Introduction

Our theme is death, in its 3-fold aspect: physical death, spiritual death and eternal death. Although I want to expand on this as we go along, the headings I've given my addresses are:

Physical Death -- the Consequence of Sin

Spiritual Death -- the Tyranny of Sin

Eternal Death -- the Punishment of Sin

None of these definitions are absolute and there is a sense in which there is a degree of overlap. We should also bear in mind the statement of Louis Berkhof that 'the Bible does not know the distinction, so common among us, between a physical, a spiritual and an eternal death; it has a synthetic view of death and regards it as separation from God' (ST, pp258-9). However, Berkhof goes on to view the subject from this threefold perspective, as aspects of the same reality, so these topics will serve as a working programme for our study.

Before we come to look at the first of these topics in this session, there are one or two preliminary comments that I want to make.

First of all, we are dealing in these studies with ultimate issues, with the most solemn and the most pressing and the most urgent aspects of our evangelicalism. We are dealing with issues which serve to remind us of why the Gospel is necessary and why only Christ can meet the human condition.

The trouble is that the world around us has its own way of dealing with death. It doesn't want to know about spiritual death or eternal death; and when it comes to physical death it either dresses it up in fancy, but meaningless words, or else defies it by pressing for euthanasia. Either way, it fails to reckon with the biblical teaching that there is something beyond physical death with which we are all called to reckon.

Second, we are dealing with issues that reflect the fact that man is estranged from God. Human beings die, not because they are human beings, but because they are fallen human beings. Death spread to all men, according to Romans 5:12, not because men were men, but because 'all sinned'.

So we know that death is not the problem; and we know that the gospel is not merely the solution to the problem of death. The problem, to which the gospel is the only solution, is the problem of sin. And although I have described physical death as the consequence of sin, there is a sense in which death in all its aspects stems from man's disobedience to God.

That is highlighted in the Genesis account of man's origin, where the first reference to death or dying is not given in terms of man's constitution but in terms of man's covenant relationship with God. According to Genesis 1:27, man is created in God's image and likeness -- that is the pattern -- and according to Genesis 2:7, man is created from the dust and given life from God. Neither the pattern nor the finished product in and of themselves meant that man would die. Indeed, it is clear that, having been created in God's image, man was made to live.

But it is when God establishes the parameters and the boundaries of man's relationship to him, in terms of covenant demand and promise, that death is threatened upon man's disobedience. That sacramental tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which Geerhardus Vos describes as 'the God-appointed instrument to lead man through probation to that state of religious and moral maturity wherewith his highest blessedness is connected' (Biblical Theology, p41), holds out the promise of continuing in the life of God, and the threat of death as a consequence of sin and disobedience.

So when Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 15:55, 'O death, where is your sting?', the only answer to that question is the answer he supplies in verse 56: 'the sting of death is sin'. Now I think it is quite wrong to take this as an expression of triumph and of glory; the triumph comes in knowing that the sting of death has been dealt with, and therefore there is victory over death because has victory over sin.

Thirdly, the order of our study is not the order of our experience. That is, we are studying physical death, then spiritual death, then eternal death. Arguably, however, and I am stating the obvious here, the order of Adam's experience at the beginning was that he died in a spiritual sense long before he died in a physical sense. And the Bible is insistent in its emphasis on man's fallen condition as one of spiritual death for which man needs the life of God in his soul. We are all spiritually dead by nature, coming into this world we are 'conceived in sin' (Psalm 51:5) and are dead in trespasses (Ephesians 2:1). We can push that a little further and say that while not everyone will experience physical death, everyone descended from Adam, apart from our Lord himself, experiences spiritual death.

Notwithstanding all of that, there is good reason to begin with a study of physical death. Death, according to Romans 5:12, spread to all men. Clearly Paul has physical death in view when he is speaking in this passage. In his reference to the reign of death from Adam to Moses, Paul is clearly referring to the fact that men and women in that period physically died. For Paul, the universality of physical death is the great indicator of the universality of sin. So although we recognise that the reign of sin comprises moral, spiritual and eternal aspects, it is the physical aspect of death that summarises the extent of the Fall. So John Murray:

The catastrophe of misery which befell mankind by sin is summed up in this dissolution [the separation of body and soul] and it exemplifies the principle of separation which comes to expression in all aspects of death (Comm. on 5:12, pp181-2).

To which we can add a further consideration. All our hope and confidence in the Gospel is in the physical death of the Saviour. He never died spiritually, and will not face eternal death; but he did die physically, experiencing for us all that the covenant of works threatened, and dealing fully and definitively with sin as he did so. It was the physical death of the Saviour that brought life to light. 'I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures' (1 Corinthians 15:3).

Fourth, as we study these aspects of the biblical doctrine of man, we are going to refer to Boston's great work Human Nature in its Fourfold State. I hope that this work is well-known in this conference. Thomas Boston (1676-1732) -- not to be confused with his son of the same name -- was a minister in the Church of Scotland in a time of great theological ferment and spiritual corruption. If you want to read more about him, you can pick up Dr Andrew McGowan's The Federal Theology of Thomas Boston, or Dr Phil Ryken's Thomas Boston as Preacher of the Fourfold State. His work Human Nature in its Fourfold State is described as having 'an influence second to none [the Bible aside] in the religious life of Scotland for well over 100 years' (Lachman, DSCHT, p89). Boston was one of the great federal theologians of the Scottish tradition, and his work examines the Bible's teaching on man, first, in a state of innocence, second in a state of nature (that is, man as fallen), third in a state of grace, and fourth in the eternal state.

I want to refer to Boston in my three studies simply because of the thoroughness of his treatment, the biblical basis of his theology, and the practical nature of his teaching. He is always asking 'To what use can we put this doctrine?', and when we are dealing with a subject like the Bible's view on death, that is not an unimportant question to ask.