The Death Psalm

The Scriptures were very important to the Jewish people. When Jewish boys went to school they were required to memorize the Torah, the first five books of the Bible – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The girls also went to school and they were taught the Psalms and the Proverbs, as well as parts of the Torah.

Being a Rabbi, Jesus would have had the entire Bible memorized, including the Psalms. When Jesus was dying on the cross, he quoted from what was known as the Death Psalm, Psalm 22. It is the wish of a Jew to be reciting Psalm 22 when they die. It is difficult for someone who is being crucified to speak. They have to push up with their legs in order to get a breath of air. Jesus begins reciting the Death Psalm by shouting, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” and as time goes by, you can see that the Psalm is still on his mind. He is repeating it in his head, and every time he gets to a place where it reminds him of something, he speaks.

When the Psalm says, “From birth I was cast on you; from my mother's womb you have been my God,” Jesus says to his mother, "’Woman, here is your son,’ and to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’" When the Psalm says, “My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death,” Jesus speaks, “I am thirsty.”

As Jesus remembers what the Psalm says, “They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment,” He watches as the soldiers gamble for His own clothing.

But the real good news comes at the end of this Psalm. It says:

“All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him,
for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.
All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
those who cannot keep themselves alive.
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has finished it!”

And with that, Jesus cries out, “It is finished!” and He dies there.

“It is finished.” This is a truly remarkable sentence. The ramifications of such a statement are great. It’s over. It’s done. Jesus has paid the price. Sin and death have come to an end. But there is more to the death of Jesus than the forgiveness of sins. There is also redemption. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross made a way not only for us to escape from an eternity in hell, but it also provided a way for us to be brought back to God. We are now able to come to God without there being a dividing wall between us.

But the making of the way to bring people back to God is not something that is only for people as individuals. Our salvation and redemption is not something that for us only and only us to see. No. Christ’s sacrifice has made a way for the whole world to be brought back to God. The Psalm says:

“All the ends of the earth
will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations
will bow down before him.”

It goes on to say that the LORD’s righteousness will be proclaimed to future generations, and that they will say, “He has finished it.”

“He has finished it.” The death of Jesus is directly connected with the salvation and the redemption of the nations. Through the death of Christ, God will turn the hearts of the nations back to Him. The significance of Jesus saying “It is finished” can be found at the end of this death psalm, for the proclamation of the nations who have put their hope in God is that He has finished it. In Jesus, we see the fulfillment of this prophecy. Through His death, Jesus has finished it – meaning that he has made a way for the healing of the nations through the forgiveness of sins.

It is God’s desire that everyone be saved – this includes people from every tribe, language, people and nation. One of the reasons that Jesus has not come back yet is that there are people who still do not know him. There are tribes and people groups who do not yet know about Jesus and what He did for them. We know this is true from the Scriptures. It is not that Jesus does not want to come back. He does. But he is waiting for the full number of the Gentiles to be brought into the Kingdom before he returns to proclaim judgment on the world and establish His reign on earth forever.

2 Peter 3: 9-10 says, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.”

God’s desire is that everyone be saved. This is why He has waited so long to pronounce His judgment on the world. Yet the Day of Judgment will still come at its proper time. However, we learn in the Gospels that this will not take place until after the Gospel has been preached to all the nations. Jesus says in Matthew 24: 14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

This idea of God’s righteousness being extended to the very ends of the earth was not an idea that arose after the death of Jesus. The death of Jesus provided the foundation of this act to be carried out, but the idea that this would one day happen had been spoken of by the prophets long before Jesus made His home in an earthly tent – long before the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The prophets had seen this day and they looked forward to its fulfillment. Isaiah prophesied that the ends of the earth would turn to God.

When I was working in Argentina, my team-leader, Mike Morgan, would have us get together every morning and every night for a group devotion time. He would have us students prepare a devotion every morning to help prepare us for the day of work we would have ahead of us. And every almost every night, we would come together for a time of fellowship. We would share what we had learned during the day and we would encourage one another and tell each other in what ways we had seen God working in them and in others and in different circumstances throughout the day. Our team included native Argentines, including people from the tribe of the Toba Indians. They worked alongside us during the day, they ate with us in the morning, and joined us for our fellowship time at night. What was said in English was translated into Spanish for them. One night, Mike spoke to us out of the book of Isaiah the prophet. He said to us that Isaiah had prophesied thousands of years ago that the ends of the earth would one day turn to God. Mike told us that what we had seen that day was that prophesy being fulfilled. There we were – in the middle of nowhere – the very ends of the earth. And even there, God’s Kingdom was breaking through and being established. The Toba people of the remote northern regions of Argentina had been reached with the Gospel and were coming to know Christ. This was what Isaiah had prophesied. And this is what Jesus had in mind when He said on the cross, “It is finished.”

