Introduction
Physical and spiritual death are different. Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. These two are very closely related, and both physical death and spiritual death are reflected in the very first references to death.
Main Points: Genesis 1:20–28 1 Timothy 6:13
- Scientists are still at a loss to explain what truly causes life, but the Bible is clear that God gives life to all things. The life given by God to mankind is different of animals, because God, “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” ( Genesis 2:7 ). Whereas animals have a purely physical life, after their kind ( Genesis 1:24 ), humans, after the image of God ( Genesis 1:27 ), have both a physical and a spiritual element of life, so that death has both a physical and a spiritual element.
- In Genesis 2:17 , God told Adam that, if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would “surely die.” Some sceptics have tried to use this verse to show an inconsistency in the Bible, because Adam and Eve did not die the very day they ate of that fruit. These sceptics are in error, because there are different types of life, and there are different types of death.
- A person can be physically alive and spiritually dead ( Ephesians 2:1 Ephesians 2:5 ) and vice versa ( Matthew 22:32 ). When they sinned ( Genesis 3:7 ), Adam and Eve immediately lost their spiritual life – they became “dead” to godliness; so, came under God’s judgment (eternal death). This triggered a correlating action: internal separation from God manifesting itself as well in an external separation from Him ( Genesis 3:8 ,)
- Man as a living soul ( Genesis 2:7 ) was created spiritually alive, connected to God in a special way, but when he sinned, it was broken. Spiritual death has implications both before and after physical death. Though Adam was still physically alive he became spiritually dead, separated from relationship with God.
- Scripture therefore is clear, in that everyone begins life “dead in trespasses and sins” ( Ephesians 2:1-5 ), resulting in a life focused on our sinful desires. The remedy for spiritual death is a spiritual rebirth ( John 3:3-5 ) through faith in Him. This rebirth is a re-connection to the source of life ( John 15:1-6 ), that He is the vine, and we are the branches. Without connection to Him, we have no spirit life in us ( 1 John 5:11-12 ).
Memory Verse
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.— Revelation 20:14
For those who refuse to accept God’s salvation, physical death and spiritual death culminate in the “second death”. This eternal death is not annihilation as some have taught, but is a conscious, eternal punishment for sins in the lake of fire, described as being separated from the presence of the Lord 2 Thessalonians 1:9