DEATH | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 1, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 22.

DEATH.

DEATH is the opposite of life. When "the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground," he was an inanimate body, until the Lord breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; then he became a living soul, or living man. Here was a condition just the opposite of what the man was before the breath of life was put into him. He was given access to the tree of life, that his life might be perpetuated. When he disobeyed God, he was sentenced to death. He was shut away from the tree of life, lest he should eat and live forever. The sentence of death meant a return to the condition of the man before he lived at all. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

The warning to the man had been, that in the day when he should eat of the forbidden fruit he should surely die. Why, then, did he not die that day? Because the Gospel of Christ was ready to apply to the sinner; the grace of God and His long-suffering mercy were immediately available. Then, as now, God was "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." As God is not a respecter of persons, and as the atoning Lamb was "slain [in purpose] from the foundation of the world," the honored head of the race could not be made an exception. So there and then the promise was made that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. The Gospel of Christ gave the sinful pair a new probation. It was wholly of grace, wholly undeserved.

So the Gospel of salvation means that, while "the wages of sin is death," "the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." But the eternal life is conditioned upon the acceptance of Christ's atonement by the sinner. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God [death] abideth on him." That the death of the sinner does not mean existence somewhere is shown by the inspired Word: "Evildoers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be." Ps. 37: 9, 10. That death is a complete blank, is also shown in the Word: "The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward [while dead]; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." Eccl. 9: 5, 6.

But to those who shall attain to everlasting life through the "first resurrection" (Rev. 20: 1-11), death will be abolished forever (2 Tim. 1: 8-11). This is the class to whom David refers when he says, "The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace." The Lord also personally testified: "Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth." This, however, is the "new earth," mentioned in 2 Peter 3, "wherein dwelleth righteousness." This is the new earth described by John in Revelation 21, on which New Jerusalem descends "from God out of heaven;" where God and the Lamb will dwell with the people. "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away."