The Principle of Reproduction

Reproduction Defined 

The Principle of Reproduction has to do with multiplying the ministry. Those who minister to others are called to call others to minister to still more others. As Christians, we are to follow the command of God and multiply, filling the whole earth. We are called to make Christ-like disciples among the nations, teaching them to walk as Jesus walked. We are to bring other people into the Kingdom. 

Reproduction Modeled in the Life of Jesus 

This principle was demonstrated in the life of Jesus. He called his disciples to go out and make other disciples. This is seen when Jesus sends out the twelve into the surrounding countryside, it is seen when Jesus sends out the seventy into Judea, and it is further seen in the Great Commission given at the end of the synoptic Gospels and the beginning of the book of Acts. Jesus said to his disciples just before he ascended into heaven, “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” These are the last recorded words of Christ before he ascended back to the Father, and the Christian community is to take his instructions very seriously.

Jesus did not just tell his disciples to reproduce. He told them that he would go with them and would go before them. Matthew records that after Jesus spoke these words to them, he said, “And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.” Jesus will go with us in our disciple-making journey, and he is already ahead of us as well, even at the end of the age.

Matthew also records that right before Jesus gave his disciples these instructions he said to them that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. He then turns to them and gives them this authority and instructs them to make disciples of all the nations, etc. The authority of Jesus has been given to the church to make disciples. Jesus even said that the church would do greater things than the miracles he himself had performed on earth.

The Principle of Supervision

Supervision Defined 

This principle may be defined as making sure that your protégé stays on the right track. When you are a leader in ministry, you will have people serving under you. When you delegate different responsibilities to them you will need to check up on them and make sure they understand what they are doing and why. You need to be available to answer their questions. You do not need to be always peering over their shoulder, but you ought to keep close enough distance to them so that you intervene in case anything goes wrong. Also, you should be there for them in order to encourage them and let them know when they have got it exactly right. 

Supervision Modeled in the Life of Jesus 

This principle was also modeled in the life of Jesus and seen in his own ministry with his disciples. Jesus spent all kinds of time with his disciples when they were in ministry together. He supervised them. However, Jesus was not physically with them every moment of every day, even though he was very close to being with them at all times. He looked out for his disciples and may sure they did not get themselves into trouble. This is seen on various occasions. When the disciples had been arguing amongst themselves about which one of them was the greatest, Jesus stepped in later and asked them what they had been arguing about on the road. The disciples were then ashamed of themselves as Jesus pointed out to them that their priorities were in the wrong place. Working in the kingdom was not about being the greatest; it was about being a servant.

Peter also got himself into trouble on a number of occasions. When he was asked by the religious leaders whether or not Jesus paid the temple tax, he spoke for Jesus and said that of course he did. Later, Jesus went to Peter and brought his impulsive answer to his attention, pointing out the ridiculousness of God giving money to God. However, Jesus does not seem as though he wanted to embarrass Peter or to offend the religious leaders on this matter so he sent Peter out to go catch a fish which had a coin in its mouth in order to pay for Peter’s tax and his. Jesus was showing Peter that God is all-resourceful, but also that God had humbled himself and became a man for the sake of others.

When Jesus disciples had returned to him after having gone throughout the countryside preaching the good news to all who would listen, Jesus was eager to hear their report. He did not send them out on their own, but sent them out in pairs to keep each other accountable among other reasons. Also, once he had sent them out he did not disconcern himself about their mission. He wanted to hear how things had gone. When they returned to him they gave him a glorious report which he seems to have been very pleased to hear. However, he even used this as a means for teaching them. They had been amazed that the demons themselves had submitted to them. Jesus told them that rather than rejoicing that the devils had submitted to them, they should receive greater joy that their names were written in the book of life. Jesus said that he had seen Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Satan was already being defeated, so they should not have been too surprised that the demons were powerless against them.

