Life and Death: What Happens When We Die? Part 1
“What happens when we die?” is not a question of biology.. We know that blood stops flowing through our veins, and our hearts, lungs, and brains stop functioning. Beyond the obvious physical aspects of “dying,” as Christians, we can rejoice in the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Before we get into what happens when we die (which we will cover in our next blog), let’s look at the “life” part of “life and death.”
First, How Did We Come to Exist?
Genesis 2:7 “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
God made man out of dust, therefore we can say dust and all its elements are ingredients needed to make man. Another ingredient comes from God’s mouth. It is described as the breath of Life. It comes from God breathing into the nostrils of man. These ingredients create a living Soul, a nephesh. This is a simple concept, God takes matter and creates by speaking it into being.
Adam literally means red clay; God molded him out of the earth’s creation and as God spoke, Adam became a living soul. Look how Job explained the Creation of man. Job 33:4 “The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.” Different ingredients, some substance and some of power. That is to say, the power of the breath of the Almighty God spoke, man was created in the same manner as the heavens and earth. Everything that was made came from the power of God Almighty.
Consider what King David said about Creation and how it came to be. Psalms 18:15 “Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.” Job understood that man was a living soul only by creation, that is to say the work of God’s hands. Job10:8 “Your hands fashioned and made me altogether, And would You destroy me? Remember now, that You have made me with clay and would You turn me into dust again?” The prophet Isaiah quoted the exact same idea when he said – Isaiah 64:8 “But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand. Isaiah realized that all mankind lived, walked and breathed due to the Lord almighty.”
Isaiah 42:5 “Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it. And spirit to those who walk in it.” Notice Isaiah says God breathes life into man using the term “breath.” In Hebrew, this term literally means the spirit of God imparting life and wisdom- creation.
A living soul? Think about Creation itself, God made other living things as well.
In Genesis 1 we read Genesis 1:24, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.” The English word Creature is how the Translators used the Hebrew word Nephesh. So a living soul describes more than man, here we see it used for Animals. The Bible expresses that man and beast were created differently. They all were created after their own kind and yet God breathed into them all, and that is how they came to life. God calls his creation a living soul.
We all know the story, God created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden. But something happened that would change the lives of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve lived in the garden, and had the tree of life to keep them alive; at that moment in time a soul did not die. God blesses Adam and Eve, but warns them in Genesis 2:16, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eat thereof thou shalt surely die. God said they would die.” Sin changed everything, now as punishment, we read in Genesis 3:19 “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” Notice verse 22 “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” Therefore, the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. Man no longer had access to the tree of life. His curse, hard work, and an appointed time to die. He now has what the bible calls length of days.
Now, death was imminent. Romans describes the fate of sinners, Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is why we all need a Savior. Sin has created a need for a Savior. So, what happens when we die? We will discuss that in the next blog.