Death - Our Enemy

It is likely if you have ever been to a funeral, you have heard some strange things said about death. Perhaps those strange things were said in a funeral sermon or by a well-intentioned friend seeking to provide words of comfort. Regardless, our thinking is permeated with anti-biblical thinking about human death. Even though it is not a topic that we love to talk about, the truth is that the Bible has much to say about death. It is vital that we conform our thinking to the Bible’s teaching because our view of death affects our view of life and how we live. For many people death is seen as our ultimate destiny. As Christians, we certainly believe that death does not have the final word over us and, despite death, we have immense hope of eternal life. 

Death Is Not Natural 

We first read of death as the punishment promised to Adam and Eve for eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was the promise of death that Satan called into question in the Garden by saying, “you will not surely die.” Regardless, something changed following the fall of man. Death entered the world as a result and has reigned as a usurping leader since. We must understand death is not natural. It was not God’s creative intention. Death is an abnormal intruder into our universe and into the human experience. 

Perhaps one reason death is such a difficult thing for us to process is because grief is not hard-wired into our being. We are reminded of the profound scene of Jesus standing at the tomb of Lazarus. We remember Him seeing the grief of Lazarus’s family and friends and as a result, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). Perhaps He was just weeping with those who weep, but it is more likely Jesus’s weeping here was due to the fact death was not what God intended for mankind. 

Jesus did not just weep at the tomb of Lazarus; He was also visibly angry. The text says that Jesus was “groaning in Himself” (John 11:38). This speaks of snorting. As Jesus approached the tomb of Lazarus, He knew that a resurrection was coming. He did not approach that moment with a smirk, He came weeping, grieving, and angry at the experience of death. He was angry because death was an intruder, a perversion of His creative intention. It may be fair to say that death is normal, but it is not accurate to say that death is natural. 

After creating man, God placed a symbol of His purpose in the garden — the tree of life (Genesis 2:9). The living God created a living universe. Therefore, we must regard death as unnatural, as an intrusion into our universe, as a usurping tyrant, and as our enemy. Satan has effectively leveraged the power of the fear of death as one of his greatest weapons against man. However, Jesus came to defeat Satan and remove this power from him (Hebrews 2:14). 

The Essence of Death 

In its essence, death is separation from God. Following their sin, Adam and Eve were removed from their life source. When you separate yourself from light you are in darkness. Similarly, when you separate yourself from life you are in death. When we are away from God, we are away from light and life. God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil for in the day that they did, they would die. 

Did Adam and Eve really die that day? Yes, they did. They did not die an immediate physical death, although we could say that the process of physical death began in the Garden, but they certainly faced separation from God. Physical death is not the only type of death a person experiences. First, there is a spiritual death that takes places because of sin. This speaks of the corruption that comes because of sin. It is in this sense that Paul could say, “You were dead in your transgressions and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). In a very real way, when we choose to sin, we experience a death. 

Second, there is a physical death that occurs. Physical death is something that all of us are familiar with. It is physical death that causes people great fear and anxiety. James says, “the body without the spirit is dead” (James 2:26). 

For many centuries there have been debates about what passed from Adam to all mankind. It is not uncommon for people to teach that guilt has passed from Adam to the whole human race. However, the Bible teaches that death passed from Adam to the whole human race (Romans 5:12). Because of Adam’s sin, we will all face physical death. 

Third, there is eternal death. Eternal death speaks of God’s final and ultimate judgment in what we call Hell (Revelation 20:14-15). Physical death and spiritual death culminate in eternal death at the resurrection of the lost. This is not just God passively distancing Himself from sinners. This is an active judgment and punishment. 

In Revelation 20:6, John pronounces a blessing upon those who partake of the first resurrection because over them the second death shall have no power. For those of us who have been united with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, we do not have to live in fear of eternal death because Jesus defeated eternal death on our behalf. 

The Defeat of Death 

The Apostle Paul says, “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). Last does not necessarily mean last in time; it means that death is ultimate. The reason that Satan so effectively has used the fear of death against mankind is because the “sting of death is sin” (1 Corinthians 15:56). It is the uncertainty accompanying death that often leads to fear. However, because we properly understand death, we do not have to live crippled by the fear of dying. The ancient world viewed death as an inescapable prison and in a sense this was correct. However, Jesus’s resurrection changed this. In Revelation we read of Jesus declaring, “I have the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18). In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, death is spoken of as an “undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.” Shakespeare was wrong. Jesus entered the realm of death, left it, and never returned.  

Jesus’s resurrection from the dead is a prototype of our future resurrection. It is appropriate that we hate death, that we mourn death, but we do not have to live with the fear of death, because death is not our future. 

In the book of 2 Corinthians, Paul uses the image of a Roman triumph to speak of his apostleship and ministry. He speaks of the aromas that may accompany such a spectacular event. To some a triumphal march, with all its smells, would be a great reminder of victory and of life. To others, it reeked of death. Paul says some see his gospel ministry as the aroma of “life to life” and to others the aroma of “death to death” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). In other words, there are people outside of Christ who are moving from death to death. They are moving from being spiritually dead to being eternally dead. They are getting more and more dead over time. As Christians, the opposite is true. We are moving from life to more life. For the Christian, our death is not our end. The psalmist correctly observed that we merely walk through the shadow of death. Death may cast a shadow, but we are promised we will walk through it. 

All religions teach something about life and death, but Christianity is different. As followers of Jesus, we do not just live a life hoping that our life’s accomplishments may cause us to fare well in eternity. The message of the gospel is that we can face death with hope because of the one who died on our behalf and defeated death once and for all. 

Because Jesus defeated sin and death, we say along with the psalmist: “how precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints,” and all the glory goes to God. Until that day, we look forward to the day when “death is swallowed up in victory.” 

Jason Cole is an evangelist at Lake Mount Church of Christ in Rogers, OH. He and his wife Stephanie have been blessed with seven children. Jason also teaches for Summit Theological Seminary and Louisville Bible College.