Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The secret of the mystery. Part 203. The mystery of invisible heroes. Part 4.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Point 7. The Death of the Invisible Hero.
Point 1. Eight Categories of Death in the Bible.
a. Spiritual Death of the Human Race. Spiritual death was the penalty of sin, and was so given as the warning to mankind in the garden. GEN 2:17 dying you will die.
Bayowm taamuwt mowt = “in that day dying spiritually, you shall die physically”
The penalty was imposed at the fall of man and is perpetuated in the human race through the imputation of Adam’s original sin to the genetically-formed old sin nature after birth, simultaneously with the imputation of human life.
When biological life emerges from the womb, God creates soul life and imputes it to biological life.
Our sins are not imputed to us but to Jesus Christ on the cross.
Mankind is not condemned by the imputation of his personal sins, but by the imputation of Adam’s original sin to the genetically-formed old sin nature.
Personal sin is not the means of spiritual death, but the result of spiritual death - the result of having an old sin nature.
1. Real spiritual death. This was the actual spiritual death of Adam, who made the decision for the entire human race.
2. Substitutionary spiritual death. This occurred on the cross, when our Lord bore our sins in His own body and were judged.
Our personal sins were never imputed to us for condemnation, but to Jesus Christ as our substitute,
1PE 2:24; 1PE 3:18; 2CO 5:21; ISA 53:6; ROM 5:8.
MAT 8:22 “Follow Me; let the [spiritually] dead bury their own [physically] dead.”
1CO 15:22 “For as in Adam all die [spiritual death], so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Spiritual death = status of dichotomy.
We have a soul and no human spirit.
Spiritual death = status of total depravity.
Total depravity means we are in either moral or immoral degeneracy in the status of sin.
Faith plus anything else is salvation by works, which eliminates the work of the Holy Spirit in efficacious grace.
PHI 1:21 For me, living is Christ, likewise dying is profit.
HEB 2:15 And [He] might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
Point 1. Eight Categories of Death in the Bible.
a. Spiritual Death of the Human Race.
Spiritual death was the penalty of sin, and was so given as the warning to mankind in the garden.
GEN 2:17 - “dying you will die.”
ROM 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,
JOH 19:30 “It is finished [Tetelestai]!” And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit.
b. Positional Death of the Believer.
While spiritual death occurs at physical birth, positional death occurs at the second birth, the new birth, or regeneration.
Positional death occurs through the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation.
The believer is identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, ROM 6:1-14.
Positional death, also called retroactive positional truth, is the believer’s identification with Christ in His death.
Positional rejection of human good and evil as the policy of Satan is part of the believer’s residence inside the PPOG at salvation,
COL 2:11-12.
Two things happened in the spiritual death of Christ on the cross: He was judged for the sins of the world, and He rejected human good and evil.
c. Carnal Death of the Believer: Cosmic Death or Carnality.
1. Post-salvation sinning.
2. Post-salvation human good.
3. Post-salvation evil.
Dead - nekron = could mean deaths referring to the believer being carnal and out of fellowship for a period of time, or it could mean dead ones referring to the importance of separation.
a. Temporal death of the believer, which describes the believer out of fellowship with God.
b. The cosmic death of the believer.
c. The fragmented death of the believer, which is the believer involved in either moral or immoral degeneracy.
1CO 3:1 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual persons, but as to carnal persons, even as to babies in Christ.”
Carnal, cosmic, or fragmented death refers to the function of the believer’s volition in converting temptation from the sin nature into sinfulness.
Living inside the cosmic system classifies that believer as living in temporal or cosmic death.
JAM 1:15 “When lust has become pregnant, it gives birth to sin. Furthermore, when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
Temptation is not a sin; the sin is the act of volition which follows.
The sin nature dwells in the cell structure of the body and the Holy Spirit indwells the body.
1TI 5:6 “But that widow who constantly indulges in wanton pleasure has died while she is living.”
REV 3:1 “I know your production, that you have a reputation that you are living, but you are dead.”
ROM 8:6 “For the mindset of the flesh [old sin nature] is death [cosmic death], but the mindset of the Spirit is life and prosperity.”
ROM 8:13 “For if you are living according to the flesh [old sin nature], you must die [cosmic death], but if you through the Holy Spirit are putting to death the production of the flesh, you live.”