I understand this to be a question that has plagued the medical field for many years. They have tried to create it from nothing and found failures. The simplest answer I know, is that God gives life, having created all things, but also, He is the beginning and end of life. Last week, I mentioned that God’s word gives us truth, and life. It has established that because of sin, man dies, Romans 6:23. So we find our lives as being broken, as a creature that was made for God’s purpose, Ephesians 1:3-15.
Genesis tells us that God breathed into man, and he became a “living soul”. As in the old story of Frankenstein, “It’s Alive!!” In chapter 2, Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden of Eden, “the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil”. If they did, they would learn what it is to die. “Death” means a separation, and is used it two senses: (1) between body and soul, or (2) between God and Man. Jesus said, “Fear not him who can destroy the body, but Him who can destroy both body and soul in Hell”. Matthew 10:28 Typically
In John 3, Nicodemus, because of his understanding of the kingdom of God, couldn’t understand this rebirth of life. The kingdom was not a physical nation, but a spiritual one. It was not the physical birth but a spiritual birth, where Christ’s teaching gives life, a life that continues after death, whether a spiritual death or the physical death.
Peter said that God has “given us all things that pertain to life and godliness”. 2 Peter 1:3
It is hard for many to understand that a person can be living physically and yet be dead spiritually. Instead of their having life, they are dead because of sin they had committed. I want us all to think about this point and next week we will discuss this further.
Feel free to visit with us at the Macon Church of Christ on Hwy. 63 S, or visit our website: www. histruth.net .