The Body Must Die

Romans 8:10: ...the body is dead because of sin...

These words are not the most encouraging in the Bible. Nonetheless, they do speak to a reality which we cannot escape and which needs to be confronted with as much understanding as possible.

The Greek word which is used here for death is an extremely graphic word. It could be translated "corpse". The idea is that the body is as good as a corpse. That registers how certain death is. Death is already at work in all of us (aging!).

The big question is why? Why do all people die? Why must you die, no matter how well you eat and exercise, no matter how strong your genetic make-up? Why does death often come so unexpectedly and not as the inevitable result of the aging or dying process? Young people, even children, die when they are just beginning to live, why?

God's Word explains death. In fact, God's Word alone provides us with a reasonable and proven explanation for death. Our text says, "the body is dead because of sin". Sin, very simply, is the violation of God's law. God created us and possesses the absolute right to require us to live according to His good and holy will. Furthermore, God is right to cut us off from living in His creation if we refuse to live as He determines that we should. In the beginning of time, God appointed that the entire human race should be represented (like our elected officials represent us in Washington) in the first man, Adam. God warned Adam that if he disobeyed Him, he (Adam) would bring death upon himself and all his posterity. Paul speaks to this in Romans 5:12: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned". Human nature is born spiritually dead (alienated from God) and is destined to physical death because of Adam's sin, plus our own. But that is not the worst part! The worst part is that the ultimate experience of death occurs when we leave this world and enter into the eternal realm. There is a specially created place which God has prepared for those who have enjoyed His good gifts but have refused to acknowledge Him as the Giver of those gifts and have refused to treat Him with the reverence and submission which He alone deserves as God. God in the display of His infinite holiness has prepared an eternal existence for those humans who die in their sins which is devoid of all that is good and is filled of all that is dreadful. This is death in its ultimate!

It is a horrible fact, but for multitudes of people the very instant their souls are wrenched from their bodies in physical death they become immediately conscious of the most horrible woe and misery they have ever known. And they recognize that there is no escape. That is the horror of death.

But that is not all that there is in the Bible about death. God became man, without sin (the Lord Jesus Christ), and did all that God requires man to do in order not to die. Jesus earned the right not to die. But then He died. He died the death which people like you and me have earned by our sin. Jesus died not only physically but He underwent the experience of God's wrath—the infinite wrath that awaits in eternity. And because He is of infinite worth, His solitary death satisfied forever the offended justice of God for all who entrust themselves to Him. Thus there is gloriously good news in the face of death. John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Time is incredibly important. Now we have opportunity to prepare for all eternity. Now we must believe on Jesus Christ and give our lives to Him. Once death comes the state of our existence will be fixed and there will be no opportunity to go back and make it right. What is your heart relationship with Jesus Christ? Everything depends on that!