The Principle of Delegation

Delegation Defined 

The Principle of Delegation is the idea that ministry is not something that we simply do on our own. Ministry is a group effort. With delegation one calls upon others to play a role in the ministry of the kingdom. Ministry is not meant to be a one man show, but a partnership. The task of ministry is too much for just one person. Those in a leadership role ought to recognize their own limits as well as recognize the value of input by others into their work. The Christian faith and the acts of ministry which are a part of the Christian faith are not to be carried out in isolation. Christianity as well as ministry is relational. 

Delegation Modeled in the Life of Jesus 

Jesus modeled the Principle of Delegation in his own life. Rather than taking the time to carry out every item on his agenda by himself, he asked for help, or rather he assigned various tasks for other people to perform on his behalf. This is seen especially when Jesus sends out the seventy-two into the various regions around the country in order to preach the good news of the kingdom and to heal people of diseases and to cast out demons among other tasks. Rather than going to each of these places himself Jesus stayed behind in order to work on whatever he needed to work on at the time. Instead of attempting to do the work of seventy-two different men, Jesus delegated these responsibilities out to different capable people whom he felt he could trust with these tasks.

Another example of Jesus following the Principle of Delegation can be seen in the stories of feeding of the large crowds. Jesus had his disciples go around and count how many people were present, and he also had his disciples go around and have every one sit down on the grass. He also had them distribute the food which he miraculously provided for everyone. It almost seems silly that Jesus would ask for the help of his disciples when he was powerful enough to create the food they were handing out. However, I think this goes to show that just because you are capable of doing something on your own that does not mean that you ought to do it on your own. There is great benefit for yourself and for those who help you when you ask for help.

Another example of Jesus delegating is when he sends two disciples to go find a donkey for him to ride into Jerusalem. They go and fetch it for him instead him getting it himself. Also, around this time Jesus sent Peter and John to go prepare the Passover meal for him and his disciple to eat, rather than him preparing the whole thing himself. He appears to have had every confidence in them and their ability to perform these tasks on his behalf.

The Principle of Demonstration

Demonstration Defined 

The Principle of Demonstration can be explained by saying that one must set an example in the patterns and behaviors of their own life when leading other people in ministry. If one wants to see a certain type of behavior or attitude exhibited in the lives of those who follow him, then he must be willing to display these same kinds of attitudes and behaviors in his own life. People learn by example.

Demonstration Modeled in the Life of Jesus 

Jesus modeled this principle in his own life when he spent time with his disciples. He demonstrated to his disciples a life lived in submission and obedience to the Father. His disciples followed in his example. I have been taught that Jesus was a rabbi and that rabbis chose disciples or talmudim because they believed that the ones they chose had the ability and the potential to be like them. So the rabbis would set an example for their young disciples to follow and the followers would try to be just like their leader. This idea is seen in the gospels on a number of occasions. One example is when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, and Jesus prayed for them to show them a proper example. This is how “The Lord’s Prayer” came to be – by demonstration.

Another example is when the disciples did not fast. The Pharisees asked Jesus why his disciples did not fast like John’s disciples fasted, and Jesus told them that they could not fast while the bridegroom was with them. It would seem that it was customary for rabbis to have their disciples fast on occasion. However, Jesus led his disciples in this a bit differently. His disciples followed his example.

Another example of this idea is seen when Jesus is walking on the water across the lake and Peter calls out to him asking to walk to him on the water. Peter saw his rabbi walking on the water and he wanted to be just like his rabbi, so he asked Jesus to call out to him to come and follow him out of the boat and onto the water. This is yet another example of Jesus leading by demonstration. There are many other examples throughout the gospels as well.

The Principle of Impartation

Impartation Defined 

The Principle of Impartation may be defined by stating that if one has a desire to live a life in ministry to others one must carry the Spirit of Christ within themselves. In ministry, one gives the Spirit of Christ to others, in a sense, and one can only give the Spirit of Christ to someone else if they have the Spirit of Christ themselves. In impartation, those who come into contact with the one in the position of ministry should be aware that this individual has the Spirit of Christ within them. 

