Death's Demise, The New Adam
When life gets confusing, and life is often confusing, I tend to look backward and long for simpler times. I long to be younger and stronger. I remember my dear children when they were small and wish that I could, once again, protect them from the evil in the world. However, the security of the past is an illusion. It's apparent safety lies in the fact that it has been survived, thereby, removing its uncertainty.
I also have a tendency, when working to achieve a goal, of dreaming of better days in the future when my goal is obtained. It is hard for us to achieve goals amid all the unexpected interruptions that are characteristic of temporal life. Future's perfection lives only in the future as uncertainty exists only in the present moment. If we are able to reach our goal, we find its promise diminished as uncertainty has followed into the future as it became the present.
Uncertainty is a benign way of expressing the deep fear we all live by; and that is the fear of death. Intellectually, we can plan and set dates and discipline ourselves to achieve great things in the world. However, we have no real control of anything as death rules the world in which we live. We never know when we or a loved one will be struck down and none of our plans can defer death. Death sets the clocks we live by and all things living are running down, preparing to meet our common destiny. Even when it appears that we will achieve our dream, our bodies are aging and growing weaker and our enjoyment of success lessened thereby. All of our work is but vanity. All that we are able to achieve is fading just as we are fading.
Sin is the sting of death and it is the fear of death that, often, leads us into sin. Life's uncertainty is met by most of us, at least once, with the cry, "Eat and drink, for tomorrow, we die!" We cringe at this phrase because it expresses the stark reality of life upon the earth. Truly, the animals have it better than we as they simply do as their instinct tells them without fear of their death for they have no knowledge of it. We who are cognitive creatures with knowledge of good and evil are born into a world in which the deck is stacked against us. We all must face the hour of our own death and have no idea of the date of that day.
The uncertainty of life, which is death, entered into the Creation by the hand of humankind. When Adam and Eve decided to choose their own destiny apart from God, sin entered the world and death followed soon after. In Adam, all living things became subject to death. All that God had created for eternal glory was cut off from Him and became mortal, being cut off from He Who is the sustainer of life. As a result, we are all born dead to God under the curse that Eve and then Adam brought into the world. God is Spirit and, in Adam, our spirit has been severed from Him. We are born, we dream, we work, we whither, and we die. In the old Adam, there is no hope; but only the common destiny of the grave and the future resurrection for Judgement.
There is now a new Adam. In this Adam, there is no death for He is not mortal as the old Adam. He is the One born of the Spirit Who came to do His Father's Will and not His own. This new Adam obeys His Father perfectly and has only been severed from His Father in the moment in which He took all of our sins and the curse of death upon Himself. He laid His own perfect life down that in Him the curse of death would be lifted from God's perfect Creation. Being without sin, being without the sting of death, death had no hold over Him. He died but then He took His life up again. He did not take His life up again for Himself only but offers it freely to all who believe in Him. This new Adam is a life giving spirit. Just as in Adam, death was passed to all, so too, in Christ, shall all be made alive.
In our bodies, we bear the image of the old Adam and our bodies will die. In Christ, however, life's uncertainty has met its demise. Jesus has obtained victory over sin and death. Though He died upon the cross, He rose again in a body that will never die as His flesh has been glorified, perfected by God. He is the first fruits of God's Redemption Plan. We who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and have a relationship with the Father through Him, will also be glorified in like manner, being wholly perfected in Him. We will be glorified at His coming when we meet Him in the air. In our perfected state, we will rule and reign with Christ Jesus for 1,000 years in God's Kingdom on earth. (This is the same Kingdom promised long ago to the Jews.) Jesus Who has had the only victory over Death, will put him fully under His feet at the end of this 1,000 year rule. He will then turn this Kingdom over to His Father. God's Creation will be returned to Him free from sin and the curse of death. Death will consume itself and time will end, passing into the eternal. For those of us who are now in Christ, who have received the new Adam, life free from death is our true reality. Though our bodies will die, our spirit will rest in Christ and we remain as living souls in Him. We will not know the nothingness of the grave and will not be raised only for judgement at the end of time. Instead, we will rule with Him in an age yet to come which precedes that final holy Judgement.
Faith in Christ is the death of uncertainty; though life may, at times, confuse us and cause us to give in to our old habit of fearing death. Let us who love Jesus remember that death is not eternal for someday, death will meet its final demise in the finished work of Christ upon the earth. Do not fear that which is temporary, even when the pain with which it torments you be excruciating. Satan's power is fear of death and it is temporary. Death has no hold over us who belong to Jesus. May we cease to walk according to the temporal power of the fear of death and begin to walk instead by that eternal power that is Life. In light of eternity, death's power is very short. Rejoice! Do not adopt defeat when your plans are smitten by the uncertainty that is temporal life. Do not settle for comfort in the glory days of the past, they are an illusion. Do not dream of future security while being tormented by the uncertainty of the moment. Instead, may we encourage one another to live in this eternal moment that is not an illusion and not only future promise but our present hope. Though everything we attempt to create and build be thwarted, God cannot be thwarted and in Him there is no uncertainty, no death.
Jesus lives!
1 Corinthians 15
I also have a tendency, when working to achieve a goal, of dreaming of better days in the future when my goal is obtained. It is hard for us to achieve goals amid all the unexpected interruptions that are characteristic of temporal life. Future's perfection lives only in the future as uncertainty exists only in the present moment. If we are able to reach our goal, we find its promise diminished as uncertainty has followed into the future as it became the present.
