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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +

+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +

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²⁶For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. ²⁷Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. ²⁹For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. ³⁰That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. ³¹But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. ³²When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. ³³So then, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. ³⁴If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you meet together it may not result in judgment. And when I come I will give further directions.

Recall the message of this section of 1 Corinthians 11:26-34 that we have been considering for some time now is: You must approach the Lord’s Supper with awe since there are consequences for failing to do so correctly. In our last study, we focused on the second evidence of divine discipline/judgment due to improper celebration of the Lord’s Supper which is death of some in Corinth as stated in last clause of 1 Corinthians 11:30 and a number of you have fallen asleep. Consequently, we began to consider the doctrine of death. We noted several facts about death, but we ended with consideration of death as it relates to unbelievers that we stated is the saddest event of human history with the promise to continue the doctrine in today’s study.

Death of a believer unlike that of an unbeliever is indeed one of the most glorious events among humans although we often do not recognize this fact. Nonetheless, the death of a believer from God’s perspective is a special event. It is in part for this reason that God’s view of the death of the believer is given in Psalm 116:15:

There is disagreement among scholars regarding how to understand the word “precious” that is translated from a Hebrew adjective (yāqār) that in this passage may mean “precious” or “costly.” Thus, an interpretation of this passage is that the death of the saints, that is, believers is precious in the sense that the Lord puts great value on the death of His faithful ones so that He will take them to Himself when they die. Another interpretation, based on the context of book of psalm, is that God does not regard the death of His saints lightly and therefore hastens to protect them. If we recognize that the psalmist was guided by the Holy Spirit when he wrote this psalm, it is easier to accept that the psalmist must have written something that is beyond the immediate context of the psalm as some of the psalms reveal, where, for example, what the psalmist wrote did not apply to him or the hearers but something in the future in connection with the Messiah. This being the case, it is more likely that the first interpretation that sees the death of believers as precious to the Lord in that He takes them to Himself when they die that the Holy Spirit intended. This interpretation makes sense since the Holy Spirit has revealed through the Apostle Paul that when a believer dies, the person immediately goes into the presence of God to be with the Lord Jesus as stated in 2 Corinthians 5:8:

We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

This passage indicates that as soon as a believer in Christ dies that person joins the family of God in Christ in heaven. I mean the family of God mentioned in Ephesians 3:15:

This, of course, means that a believer receives an interim body since those in heaven have bodies as there is no bodiless existence in heaven as implied by 1 Corinthians 15:40:

There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.

In any case, the death of believers should be recognized as a glorious event for at least two reasons. First, as we have already stated, the death of a believer means that such a person would be with Christ or will be in His presence. This, we learn from the promise of the Lord Jesus to the criminal that was crucified with Him when he trusted in Him. The Lord promised the criminal that believed that he would be with Him in paradise, as we read in Luke 23:43:

Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Paradise as a word found outside our inspired Scripture is sometimes referred as an intermediate place of residence of the righteous (1 Enoch 37–70) or as the hidden place of the righteous in relation to the end of the world and the events connected with it (2 Enoch 8). That notwithstanding, the word “paradise” in the Lord Jesus’ promise to the criminal that believed in Him is translated from Greek noun (paradeisos) which is derived from an Old Persian word that means “enclosure” then “park” or “garden.” According to the authorities, the word, both in the Hebrew and Greek, seemed to emphasize what grows in a designated space whether this be fruit trees for the king or decorative plants of a park. It is interesting that the translators of the Septuagint chose this Greek word in their renderings of the Garden of Eden. Because of the usage of this word in the Septuagint it eventually came to be used to describe a dwelling place of the righteous dead in a state of blessedness. It is equated with heaven, as indicated in 2 Corinthian 12:2-4:

² I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know — God knows. ³ And I know that this man — whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— ⁴ was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.

