Sin and Death

As someone who leads a messianic prison ministry, I am often caught between the roles of grace and law. Usually we spend time discussing the meaning of sin, but there might be a more important thing to define. What is the biblical meaning of death? Since death is the result of sin (breaking the law), maybe it would help the discussion if we discussed the meaning of “death”.

Adam was told that if they took of the “tree of knowledge” that they would die. However, when they did, they did not die, but instead they were cut off from the “tree of life”. Now most people will say they “died spiritually”, but that is not what is described here. What happened when they sinned? They were cut off from the presence of God. Prior to their sin, they “walked with God”, but afterwards they were blocked from the “Tree of Life”. Many talk of the “Tree of Life” as Torah, but it makes no sense that Yahweh would cut us off from that which explains sin if we sin. Interestingly, Kabalah says the “Tree of Life” is the “path to God”. So by that definition, Adam and Eve’s sin cause them to be blocked from free access to Yahweh.

Does that make sense? Well how many times are we shown this? If you sinned in Moses’ day, you were removed from the camp, from His Presence. If you were in sin, you could not “draw near” to Yahweh with your offering. Cain was not killed, but put out of the garden for murder. Throughout the bible we see examples where if we sin we are separated from God, which should be a punishment worse than death. But do we think of separation from God as worse than death? I don’t think so.

Most Christians today think that being in the perfect presence of God is what Heaven is, and that is what happens after death. Yet the bible shows Yaweh’s desire for us is to be in his presence here on earth. The Kingdom of Heaven (God) is Near (or as the rabbis say, the Kingdom of Heaven is offered). Maybe if we did a better job of helping the family desire the presence of God, then they would fear separation (death) and would desire to avoid death by understanding His Torah. Instead of trying to convince believers they need to keep the Torah, maybe the discussion should be how do we make them want the presence of God?

Shalom,
Jeff