Life And Death
The study of "last things" is inextricably connected to the study of "first things". That would seem to be a fairly conspicuous observation, but how often does our study of eschatology cause us to consider the beginning of things?
To be entirely accurate, the title above would read, "Life, Death, Life" because that is the simple overview of scripture: creation, destruction, resurrection. All these terms are used in various ways in our modern English so we must be careful to understand how they are used in scripture.
Yes, they may be used more than one way in this context too, but in the overarching purpose of God they have very specific meanings and we need to be clear about them as we attempt to interpret scripture.
God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That instruction came with the warning that they would die the very day the ate of it. When the serpent came to Eve, He contradicted God and told her she surely would NOT die. Who was right, the serpent or God?
You probably think that is a stupid question, but it is of utmost importance since many Christians unknowingly agree with the serpent!
Nonsense you say? Did Adam and Eve die the day they ate the forbidden fruit? They were cast out of the garden, but they lived more than 900 years, had children, and worked by the sweat of their brow. That doesn't sound very dead, does it?
Many Christians will compromise here saying that they began to die on that day, but that is not what God said would happen. Either they died that day or the serpent was right. Which will it be?
Some will argue that the first couple were created immortal and had they not sinned they would have lived forever. That is a mistaken view. They were not immortal or they would have had no need for access to the Tree of Life. Their immortality came from It alone. Denied access to it, "in dying they would die." That is, when they died physically they would be without life entirely - biological and spiritual.
God said they would die if they disobeyed and we must believe they died even if they continued living physically. More importantly, the nature of their death provides the basis for the nature of the life that was to come.
To reiterate the point, the death they died was a spiritual death. Hence, the life that scripture anticipated at the coming of Messiah was spiritual. Of course, then like today, people were looking for a physical fulfillment of the promise made to Adam and Eve.
Holding that presupposition has caused many well-meaning individuals to draw erroneous conclusions about the nature of the resurrection in the last days. Listen to what Jesus said in John 8:51:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death." (John 8:51)
Did He mean those who followed Him would never die physically? If so, I'm not aware of any who are still walking this earth, but if you know where they are I will spare no expense in going to visit them. I've got a lot of questions!
Again and again, the scripture confirms the life which was promised was not physical but spiritual. Yet, most Christians insist on a physical resurrection of individual biological bodies. That creates real problems.
Failing to understand the resurrection has resulted in many of us not seeing how the last days came and went 2,000 years ago. That leads to a compounding of the problem because, among other things, it skews our worldview.
We deal with this topic more fully in other articles (see below) but suffice it to say at this point, the resurrection is a spiritual event not a physical one. It came when Christ came in A.D. 70 in the judgment of Jerusalem, in the revelation of the sons of God and in the ushering in of God's kingdom (2 Timothy 4:1-2).
The life that the first Adam lost was recovered in the second Adam. Because Christ lives, we live and will never die. We have no need of a future resurrection of our physical bodies; we have life now in our mortal bodies though the completed work of Christ.
Like they say, "if that won't light your fire, your wood's wet!" Shine!
Other articles on this subject:
© Copyright 2003 ~ Jim Wade
12/09/03