“But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22 NLT)
There is a sense in which as believers in the Lord Jesus we never really die, we simply move from life to life; from physical life to eternal spiritual life. It’s interesting that Paul uses the metaphor of sleep in verse 20. The New Living Translation simply translates verse 20 as “He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died,” but the King James Version uses the expression “the firstfruits of them that slept.”
There are those who build a case that when anyone dies, including believers, it means they go into an unconscious state of sleep, being unaware of anything that is then happening. If Jesus was to be an example of that concept, it fails because Jesus obviously didn’t sleep. Yes, of course His body rested (slept?), but His spirit was active, alive, and according to Peter (1 Peter 3:18-20) visited those whose spirits were in prison, but obviously not asleep, otherwise, how would they have known of the Lord’s presence preaching to them?
The metaphor of “sleep” in death is also an issue with eternal life or punishment in death for unbelievers. In Matthew 25:46 the Bible says: “And they (the unrighteous) will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.” The same word is used to describe the longevity of the life of the righteous and the life of the unrighteous. There’s no mention of sleep or rest from punishment or celebration of life with Jesus.
Additionally, the story Jesus shares in Luke 16 refers to two people who die, a rich man and Lazarus, neither of whom went to sleep, but immediately into torment or the comfort of Abraham. Ecclesiastes 9:5 can seem contradictory when the Bible says: “The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered.” But the Bible doesn’t contradict itself, so there must be another explanation. The key to understanding this text is knowing the context of the whole of the Book of Ecclesiastes. Its focus is on life from a completely human perspective, apart from God. For a better understanding of this passage click here.
Death, which is the final manifestation of sin, is separation from the life of God. That’s what sin does, it separates us from the life of God, His love, power, presence. Separation does not imply sleep or lack of knowledge or emotional unawareness. Quite to the contrary, the torment of hell isn’t about physical torture, but the mental and emotional anguish of the lost being fully aware of what was forfeited by their denying the Lord Jesus ownership of and Lordship over their lives and their clear understanding as to how it could have been avoided. If you don’t yet know Jesus, please don’t let this happen to you. Click on anewstory.com and let Ron Hutchcraft walk you through a simple plan to find Jesus today.
Obviously, a human body could not withstand the flames of an eternal fire. This, too, is a metaphor to describe the agonizing pain of something that is too difficult to withstand but should heighten our awareness of our need to make a decision for the Lord now, while there’s time. But it should also alert us of our need as believers to do all within our power to reach lost people with the truth of eternal life while we can.
Of course, this raises the question of why a loving God would allow someone He supposedly loves to agonize for eternity for their sin? That’s a great question. Let’s look at the answer in tomorrow’s post.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 