What does the Bible mean when it uses the word “death?”1
Is it the inability to act? Is it separation? I tend to favor the concept of separation. This question came up while I was doing some early morning reading.
The Bible Archive :: Russ on Total Depravity
So how are we to understand death as it is presented in Scripture? We think of death as in-animation or the inability to act. Dead people can’t do anything…. Is this, though, a Biblical understanding of death?
I think that a clearer Biblical picture of death is separation from God rather than a sense of inability. Adam and Eve in the day that they sinned died – part of that death was not only spiritual but the physical separation from the presence of God. The eternal punishment which is called the second death often contains images of separation (Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 25:30, Luke 16:26, Revelation 20:10-15). When describing the life of eternity, Revelation 21 and 22 seem to focus strongly on the presence of God. From these verses, we can state that a person who is dead in their sins is separated from God (for now, simply spiritually – ultimately, in our whole being).
What do you think? Is this a good way to view death?
- Is this even the best way to ask this question? Would it be better to ask, what are productive ways to view or conceptualize the Bible’s use of the term “death?” [↩]
3 Comments
Henry,
It's not either or, rather it is both. All of the passages cited in the post do in fact talk about death as an eternal separation from the glory of God (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9). But this article did not deal with death as it is found in Ephesians 2:1-7. Consider Paul's words,
The Greek term for "dead" is the noun nekrous, which means one who has breathed his last, without life, inanimate like a corpse. But notice the verb that follows. It is periepathsate which is a second-person plural, active, indicative, aorist verb meaning "you all walked." It is an active verb. Thus the subject of the sentence is both dead, inanimate, and actively following the Satan and the world.
Then in Ephesians 2:5 that Paul says when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive. The verb is sunezwopoihsen which means to be made alive together. Until this happened, a person was following the course of the world and Satan. But once they were sunezwopoihesen-ed, they were joined with Christ, faith was given to them, they shared in the blessings of heaven through Christ. When we were dead, we followed Satan. When we were made alive, we believed God gave us faith to believe. God's grace made us alive to him. It isn't that we were separated from God as much as we would not turn to God because of our death. Only new life, regeneration, would turn us to God.
Also, consider John 6:44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day." Here we see Jesus saying that "No one can come." That is the Greek word dunatai, which means power or ability to do something. No one has the power or ability to come to God unless the Father drags (elkush) him. This statement is to explain why the Jews sought the miracles of Jesus, not Jesus himself. The same verb is used in John 3;3 where Christ says to Nicodemus, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot (ou dunatai)see the kingdom of God." There is an inability to come to God. Paul refers to this inability as death, dead to the things of God and spiritual life. Until God acts, man is unable to come to him (cf. John 6:64-65; the reason why Judas Iscariot did not believe and accept Christ, but rather betrayed him, is because God did not grant him to come to Christ in faith, that faith was not given to him; this statement functions like John 6:44 in that it explains unbelief of the hearers of Jesus' preaching).
On a side note, 1 John 5:1 ESV says, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him." The verbs "believes" and "loves" are present tense participles. Literally they would say "the ones who are believing" and "the ones who are loving." The verb "has been born of God/him" are perfect tense verbs, denoting completed action. The action of being born again has already been done to those who are believing. Thus John seems to view regeneration occurring before faith. Russ got it wrong in with this text.
Great reply Hank…man this guy really is stealing my thunder lately…I was thinking right along with your first sentence that this is not an either or situation. Also to understand “deadness” we need to remember that in Ephesians 2 it is a state that is really applied the all people, it is the state of the natural man who in 1 Corinthians 2:14 I think does not and can not recieve the things of God for they are foolishness to him.
So deadness yes it seperation from God, hence all of the talk about how in Christ we are reconciled to God, but it is also a state of inability or rather an adversity to the things of God. I would say it is (at least from a human standpoint) this adversity to the things of God (Rom 8:7) that causes the seperation.
Hank,
I agree with Bob. Nicely done. I feel as if I just had a review of Total Depravity!
Edgar.