Undying life
“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” (Genesis 2:7).
The first kind of life spoken of in the Bible was received by Adam at creation. With the gift of life God also gave a clear warning that it was a life subject to death if Adam were to disobey Him. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17).
After Adam sinned it became evident that death has three dimensions. First, Adam died spiritually, in that his guilt severed his original relationship to the Lord.
Instead of responding to the voice of the Lord to walk joyfully with Him in the Garden, Adam was found naked, afraid, and hiding among the trees of Eden.
This fallen, spiritually dead condition of alienation from God has been inherited by every one of the billions of human beings descended from him. Paul confirms this in Ephesians 2:1-3 in declaring all are “dead in trespasses and sins” – a condition of spiritual death.
Secondly, death meant something all too familiar, physical death. Adam died and is being followed to the grave by the whole human race. “For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” was God’s solemn response to Adam’s sin in Genesis 3:19.
The third and final instalment of the death penalty is foretold in prophetic Scriptures which look beyond the grave to the next world for all who die without salvation.
“This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:14b-15).
Into this dying world God sent His eternal Son to be born miraculously of a virgin. God was manifested in sinless human flesh. He came to suffer the death penalty for sinners and rise in resurrection life. The life He offers to those who receive Him by faith cannot be earned or merited. It is a free gift to those who trust Him as Lord and Saviour. Jesus made it very clear that this new life is not subject to death at all but is “everlasting life”. See John 3:16.
Saving faith brings an immediate restoration of a relationship with God through Christ. This aspect of God’s gift of life is real and immediate and eternal. The Bible also promises a victory over physical death by the resurrection of the body when Christ comes back.
“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).
The life that Christ brings to those who receive Him is beyond the power of death for all eternity. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power” (Revelation 20:6ab).