 18). Jesus Christ worked not for his own benefit, but for those who commit themselves to him (Mk 10:45; Rom 5:6–8; 1 Thes 5:9, 10). By accepting a death he did not deserve, Christ has broken the power of death for his followers.

The Christian is thus delivered from “this body of death” (Rom 7:24) by the power of Christ. Salvation comes through being “baptized into his death” (Rom 6:3, 4), and “dying with Christ” to the world and the law (Rom 7:6; Gal 6:14; Col 2:20). That is, the death of Christ is counted by God as the believer’s death. The rebellious world’s sin (Rom 6:6) and self-idolatry (living for oneself; 2 Cor 5:14, 15) become things of the past. The death of Jesus for his people is the means by which his life is given to them (2 Cor 4:10). The result is that believers are separated from the world just as they were once separated from God. From the world’s point of view they are dead; Christ is their only life (Col 3:3).

The apostle John expressed it somewhat differently. Jesus came into the world to give life to the dead (Jn 5:24). That life-giving will not happen at the resurrection; it is already happening. All who commit themselves to Jesus pass immediately from death to life. Or, to put it another way, those who keep (obey) his words will never see death (Jn 8:51, 52). The point is that all who are outside Christ are already dead, and those trusting in Christ are already enjoying life. The radical difference between the Christian and the non-Christian is a difference between life and death.

Naturally, the NT writers knew that Christians die; their problem was to find words to explain the difference from non-Christian death. Believers who die physically are said to be “dead in Christ” (1 Thes 4:16). Or they are not dead at all, but merely “asleep” (1 Cor 15:6, 18, 20, 51; 1 Thes 4:13–15; cf. Jesus’ words, Jn 11:11–14). Although their bodies are dead, deceased believers are not separated from Christ; that is, they are not really dead. All the powers of death and hell cannot separate believers from Christ (Rom 8:38, 39). For them, death is not a loss but a gain; it brings them closer to Christ (2 Cor 5:1–10; Phil 1:20, 21). What is more, believers will share in Christ’s victory over physical death as well. Because he is the “first fruits” of those rising from the dead (1 Cor 15:20; Col 1:18), those “in Christ” will rise “on the last day” to be with him, whole and complete.

On the other hand, for those who do not belong to Christ there is a final, total separation from God. At the last judgment all whose names “were not written in the book of life” are consigned to a lake of fire, in the company of death itself and Hades. That final separation from God is the “second death” (Rv 20:14). Christians, however, have been saved from death (Jas 5:20; 1 Jn 3:14). The second death has no power over those who are faithful to Christ (Rev 2:11; 20:6). Instead they will live with God, in whose presence there can be no death, for he is life itself (Rv 21:4).

A Roman sarcophagus from Jerusalem.

What is Life?

Why have Faith?

The destiny of the believer.