Impartation Modeled in the Life of Jesus 

In the life of Jesus, one may see this Principle of Impartation put into practice. Jesus was God, so naturally when his followers spent time with him they were in a very real sense spending time with God. However, Jesus was not only God. He was also a human living with the Holy Spirit inside of him, the very Spirit of God. Jesus also imparted the Spirit to his disciples in a human way as well, not just as God. There is evidence in the New Testament that Jesus was a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit of God. At Jesus’ baptism, it is recorded that the Spirit of God came down from heaven in the form of a dove and landed upon Jesus. This was a sign that the Spirit of God was present with Jesus and it showed that he had God’s approval and authority. Evidence of the Spirit in Christ is also seen when Jesus is at the synagogue in Nazareth and he reads from the scroll “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” This idea portrays the impartation of the Spirit as a sort of anointing. Jesus had been anointed by God’s Spirit to proclaim good news.

Later in the gospels, Jesus anoints his disciples to proclaim this good news as well. This is seen especially in the great commission. Jesus also gave them of his own Spirit so that they would not be afraid and would be able to complete the task he had given them. This is seen in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples in the second chapter of Acts, but it is also seen before Christ’s ascension when he breathes his Spirit onto them. It is also recorded that after his resurrection Jesus appeared to the disciples and breathed on them and told them to receive his Spirit. He said this even to those who doubted.

The Principle of Consecration

Consecration Defined 

The Principle of Consecration may be defined by living in obedience to Christ. Christ called his followers to obey him and in our submission to the will of Christ and in our obedience to him we live out the Principle of Consecration. In consecration is seen devotion. We must devote ourselves to Christ, to his salvation, to his life, and to his purposes. 

Consecration Modeled in the Life of Jesus 

The Principle of Consecration is seen in the life of Jesus in that he called his disciples to absolute loyalty to him. His disciples were committed to following Jesus wherever he went, even to the grave, though they often fell short of their desire to follow him into all things. Jesus showed in his own life that he was consecrated to the will of the Father. He often says in the gospels that he has come to do his Father’s will. He even calls Peter “Satan” at one point because Peter is trying to convince that God’s will for his life is something other than what God has made clear to him. Christ sets an example of consecration to his own followers. Just as he submits to the Father, so they must submit to him as he does the will of the Father.

The call of Jesus to entire consecration is an extraordinary one. He says that “if anyone would come after he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow him.” He also says that “whoever wants to save his life must lose it.” Jesus goes on to say that those who have a divided will cannot serve him. They must be completely devoted. He says “A man cannot serve two masters. Either he will love the one and hate the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.”

Jesus even says that those who would follow him must give up everything for the sake of the kingdom. There were many followers who came to Jesus to ask what they must do to be his disciple, and Jesus always called them to surrender their lives completely. The rich young man had to surrender all of his wealth. Another disciple was told that he must leave his father’s funeral planning to someone else. Another was told that he would have to be homeless with no place to rest his head if he truly wanted to be a disciple of Jesus, which meant to be like Jesus. Christ even said that being consecrated to him as his disciple would cause the members of one’s own household to become his enemies. All of this shows the weight of consecration. It shows that consecration is more important than wealth, than having a home, and even more important than your own family. These were “hard words” for most of Jesus’ followers.

The Principle of Association

Association Defined 

The Principle of Association may be defined by stating that the one who leads a ministry does not only teach and give lessons to those under his ministry, but he becomes close friends with those he teaches as well. He chooses to become associated with them. They do life together. They go places together, share meals with each other, and talk about life. 

Association Modeled in the Life of Jesus 

This Principle of Association is modeled in the life of Jesus and his ministry with the disciples. In Jesus’ ministry he selected the twelve disciples to be his close companions and followers. Jesus became associated with this group of people and they became associated with him. Jesus did life with these twelve young men. He took them with him to different places, such as the area around the Sea of Galilee, to Jerusalem, and even as far north as Caesarea Philippi at one point. Jesus took his disciples with him to participate in his ministry.

Jesus also ate meals with his disciples as well as others. Jesus associated himself with people who were considered the least and the unclean and even gave himself a sort of a bad reputation for doing so. He spent time with tax collectors and prostitutes and he came to be associated with them. The incarnation itself is an example of Jesus’ choice to associate himself with humankind. The Scriptures record that “he took up our diseases and carried our sorrows.” He identified with mankind and became associated with mankind. In Jesus’ friendship with his disciples, he is seen confiding in them. In the Garden of Gethsemane he asks them to stay up and pray with him during his night of sorrow, and he is deeply hurt when they cannot stay awake with him and pray. In John, Jesus calls his disciples “friends.” Jesus is also seen associating with the disciples by visiting them in their own homes. The Gospels record Jesus staying at Peter’s house and healing his mother-in-law while there.