By comparing the verbal phrases caught up to the third heaven of verse 2 with caught up to paradise in verse 4, we realize that “heaven” is equivalent to “paradise.” It is because paradise is associated with eternal blessedness and equated to heaven that we assert that the criminal who believed in Christ would spend eternity with Christ in heaven. Furthermore, anyone who will be with Jesus after the point of death will certainly be with Him throughout eternity for such an individual falls into those, He promised a home with Him as per John 14:3:

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Hence, the promise of the Lord Jesus to the criminal that believed in Him is our basis of asserting that at death the believer enters into the presence of Christ as the Holy Spirit declared through Apostle Paul as recorded in 1 Thessalonians 5:10:

He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.

The sentence we are awake or asleep is a metaphorical way of stating being alive or dead. We enjoy the presence of Jesus Christ at the present although often we may forget that but when we die, we will enjoy His presence in a way that is different from what we enjoy now because we will be in His presence and see Him as He is.

Second, the death of a believer means entering a state of blessedness. It is this blessedness that the Holy Spirit conveyed to us through Apostle John in Revelation 14:13:

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

The blessed state of the believer who dies includes relief from troubles, heartaches, and pains of this life as we read in Revelation 21:4:

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

The things described in this passage are the opposite of things that unbelievers experience at death since they would enter an unimaginable suffering. Anyhow, believers are relieved from all earthly sufferings and more, in that they would not experience the second death that we will mention later. By the way, the blessedness that believers enjoy at death is described as “peace” and “rest” by Prophet Isaiah as we read in Isaiah 57:2:

Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.

The fact that a believer’s death leads to a state of blessedness implies that a believer should approach death without fear. The psalmist expressed this approach to death in Psalm 23:4:

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

Believers should face death without fear not only because of what lies ahead of them but also because they know that Jesus Christ has defeated Satan to free those who are held in bondage by him through the fear of death as we read in Hebrews 2:14–15:

¹⁴Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

Apostle Paul demonstrated this lack of fear of death when he stated that he was ready to depart from this world because of what awaits him as we read in 2 Timothy 4:6–8:

⁶For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. ⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

It is interesting to note that Simeon having seen the Messiah requested the Lord to let him depart from this life as we read in Luke 2:29–32:

²⁹ “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. ³⁰For my eyes have seen your salvation, ³¹which you have prepared in the sight of all people, ³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

We want to emphasize that God’s gracious dealing with believers extends to death. Therefore, regardless of the manner in which a believer dies, God provides peace to them even prior to their death or at the point of death. This truth is derived from God’s promise of dying in peace to Zedekiah, king of Israel, that was not to die by violent means as we read in Jeremiah 34:4–5:

⁴ “‘Yet hear the promise of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; ⁵ you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your fathers, the former kings who preceded you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, “Alas, O master!” I myself make this promise, declares the LORD.’”

Beside this promise, we have many illustrations of this truth with the Patriarchs that we could describe as dying well or peacefully. Jacob, for example, peacefully departed from this life as we may gather from Genesis 49:33:

When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

By the way, dying peacefully or well may include being mentally alert to the end of one’s life on this planet. That aside, another example of peaceful death or dying well regardless of the manner was Aaron the high priest. We read that the Lord ordered him to go to the place of his death and he did and so we surmise that he died peacefully with mental alertness as implied in the description of his death in Numbers 33:38:

At the LORD’s command Aaron the priest went up Mount Hor, where he died on the first day of the fifth month of the fortieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt.

The death of Moses followed the same pattern of dying peacefully with mental alertness as we may gather from Deuteronomy 34:1–6:

¹ Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead to Dan, ² all of Naphtali, the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, ³ the Negev and the whole region from the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. ⁴ Then the LORD said to him, “This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.” ⁵ And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said. ⁶ He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is.

