Death, Death, and More Death!

What is spiritual death? Does it have the same weight as physical death, or can you repent and return to God? Is all spiritual death equal?

These questions drove me to study this topic, one my cousins and I have been theorizing on for a while. The Bible has a lot to say about spiritual death, and it is vital that we understand what spiritual death is - after all, the second death is spiritual. The permanent kind. 

Rev 21:8 KJV But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

There’s no coming back from that one. What about spiritual death while we are still alive physically? 

Ephesians 2:5 KJV  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Paul says that we were spiritually dead before we had the blood of Christ applied to our sins. Or does he? Is this death he speaks of spiritual, or is he speaking of the fact that we were destined for death, headed towards a permanent grave before Christ reached out and saved us from ourselves? Let’s keep looking.

1 Corinthians 15:20-22 NKJV  But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Here, Paul tells us that the death we were destined for was physical because of our fallen nature, but Christ rescued us with His sacrifice. How, then, do we die spiritually?

Romans 8:1-11 NKJV  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 

that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 

So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 

And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Spiritual life is having Christ in us and God’s holy spirit within us. Our physical bodies must die, but we will live on as spirit beings - only if Christ is within us. If this is what spiritual life is, then death must be the opposite: the lack of God’s spirit and the lack of Christ within us. Can we even die spiritually before we are made alive in Christ? Since the second death awaits all those who are dead spiritually, it would seem not. All those who do not know Christ in this life will have an opportunity to know God in the future; thus, they cannot already be spiritually dead. This leaves us with one option, the only way to be spiritually dead is to first have been made alive in Christ. To have followed Him and then turned our back on him is to die spiritually.

Hebrews 10:26 NKJV For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

Therefore, we need to know what can cause us to turn our back on Christ or to deny Him. As men, we are supposed to be the providers in our families. When we fail in this and do not provide for our family, Paul says this about us:

1 Timothy 5:8 NKJV But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

We have denied the faith and become worse than an unbeliever when we fail to provide for our family. This is quite serious and demonstrates that denying the Faith makes us worse than an unbeliever. It makes us spiritually dead. Or does it? Can you change and come back from this? Yes. Can you then come back from being spiritually dead? 

Revelation 3:1-5 NKJV “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: 

“I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 

“Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. 

“Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. 

“You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. 

“He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

In Sardis, the Church there was dead, but God commanded them to repent. This would seem to imply that they could return from spiritual death if they repented.

Hebrews 6:4-8 NKJV For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, 

and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, 

if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. 

For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; 

but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

However, we see in this section of Hebrews that the rejection of the Holy Spirit cannot be returned from. Not because God could not forgive them if they repented and returned, but because they cannot get past themselves to make it to repentance. We see this in the story of Saul. When God took His spirit from Saul, all Saul would have had to do was repent. He never could, though, and stayed separated from God. On the other hand, David always repented, and God never took His spirit from him. 

Matthew 12:31-32 NKJV “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 

“Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

It is a lack of repentance that cannot be forgiven. The Holy Spirit is not a person; it is the power of God. The only way for you to blaspheme against it is to receive it and then reject it. 

1 John 1:9 NKJV If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

As long as we truly repent, God will forgive us. True repentance involves the effort of change. The reason that rejection of the Holy Spirit is so final is because a rejection of it means you had it. Once you reject it, you accept Satan just as Saul did. Our human minds simply cannot come back from that.

We are getting closer to an answer of what spiritual death is. Spiritual death occurs when Christ and His spirit no longer dwell within us. It seems that it does indeed have the same weight as physical death. Spiritual death in this life also means spiritual death in the next as well. We must repent if we stumble while striving to live God’s way of life. Mistakes are part of being human; they do not mean we are spiritually dead. If we are trying to live God’s way of life, we cannot be dead because the very act of following His ways means that we have not rejected His Spirit. To be dead is to be absent of life. 

2 Peter 2:20-22 NKJV For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. 

For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 

But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

Titus 1:16 NKJV They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

Again, we see that a rejection of God’s way after having known the truth and committed to God is worse than never knowing to begin with. So, where does this leave us with regard to spiritual death? We have a certain definition of spiritual death, but what are we missing? 

What are some examples of ways we can be dead spiritually? Anything where we reject God’s spirit. Anytime we sin and do not repent. Generally, this will only happen with sexual sins or turning against God’s ways as far as keeping the Sabbath and Holy Days or the clean meat laws. Now is where we get into the real mind-bending part. We are betrothed to Christ, so any rebellion or rejection of Him is a sexual sin; rejection of God’s spirit is sexual immorality. 

James 4:4-5 NKJV Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

Friendship with the ways of the world is enmity, dare I say, based on this verse and some others that I will share in a minute, sexual immorality. This, dear readers is the heart of spiritual death. When we commit sexual immorality against God and do not repent and return to Him, this is the second death; this is the spiritual death. Colossians three equates the lusts of the world to sexual immorality and idolatry.

Colossians 3:5 NKJV Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Ezekiel 16:31-32 NKJV “You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your high place in every street. 

Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned payment. “You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband.

In speaking of Israel here, Christ calls them His adulterous wife. Israel committed sexual immorality by worshipping other gods and following the ways of the world. They died spiritually as a nation. Based on these verses and others too numerous to share here, spiritual death is caused by unrepented sexual immorality. This is the key to understanding spiritual death. When we follow the world, we commit sexual immorality against Christ. When we do not repent of this, we reject God and die spiritually. The reason, then, that we cannot return from a spiritual death has to do with committing sexual immorality against Christ. Once we turn to other ways, fully and with no repentance, how do we come back from that? The way back is always open; however, it seems that we as humans are incapable of returning. This is spiritual death. This is the final second death.