The Principle of Selection

Selection Defined 

The Principle of Selection holds the idea that in ministering to others one may take on the task of ministering to a small number of individuals in particular over a mass amount of people. One does not ignore ministry to others but one may spend extra amounts of time with a few certain people in order to create an effective ministry to those individuals. It is important to have people who are much closer to you than the majority of those within your ministry. Being selective in this way is not wrong. It benefits those who are closest to you without taking away anything of necessity from the rest of the crowd. 

Selection Modeled in the Life of Jesus 

Examples of The Law of Selection may be referred to within the ministry of Jesus. In Jesus’ ministry, he focused on a select few to whom he ministered regularly. One may see many levels of selection within Jesus’ own ministry. Out of all the people who followed him he selected seventy-two people that he sent out the spread the good news of the kingdom of heaven in the various regions in Israel. He gave these seventy-two people authority to work miracles and cast out demons among other things. They were an important part of Jesus’ ministry.

However, Jesus carried his selection out even further and he chose his twelve disciples to be his close friend and comrades in ministry. Most of the recorded words of Jesus were spoken to the twelve disciples. Jesus focused on these twelve in particular. Instead of dumbing down everything he said so that it would be completely obvious to everyone, he chose to speak in parables to the crowds. Those who truly wanted to understand his message went to him later in order to learn from him what he had been trying to say. This act is seen quite frequently among the Twelve.

Jesus’ selection went even further than the Twelve, however. He selected three from among the twelve whom he considered to be his closest friends. These three were Peter, James, and James’ brother John. These three were the only three who witnessed Christ in his splendor when his appearance was transfigured before them on the mountain. It was with these three that Jesus was most intimate. Also, it would seem that Jesus was perhaps even more selective at this point, perhaps taking special interest in Peter, sort of singling him out as his replacement if you will, or at least the one who would take over his ministry after he was gone. John is also thought to be “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” so this might be another example of selection taking place within the gospel narrative.

Why Death?

What place does death have in the world?

Why do we die?

Why do things break and fall apart and decay? Why is there destruction?

As Christians, we have been taught that because of sin, death entered into the world. And that because of the one sin of Adam and Eve, all humankind was cursed to sin and to suffer and to die. This is what we call the Fall of Man and Original Sin. Because of that original sin committed by our first parents in the Garden of Eden, all of humankind and all of creation is fallen. And this is why we experience pain and suffering and this is why we die.

We have also been taught that as humans, we have only existed on earth for a relatively short period of time. Scientific findings place the existence of Homo sapiens to go back for only about 200,000 years. During that time, humans increased in knowledge of themselves and of the world around them. At the same time, throughout those 200,000 years humans experienced death. Their bodies experienced sickness and decay and they died, just like every other plant and animal on the face of the earth.

So at what point do we say death entered into the human condition? Evidence would say that death existed long before humans were formed. Our pre-human ancestors lived and died much as we do now. And their ancestors did the same. The Neanderthal was a close cousin to Homo sapiens. Neanderthals were very much like humans. They wore clothing, they communicated verbally, they participated in art, and they had an awareness of the spiritual. These creatures were so human-like, and yet they were not fully human. Their genetic code was certainly different from Homo sapiens, and yet similar enough that both species seemed to experience life in much the same way. Neanderthals were certainly sentient beings, and yet they were not truly human.

What are we to do with this? Both humans and Neanderthals, as well as the several other more fully evolved species of primates I have not mentioned, experienced death. They mourned for their dead, they suffered from pain when they were injured, they experienced sickness and frustration. All of these things have been blamed on the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, all of these things have been blamed on Homo sapiens, and yet, all of these things existed before Homo sapiens were created. Humans and Neanderthals and the other similar species all had a common ancestor – one also considered a primate. This primate also experienced death, yet this ancestor did not experience death in the same way. This creature was incapable of seeing the world in the same ways in which his human and Neanderthal descendants could. His brain was not designed to comprehend these greater intricacies of the created order. He could not ponder death and pain in the same way his descendants would. He was truly an animal without sentience. And while he may have been able to recognize to a certain extent the tragedy of death and the sorrow all creatures experience when a loved one dies, he did not experience these things in a fully cognizant way. His life depended upon instinct and upon his sensory capabilities. He experienced life through his senses, and while he did think, his thought could only go so far before his baser instincts kicked in. This was what he was created to be.

