A Brief Bible Study |
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Your Bible Lesson For The Day
What Punishment Does Mankind Suffer Because Of Its Sin?
The evidence of the punishment is all around you. Cemeteries. Funeral homes. Hospitals. Medical clinics. Pharmacies. Nursing Homes. What is the punishment for sin? Death!
God made that punishment for sin clear when he told Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or he would die. And because of sin, mankind now suffers three kinds of death.
The first kind of death is spiritual death. The two previous brief Bible studies already discussed it in detail. Ephesians 2:1 summed it up: “You were dead in your transgressions and sins.” People are born spiritually dead, with a sinful nature that has lost the image of God, is totally corrupt, is inclined only toward evil all the time, is incapable of understanding the spiritual truths of God, and cannot believe his good news of salvation in the Savior Jesus Christ. This spiritual death is the separation of the human spirit from God and his spiritual blessings.
The second kind of death is the most obvious to you – temporal death. It also includes the diseases and miseries that mankind suffers on earth, such as pain in childbirth and hard labor to make one’s living, as God said in Genesis 3:16-19. This temporal death is the separation of the soul from the body and from the blessings of God in this world.
The third kind of death Jesus spoke of in Matthew 25:41 where he told the goats on his left, “Depart from me, you who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” This third kind of death is eternal death, damnation in hell. It is the separation of the body and the soul from God and his heavenly blessings forever.
Thanks be to God for his loving graciousness that he sent Jesus to save us from this punishment of eternal death by suffering the punishment of hell for us while on the cross. This salvation God gives to all who believe in Jesus. As Romans 8:1 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
And having the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus Christ, we are not punished with temporal death either. The diseases and miseries and physical death we suffer in this world are not punishments but God’s loving, fatherly chastisements to train us in the ways of righteousness (see Hebrews 12:5-11 and Psalm 94:12). For us believers in Jesus death is not a punishment but a blessing. Through death God brings us to himself in heaven and forever separates us from our body of sin so we may be holy and righteous eternally. For this salvation we sing his praises now as we will forever. Amen.
God made that punishment for sin clear when he told Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or he would die. And because of sin, mankind now suffers three kinds of death.
The first kind of death is spiritual death. The two previous brief Bible studies already discussed it in detail. Ephesians 2:1 summed it up: “You were dead in your transgressions and sins.” People are born spiritually dead, with a sinful nature that has lost the image of God, is totally corrupt, is inclined only toward evil all the time, is incapable of understanding the spiritual truths of God, and cannot believe his good news of salvation in the Savior Jesus Christ. This spiritual death is the separation of the human spirit from God and his spiritual blessings.
The second kind of death is the most obvious to you – temporal death. It also includes the diseases and miseries that mankind suffers on earth, such as pain in childbirth and hard labor to make one’s living, as God said in Genesis 3:16-19. This temporal death is the separation of the soul from the body and from the blessings of God in this world.
The third kind of death Jesus spoke of in Matthew 25:41 where he told the goats on his left, “Depart from me, you who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels.” This third kind of death is eternal death, damnation in hell. It is the separation of the body and the soul from God and his heavenly blessings forever.
Thanks be to God for his loving graciousness that he sent Jesus to save us from this punishment of eternal death by suffering the punishment of hell for us while on the cross. This salvation God gives to all who believe in Jesus. As Romans 8:1 says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
And having the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus Christ, we are not punished with temporal death either. The diseases and miseries and physical death we suffer in this world are not punishments but God’s loving, fatherly chastisements to train us in the ways of righteousness (see Hebrews 12:5-11 and Psalm 94:12). For us believers in Jesus death is not a punishment but a blessing. Through death God brings us to himself in heaven and forever separates us from our body of sin so we may be holy and righteous eternally. For this salvation we sing his praises now as we will forever. Amen.
