I was out with family at a lunch the other day, and as we began discussing something Bible-related, somehow the subject of Jesus and never dying came up. I forget exactly how it came up, but someone commented on my belief that we aren’t supposed to die, and how it’s a new one. Nothing about it is new, as Jesus spoke on the subject quite plainly multiple times in scripture (John 6 and 8 to name a few). Paul spoke somewhat clearly on it as well, to the point that 2 Timothy 1:10-11 specifically states “the gospel of life and immortality of which I have been appointed an apostle, teacher, and preacher”. Paul clearly identifies his job as a teacher and forerunner of the gospel of life and immortality. In reality, this gospel message that Jesus and Paul preached is radical yet simple.
While chatting with my family at this restaurant, it really hit me just how radical Jesus was for his day. Think about it. In John 11, Jesus and Martha had a discussion about the “Last Day Resurrection”. An end-times resurrection isn’t actually a new belief from Christianity—it was a common belief of the Jews of Jesus’ day. So what made Jesus so radical? His reply.
“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’
Martha answered, ‘I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.’
Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?'” (John 11:23-26)
When Martha and Jesus discussed Lazarus’s death, she referenced a Last-Day resurrection, but Jesus didn’t go along with her comments. He said something so radical that the people of his day just didn’t understand. Jesus said that whoever believed in him wouldn’t even need a last-day resurrection because they would simply never die in the first place. Most of the Church today still doesn’t get it. Most of us are still in Martha’s shoes and waiting for and End Times resurrection, not realizing that Jesus died and rose again so that we who believe in him would never physically die.
Jesus was extreme for his time in many ways. He called himself a “son of God”, elevating himself to godhood status (the son of a horse is a horse, the son of a God is a god). He told his disciples to forgive endlessly (seventy-times-seven) and to offer to do extra work for Roman soldiers when forced to do a little. He told people he would tear down and rebuild the temple in three days, and that he would come back to life after he died. Jesus was a radical guy. But the most radical thing he said of all the many extreme things he said was that we could live forever without dying.
Two thousand years of church history later, we are just beginning to re-emerge on this concept that has been buried in plain sight in the scriptures for centuries. Scholar upon scholar has studied verses such as John 3:16 that literally states that “whoever believed in him would not die but live forever”, and somehow arrived at a different, more esoteric meaning to the verse instead of the one that is plainly stated. God is reforming the Church, and the result is that we have stumbled across “cutting-edge” beliefs such as immortality . . . beliefs that have been plainly stated in the scriptures for generations upon generations. Yet, for whatever reason, God is now removing the veil that has covered the eyes of His people for so many years, and we are beginning to grasp again the simple revelation of the gospel—that we can live and not die.
To read more on this and related subjects, pick up a copy of my book “The Gospel of Life and Immortality,” available on both Kindle and in Print on Amazon.
16 Comments
Awesome and wonderful word!
When Adam and Eve ate from the tree, God had said in the day that you eat of it you will surely die. But Adam and Eve continued to live for hundreds of years, physically.
This is the first hint that when the Bible speaks of living and dying, it doesn’t always mean physical life or death.
When Jesus says that those who believe in him will never die, I don’t believe he is speaking physically. Whether or not our physical bodies die, we will never die spiritually. When our physical body falls asleep, we throw off corruption and are clothed with incorruption.
I don’t recall offhand where I wrote about this, but that verse is poorly translated, and it has like five or seven different potential meanings. If you break it down, it shouldn’t say “on that day”. It means “in that age of time” or something similar. I’ll have to see if so can find it. But yes, in this and in most scriptural context it actually is speaking of physical death. Bad translation is in a large part responsible for the idea that it means otherwise because of the subsequent reasoning based off of the faulty initial translation.
I often hear Jesus speak to me of days or years and every time I have to ask Him. Is this a calendar day or year or is this a time period? Countless times he specified the period of time.
If you look at the context in John 6, Jesus is incredibly clear that he is speaking about physical death specifically, not some kind of spiritualized concept of the subject.
Michael,
you said in John 6 that Jesus is “incredibly clear he is talking about physical death specifically.” When I read John 6, I don’t see any language indicating this, instead, I see a whole host of metaphors in play that make it clear he is not always talking physically. He keeps talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood — have any of us physically done that? eaten Him physically, and not just represented in bread and wine, spiritually?
Then he goes as far as to say that it’s NOT about flesh, as in, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
Yes, the entire context of that chapter is physical death. Jesus compared the heavenly bread (manna) and the forefathers *still* physically dying with the heavenly bread he gives hat they can consume and not physically die. If it wasn’t physical death he was referring to, then the comparison he made was entirely nonsensical.
Next, he goes on to explain about eating bread that makes you hungry, but that the bread he gives will allow someone to never experience physical hunger again. Same context of talking about the physical body.
Now, in the verse you quote above where it talks about the Spirit versus he flesh, it’s again poorly translated. That verse is Jesus explaining how this can only be *accomplished* through the Holy Spirit, and that no physical methods will be able to make it happen. And then he explains that his words are spirit and life and can help people walk in that reality of not experiencing physical death.
It’s all about context and translation, and a combination of not properly identifying the context and all of the poor translations of this passage (based on the translator’s ideas of what it should mean) that we have all been using thus far don’t help.
Sadhu Sundar Singh claimed to have met a christian saint who had lived over 300 years and had a scroll of the greek new testament from Francis Xavier. When Sudhu left to go visit him a 4th time he never returned nor was found. People who believe in immortality believe Sadhu replaced the old saint as a intercessor for the world.
If you do a search of the word ‘death’ and the word die in the New Testament, you will find death occurs 147 times and die occurs 94 times. IN EVERY CASE, ‘DEATH AND DIE’ refers to bodily death, coffin death, 6 feet under death, wake and funeral death.
I don’t think that is true. For instance, there is the verse, “But she who lives for pleasure is dead even while she is still alive.” 1 Tim 5:6
Obviously dead here does not mean physical death.
Also, where Paul talks about baptism he talks about how we have “died with Him.” I have yet to die physically, so this isn’t meaning physical death (at least not for us, although it did for Jesus) either.
The Gospel of Immortality, wow! I think that’s the narrow gate. Not many do believe in Immortality. Bro Sadhu Sundar Selvaraj & Joseph Sturgeon talk about people whom they know personally, who have attained immortality.
Glory to the King – great article!
Truth being poured into the earth. Love it!!!
I love that passage of Jesus and Martha. I have been pondering of late, we are too are the resurrection and the life in Christ. He is us and we in Him. We resurrect. And we live forever.
Throughout the years I have been “taught” that it refers to spiritual death instead of physical death. Probably due to the fact that at this era we yet to witness anyone who have overcomed physical death.
The Bible’s only evidence are Enoch which it stated he walked with God faithfully until he was no more, it did not say if he was alive or died. And Elijah, whom God took him to heaven in a whirlwind.
We have been taught it means spiritual death, but the study of the scriptures doesn’t bear that idea out.
People don’t experience something so we then try to explain it away. It is far easier to do that than it is to recognize and admit that we are living an inferior gospel and then change our expectations and aim higher.