Death – Whether you are aligned to Christianity, Buddhism, Atheism, Islam, or any other particular worldview, death is at the center of human life. Humans are born, they live, and they die; so is the way of our universe, which also was born, exists, and will fizzle. Death is recognized and understood in various ways through the varying worldviews held by people of this Earth. It is my goal here to explain to the Christians, and even the non-Christians, the permanence of death and how it impacts how we live before facing it ourselves. I believe the church has too often believed and taught in error that death is something we are now immune to in Christ, but that could not be further from the truth. Before explaining how recognizing death as an integral part of human existence, I must first represent the true, Biblical idea of death as seen in the Scriptures.
In the Christian worldview, though often misunderstood, death has been a part of creation since creation was created. In the opening chapter of Genesis, Moses gives a seven-day account of God creating the particulars of our world and universe. My goal here is not to answer the question of whether Genesis 1 is intended by the author to be taken literally or metaphorically; the objective of Genesis is that the reader understands that God created what we see and that there is purpose in his creation. Regardless, contained therein is the first commandment of the entire Bible, but it was not given to man.
“And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.”
(Genesis 1:20-23 ESV)
The first set of creatures that God created were the creatures of the water, which include everything that we have today – such as the small sea snails, the cute puffer fish, and the mighty great white shark. Call me crazy, but I believe that God created the oceanic ecosystem right the first time and that the paradigm of its existence has not changed. What I mean by this is that God created the environment of the waters to be hostile and full of carnivorous creatures preying on their weaker sea neighbors. From this, we can see that death itself is simply part of creation, and that does not mean that man is exempt from such a truth.
When man was created on the sixth day, he, too, was given the same commandment as the beasts of the sea.
“And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”
(Genesis 1:28 ESV)
Consider for a moment that death was not actually part of God’s creative order during these early days of creation. Had God created every creature – or even just man – immortal and then gave the commands to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the Earth, the Earth would have run out of room and all of the multiplication of the creatures would have caused global catastrophes. Just imagine people eventually stacking on top of one another in an infinite, endless loop where there was an ever-increasing number of people; God’s creation plan would thus have a flaw (limited space, unlimited people), and that’s not how God operates. Rather, God simply wove death into the entirety of creation. Instead of sharks living in harmony with seals, sharks killed and ate the seals; instead of humans never eating, humans ate the vegetation of the Earth, killing it in the process to remain alive themselves.
When Adam was created, he was not created in the garden; rather, God created Adam outside of the garden but then placed him there.
“Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.”
(Genesis 2:7-8 ESV)
In the garden was the tree of life, which gave Adam immortality, but this was a condition only within the walls of the garden. Once Adam and Eve sinned against God, they once again faced death because God banished them from the garden – the source of immortality. Adam and Eve faced what I believe are the two deaths mentioned in the Bible. The first death is physical death, which was woven into the fabric of creation from the beginning; the second is spiritual death, which is the complete separation of something from God – the source of all goodness, joy, peace, and life. When Adam and Eve sinned, they began to die spiritually as their sin pushed them further from God. Paul speaks of this death in his letter to the Romans.
“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Romans 6:20-23 ESV)
Paul explains that when we were slaves of sin, we were dying spiritually, but that God has given us a gift of eternal life (eternal existence in the presence of God) through our faith in Christ as our substitute. Paul cannot make this claim about physical death. Physical death still comes to believers in Christ; it is spiritual death – complete separation from God – from which Christ has saved us.
Death is permanent, at least in regards to the laws of physics that govern God’s created universe. When our bodies, which are subject to damage and mutation, become too burdened with age or infectious disease, they shut down and we die. Our consciousness ceases to exist as the neurons which maintain it cease to fire. Our bodies then begin the decomposition process which brings our matter back to the Earth and continues the cycle started in creation. The only hope of this death is for the creator of death to reverse it, and that is the very promise that God has given us. He promises everyone a physical resurrection, not just the saved.
Jesus’s own resurrection is a shadow of the resurrection of all mankind. When he rose from the dead, he appeared to many people, even showing them that he was a physical being (not spiritual) by eating a fish in front of them. God desires for us to live with him, which is why he placed the first man in the garden with him, but man chose to live apart from God in spiritual darkness. Through God’s mercy, he has given man a second chance in Christ, not only for spiritual resurrection in the presence of God, but a physical immortality as well, which we do not deserve.
Do you see how this permanence of death is only reversable in God’s divine power? Praise God that he has allowed us to live, but praise him even more that he has offered a bonus to life – life eternal through Christ. But even though resurrection is our future, we must recognize that physical death is completely and utterly unavoidable and this understanding must impact the way we live in the here and now.
We must not take our lives for granted. Each day we arise with breath in our lungs should be a day where we try to make a difference in our lives and the lives of others. Every day, every chance we get, we must recognize that, as morbid as it may seem, we are approaching our inevitable death and that our minutes are numbered. Through this recognition, our actions for others have a greater gravity and impact on our own lives. Instead of habitually sitting on a couch indulging in things that are hastening your own body’s degradation, get up and go be an active part of God’s creation. Instead of passing by without a second look when you see someone broken down on the side of the road, stop and do what you can to help. When you see an elderly man struggling to load up their groceries in his car, ask if you can assist him. When you see someone standing on the side of the road with a sign that reads, “Need help. God bless.”, stop and see what she needs without questioning her motives.
Too many times have I seen Christians write death off as something to which we are immune, and this is because the church as a whole has not taken the time to explain and teach the reality of death to those sitting in the pews. When we die, we do not just automatically go live with Jesus for eternity; rather, the Bible is clear that the dead are dead and must await Christ’s power of resurrection for them to breathe again. Because of that, why do we not take every opportunity we have to better the lives of others while we are here. Is that not what God desires for his people? God desires for us to live as righteous people, and righteous people sacrifice themselves for the betterment of others.
“’Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked,’ declares the Lord God, ‘and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?’”
(Ezekiel 18:23 ESV)
When we die, the final present we receive is a pile of dirt. Eventually, people come and go and we are left only in the memories of those who knew us, and they, too, will die with our last memory. We will be buried and forgotten to the world around us over time, with the only thing now remaining of our lives being our resting places. As morbid as that sounds, that is the reality of God’s creation. So instead of sitting around thinking to yourself, “God will take care of that person I saw begging for food in front of Walmart the other day,” go take care of that person yourself, just like the most memorable person who ever lived did. Jesus Christ – God incarnate – lived a life so full of love and sacrifice that people are speaking of him 2,000 years after his death, and we do not even know where his tomb is, because his life was about his time living, not his time after dying, and that is who we should strive to imitate every single day.
By our power alone, death is permanent, so take care of your only body as well as those of everyone around you in need until Christ – our only hope, both physically and spiritually – ushers in the great and mighty resurrection.
