The Bible’s view of death.
Some cultures embrace death. Death is seen as natural. Life and death are viewed as never ending cycles. But the Bible does not take this view of death. According to the Bible, death is evil. It was not part of God’s original design for his creation. Rather, death is a consequence of human sinfulness.
Death is the result of sin.
We find this taught in the story of the first sin in the book of Genesis. God had told Adam and Eve that if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they would die (Gen. 2:16-17). Once they ate of the forbidden fruit, God pronounced a series of judgments on Adam and Eve and their descendants that included death. The first parents did not die the day they ate the fruit, but their bodies began to die physically. As a result, death became the reality for every human that came after them (Romans 5:12). The book of Romans teaches us that death is the wage that we earn for our sin (Rom. 6:23). As Adam earned death for his sin, so all of us earn death for our sins.
Physical death.
The Bible teaches us that there are three aspects to death, or three types of death that humans can experience. The first is physical death. This is what we most commonly think of as death. This occurs when we physically die. The soul and body are separated, and we are considered dead.
Spiritual death.
Secondly, the Bible speaks of spiritual death. By spiritual death we mean being spiritually separated from God. We see this occur the moment Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden. They were separated from God. They could no longer be in his presence. Their relationship with him was destroyed. They no longer could casually speak with him. This is why Adam and Eve were taken out of the garden. They were being removed from God’s presence. As descendants of Adam and Eve, we are born spiritually dead. We are born into this world separated from him.
Eternal death.
The third aspect of death is eternal death. This refers to the everlasting separation from God that people experience after their physical death if they have not trusted in Jesus. As the name “eternal” signifies, this death is for eternity. It is an eternity separated from God, his people, and all hope. The book of Revelation calls this the second death (Revelation 20:14; 21:8). This is the death that Satan, his demons, and all who reject God will experience. When the Bible talks about death, it may be referring specifically to one of these aspects.
Discussion Questions:
- Watch the video together or invite someone to summarize the topic.
- What is your initial reaction to this video? Do you disagree with any of it? What jumped out at you?
- Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
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