David died peacefully with alertness of mind as reflected in his final instructions to Solomon prior to his death. It was after his instructions to Solomon that we read of his death that implies peaceful departure from this world without the kind of struggle that unbelievers have when facing death as we read in 1 Kings 2:10:

We have illustrated God’s gracious dealing with believers at the time of death that implies they died peacefully or that they died well without the struggles that unbelievers face with death using Old Testament believers, so it may be helpful if we illustrate this principle with the manner of death of some believers of modern time. There are several such examples of this truth, but I have chosen two individuals. My first illustration is the death of that famous 19^th century missionary to China, Dr. Hudson Taylor and that of his last wife, Jennie. In July of 1903, it was discovered that Jennie had a cancerous tumor. For over a year this lady struggled in faith and her praise of the Lord whom she insisted was dealing with her and her family so tenderly. In July 29, of the next year her strength had failed her so that she had difficulty breathing yet she kept reassuring her husband Dr. Taylor at her bedside with the words “No pain, no pain.” Before dawn the next morning, she whispered to the husband “Ask Him to tame quickly.” Dr. Taylor hesitated, then prayed “Dear Father, free her waiting spirit.” Within five minutes the Lord granted his request, and the wife went to be with the Lord. You see, this woman despite her cancer enjoyed the blessing of the Lord through her dying process and also in the manner in which the Lord took her out of this world. She did not experience any pain in her dying process because of the gracious dealing of the Lord. After about a year Dr. Taylor himself departed to be with the Lord in a very quiet manner. On June 3, 1905, a reception was given on his behalf in Changsha’s mission house. He mingled with the guests for over an hour with an expression of pure joy in his face. After his guests left, he went upstairs to rest and after reading a stack of letters and after his daughter-in-law had just adjusted his billow for him, Dr. Taylor quietly stepped into the presence of the Lord at the age of seventy-three. The manner of his death is no doubt the Lord’s gracious dealing with this faithful missionary even up to the point of his death. His death was certainly peaceful.

My second illustration using believers of the modern time is that famous preacher, evangelist, George Muller, who lived in the 19^th century, and known as man of faith. For nearly 70 years he lived by faith obtaining everything he needed by prayers to the Lord and never by appealing to any man. He labored in preaching the word of God throughout the world. The manner of his death is quite fascinating. The Sunday before his death, he had preached a sermon in a local church that he had ministered for about sixty-six years. He preached from 2 Corinthians 5:1:

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

On Wednesday, March 9, 1898, George admitted to his son-in-law that he felt a certain weakness and had to rest several times while dressing. His son-in-law suggested that he should not work so hard that day, but George took part in his regular activities and answered correspondence. The following morning, March 10, a servant went to George’s room with a cup of tea, as was his custom. The servant knocked but when no one responded he opened the door only to find that Mr. Muller had died and the doctor that was summoned, indicated that he must have been dead an hour or so, at the age of 93. Here is again an illustration of the Lord being gracious to believers up to the point of death so that their death could be considered peaceful or dying well.

The blessing that matured believers enjoy during their dying process is in sharp contrast to the manner in which unbelievers face death or even believers who die under discipline. To illustrate what we have asserted let me quote descriptions given about two famous unbelievers. The first quote concerns Sir Francis Newport, the head of an English infidel club. He is said to have spoken to those around his dying bed the following:

“You need not tell me there is no God for I know there is one, and that I am in His angry presence! You need not tell me there is no hell, for I already feel my soul slipping into its fires! Wretches, cease your idle talk about there being hope for me! I know I am lost forever.”^¹

Another quotation involved Stalin’s terrible death. This quotation is given in Newsweek attributed to his daughter Svetlana Stalin who described her father’s death as:

“My father died a difficult and terrible death … God grants an easy death only to the just. … At what seemed the very last moment he suddenly opened his eyes and cast a glance over everyone in the room. It was a terrible glance, insane or perhaps angry and full of fear of death … Then he lifted his left hand as though he were pointing to something above and bringing down a curse on us all. The gesture was full of menace … The next moment … the spirit wrenched itself free of the flesh.”^²

