Length: 6 Minutes
Most Christians will admit that physical death was a curse placed on Adam for his sin (Romans 8:10). And yet, most Christians also believe that everyone has “their time” to die, and our loving Father “calls us all home” at one point or another. If you didn’t know, those are just fancy ways of referring to death. So I’m confused. Is death a curse placed on lawbreakers or is it some beautiful finale that God appoints, even to His children?
When most people see Jesus’s physical death at the cross, they just think, “That wasn’t to make me exempt from physical death. That was just to take the punishment for sin.” You may think that yourself. The irony of that statement is that physical death is, in fact, the punishment for sin.
We’ve gotten so accustomed to people dying that we forgotten that death is a punishment. Death is a curse. Of course, I’m not saying that God is punishing people for sin today (Jesus ended that). When someone dies today, it’s not because God is punishing them. No way. But death was the punishment placed on Adam for his sin, and that punishment spread to every man born after him.
Romans 5:18 (NKJV) Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation…
Because Adam sinned in the garden, and was punished with physical death for it, that condemnation (physical death) spread to everyone born after him. Physical death is Adam’s curse and condemnation.
Every Christian will acknowledge that Jesus took the punishment for our sin to redeem us from it. What they don’t understand is that physical death is that punishment! The wages of sin is bodily death, which was placed on Adam in the garden (more info in our Exit Earth article).
Romans 6:23 (NKJV) For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:10 (NKJV) And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
When Romans 8:10 says that the body is dead because of sin, that’s talking about Adams sin. There is no other sin in the world except Adam’s. When you understand that, you realize that through Adam’s sin, peoples bodies are now dying, apart from Jesus. Bodily death was a punishment placed upon Adam, not a blessing.
Here’s the good news: Jesus already took the punishment for Adams sin! That punishment was physical death and that’s why Jesus came to die physically! It’s already fulfilled for us! It was already taken at the cross!
Christians say they believe that Jesus took punishment away from them, and yet they still maintain that death is inescapable and permanent. They don’t realize that the death they’re claiming is inescapable, is in fact punishment! If death is inescapable and permanent, then you haven’t been redeemed from the curse at all! Then we are all still held under the curse! We are all under bondage to punishment for Adam’s sin! And in that case, Jesus has not yet redeemed us from punishment. In that case, we are not free from the curse. But thank God, that is not true! Jesus did fulfill all the curse and punishment for Adam’s sin in His own body! He died physically, thus redeeming us from it, and freeing everyone in their graves, so that they don’t have to stay there anymore. It has been fulfilled (Matthew 27:52).
You may be a believer, who would never say you are under the curse (and you’re not), but whenever you say that “everyone dies,” or when you treat death as permanent, you are actually stating that we are all still bound under the curse. Death is that curse, and if you claim you’re stuck in it, you’re saying you’re bound to the curse, and that’s simply not true.
We can try to put lipstick on the pig, to beautify death as a momentous finale to a life well lived, but that’s not the way God sees it. Otherwise, He would not have used it as a punishment for sin. And not only on Adam, but all through the Old Testament as well. Death has never been a good thing. Ever. God places death squarely on the side of evil, not on the side of good.
Deuteronomy 30:15 (NKJV) “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil…
I don’t mean to rock the boat too much but hold on tight. Here’s a controversial statement: Death is a bad thing, and God thinks so too. That’s why it was used for punishment against lawbreakers in the Old Testament. God does not use death as a blessing. He does not use death to improve people. He does not use death as a teleportation device to bring His children home. Death is a curse that Jesus already defeated 100% at the cross. It’s already done. By faith, no one has to go through this anymore, and if they do, they can now be raised again, because Jesus already bore that curse! He finished it, and life is now available to anyone who would believe Him.
Thank God, for those who have received redemption. The curse of death is a broken one. It is finished! And that’s why no one needs to stay sleeping anymore. Hallelujah! Thank you Father for your amazing love! I am so sorry for all the untrue things that people say about you, but thank you for the truth of your Son, which is renewing the hearts of people, to see you clearly.
Question:
Q: What if a believer dies? Are we saying that they are under the curse?
A: All the contrary! They are completely free from the curse! Death has no more dominion over them than it does over Jesus (Romans 6:9-11). Believers don’t have to die (like Enoch, Elijah, and more importantly, our glorified Jesus), but even if a believer dies for lack of knowledge (as is always the cause, Romans 8:6), they can get right back up easily, because they’re free. Even if a believer dies for lack of knowledge, it’s not holding them. It has no dominion. If they sleep, they can be woken right back up, because there’s no more hold. Jesus defeated it.
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