And yet this study of the evolution of the genetic code of primates fails to answer the question of where death came from. We believe that death entered the world through the sin of people, and yet death obviously existed at the time of this primate ancestor, before humans existed. We cannot say that this ancestor is the cause of the suffering we experience in the world, for he was not capable of the sin which we believe brought death into the world. As Wesleyans, we often say we believe that sin is only truly a sin if it is committed willingly and if the person who commits the sin is aware of what they are doing and that what they are doing is wrong. Surely, humans and Neanderthals and the like were capable of this kind of sin, and surely this primate ancestor was not. He was not capable of sin, because he was not aware of the ability to sin. So if we are to blame death on sin, we cannot blame it on him because he did not sin, and if we are to blame death on the specific sin of humans, we also run into trouble because death existed before humans, before creatures were capable of sinning.

And yet we cannot, as some have, just throw out centuries of church theology and millennia of progress in understanding how we relate to God and how our sin separates us from God and how death interacts with sin – not to mention the restorative work of Christ, which of all things oddly tends to be the most ridiculed by secularists. But at the same time, we cannot simply deny the evidence that science has given us, as others have, and say that evolution is a lie and the earth is only 6,000 years old while completely ignoring the overwhelming genetic and archaeological evidence against such claims.

As Wesleyans, we are not Fundamentalists. We believe that the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God, but we do not mistake the word of God for the Word of God, which is Christ. We believe in the truth of the Bible, but we believe more so in the truth that is revealed in Christ. We do not believe that God simply dictated the words of Scripture to the people who wrote them down. We believe that those who wrote the Bible used their own minds and skills and incorporated their own thoughts and ideas into its pages while at the same time being influenced and led in a certain direction by the Sprit of God. This gives us room to say that perhaps some of things we read in the Bible reflect not so much the way God saw the world, but rather the way humans interacted with God within their own limited historical and cultural settings. If one were to take the Creation accounts in Genesis, for example, on a completely literal level, then one would have to conclude that the sky is actually a great glass dome overlooking the earth, behind which can be seen a great mass of blue water. Science has disproved this theory long ago, but this does not mean that the story is just a bunch of falsehoods and should not be trusted. On the contrary, this story paints a picture of the all-powerful God who created the heavens and the earth by his own will and love, and it shows how his image is stamped over all of his creation, and how people out of all of the creation were chosen to interact with God in a special way. All of these timeless truths are portrayed in a poetic way in Genesis, a way that the people of the time could easily remember. In addition to this, these truths are forever engraved upon an ancient near eastern understanding of the world, which believed in such things as the sky dome. These elements of the story do not detract from its intended message, even though some get overly distracted by them, rather they show how God has revealed himself in all generations, even to ancient near eastern people who did not fully understand the way the world operated on a grand scale, just as God continues to reveal himself today to us who do not fully understand the way the world operates on a grand scale.

And yet after all this time, we still do not have an answer as to exactly why death exists and how exactly the sin of humans is related to death. We believe that sin causes death, but what do we exactly mean when we say that? Death can have many different forms after all. Do we mean to say that all forms of death are a result of human sin? Do we believe that death came into existence because of sin? Or do we believe that the end result of sin is death? Does death truly exist in and of itself? Or is death merely the absence of life and all that truly does exist? Perhaps what we mean when we say that sin leads to death is that when we sin we die spiritually. Our sin cuts us off from the life-giving Spirit of God. So in a very real sense, our souls are being led to death when we sin. So maybe when we say that sin leads to death, what we are really saying is that our soul is dying when we sin.

