From death unto Life

The Bible is a mystery book until we find the key that opens it. Then it ceases to be a mystery and becomes a message. There are two words which open the Bible-and those words are life and death.

Death has been a mystery in all ages. Science stands utterly mute in its presence, unable to explain it. Philosophy turns poetical when it meets this dread enemy of man. And theology has dealt only in generalities when attempting to explain it.

Death, that bloodhound-like foe, began its work at the cradle of the human race, and has followed it down through the stream of the centuries until the present hour. It was not a part of the Creation, nor a part of God's original plan. Even physical death is an enemy of God and an enemy of man. The Bible says in I Corinthians 15:26 that physical death is the last enemy that shall be put under foot.

Before we can understand the nature of death, however, we must understand the nature of man. Man is not a physical being. Man is a spirit. In fact, man is a spirit, who possesses a soul, and lives in a body. (1 Thess. 5:23.)
When Jesus told Nicodemus, 'Ye must be born again," Nicodemus was thinking naturally and he asked, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" And Jesus explained, 'That which is horn of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:4, 6).

The new birth is the rebirth of the human spirit.

The real man is spirit. The spirit operates through the soul (man's intellect, sensibilities, and will). And the soul in turn operates through the physical body.
Now the man (who is spirit) and his soul live in a physical body. At physical death, the man and his soul leave the physical body and go to their home.
Christ gave us in Luke 16:19-24 the experience of the rich man and Lazarus: 'There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen; and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died (physically), and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom:

(Notice that the angels carried him-not his body- but him, spirit and soul, to Abraham's bosom.) the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth A bra-ham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame."
Lazarus and the rich man were still conscious. Man is not dead like an animal as some folks would have you to believe. And there is no such thing as soul sleep.

Several kinds of deaths are spoken of in the Bible, but there are three kinds with which we need to familiarise ourselves: 1) Spiritual Death, 2) Physical Death, 3) Eternal Death, or the second death, which is being cast into the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.
The real death is that which lays hold of our spirits rather than our bodies. Physical death is but a manifestation of the parent, spiritual death. The second death is the ultimate finality of death, or the home of the spiritually dead.
Spiritual death came to the earth first, then manifested itself in the physical by destroying it. Physical death is but a manifestation of the law which is at work within, called by Paul, "the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2). When God said to Adam, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," He did not refer to physical death, but to spiritual death. If man had never died spiritually, he would not have died physically.

Spiritual death means separation from God.

The moment Adam sinned, he was separated from God. And when God came down in the cool of the day, as was His custom, to walk and talk with Adam, and called, "Adam, where art thou?", Adam said, "I hid myself." He was separated from God.

Spiritual death also means something more than separation from God. Jesus said to the Pharisees, "Ye are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he
speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). The Pharisees were very religious. They went to church on the Sabbath, they prayed, they paid their tithes, they fasted, and they did a lot of other fine and good things-but they lied about Christ and murdered Him. Jesus said they were children of the devil-they had the characteristics of the devil. Spiritual death means having Satan's nature-just as receiving Eternal Life means we have the nature of God in us.

When Adam and Eve listened to the devil, the devil became their spiritual father and they had the devil's nature in their spirits. That is spiritual death. And that nature began to manifest itself in the human family. The firstborn son murdered the second-born.

Man is now united with the devil. He is an outcast, an outlaw, driven from the garden with no legal ground of approach to God. He no longer responds to the call of God. He responds only to his new nature, or his new master. Man is more than transgressor. He is more than a law-breaker and a sinner. Man is spiritually a child of the devil and he partakes of his father's nature.
This explains why man cannot be saved by conduct. He has to be born again. If man were not a child of the devil, then he could just begin to put on the right kind of conduct, and he'd be all right. But even if he puts on right conduct, he's still a child of the devil, and will go to hell when he dies-to the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
Man cannot stand in the presence of God as he is-because he has the nature of his father, the devil, in him. If man is ever saved, he has to be saved by someone's paying the penalty for his sins, and someone's giving him a new nature.

You might take a flop-eared mule and try to make a racehorse of him. You could file his teeth and polish his hooves. You could feed him the finest food, run him around the track every day, and house him in the finest stable. But on the day of the race when the gun sounds, all he'll do is lope off down the track-because he's a mule. It's just not in him. Yet you can take a racehorse, and not give him as good care, but when you put him on the starting line, and the gun sounds-he's gone! It's his nature. He's born and bred that way. In order for that old mule to make a racehorse, he would have to be re-born-and that's impossible.
Man, however, who is a spirit living in a body, can be re-born. His nature can be changed. He can become a new creature in Christ Jesus.
It doesn't matter how well-educated man becomes, how many degrees he has at the end of his name, how many dollars he has, how good a social worker he is, nor how religious he is-man cannot stand in the presence of God. His nature is wrong. Man is lost today, not because of what he does-but be-cause of what he is. (What he does is the result of what he is.) Man needs life from God, because he is spiritually dead. Thanks be to God, Christ has redeemed us from spiritual death.

Jn 5:26
26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;

The new Man, Jesus Christ, had no death in Him. He was not born as we are born, and He didn't have the spiritual nature of death-the devil-in Him. Yet the Bible says in Hebrews 2:9 that He tasted death for every man.
He took upon himself our sin nature. Hebrews 9:26 says he, ..... put away sin (not sins) by the sacrifice of himself." He took upon himself our sin nature, the nature of spiritual death, that we might have Eternal Life.
Jesus said, "The thief (the devil) 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" (John 10:10).
He also said, "I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that rent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24).
Jesus came to redeem us from spiritual death! Adam was banished from the Tree of Life through rejecting God's Word. According to Revelation 2:7, all who now accept and obey the Word of God are brought back to the Tree of Life.

The New Birth does not take place gradually. It is instantaneous! It is a gift of God received the moment we believe. In Ephesians 2:1 it says that you who were dead in trespasses and sins-that's spiritual death-He has quickened, made alive. And verses 8 and 9 tell you how it came about:

Eph 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Not of works! That punctures the balloon of the ego. Man wants to do something to save himself. He wants to have a part in it. But you can't. You have to simply admit your helplessness-and your hopelessness. You have to admit that you are just what the Bible says-a lost sinner. Then you come and accept what Christ has wrought for you-a gift!
Have you passed from spiritual death unto spiritual life?
Is God your Father? Can you look up to heaven and say, "Father God"? Is His Spirit within your spirit bearing witness that you are a child of God? Do you have the Holy Spirit in your spirit crying, "Abba Father"? You do if you are born again. If you are not- accept Christ as your Saviour today!

Ro 8:14-16
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 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.
16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.