In his teaching on the resurrection to the Corinthian believers, Paul makes two statements that give insight to the origin and universality of death. “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (I Corinthians 15:21-22; emphasis added).
Death is real. It happens to each and it will happen to all. None are excluded. The Scriptures teach plainly “it is appointed unto men once to die” (Hebrews 9:27). As we saw above, the Apostle Paul reminds us that death came by man. When God created Adam and Eve, he placed them in the Garden of Eden to dress and to keep it. He gave them provision and prohibition. “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
We know that Eve ate of that tree, gave of it to her husband and he did eat also. They both disobeyed God’s prohibition – she through deception by the serpent and Adam deliberately. Their sin brought death to them both. Though spiritual death was immediate, physical death was not. Even so, the process of death began in them. Death has prevailed upon every man and woman since that time for “in Adam all die.” And so it is that death came by man.
Paul writes elsewhere “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). Nothing quite testifies to our sin nature and consequent sinfulness like the presence of death. Every funeral, every cemetery testifies to our sin. We have all sinned; therefore, death comes upon all. We are literally born “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1).
The universality of death is what makes the resurrection of Christ so precious for “in Christ shall all be made alive.” As we were born into sin and its inevitable death by our relationship to Adam, so through the new birth are we made alive by our relationship to Jesus Christ. Christ conquered death for us. It is his blood shed on the cross that satisfies the claims of the law upon us and removes the sting of death. Christ is life (John 14:6) and he gives life to all that come unto him. Jesus states plainly “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).
While death is inevitable for each, it cannot hold the Christian. The believer need never fear death for “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). To live beyond the fear of death is to live indeed!
From the Chaplain 