
Wednesday, October 12 2022
Contributor: Wale Abiona INTRODUCTION - BEING OUT OF GOD’S PLAN Text: "The Israelites had moved about in the wilderness forty years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the LORD. For the LORD had sworn to them that they would not see the land he had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey." Joshua 5:6 God’s plan - Jeremiah 29:11- For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. HOW DOES BEING OUT OF HIS PLAN BRING DEATH? SPIRITUAL DEATH: Some bible passages teach that death is a consequence of sin, including Genesis 2:16-17, Genesis 3:19 and Genesis 3:22, Romans 5:12-21, and 1 Corinthians 15 In Genesis 3:19, God carries out this punishment, cursing Adam with labour and death, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return. In 1 Corinthians 15:22-22 Paul contrasts and compares Christ and Adam, highlighting Adam’s fall as the cause of physical death for the whole human race. This suggests that Adam’s sin caused the sudden painful death that we experience today, a pulling apart of the physical and spiritual aspects of humans. The Old Testament speaks of death at the end of a long life in purely positive terms, such as 1 Chronicles 29:28 where King David “died at a good old age, having enjoyed long life, wealth, and honour. These passages show that the consequence of sin is spiritual death, not physical death. If Adam had not sinned, humans would still probably have died like we do today, but without “the sense of loss, uncertainty about an afterlife and regret for unfinished work” that comes with spiritual death. The death that entered the world with Adam is understood as something that takes man apart from God, a spiritual death, in the sense that the access to God is now closed and can be restored only through faith in Christ Jesus. In Genesis 3:19, God tells Adam “for dust you are and to dust you will return,” meaning that Adam was created mortal from the dust. God warned Adam and Eve that they would die in the day they ate from the tree Gen. 2:16-17, and yet Adam lived to the age of 930 Gen. 5:5. What did happen on the day they ate from the tree? Adam and Eve felt shame and were expelled from the Garden, breaking their fellowship with God–spiritual death. Gen. 3:22-24 PHYSICAL DEATH: Both the believer and unbeliever will experience it, and it is the means of exiting this world for everyone. For believers, it is when mortality will give way for immortality 1 Corinthians 15:54 and for unbelievers, it’s their first death that pave way for their second death. For believers it the exit from pain into glory and for sinners it is the exit from fry pan to fire. It is more difficult to see human death in a positive light. For those who have lost a loved one, death can feel like the ultimate evil. Jesus mourned the death of his friend Lazarus John 11, after all. Paul writes of death as the pay-check for sin Rom. 6:23 and as the last enemy to be destroyed 1 Cor. 15:26. EXAMPLES OF PEOPLE THAT EXITED THE FACE OF THE EARTH WITHOUT DYING. There is a big difference between being raised from the death and being resurrected from the dead. Being raised from the dead is a temporary victory. In the Bible, all those who were brought by back to life, later died again. But being resurrected from the dead like Jesus did, is a permanent victory over death. Jesus died and resurrected and never to die again. There is yet another set of people who will not taste death in this world. These are believers in Christ who would be alive when Jesus returns to earth in the second-coming. It will be begin with an event known as the rapture. 1 Thessalonians 4:17 CONCLUSION Anyone who walks away from God’s plan will be forsaken by Him and will experience the fierceness the devil has for them. It’s very clear that the assignment of the devil is to ultimately destroy but he starts in a subtle way, by first stealing your intimate relationship with God, there killing the spirit of God in man and prepare them for the ultimate destruction in the lake that burns. Revelation 21:6-8 The first death is the door to a new life with Christ. Revelation 21:1-5 "1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also, there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” 5 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” |