Sin Kills but Christ Makes Alive

As I've written before, God told Adam and Eve that they would die if they ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. We also know how Satan deceived Eve and Adam joined her rebellion. Though the first human parents didn't drop dead immediately, the relation between humanity and God was severed.

We also know that humanity had become so corrupt that the Lord destroyed all but eight persons. Genesis 6:17 (BBE) says, "For truly, I will send a great flow of waters over the earth, for the destruction from under the heaven of all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything on the earth will come to an end."

When the Israelites kept rebelling against the Lord, all but Joshua, Aaron, and Caleb of that generation were saved. What god rewarded in them, as with Noah's family, was obedience.

Though death is the punishment Adam brought down on humanity, God made a way of salvation through Christ. John 11:25 and 26 (BBE) tells us, "Jesus said to her, (Martha) 'I am myself that day and that life; he who has faith in me will have life even if he is dead; And no one who is living and has faith in me will ever see death. Is this your faith?'"

Since only the bodies of believers die and their spirits go to be with Christ, we can face death with confidence. As Paul rejoiced in 1 Corinthians 15:53-55 (BBE), we win in the end. "For this body which comes to destruction will be made free from the power of death, and the man who is under the power of death will put on eternal life. But when this has taken place, then that which was said in the Writings will come true 'Death is overcome by life. 'O death, where is your power? O death, where are your pains?'"

Because we believers know this great truth, we understand how the persecuted saints had such boldness. Revelation 12:11 (BBE) tells us, "And they overcame him through the blood of the Lamb and the word of their witness; and loving not their lives they freely gave themselves up to death."

If Christ hasn't come by Saturday, I'll post about those who mess with the occult without knowledge or protection.