We’re all going to die, that’s a given. I don’t want to sound gloomy here, but it is important that we come to an understanding of what death is, for without it, without knowledge, you could very well die three times. What does that even mean? Let’s have a look!

Let’s take a look at all three, shall we?

Physical Death

Unless Jesus comes again the second time while we are still alive, a physical death is inevitable for all of us. Physical death refers to the soul leaving the body. The soul returns to God upon our physical death. The body then (as we know) is buried (whenever possible) and begins to decompose. As God’s word states: “…and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7-8, NIV).

As for those who believe on Jesus, we read: “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2, NIV). The first part is pretty cool, right? The second, not so much.

Spiritual Death

The second death is one’s spiritual death. Not good. Spiritual death first occurred to Adam and Eve (humanity’s common ancestors) when they disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. Guess what? We have all disobeyed God. It’s called sin. Adam and Eve dies spiritually that day but not physically until centuries later.

When we reside in this disobedience to God by not believing by faith in His only beloved Son, Jesus, we are completely helpless to save ourselves or be capable of earning any favor in God’s eyes. This is a sad state indeed. Essentially, any good reward will be your only on Earth.

The unbelieving are called children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). The Greek word used here is “sarx”, which means: the sinful state of humans, frequently presented as a power that is in total hostility to the Holy Spirit.

The only way we can escape this second death is by coming to a trust in Jesus Christ by confessing with our mouths that we believe in Jesus, his death, burial and resurrection to life again. And no, we don’t have to perform good works to earn this salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9), but we should as a course of obedience.

Eternal Death

This is the absolute worst state of the soul. It is the eternal separation from God with no chance of making things right with Him ever again. In the Lake of Fire, every unrepentant, unforgiven sinner will join Satan, the Beast and the False Prophet in eternal torment. Yikes! Oh, and did I mention demons? Them too!

The eventual destination and state of being of the spiritual death is this eternal death. For God’s words speaks this: “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18, NASB).

We read about the Lake of Fire in the book of Luke: “‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire” (Luke 16:24, NIV).

And by the way, the passage above is not a parable, because no parable has a name in it.

Now that you know the three states of death, which will you choose? I’ll give you a strong suggestion: choose life!

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them” (John 3:36, NIV).

Again, choose life!