All Because Of One Man

All Because of One Man

By Pastor Jim May

There is a sense of justice and fairness built into the human race. We often ignore it, and sometimes we abuse it, but we all have it. In the beginning, about 6000 years ago, God created the very first man and called him Adam. Adam was created in the very image of God with an eternal existence, or soul, a living body and a spirit. Just as God is a threefold being with a body, that of the Lord Jesus Christ, an eternal existence which is the Father, and a Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit, so is man, who is created in God’s image.

Genesis 1:26-27, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

Just as man’s spirit, body and soul cannot operate independent of one another, so is our God. And just as man cannot exist without all three parts of his creation, neither does God. Our body, soul and spirit always act as one, agree as one and exist as one and ever shall be. If the body breaks the law, the body, soul and spirit are all cast into the jail cell together. If the spirit rejects God, then the soul and body will suffer the consequences right along with it. If the soul is lost, so is the spirit and the body. All are one and are inseparable.

Over in Matthew chapter 10 Jesus is speaking of the days when his disciples would be persecuted and even executed for the cause of Christ. Listen to what he had to say in Matthew 10:28, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

When this body dies, it is laid to rest. The body is held in the grave but the soul and spirit go to face God and are immediately sent to their holding place until the resurrection. For those who have put their faith in Jesus and lived in obedience to the Word of God, that place is called Heaven, and we are there with Jesus until the day comes for us to be reunited with the body that lies in the dust in the earth. For those who die without Christ, their holding place is called Hell. There they will begin their orientation in the flames, where God will allow them to feel the pains of death in their soul and spirit until they too are brought forth and then condemned at the Great White Throne Judgment to an eternity in Hell. They will not be given a new body and will not rise again in the same sense as Christians will.

Revelation 20:12-15, "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

The indication here is that those who will spend forever in Hell will have no body, but will be condemned to live in a state of death, or separation from their body. They will still feel the heat, the flames, the loneliness and all of the emotions, for those are not just a part of the body but of the spirit as well. Their spirit and soul will be eternally dying, forever having lost their identity in God. They are no longer “in His image” and are separated from God’s existence and forgotten. Their body has been forever lost because it went back to the dust and then God created a whole new earth for the old earth, with all its effects of sin, have been destroyed. There will be no stains of death, pain or suffering in the New Earth. It will be as perfect as the first, or even better, for sin will never enter there to bring death once again as it did in the beginning.