However, this leads some other problems. While it is very true that our souls are dying when we sin, there is more to death than just a spiritual death. Some may argue that the spirit and soul of a person is all that matters, so a spiritual salvation from death is all that is required, but that ignores that fact that as humans we have been created to exist in both a spiritual and a physical sense. We are both physical and spiritual beings, and this cannot be ignored. The Gnostics believed that people were created from sinful matter, and the only way we could be free from sin was to die and live on as an eternal soul, but such an understanding denies the inherent goodness of God’s creation. We believe that God created everything good, and that this is not limited to some concept about an eternal soul. God made the physical as well as the spiritual, and he made both good. If we truly believe that, then what do we say when we say that sin only leads to spiritual death and not physical death? When we say that, we say that physical death is not truly bad. If only spiritual death is the result of sin, then that would mean that physical death must have come to be a reality by some other means. But do we really want to say this? Everything within us screams that when we lose a loved one, or when we are forced to see a loved one suffer physical pain or when we experience physical pain and suffering ourselves, that this is not the way things should be. If the creation was truly created good and our sin only leads to spiritual pain and death, then what is the deal with all of the physical suffering and death that we see? Where did all of that come from? And why do we resist it with all of our being? Something deep inside us tells us that it is all terribly wrong. And yet physical death and decay are a part of nature. Without physical death, the creation would not exist as it does. The created order is full of cycles and one of these cycles is the death of all things. As the creation continues to recreate and to replenish itself, it continues to discard the old and that which is no longer needed in order to make space for new creation. Is that all that physical death is? Is it just a natural part of the way the universe exists? Everything dies and decays after all – from people, to animals, to plants, to planets, to stars, to galaxies. And yet everything continues on regardless of death. People create more people before they eventually die. Plants make more plants. Even stars have a reproductive cycle. It would appear that everything in the universe was made with the purpose of eventually recreating itself in one way or another. Is physical death then, the way that nature makes room for new creations? Does physical death eliminate that which is less complete in order to replace it with something more complete? And what does such a belief say about us when we die? Are we to believe that the reason we die is to make room for better people, a more complete creation than we are, to come after us? Again, this type of thinking can also lead us into many additional problems.

While the evidence may lead us to believe that the natural way of the universe tends towards “survival of the fittest,” and while we cannot rule out such a claim, we must also recognize that such an understanding is limited when it comes to understanding death. We may be led to believe that physical death on its own is a good thing because it has helped lead to the creation which we see today and has driven the creation towards perfection. But does a natural physical death truly lead to a better creation, or just a different creation than what previously existed? Does death really make anything better? Or does it simply eliminate what nature perceives as lesser? One could argue that death not only eliminates the lesser and the imperfect, but it also eliminates that which is good. If we truly believe that the physical world was created good then why would anything in it need to be destroyed? And what are we to believe about ourselves? If God truly loves us, then why would he create us to die? While it might be easier for some to believe that death naturally occurs in creation in general, it is more difficult to claim that sentient beings such as humans, beings which we believe God loves personally and on an individual level, have been created to die and be replaced by other humans. Maybe that is how creation was meant to exist up to the point some branches of the primate family tree became sentient beings, but what about after this? Why does God let people die?

Perhaps the answer lies at the point in which the creation became sentient – the point at which the ancestors of homo sapiens and like-minded creatures were first given sentience. One could argue that a creature that cannot experience death on a cognizant level cannot ever have a problem with death. While a non-sentient animal can still experience death and pain on a sensory level, it does not ever have to wrestle with the meaning of life and death. However, we, as sentient beings, do. And this continues to beg the question, why do people experience physical death? It also causes one to wonder how deep physical death stings us, and not us only, but the rest of creation as well. We believe pain and anguish to be a bad thing on a cognizant level, but we also experience pain and anguish on an emotional and sensory level and it causes great unpleasantness to the point at which we recognize through our cognitive abilities that pain is a bad thing – not just because have the ability process that fact with our minds, but because our sensory bodies naturally feel that way when they are injured. This is true not just for us, but for the rest of the animal world. It is not just humans who dread pain and destruction. Animals also dread it on a very deep, though less cognizant, level.

So what does that lead us to conclude? It would seem then that while physical death is a natural part of the physical creation, it is also for some reason natural for the creation to fight against death. Why then is there this contradiction? One could perhaps say that without this resistance to death, the creation would summarily succumb to death. Without the natural tendency of the creation to resist death, death would be all that would remain and there would be no creation. If then, it is so important that the creation resist death so as never to fully succumb to it, why is death necessary at all? If God is the creator of the creation, then why did he allow a creation that includes death?

