A Matter on Life or Death

We’ve all hear the expression, “it’s a matter of life and death” at least once in our lives. The idiom is used to convey that a given situation someone is in is of great urgency. The person could be on the verge of dying or living. Of course, we hope to never be in a situation like this. The Bible also talks about life and death. Only it usually talks about it in a spiritual sense.

In Scripture, death takes on a slightly different meaning than what we’re used to. The word carries the idea of a ‘separation’, as in between two things. There are also different kinds of death talked about in the Bible and we can see this idea in each of them.

First, there is physical death. When a persons’ life on Earth ceases, their soul is separated from their body (Genesis 35:18; Ecc. 12:7; James 2:26). We have to remember that we are not a body with a soul, we are a soul who has been given a body. God gave us a temporary “home” for our soul to live here in this temporary world.

Second, there is spiritual death. This happens when we sin against God and break His commandments. We become separated from a relationship with our Maker (Genesis 2:17; Isaiah 59:2). When God granted us with free moral choice, He knew that most wouldn’t use it for good. Much of mankind has been influenced by Satan and has chosen to live on his side of the spectrum and do evil deeds. God hates when man deviates from His divine plan for living peaceably on this earth (Psalm 11:5).

Third, is what is called the “second death”. We learn about the second death in the book of Revelation. In chapters 20 and 21, we see that Satan and his followers will be cast into Hell on the Day of Judgment. There, mankind will be separated from God’s presence for all of eternity. However, those who are found faithful to God need not fear of this second death (Hebrews 5:9).

Another way we can see this concept of separation is when Paul tells us to be “dead to sin” (Romans 6:11). When we receive the remission of our sins and become a child of God, we need to become dead to sin. We need to separate ourselves from the old sinful lifestyle we were once accustomed to and live more for Christ by doing what He commands of us.

Now in contrast to all of this death, there is life. If death denotes a separation taking place, we could logically conclude that life is portrayed as a “coming together”. We see Jesus use this concept in John 17:3 when He prays to the Father that His followers may “know You, the only true God”. Knowing God and what His will is for us is what ‘eternal life’ is. Once we become a Christian, we receive the gift of eternal life and our relationship with Him is amended through Christ that was broken because of our iniquities. We could not be reconciled to God on our own doing; only Jesus made that possible through His sacrifice on the cross.

Let us look also at Jesus’ parable of the Lost Son in Luke 15. Here we see a son that wondered off from his father to go do his own thing. Once the son realized he made a mistake, he returned to his father and in verse 24 his father said, “for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found”. As we can see, Jesus compares life and death to being lost and found.

If we become like this Lost Son, and realize we made a mistake by doing things contrary to God’s will and turn back to Him, we too can be reconciled to God and our relationship can be restored once again. It is because of Jesus' death that we can have life.

Let us not wait too late though. It could mean a matter of life and death.