A Fate Worse Than Death

Jesus talked a lot about love. He also talked a lot about death. Jesus talked a lot about death because He loved people. Jesus died for us so we could live because He loved us. So if Jesus talked a lot about death because He loved so much…I guess I will too, because I love people too.

When you go through an academic course totally dedicated to death you tend to sober quickly to sin's intrinsic role in the destruction, decay and final demise of a human. It is obvious to me being a theologically-minded person that sin is a horrid condition that inevitably leads to everyone’s suffering and physical terminus.

I hear the old saying go through my head often, “Chose the lesser of two evils.” If a Christian has a choice, which are they to choose-death or choose to sin? I as a Christian that wishes to obey God and pursue holiness rightfully should choose to die over choosing to sin. God’s eternal life on the other side should seem much more appealing to a believer than staying on this side of the grave racking up more offenses against God’s holiness and incurring wrath or punishment.

In a way, sin is literally worse than death. As a believer it would be better for me to undergo death to this physical body than to continue to perpetrate sin and condemn my soul to an eternity separated from God's love and that of my brethren. It is better to surrender to death than succumb to the vileness and wretchedness of sin.

Matthew 10:28 ~ “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

In the eternal spiritual state of things, sin is more lethal or toxic than death. Sin therefore must be a dreadful thing as many will willingly endure sickness and pain longer before succumbing to the desire or wish to die from discomfort of a disease. Death is indeed an enemy but not so much as sin itself. Death may be the enemy of natural life but sin is the enemy of the immortal soul.

Death may temporarily separate us from our nearest relations including a spouse but sin unanswered and unforgiven has the ability to separate us from not only from our loved ones but also from God forever. Death is indeed and enemy but sin is worse, for it brought death and all

the evils that come by death.

Sin will separate a person from God while alive unless that person repents. Sin will separate a person from God's love in Hell for eternity because once dead in their sins, unrepentant sinners have no second chance. Death does not separate one from the love or God as repentant sinners will go to be in the presence of holy God after death if they are righteous in Christ. Sin on the other hand will separate us from the love of God forever and put us in the presence of His wrath.

Romans 8:38-39 ~ “…I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Isaiah 59:2 ~ “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

Death is horrifying and is the king of terrors.

Job 18:13-14 ~ “It eats away parts of his skin, death’s firstborn devours his limbs. He is torn from the security of his tent and marched off to the king of terrors (Satan).

It is very grim thing death. Most people are afraid to die, yet ironically, they are not afraid to sin and should be because it is sin that is the cause of death. Sin is the sine qua non or essential ingredient of death. It is the very act of sins that puts death in our path and puts the dead in death. Sin is the sting of death. Sin is therefore a vastly greater enemy than death itself...which we are often terrified of.

1 Corinthians 15:56 ~ “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.”

So why is it that we willingly sin with reckless abandon and never consider the consequences? Death although it stings and definitively kills, it cannot curse a man to eternal condemnation. So therefore I must conclude that sin is more dangerous and more terrible than death itself.  Without sin there would have been no death. If there had been no death there would’ve been no terror in death.

So it is easy to see then that when Jesus Christ takes away the sin of the sinner he therefore takes away death’s sting since there is no longer any reinforcements to hold up death. The skeleton of death is removed and death becomes a mere shadow of its former self. Jesus by disarming the contaminating and satanic fuel of sin simultaneously disarms the warhead of death. He also defuses Hell as He allows the repentant sinner escape from that fate. So for me, I find it strange that some will embrace the very thing that will inevitably kill them and condemn them. It is like hugging a bomb or riding our sin straight to Hell. A literal rocket ride to Hell.

Hebrews 2:14-15 ~ “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

When the sting is taken from death by Christ, there is no danger or fallout and cause of fear. When we behold the Prince of Peace in all His glory, the King of Terror has no sway over our lives.

Death robs us of natural / temporal life, but sin deprives us of spiritual life therefore it kills us eternally. Death kills only the body, but sin can kill the soul and the death of the soul and the second death becomes worse than the death of the body. Men may kill our bodies but God can destroy us or damn us forever. Therefore I fear no man but I humbly submit to God. It can therefore be concluded that sin kills us deader than death kills us…and it does it while we are still alive. Repeated a different way: 

Sin can kill us deader than death even while we are still living and breathing in this life. Yet we embrace sin like it is our friend, not our enemy. 

It seems almost pathological in its inability to recognize a threat and avoid it.