Uncertainty is a benign way of expressing the deep fear we all live by; and that is the fear of death. Intellectually, we can plan and set dates and discipline ourselves to achieve great things in the world. However, we have no real control of anything as death rules the world in which we live. We never know when we or a loved one will be struck down and none of our plans can defer death. Death sets the clocks we live by and all things living are running down, preparing to meet our common destiny. Even when it appears that we will achieve our dream, our bodies are aging and growing weaker and our enjoyment of success lessened thereby. All of our work is but vanity. All that we are able to achieve is fading just as we are fading.
Sin is the sting of death and it is the fear of death that, often, leads us into sin. Life's uncertainty is met by most of us, at least once, with the cry, "Eat and drink, for tomorrow, we die!" We cringe at this phrase because it expresses the stark reality of life upon the earth. Truly, the animals have it better than we as they simply do as their instinct tells them without fear of their death for they have no knowledge of it. We who are cognitive creatures with knowledge of good and evil are born into a world in which the deck is stacked against us. We all must face the hour of our own death and have no idea of the date of that day.
The uncertainty of life, which is death, entered into the Creation by the hand of humankind. When Adam and Eve decided to choose their own destiny apart from God, sin entered the world and death followed soon after. In Adam, all living things became subject to death. All that God had created for eternal glory was cut off from Him and became mortal, being cut off from He Who is the sustainer of life. As a result, we are all born dead to God under the curse that Eve and then Adam brought into the world. God is Spirit and, in Adam, our spirit has been severed from Him. We are born, we dream, we work, we whither, and we die. In the old Adam, there is no hope; but only the common destiny of the grave and the future resurrection for Judgement.
There is now a new Adam. In this Adam, there is no death for He is not mortal as the old Adam. He is the One born of the Spirit Who came to do His Father's Will and not His own. This new Adam obeys His Father perfectly and has only been severed from His Father in the moment in which He took all of our sins and the curse of death upon Himself. He laid His own perfect life down that in Him the curse of death would be lifted from God's perfect Creation. Being without sin, being without the sting of death, death had no hold over Him. He died but then He took His life up again. He did not take His life up again for Himself only but offers it freely to all who believe in Him. This new Adam is a life giving spirit. Just as in Adam, death was passed to all, so too, in Christ, shall all be made alive.
In our bodies, we bear the image of the old Adam and our bodies will die. In Christ, however, life's uncertainty has met its demise. Jesus has obtained victory over sin and death. Though He died upon the cross, He rose again in a body that will never die as His flesh has been glorified, perfected by God. He is the first fruits of God's Redemption Plan. We who believe that Jesus is the Son of God and have a relationship with the Father through Him, will also be glorified in like manner, being wholly perfected in Him. We will be glorified at His coming when we meet Him in the air. In our perfected state, we will rule and reign with Christ Jesus for 1,000 years in God's Kingdom on earth. (This is the same Kingdom promised long ago to the Jews.) Jesus Who has had the only victory over Death, will put him fully under His feet at the end of this 1,000 year rule. He will then turn this Kingdom over to His Father. God's Creation will be returned to Him free from sin and the curse of death. Death will consume itself and time will end, passing into the eternal. For those of us who are now in Christ, who have received the new Adam, life free from death is our true reality. Though our bodies will die, our spirit will rest in Christ and we remain as living souls in Him. We will not know the nothingness of the grave and will not be raised only for judgement at the end of time. Instead, we will rule with Him in an age yet to come which precedes that final holy Judgement.
Faith in Christ is the death of uncertainty; though life may, at times, confuse us and cause us to give in to our old habit of fearing death. Let us who love Jesus remember that death is not eternal for someday, death will meet its final demise in the finished work of Christ upon the earth. Do not fear that which is temporary, even when the pain with which it torments you be excruciating. Satan's power is fear of death and it is temporary. Death has no hold over us who belong to Jesus. May we cease to walk according to the temporal power of the fear of death and begin to walk instead by that eternal power that is Life. In light of eternity, death's power is very short. Rejoice! Do not adopt defeat when your plans are smitten by the uncertainty that is temporal life. Do not settle for comfort in the glory days of the past, they are an illusion. Do not dream of future security while being tormented by the uncertainty of the moment. Instead, may we encourage one another to live in this eternal moment that is not an illusion and not only future promise but our present hope. Though everything we attempt to create and build be thwarted, God cannot be thwarted and in Him there is no uncertainty, no death.
Jesus lives!
1 Corinthians 15
2 Comments:
Hi Pam,
Thanks for the thoughtful post. Although I often find a certain clarity when I examine the choices I made in the past, there is vanity to trying to live in past. As Kierkegaard once noted our lives are lived forward, into the future.
The uncertainty of the future really is the fear of death, but there are a couple ways of understanding death. One way is physical mortality which can suffer pain and embarrassment. The other death is that elusive and hard to define death which God took up in His warning to Adam when He said the day you eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall die. This is the distinction Jesus makes in Matthew 10 when he commanded his disciples not to fear those who can harm the body but to fear God who can destroy the body and the soul in hell.
Praise God that, as you say, there is no spiritual uncertainty in the Spirit God gives to all believers. Though there may be many things they do not understand or know, they have the assurance that God is with them in the moment and forever.
Hi BB,
It seems that many Christians think of Satan as being an enemy of God who is as powerful as God. He really only has the power to deceive and can only deceive if he can cause us to fear.
It is God who put us together and only God can take us apart. There is no life apart from Him.
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