Perhaps the reason why death exists in the physical world is because God had in mind to create humans – people made in his image who would have the ability to think for themselves, fully sentient beings. Perhaps God recognized from the beginning that once sentient beings were created, they would immediately have the ability to distinguish between two different ways of thinking and living, two different paths if you will. A sentient being would be capable of recognizing the difference between good and evil, and would also be capable of choosing which path to follow. A sentient being would have the ability to perceive with the mind what the rest of creation could only perceive through sensory input abilities. It would be able to perceive with the mind that which other animals only recognized by instinct. A sentient being would have the ability to go against instinct to the point of making decisions that would affect the rest of creation on a grand scale. A sentient being would be able to recognize death and destruction with its mind, and more than that, would be able to choose whether or not to reject death and destruction, or to embrace it. A sentient being would also have the ability to recognize others of its own kind and love them and be able to ponder his or her responsibility towards protecting them as well as his or her responsibility to the rest of the creation, the choice to treasure or to abuse. It would seem then that these first sentient beings right on down the present state of sentient beings in us as humans chose to try both paths. From that point on down to the present time, they have always wanted both the good and the bad. They have wanted everything. They wanted power over good and evil, and the power to decide what was good and what was evil. In other words, these first sentient beings, whose sentience has continued on in Homo sapiens for the past 200,000 years, have wanted to play the part of God. We have wanted to be masters over good and evil. People over the millennia have chosen to both treasure and to abuse each other as well as the rest of creation. As a result, the entire creation has become what we might refer to as “fallen,” to the point that even other animals fear humans and have the ability to be influenced by humans for better or for worse. It would seem that animals in today’s world have developed in such a way as to become permanently subject to humankind in many different ways. The mental abilities of many animals can even mimic those of the humans who interact with them. Animals in turn can experience shame or happiness or fear or hatred at the sight of a human, depending upon their interaction with humans.

What does this have to do with the presence of physical death in the creation? It would seem that God allows physical death in the creation in order to destroy that which is not good. It would seem that God recognized that when he created sentient beings that they would have the ability to choose between good and evil, and that they would choose both good and evil. This attempt to replace God by being masters over both good and evil is what led to what we would call spiritual death among people, in which the human soul is cut off from the life-giving Spirit of God, from which it came. Because people would experience spiritual death would seem to be the reason why physical death was also allowed to continue. God will not allow spiritual death to reign over people forever. This is why people experience physical death – so that their spiritual death will not remain in the creation. What about those who desired good more than the bad? We believe that God is gracious and that he does not want any person to be destroyed. What he wants to destroy is sin, and the reason for that is because sin destroys us, we who are his good creation. Sin must be destroyed in us before it is allowed to destroy us itself. Because of our desire to be master over both good and evil, we have become a self-destructive creation. Paul in the book of Romans writes that all of creation has been subjected to frustration because of us. Our sin has changed the course of natural history. Paul also writes that it is through Christ, who was God in the flesh, fully God and fully human, who committed no sin, that the creation may be restored. It is through Christ that we have the ability to become “children of God.” It is through Christ that our bondage and tendency towards sin is broken, and it is through his death and resurrection that we are set free from sin and death. We are not only set free from spiritual death and separation from God, which is what we call “hell,” but we are also set free from physical death. Christ physically rose from dead, and because of this we will also be physically raised from the dead. When Christ ascended into heaven forty days after his bodily resurrection, he was entering into God’s space. God’s space is separated from this space that we occupy on earth, but it is not far away. Through Christ, we have access to God’s space. Eventually, God’s space will be united with our space, and when this happened we will see that everything that was truly good about this world will never be destroyed. God’s good creation is eternal, both the physical and the spiritual creation. The reason physical death exists now is to provide for the ability to rid the created world of sin and everything that causes despair and separation from God. The final goal is essentially to remove hell from the creation and into its own space separate from God forever. All that was truly evil in creation, all that continually chose to reject God in the creation, and chose to reform itself into the image of hell (or the image of the absence of God) will be separated from everything that is good in creation. All that has become hell will be removed, and since it is the Spirit of God that sustains life, one could argue that in the absence of God’s Spirit, there would be no life, and in hell, all of creation that refused to submit to God’s redemption would cease to exist.

In the absence of sin and the desire to sin, we would then see a new creation, one where nothing good from the old creation was destroyed, where we would be reunited with loved ones who had previously died, and a place where death itself would be destroyed and there would no longer be any spiritual death for God would always be there, and there would no longer be any need for people to experience physical death, because sin would always be absent.


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Sources:

C.S. Lewis. The Problem of Pain. HarperCollins Pub., 1940.

NOVA. Becoming Human: Unearthing Our Earliest Ancestors. WGBH Boston, 2009.

St. Augustine. City of God, Book XIV.