Death brings corruption and decay to the physical but sin brings decay and corruption to the soul. Death makes every man say into a shadow. Death makes man see the worm as a partner in decomposition. Strangely, sin corrupts us more than death, because He who died without sin saw no corruption and it is this purity that makes us stink that much more to Him. Sins rot and corrupt our souls, and anything that corrupts the soul destroys the true essence of the man. Therefore sin is much worse than that which corrupts the body. Sin therefore is like hugging a half rotten corpse and liking it. Again, this seems not just pathological ..it is the sign of a warped and sick mind.

There is indeed a fate worse than death and it can be seen and endured in this life. It is a life in sin, which in reality is a life in eternal death. It would take a mentally sick person to enjoy this. At least a death in Christ grants an eternal life but a death in sin (after a life in sin) kills us deader than the dead-ness we lived before in a sinful unrepentant life.

It is no accident that Jesus told the Pharisees and the Jews that their great misery was not that they would die. He told them that their worse fate in this life would not be death but rather that they should die in their sins.

John 8:21 ~ “Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”

It would be better to die in a roadside ditch or in torture than to die in sin. Torture in this life is temporary but to die in sin results in torture eternally in death. In the long-view it is better to die regardless than to go on sinning. It will inevitably create a separation between us and God permanently.

If you haven’t heard it before than you heard it from me here first…sin is worse than the Devil.

The Devil is a scumbag and a hater of mankind yet it is not he that damns man, it is God that damns man (actually its man that damns man but God has the power and authority to follow through with it). Our sin does more damage to us without Satan in the picture than the Devil will ever have time to do to us. Sin will undo a man easier than the Devil ever could. We through our own sin can condemn ourselves to Hell without one ounce of help from Satan. Sin is so thoroughly dangerous that it not only corrupts and destroys us physically and spiritually, it is the very thing that undid Satan and the fallen angels. We must never forget that Satan was not created sinful as God would never create sin or evil. Sin is what makes the Satan the Devil. Sin puts the demon in the devils. Satan now seeks to destroy but he cannot compel a man to sin…man does that volitional, or on their own.

The Devil is a tempter but it is man who sins. It is humanity’s own sinful lusts that trip us them up. Our own desires are more dangerous to us than the Devil. This is why we are called to join together with other Christians. It is to protect us from ourselves. The biggest danger for a Christian does not come from outside, it comes from within. We are our own worst enemy. The Devil hates us and tempts us but it is clearly man who sins, and sin damns. It is ironic that neither of these are force upon man by the Devil. We chose to sin and God condemns unrepentant man. Hell is the punishment for the horrid crime or sin. Therefore if Hell after death is punishment for sin, then the sin must have been worse than Hell.

If God is perfectly just than the punishment for sin must perfectly fit the crime for it to be fair and just. If Hell is so horrible we have a genuine indicator of just how heinous sin is. God meters out the punishment to be equal to the trespass, never more, never less. If we understand God to be the perfectly just Judge, this must be assumed to be true. The very magnitude of Hell’s punishment argues for the unquestionable enormity of sin’s criminal nature. Sin is a rebellion against the holiness of a perfectly holy God that wished only to love us and have us glorify Him but because of our rebellion we do not bring Him glory we bring Him shame due to our criminal rebellion. Because He is perfectly holy and perfectly just He deserved only worship and glory but instead He was ignored and mocked (yet God is not mocked-Galatians 6:7). Instead we worship every creeping thing, other men/women and stone or wood idols.

In the end it is not so much Hell that inflicts the pain on the unrepentant sinner as it is the very sins committed by the sinner in this life that will afflict the sinner in some shape or form in the next. It is my honest belief that if one goes to Hell, they earned it and it will be the very sins that condemned them here that they will be given over to forever to torment them there. Sin and unrepentant sinners make the need for Hell and condemnation a necessity. If there had been no sin and no sinners, there would be no need for Hell, condemnation and punishment. Hell is just a place for those who refuse to stop rebelling. Therefore sin is worse than death and the Devil and perhaps, might be worse than Hell itself because sin and rebellion against God is what makes Hell necessary.

Those that tell you that Hell is not eternal or doesn’t exist for the purpose of eternal damnation do not have a proper understanding of their sin. Nor do they have a firm grasp on God's principles, logic or sound reasoning. They do not have a firm grasp of the gravity and weight of sin. Those that live their lives in the righteousness of Christ in this life help to usher in the Kingdom of God here and now but those live in an unrighteous manner in his life help usher in a piece of Hell into the here and now. Somehow I feel it vastly more beneficial to live a righteous life in Christ. Additionally, based on the aforementioned reasoning, it is easy to see why the world appears so screwed up at times...it appears at time...Hell breaks through in the people that allow it in their sins.