LIFE, DEATH, then REAL LIFE Here!

In my last message, “Does God Really SEND People to HELL?” I began sharing some thoughts the Lord dropped in my Spirit to bring clarity to a very emotionally charged and greatly misunderstood subject highlighted by that age-old question: “How could a loving God send people to hell?”  But after walking with the Lord and experiencing His love for over forty years, I strongly believe that God does not SEND people to hell.  If He did, given my sordid past, I would be in hell today.  I am ever thankful that He is the God of love first, then the God of justice!  But make no mistake, there are NO FREE PASSES!

John wrote: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved (Jn.3:16-17).” 

But love isn’t love without free will.  God’s Plan of Salvation isn’t a “Get Out of Hell Free Card” nor a “Ticket to Heaven,” it’s an invitation for us as PRODIGALS to return home to our loving Father and family and experience REAL LIFE! (Jn.15:11-31).  So, love produces faith to make a choice—believing and embracing Jesus as the Son of God and Savior of the world, rather than trying to save ourselves through our own good works!

John continued: “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (Jn.3:18).”  Did you catch that?  God does not condemn unbelievers and send them to hell—THEY ARE ALREADY CONDEMED! 

So, the questions to ask now are: “WHY are they condemned?”  “WHAT are they condemned to?”  And “WHEN did this happen?”  The answer to “WHY?” is SIN!  The answer to “WHAT?” is DEATH!  And the answer to “WHEN?” is THE MOMENT ADAM DISOBEYED GOD!

God gave Adam only one commandment to obey: “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the DAY that you eat of it you shall surely DIE (Gen.2:17).” 

When Adam disobeyed God, he didn’t die physically that day, in fact he lived another 930 years, but he did experience spiritual DEATH.  Paul later wrote: “Through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus, death spread to all men, because all sinned (Rom.5:12).”

Understanding Spiritual Death vs. Physical Death

Since “all men” (including Adam) do not die physically the day they first sin, then the “death” God and Paul was referring to must not be physical, but rather spiritual death, also known as separation from God, in which “hell” is the ultimate and final separation. 

GOD KNEW US previously!

It’s important to understand that “DEATH” can only occur to someone ALIVE!  Therefore, when SIN first occurred and DEATH (separation from God) entered the world, Adam must have been ALIVE spiritually before experiencing separation from God.  Then when “all men” (all of Adam’s offspring—including us), who were also ALIVE spiritually from birth, followed in Adam’s footsteps and sinned the first time, DEATH spread to them (us) and they (we) began that same progression of spiritual separation from God which Adam experienced. 

Speaking to Jeremiah, the Lord gave us amazing insight into a time before and after our conception.  He said, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I sanctified you (Jer.1:5).” 

In his letter to the Romans, Paul recalled an earlier time when he was alive (spiritually): “I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived (Adam’s sin nature lying dormant in Paul, sprang to life), and I died.   And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death (Rom.7:9–10).”

But what “commandment” was it?  It could have been anything that expressed God’s will and once Paul understood it, that commandment gave him a choice.  Sin occurs when I know something is wrong yet choose to disobey and do it anyway or when I know something is right and choose to disobey and NOT do it.  For example, as infants or young children, we eventually realize we are to obey our parents and caregivers.  Then “when the commandment came,” in the form of a “NO” or perhaps a “DON’T,” that mixture of free will and sin nature sprang to life, and we disobeyed.  Remember, God said, “The day that you eat of it (disobey) you shall surely die (spiritually)!”  So, the first time I disobeyed a command that I knew was right was the day I died spiritually.  Those who may think God harsh for allowing children to experience the consequences of sin don’t realize death is the only way of freeing mankind from sin.  In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the young man chose to separate from his Father, but when he repented of his rebellion and returned home to his family, the Father reported the curse was reversed and His son was now free to experience real life: “My son was DEAD and is ALIVE again; he was lost and is found (Lk.15:24).”

WE KNEW GOD Previously!

Paul opened his letter to the Romans referring to a previous time when God not only knew us, but we also knew Him!

Romans 1:20-21  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead (Divine nature), so that they (unbelievers) are without excuse, because, although they KNEW (ginosko) God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Paul was giving us a glimpse into that time after we first sinned.  We were alive spiritually, then death invaded our world, and we began drifting away from God.  Even though we still knew of Him, we could no longer worship Him, we became less and less grateful and optimistic, less sharp in our thinking, and increasingly comfortable living (existing) with darkness and evil. 

Understanding “Conscience”

Within every child is something we call “conscience.”  When Adam ate from “The Tree of Knowledge,” he became ONE with that tree and its fruit—the knowledge of good and evil.  Eating from that tree resulted in spiritual death (separation) because Adam chose to be like God, rather than being of God, by gaining God’s knowledge without Him.  The serpent’s oldest temptation still appeals to our flesh: “You will be like God (independent of Him) (Gen.3:5).” 

Have you ever wondered what happened to that “Tree of Knowledge,” since it’s never mentioned again after Genesis 3?  When Adam ate from it, that tree moved spiritually from God’s Garden into the “garden” of Adam’s heart, of which Adam became his own “gardener (Prov.4:23).”  When that tree was transplanted, it came with a new name—we call it our “conscience.”  As children of Adam, every man, woman, boy, and girl on planet earth carry that Tree of Knowledge (now called “conscience”) in the center of their hearts.  The conscience is the only thing that enables people separated from God to have any sense of knowing right from wrong.  Multitudes with no relationship with the Lord, believe they are going to heaven because they know right from wrong, good from evil, and therefore think they are “a good person.”  And how do they know this?  They rely on their conscience to be their guide, which unbelievers trust in without needing Jesus.  Conscience is like a book from an unknown author.  You know what it says, but no clue why He said it.

When we receive holy communion, we are doing the opposite of Adam.  When he ate from The Tree of Knowledge—the fruit was DEATH.  But when we eat from The Tree of Life (Jesus)—the fruit is REAL LIFE! 

Bar mitzvah

As early as the Second Century, Judaism recognized that children pass from childhood innocence into adult accountability and by the fifteenth century they created a rite for male children called “bar mitzvah,” which in Hebrew means “Son of the Commandments.”  It celebrates 13-year-old male children accepting responsibility to learn and follow the Torah.  I believe the spiritual significance of the male focus was that the human spirit is considered male, while the soul is female.  The human spirit should lead the soul and body.