The first suffering of death is related to the death of the spirit. Originally, the human spirit was living. Just as our ears can understand and contact sound and our eyes can differentiate and contact color, the human spirit can know and understand matters concerning God and fellowship with God. However, man’s spirit was deadened, and it lost the function and blessing of knowing and contacting God. This suffering can be compared to the experience of a deaf person who is unable to hear or a blind person who is unable to see.
1. “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17).
God told Adam that he would die in the day that he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But when Adam ate of the fruit, he did not die outwardly. Therefore, God’s word must have referred to the deadening of his spirit. When he disobeyed God’s commandment, the function of his human spirit died, cutting him off from God and causing him to lose the blessing and ability of knowing God, contacting God, and fellowshipping with God.
2. “Let the dead bury their own dead” (Matt. 8:22).
This verse speaks of two kinds of dead people. The first are dead in the spirit but not in body, and the second are dead in both spirit and body. Therefore, the first kind can bury the second. Even though the first can bury those who are physically dead, they themselves are still dead because their spirit is dead in its function of contacting and fellowshipping with God. Although the outward body is living, the inward spirit is dead. Hence, both kinds of people are dead in God’s eyes.
3. “Has passed out of death into life...The dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:24-25).
Every person who does not believe is dead and is in death because his spirit is dead, having been cut off from God and being unable to contact and fellowship with God. When such a one hears the voice of the Son of God, the gospel that gives life, his spirit is made alive, and he is able to contact God in fellowship. Thus, he passes out of death into life.
4. “This son of mine was dead and lives again” (Luke 15:24, see also v. 32).
In God’s eyes every person who is saved was dead prior to salvation. On the day of his salvation he is enlivened, and God no longer considers such a one as being dead but rather as living again. After salvation, God sees every believer as being alive again.
5. “Dead in your offenses and sins” (Eph. 2:1, see also v. 5; 4:18; Col. 2:13).
Every saved one was once dead in offenses and sins. This death is a spiritual death. Because of our sins and offenses before God, our spirit was dead toward God, and we were cut off from God. With regard to our spirit, we were dead and unable to contact God or fellowship with Him.
All the verses in this section refer to death as it relates to the human spirit. First John 3:14 and 1 Timothy 5:6 also refer to this aspect of death. Every unsaved descendant of Adam, whether high or low, great or small, wise or foolish, weak or strong, is dead in his spirit, cut off from God, and unable to fellowship with Him.
The second aspect related to the suffering of death is the physical death of the body. This aspect of death is what is commonly referred to as death. This aspect of death is apparent and can be seen outwardly.
1. “Adam...died” (Gen. 5:5).
This verse refers to the death of Adam’s body. His spirit died when he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but his body died more than nine hundred years later.
2. “The rich man also died and was buried” (Luke 16:22).
This verse refers to the death of the rich man’s body. Even though his spirit was deadened, his physical body needed to be buried when his body died.
3. “It is reserved for men to die once” (Heb. 9:27).
To die once refers to the death of the body. It is reserved for men to physically die once. This aspect of death is reserved for all men.
The third aspect related to the suffering of death is the suffering of the soul and the spirit in the flames of Hades after the death of the body. This suffering is mainly experienced in the soul.
1. “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment”; “I am in anguish in this flame” (Luke 16:23-24, see also v. 28).
This portion refers to the rich man suffering in the flames of Hades. According to the context of the verses, this occurred after his body died, and it shows that after the death of the body, the soul and spirit are in terrible anguish in the flames of Hades. Hades is not hell but merely the preface to hell, just as a book has a preface. The coming lake of fire is hell. Hades only has flames, but the hell of the lake of fire has fire. No one knows how much more severe the lake of fire will be than the flames of Hades. Since those in the flames of Hades experience terrible anguish, surely there will be considerable suffering in the lake of fire!