Death

Death in Scripture is not a natural feature of existence. It enters the world as the consequence of sin: “for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” The Genesis account treats death as an intrusion, not a design. Mankind was not created to die; death is the sentence that falls on the creature who has broken the covenant with the Creator.

The Old Testament sits with the reality of death without fully resolving it. Death is the great leveller, the end of every plan and every hope apart from God. The Psalms lament it, Job confronts it, Ecclesiastes refuses to look away from it. The suffering servant of Isaiah 53 bears it as part of the full weight of human sin. Scripture does not treat death as a spiritual problem to be quickly resolved; it takes it seriously as the final enemy.

The New Testament declares that the last enemy has been defeated. Christ has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (2 Timothy 1:10). The resurrection of Christ is not a resuscitation; it is the conquest of death itself, the first fruits of a resurrection that will come to all who belong to him. “Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The articles below trace the theme of death through several of its key passages.