By Edward O’Hara,
The Bible says death is our enemy. And while that is most certainly true, what I want to do in this message is to look at the role death has played in bringing the ultimate blessing of eternal life to all men.
And something that will help with this is knowing that the death that passed to all men after Adam was sent from the garden is never described in the Bible as a curse.
In fact, when we read the Genesis account we find that death came as a result of Adam becoming more like God. Not a sinner by nature as so many falsely teach. So death was not a curse. At least not in the Biblical sense.
But, for so many death is something they have been taught to believe is a penalty brought on by Adam’s sin in the garden. So to them death always remains the ultimate horror. A thing they would do almost anything to avoid. And that’s exactly where Satan wants us.
Because when we think like that our whole world revolves around it. Always living in the fear of death all our lives. For which Heb.2:14,15 were written so that we do not live anymore in the fear of death. Something that is only made possible for those who trust in Jesus who “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
I know for many the idea that death is not a curse can be a difficult concept to wrap your minds around. I mean there is no way that death, our enemy, could be a blessing from God.
But, what we don’t realize death’s absolute necessity for God to accomplish His plan for mankind. A plan that He made before He made the world. A necessity that makes death, if not a blessing itself, at least a requirement for man to receive God’s blessing.
But, Satan offers us alternatives to God’s plan that on the surface may seem more attractive. But, in the end bites like an adder. Offering another way to have eternal life that he would deceive you to believe does not include death passing to all men.
And in reality, even though Satan hoped death would mean our destruction, and ultimate defeat of God. What death really means for man is our being made spiritual beings who are prepared for passing from this life to the next. For those who have trusted in Jesus it is from this life to immortality. Already possessing eternal life by the spirit God created in us when we trusted in Jesus and were born again as Jesus said in John3:4-6.
But, for those who have not trusted in Jesus they will go from this life to eternal torment. Because apart from faith in Jesus death reigns eternally over those have not allowed the realization of their mortality to move them towards a saving faith in Jesus. But, instead have accepted one of Satan’s many deceptions.
We see the blessing in death when we know the why of the cross. Because it was in it that Jesus doing the Father’s will joined with mankind in our mortality. So that through faith in Him we can join with Him in eternal life and immortality.
But, only through His death was this possible. Just as only by death passing to all men, which is really just the realization of our mortality made possible by being kept from the tree of life, would it be made possible for men to be made spiritual. So it is in this way that death has been the aid by which man has received the blessing of eternal life and immortality.
And just as Jesus’ death was absolutely essential to God’s plan. So too is man’s. Because without it Adam would still be in the garden. Still unequipped to discern between good and evil or able to relate to God spiritually. Which is the only way a man can really know and worship God in truth as Jesus said in John4:24.
So when Paul said in 1Cor.15:46, “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.” Paul was telling us that Adam and all his progeny are natural, only flesh and blood. And are not spiritual in any way. Equipped from the beginning with the ability only to relate to what has been made.
And in 1Cor.2:14 Paul adds more clarity to this saying that “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” Showing us here that no one until Jesus came was able to relate in a spiritual way to God. Because all men were just as Adam was when he was made. Natural, not spiritual.
So we see that neither Adam nor his progeny were ever able to relate to God on anything but a natural level. Through the 5 natural senses God gave Adam when he was made and God said that it was “very good”. Meaning that when God made man at the beginning he was exactly the way He planned for him to be. Natural not spiritual.
So that in God’s plan through death that would pass to all men man could come to choose of his own free will to come to know, trust in, and love God. Through faith in Jesus.
This combined with the fact that Adam had no knowledge of good and evil when God made him. And that Deut.1:39 tells us it was because the Israelite children who went through the wilderness lacked this knowledge that their sin was not imputed to them. We can be sure that death was to bring a blessing when it came to all mankind. And not a punishment. Just as Paul says in Rom.8:28 that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.
The blessing is that when man realized his mortality, as Adam never had until could no longer eat from the tree of life after he was sent from the garden. Man’s first inclination was to find a remedy for it.
We see this borne out in the world’s obsession today with things like transhumanism. A process through which men are trying to attain eternal life apart from trusting in the only one who can give it. Which is Jesus of Nazareth. Our one and only true savior because only He has conquered death.
And when he seeks and finds the remedy he finds Jesus. At least this is the purpose for which God’s plan required all men to realize their mortality when men began to die. When we leave this mortal flesh behind to put on immortality as 1Cor.15:51-54 says.
This is why we read that “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Because just as precious as Jesus’ death was to God. And as necessary to His plan. Knowing that it was absolutely necessary to work His plan. So too is the death of His saints precious. Knowing that it is absolutely necessary in the working of His plan.
It was this move that confused Satan. He did not realize that it would be through the death, a blessing in disguise that satan knew would happen to Adam, that would ultimately lead to the creation of sons of God. Without which death would never exist.
This is why in 1Cor.2:7,8 Paul said, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
But, they fell into God’s trap by first bringing death upon Adam and his progeny. And then by killing Jesus on the cross. Completing the necessary steps in God’s plan for the blessing of eternal spiritual life and immortality. Whose journey began with the death that passed to all men as a result of Adam’s having “become as one of us to know good and evil”.
The blessing that required death to play it’s part so that Paul would say, “as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
Without Adam realizing his mortality by being sent from the garden none of this would have been possible. In the garden Adam would have lived forever a natural man unable to relate to God spiritually. But, leaving the garden to die man would come to know God through faith in Jesus.
This is why people who call themselves believers in Jesus need to see the spiritual blessing death brought to mankind. And to stop thinking like natural men. And begin to think like God does.
To understand that death is a blessing in the sense that it was absolutely necessary for God’s plan to work out the way He planned. So that men realizing they were mortal would seek after God for its remedy. And in that process become the spiritual beings Paul speaks of in 2Cor.5:17. To become the new spiritual creations who inherit eternal life and immortality in God’s kingdom.
So when you read in Psalm116 how precious in God’s sight is the death of His saints. Remember that the death we suffer is a blessing every bit as much as the death Jesus suffered was.
Because, unless we are alive when Jesus calls us up to meet Him in the clouds, it is only through death that we can come into the fullness of our inheritance as children of God. The inheritance Paul described in 1Cor.15 saying, “55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Because the only way for us to miss the blessing that could only come as a result of “and so death passed to all men, because of which all that have sinned have sinned” is to reject the one who conquered death. The one who rose from the grave on the 3rd day to make the way through the wall of death, so that all who will believe in Him shall not perish. But would have eternal life.
The way made when Jesus fulfilled the law for Israel so that by it’s passing it could no longer give sin its power to shut Israel up from the faith that has now been revealed to them in Jesus. The way made so that those of the rest of the nations who never knew God could know Him now by turning from their idols to serve the living and true God.
And if you, Jew or gentile, have not trusted in Him who has raised from the dead, and want to have eternal life, you must trust in Him now. He alone is the way, truth, and life. No man can come to the Father except through faith in Him.
Trust in Jesus who alone has made the way through the wall of death for all who will believe in Him. Trust in Jesus who through death joined with man in our mortality. So that through His life we could join with Him in immortality.
If you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. And believe in your heart that He is raised from the dead. You will be saved. For it is with the heart man believes unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Do this and you will have eternal life. Do this and you will be made a child of God and heir to His kingdom. Do this… and I will see you there or in the air!
This message can also be heard at: https://rumble.com/v4v3yac-is-death-a-curse-or-a-necessary-step-in-gods-plan-to-bless-all-men-ps.116.html
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Author: Edward O’Hara
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