The point is that believers die well and peacefully because they have confidence in the Lord. In fact, the more a person walks close to the Lord the better is his confidence during his dying period. Believers who die through discipline do not enjoy the same level of confidence as those who die as mature believers. But in the end, the Lord graciously grants each believer peace the very moment before they step into eternity. We emphasize that the Lord’s gracious blessings are extended to believers even at their dying moments. Anyway, the believer should approach death without fear knowing that it is a necessary step of taking the individual from this world to be in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In any case, a believer should not fear death but approach it with confidence. Of course, no one knows when death will occur so a believer should recognize that it can occur any time. Such understanding should motive the believer to strive every day to live in a way to glorify God. Because of the fact we do not know when death will occur, we should pay close attention to apply our Lord’s statement in John 9:4:

As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.

Night here is used figuratively for death. We are therefore encouraged to serve the Lord by doing everything He commands us before death occurs. Since eternal reward is based on what we accomplish on this planet, we should be concerned that we function in a way that we do things that would be rewarded in heaven. Remember that once you die there is no more prospect of improving the reward you will receive in heaven as that is implied in Ecclesiastes 9:10

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

It is true that “night” in our Lord’s statement in John 9:4 refers figuratively to death but there is also a sense that we should recognize that although death ultimately closes the door for working for the Lord in way that will be rewarded, old age also reduces the opportunity of working for the Lord. Take for example, when a person is old there are several things, the individual could not do in service of God. If a person is confined to the house because of old age, the person’s opportunity for witness is drastically reduced to those who come to the individual. Hence, it is important that we strive to serve the Lord vigorously when we are still young. This would be in keeping with the instruction of Ecclesiastes 12:1:

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”—

Remembering the Lord when one is still young implies that a young person should endeavor to learn and apply the word of God because a time is coming when due to aging process such a person would have reduced capacity of learning and understanding God’s word. As we age, for example, we will find that we no longer recall passages of the Scripture as we did when we were young but that does not mean that we do not remember them at all for the Holy Spirit will enable us to recall the truths we learned while young. The point is that for the believer, the prospect of death should encourage such a person to live everyday serving the Lord to the utmost without being so attached to material things of this life as per the instruction of the Holy Spirit through the pen of Apostle Paul as recorded in 1 Corinthians 7:29–31:

²⁹What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; ³⁰those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; ³¹those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.

This instruction in Corinthians is intended to convey to believers to live as if a given day is their last on this planet since death could occur any time. With this encouragement, we turn our attention to the second general category of death mentioned in the Scripture.

The second general category of death we mentioned is spiritual. Spiritual death refers to that state in which a person is alienated from God because of sin. This definition is warranted because of what happened at the Fall. God had warned Adam that if he disobeyed His command not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that he would die as we read in Genesis 2:17:

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

Adam disobeyed God and the result of his disobedience is interpreted for us by the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul as bringing death into the world as we read in Romans 5:12:

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—

We know that although Adam eventually died physically, that did not occur the very moment he ate of the forbidden fruit. God’s threat to him given in Genesis 2:17 for when you eat of it you will surely die is more literally from the Hebrew for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die. The literal translation indicates that it was on the same day that Adam disobeyed that he was to die but that did not happen physically for several hundred years later. But God’s word cannot prove to be false. Therefore, the only logical explanation is that the death that occurred the moment Adam sinned is spiritual in the sense of being alienated from God. Adam after he sinned had the sense of alienation from God as evident in him and his wife attempting to hide from God. Anyway, it is because of Adam’s experience that we know that there is such thing as spiritual death.

Scriptural data enable us to classify spiritual death further into two classes: temporary and permanent. Temporary alienation from God is that alienation that can apply only to believers as we will note later while permanent alienation is that which applies to unbelievers after death that is to be known as second death that we will consider later. The temporary spiritual death is not one that is well-known among believers despite the fact that the Scripture provides information to enable us to recognize it. The permanent spiritual death, as we have indicated, is one that will eternally apply to unbelievers. For our treatment of the subject of spiritual death we will consider it first in its most general form that applies to all humans prior to some being saved.

