The End of Death – Already or Yet to Come?

When the Bible speaks about death, it does so in a way that can seem, at first, almost paradoxical. Some passages speak as though death has already been dealt with decisively, while others just as clearly place its end in the future. Rather than forcing one set of statements to override the other, it is more helpful to step back and allow the full pattern of Scripture to emerge.

Doing so allows you to see that the picture about death that emerges is one of progression: Humanity once entered into death and moved toward its completion. Adam was told that he would die in the day he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and bad. But he lived on for 930 years before finally dying physically. Now, through Christ, one may enter into life while still facing the prospect of dying and move toward its completion. And when that completion arrives, death will not simply be weakened or reinterpreted—it will be gone entirely, along with every other enemy that has marked human life from the beginning.