We have Spiritual death, Physical death, and Eternal death. There is no such thing as soul sleep as some would believe.
Spiritual death came to the earth first, then manifested itself in the Physical body by destroying it. Physical death is but a manifestation of the law which is at work within, called by Paul, the law of sin and death ( Romans 8:2). When God said to Adam, in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die, He didn't refer to physical death, but to spiritual death. If man had never died spiritually, he would not have died physically.
Spiritual death means separation from God. The moment Adam sinned, he was separated from God. And when God came down in the cool of the day, as was His custom to walk and talk with Adam, and called Adam, where art thou? Adam said, I hid myself. He was separated from God.
Man is now united with the devil. He is an outcast, an outlaw, driven from the garden with no legal ground of approach to God. He no longer responds to the call of God. He responds only to his new nature, or to his new master. Man is more than a transgressor. He is spiritually a child of the devil and he partakes of his fathers nature.
This explains why man cannot be saved by conduct. He has to be born again. If man were not a child of the devil, then he could just begin to put on the right kind of conduct, and he'd be alright. But even if he puts on the right conduct, he's still a child of the devil, and will go to hell when he dies.
Man cannot stand in the presence of God as he is, because he has the nature of his father, the devil, in him. If man is ever saved, he has to be saved by someone paying the penality for his sins, and by someone giving him a new nature
Man, however, who is a spirit living in a body, can be re-born. His nature can be changed. He can become a new creature in Christ Jesus
Man needs life from God, because he is spiritually dead. And Thanks be to God, Christ has redeemed us from spiritual death.
May God bless, golfjack
Spiritual death came to the earth first, then manifested itself in the Physical body by destroying it. Physical death is but a manifestation of the law which is at work within, called by Paul, the law of sin and death ( Romans 8:2). When God said to Adam, in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die, He didn't refer to physical death, but to spiritual death. If man had never died spiritually, he would not have died physically.
Spiritual death means separation from God. The moment Adam sinned, he was separated from God. And when God came down in the cool of the day, as was His custom to walk and talk with Adam, and called Adam, where art thou? Adam said, I hid myself. He was separated from God.
Man is now united with the devil. He is an outcast, an outlaw, driven from the garden with no legal ground of approach to God. He no longer responds to the call of God. He responds only to his new nature, or to his new master. Man is more than a transgressor. He is spiritually a child of the devil and he partakes of his fathers nature.
This explains why man cannot be saved by conduct. He has to be born again. If man were not a child of the devil, then he could just begin to put on the right kind of conduct, and he'd be alright. But even if he puts on the right conduct, he's still a child of the devil, and will go to hell when he dies.
Man cannot stand in the presence of God as he is, because he has the nature of his father, the devil, in him. If man is ever saved, he has to be saved by someone paying the penality for his sins, and by someone giving him a new nature
Man, however, who is a spirit living in a body, can be re-born. His nature can be changed. He can become a new creature in Christ Jesus
Man needs life from God, because he is spiritually dead. And Thanks be to God, Christ has redeemed us from spiritual death.
May God bless, golfjack