When we become a true believer a part of our being, our soul, will live forever with the Lord. What contains our soul, our bodies, do not live forever and the separation of the two is death. We all know that this is a trauma for anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one. So how, if we grieve so much, has death lost its sting? It still really really stings!
What Paul was saying applies to a much larger context than how we emotionally respond to death and loss. Without the finished work of Christ your body and soul would have to experience death. When Adam fell in the garden the proper rendering of 'you will surely die' is 'in your death you will die.' This is two deaths, one for the body and the other when the earth is judged and condemned.
What Jesus has done is made it that the first death takes care of the flesh which still is subject to the sinful nature. When we die the soul, that is eternal, is safely present with Jesus while our bodies return to the dust from which it came. In this way it is a victory to die as the believers' sin-infested flesh separates from them. At the Harpadzo we receive a new body, incorruptible and not subject to the sinful nature of the devil's schemes.
So the eternal life we inherit through faith in Christ means death has lost its sting. It is absolutely vital, and God's explicit plan, to have all people to come to Jesus Christ for salvation. It is a command to repent and be saved. Some years ago a Pastor was doing a funeral and raised his bible up and said, "you can argue with this," and pointing that the coffin said, "But you can't argue with that."
The principle that we have a part of us that is saved and also a part which is deemed to the dust helps us with our Christian lives. When I lean on the flesh and sin, I am reminded that I was never made perfect and the part of me that is sinful is still rebelling against God. It isn't the flesh that changes and comes to obedience. It is our will to choose the new creation over the sensual flesh.
When we indulge the flesh, it is 'self' we are living for. When we choose to walk well with the Lord, this is the 'death to self' picture Jesus painted for us in Luke 14. 'Taking up our own cross' is to render the flesh nailed to a tree and we would do well to keep it there. This is not easy but when we stare in the face of grace and mercy even this death has lost its sting.
The principle that we have a part of us that is saved and also a part which is deemed to the dust helps us with our Christian lives. When I lean on the flesh and sin, I am reminded that I was never made perfect and the part of me that is sinful is still rebelling against God. It isn't the flesh that changes and comes to obedience. It is our will to choose the new creation over the sensual flesh.
When we indulge the flesh, it is 'self' we are living for. When we choose to walk well with the Lord, this is the 'death to self' picture Jesus painted for us in Luke 14. 'Taking up our own cross' is to render the flesh nailed to a tree and we would do well to keep it there. This is not easy but when we stare in the face of grace and mercy even this death has lost its sting.
Gary Ward.
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