Spiritual death in a general sense is the state or condition of every human being that enters this world through procreation of man and woman. Thus, the Scripture tells us that we all at birth were spiritually dead as the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul reminded the Colossians regarding their state prior to salvation as we read in Colossians 1:21:

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.

The same description of spiritual death as state of unbelievers prior to salvation is also conveyed by the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul to the Ephesians in Ephesians 2:1–3:

¹ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

Again, we should emphasize that spiritual death originally resulted from sin of Adam as we have previously stated but ever since Adam’s sin, we humans demonstrate that we are spiritually dead because of our sinfulness.

There are at least three ways we humans demonstrate we are spiritually dead prior to salvation. A first way the natural human demonstrates spiritual death is unbelief. We are all born in a state of unbelief in God. This we may deduce from the fact that when unbelief is replaced by faith in Jesus Christ a person would have eternal life as we read, for example, in John 3:36:

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”

A person with eternal life is not permanently alienate from God unlike one that does not. The person who does not have eternal life is one that is without faith in Christ. So, we can deduce that unbelief is that which demonstrates that a person is spiritually dead.

A second way a natural human or unbeliever demonstrates spiritual death is ignorance of spiritual things. In other words, an unbeliever is in a state of ignorance about God’s truth that leads to salvation. This state of ignorance is not easy to recognize because such a state is described in the gospels and in the epistle of Apostle Paul in terms of darkness. When Matthew introduced the ministry of Jesus Christ, he did so by stating that Jesus Christ was to fulfill the prophecy of Prophet Isaiah as he wrote in Matthew 4:16:

the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”

Matthew quoted verse 2 of the ninth chapter of Isaiah. In the context of Isaiah, darkness referred to the oppression of the people of Israel but in quoting the prophet in support of the ministry of Jesus Christ, the word “darkness” is to be understood differently. For sure, it is not literal darkness that Holy Spirit meant through Matthew; instead, it is lack of knowledge of God that is meant although some take it to refer to the danger, fear, hopelessness, and despondency of the people of Israel that had suffered under foreign oppression and had sunk into moral decay because of paganism. Either way, the truth is that darkness is related to ignorance that leads to moral decay that is evidence of spiritual death. That darkness is to be understood as reference to ignorance of spiritual truth of those in spiritual death is further evident when Apostle Paul through the Holy Spirit reminded the Ephesians what they were prior to salvation as we read in Ephesians 5:8:

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.

The sentence you were once darkness of Ephesians 5:8 is really a summary sentence that is intended to convey that believers, prior to their salvation, belonged to Satan and all associated with him. Hence, there is more to what the apostle intended to convey in this sentence. The apostle wanted to remind believers that prior to their salvation they were in a state of moral and spiritual darkness, being ruled by sin. It is not only that the apostle in the sentence you were once darkness of Ephesians 5:8 wanted to remind believers of their sinful state prior to their salvation but he also wanted to remind believers of their total ignorance of God’s truth as part of belonging to darkness. Hence, we contend that another evidence of spiritual death, in a general sense, is ignorance of truth since that is what leads people to moral decay or sinful life. Apostle Paul implied in his epistle to the Corinthians that ignorance should be understood in terms of darkness that Satan brings in that he prevents people from knowing the truth in 2 Corinthians 4:4:

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Satan described as god of this age blinds people in that he keeps them in darkness or ignorance so that they will not understand the truth. Although the apostle did not use the word “darkness” in his epistle to the Corinthians but that is implied in the blinding of unbelievers so that there is a sense that darkness refers to ignorance of the truth. That this is the case is stated in Psalm 82:5:

“They know nothing, they understand nothing. They walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

Although some indicate that walking about in darkness in this psalm does not mean the darkness of ignorance, but of unrighteousness, corruption, and evil but the semantic relationship between “darkness” and “ignorance” is inescapable so that we should recognize darkness as referring to ignorance of those who are spiritually dead. Hence, the second way a natural human or unbeliever demonstrates spiritual death is ignorance of spiritual things.

