Simply Romans

Week 12 - Thursday

Why Everyone Dies

and so death spread to all men, because all sinned (Romans 5:12c)

When God created the world it was completely without sin. The first man, Adam, was also sinless when God created him. However, the first time Adam gave into temptation and disobeyed God, he acquired a inclination to sin that he did not have before. Because Adam was the first man who ever lived, the entire human race is descended from him. As a result, Adam's sin nature has been passed on to every person since. God did not create Adam as a mortal being either. He only became mortal after he sinned. God had warned Adam that the penalty for eating from the forbidden tree was death. If Adam had not disobeyed God's command, he never would have died. However because Adam sinned, he eventually had to die. Since then death has spread to all men. Because Adam was the first man who ever lived, every human being has inherited both his sin nature and his mortality. There have been a couple of exceptions to the mortality part however. In all the history of mankind there have been two people who have escaped physical death. Their names are Enoch and Elijah.

Enoch was the sixth generation after Adam. That makes him the great-great-great-great grandson of Adam. Genesis 5:22-24 says that Enoch walked with God for three hundred years. The Bible often uses the word "walk" to refer to the way that someone lives their life. Enoch lived his life following God. That doesn't mean that Enoch never sinned. He inherited a sin nature from Adam just like everyone else. But Enoch pleased God so much that God took him to heaven before he ever died (Heb. 11:5). The other person who never died was Elijah. He was one of God's Old Testament prophets. Elijah served God for many years and was taken to heaven by a chariot of fire (2Kings 2:11). Some Bible commentators say that God took these two men to heaven before they died, to give us an example of the rapture. The rapture is the time when Jesus returns to take every believer to heaven. Just like Enoch and Elijah, Christians who are alive on earth at the rapture, will go to heaven without ever having to die. Other commentators say that Enoch and Elijah's escape from death was only temporary. They believe that Enoch and Elijah will return to earth one day as the 2 witnesses in Revelation 11:3-12. During the final days of this world, these 2 witnesses preach for 3 1/2 years before they are killed by God's enemies. Three days after their death, they are both raised from the dead and taken up to heaven in a cloud .

With the possible exception of Enoch and Elijah (and the Christians who are alive on earth when the rapture occurs), every single person is going to die. The reason that all people die is because all have sinned. You've sinned, haven't you? No one who is truly honest about it, could ever say that they haven't. Even little children sin. They scream when they don't get what they want. At a very early age they start to hit, pinch and bite. Right now you might be thinking, "But what about new born babies. Babies who die at birth, never even have a chance to sin". Yes, even babies who die at birth have sinned. That might not seem right to you, unless you understand that we do not become sinners when we commit our first sin. In fact the opposite is true. The reason we sin is because we are already sinners. We were sinners even before we were born because we inherited it from Adam. When Adam sinned, the entire human race sinned with him because all the future generations of people were in his loins at the time. King David understood this and wrote in Psalm 51:5, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me". No one can escape the consequences of Adam's sin. Because Adam sinned, each and every person is born a sinner. There is no way that any of us can free ourselves from the inevitable result of sin which is death. Our one and only hope is to receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

Readings for today: 1 John 1:8; Rom. 3:23; Gal. 3:22; John 8:36

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