IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH?
To answer the question, “Is there life after death?” we must
go to the opening chapters of the Bible. God’s original intent was not for man
to die. God made man to have unimpeded fellowship with Him for all eternity. He
placed man in a perfect environment – Eden, the
Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:15-17)
Man chose to disobey God and this brought instantaneous death to both Adam and Eve. While they did not die an immediate physical death, they were instantaneously separated from God. The fellowship had been broken. They had died spiritually. Through the sin of Adam death entered into the world.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)
The spiritual death that Adam experienced was separation from the fellowship that he had with God. Adam’s body also began the process of physical death as part of the corruption and decay resulting from his act of disobedience. This physical and spiritual death has been passed on to all mankind. We live in a world that is marked by sin and death. Everyone since Adam has an appointment with death.
“…it is appointed for men to die once…” (Hebrews 9:27)
Before his death in 1981, American writer William Saroyan
telephoned in to the Associated Press this final, very Saroyan-like
observation: “Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception
would be made in my case. Now what?” - Today in the
Word,
Every day countless people die who gave no thought to the reality of death and who died unprepared for its inevitability. But that raises the question; if a man dies does that end it all? Is the grave the end of life and existence? One of the ancients in the Bible named Job asked,
“If a man dies,
shall he live again?” (Job
The futility felt by some is seen in the Epicurean philosophy of “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.” Death is a natural end to all living beings on earth as a result of mankind’s sin, but this does not mean that it is finality.
In Thornton Wilder's play, "Our Town," one of the characters says: "... Everybody knows that something is eternal. And it ain't houses, and it ain't names, and it ain't earth, and it ain't even stars. Everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal-- something that has to do with human beings. There's something way down deep that's eternal about every human being."
Is there something eternal about man? If a man dies will he live again? The answer to Job’s question is yes. Yes, man is eternal. Yes, there is life after death. No, the grave does not end it all. Man was created an eternal being and will live forever. How and where he will spend eternity is a different matter.
Jesus Christ said at the graveside of Lazarus,
"…I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26)
It was this same truth that gave Job the confidence to say,
“… after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:26-27)
Those who know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior have the assurance of spending eternity in a restored fellowship as God had originally intended for man. Those who have not committed their life to Him will spend eternity in darkness apart from the Light of the world.
“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." (John 3:36)
E. Stanley Jones summed up the believer’s position when he said, “We do not defy the reality of death. But, forever in Jesus Christ, we deny the finality of death.”