A third way a natural human or unbeliever demonstrates spiritual death is the possession of a mind that is controlled by the sinful human nature. This evidence may be seen in the contrast between the mind of the believer that is controlled by the Holy Spirit and that of the unbeliever that is controlled by sinful human nature as we read in Romans 8:5–8:

⁵Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; ⁷the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

The apostle in this section, no doubt, is concerned with the contrast between a life that is controlled by the sinful human nature and that which is controlled by the Holy Spirit. The word “mind” appears five times here in the NIV although in the Greek text the Greek noun (phronēma) for mind appears three times while a Greek verb (phroneō) that may mean “to ponder, to set one’s mind on something” appears once in verse 5. Although the Greek noun translated “mind” may mean “way of thinking” but here it is used with focus on aim, aspiration, striving of a person. Or as some put it, the word mind is used as a comprehensive term to refer to one’s will and affections as well as one’s reason. Anyway, the Holy Spirit through the apostle tells us that when a person’s whole life is controlled by the sinful human nature that leads to death but death here is spiritual that could be interpreted either to refer to permanent separation from God or temporary separation from the life of the Spirit. The mind that is controlled by the sinful human nature is hostile to God so that it is the unbeliever whose total being is rebellious towards God that is our concern. Thus, we can say that the one who is spiritually dead manifests it in the possession of mindset that is inimical to God. So, we are correct in stating that a mind controlled by the sinful human nature reflects spiritual death.

It is not only in his epistle to the Romans that Apostle Paul conveyed that a spiritual dead person has a mind that is controlled by the sinful nature, he described it somewhat differently in his epistle to the Ephesians where he wrote in Ephesians 4:18:

They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

The relationship of this passage to the passage of Romans 8:5-8 may be seen in the word “understanding.” The word “understanding” is translated from a Greek word (dianoia) that can refer to mind as a mode of thinking hence means “disposition, thought.” It is with the meaning “mind” that the word is used in the instruction of the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:13:

Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

So, there is a relationship between what the Holy Spirit conveyed here in Ephesians 4:18 to what we considered in Romans 8 regarding the control of the mind of an unbeliever by the sinful human nature. Here in Ephesians 4:18, the apostle stated regarding unbelievers as those who are spiritually dead in the sentence They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God. The question is what the apostle meant by stating that unbelievers or spiritually dead ones have their understanding darkened. He meant that unbelievers live the way they do because they lack spiritual understanding or perception because of the effects of sin on their faculty of thinking. The effect of sin is to put a covering over the ability of any unbeliever to understand any spiritual truth, particularly the gospel of salvation. An unbeliever may be very intelligent but that has nothing to do with understanding the simple message of the gospel of Jesus Christ that says that He died for the sinner. This truth can be repeated several times to an unbeliever, but such an individual will not understand it without the work of the Holy Spirit helping the person to understand the truth communicated. You see, there is the tendency for some of us to become frustrated or even wonder why we could explain the gospel to unbelievers, and they do not understand or comprehend what we tell them. The answer is that they are spiritually dead. A part of being spiritually dead is the inability to grasp anything that is spiritual in nature. This happens because the mind of such a person is controlled by the sinful human nature so the person could not understand the gospel message or God’s truth. In any event, it is our assertion that a third way a natural human or unbeliever demonstrates spiritual death is the possession of a mind that is controlled by the sinful human nature. We have been considering the subject of permanent spiritual death so we need to consider what we referred to as temporary spiritual death but we are out of time so we will consider it in our next study.

1Tan, P. L. 1996, c1979. Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : [a treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers]. Bible Communications: Garland TX

2 Ibid