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Mims Chapel Church 

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Lesson 13 • Fifth Week

Spiritual Death

Background Reading:
Genesis 2:7; 17; John 4:24; Romans 5:12-17; 1 Corinthi­ans 15:44

Devotional Reading:
Romans 7:5-23

 Central Verse
"For the wages of sin is death, but the                            "For the wages of sin is death, but the
gift of God is eternal life through Jesus                           gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
Christ our Lord."       Romans 6:23 KJV                            our Lord"                         Romans 6:23 NIV

Key Terms
Death —A permanent cessation of all vital functions; the end of life; the cause or occa­sion of loss of life.
Consequences — The conclusion derived through logic; omething produced by a cause or necessarily following from a set of conditions.
Second Death — The eternal separation from God; the punishment of the souls of the lost after bodily death.
Reconnect — To connect again; to become joined together again.

Introduction

Spiritual death is the reason man must become reconciled back to God. When God created man and put him in the Garden of Eden, He did it with the inten­tion of man always enjoying a peaceful life of fellowship with Him. He provided everything man needed to be free and happy. He created man in His image and gave him the ability to think and have a free will. He made his body, soul, and spirit.

God also equipped man to function concerning the nonphysical or spiritual realm when He gave man a body, and when the body dies, it returns to the dust, and eventually, it will be bought back together and have an eternal existence. It depends on man's choice where he will spend eternity, with God or separated from God.

In Genesis, He gave man clear orders and let him know that the day they ate of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die. They had never seen anything die, so they had no understanding of what death meant. They didn't seem to realize how utterly disastrous it would be to be spiritually dead in the relationship with God their Creator. They enjoyed being able the talk and fellowship with God daily.

By eating the unforbidden fruit, they disobeyed God, which caused the imme­diate death. This death had three parts, A Spiritual death, a Physical death, and an Eternal death. But only one of the aspects of death became evident to Adam. He knew that something had caused an immediate separation between him and God. This separation was so great, that they wanted to hide from God, but God being merciful came looking for them. When He found them, He lov­ingly killed an animal and coved them. Even though He showed them love He had to execute the sentence of death by putting them out of the Garden and breaking fellowship with them.

Discussion

When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they disobeyed God and sinned, for sin is a transgression against God's law. Sin and death had entered human­ity through one man's disobedience (Romans 5:12). When Adam sinned, he became a sinner, and every human that was born after that was born in sin and shaped in iniquity with the sentence of death upon them.

The three phases of death are: Spiritual death, which cuts man off from his Creator; Physical death, which causes a person to be cut off from each other; Eternal death, which will cut man off from his Creator for eternity.

If a man continues to sin, he continues to be separated from his maker. People often accomplish many great things in life but seldom have true fulfillment. It seems that nothing can bring the satisfaction he desires, it's because he is dead on the inside. Spiritual death is at work. Physical death is the penalty for sin, but it is also a symbol of spiritual death, which is man's ultimate separation from God as Adam experienced in the Garden. We all have sinned and come short of God's glory. Thanks be unto God that he said in his word, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)

Conclusion

Man must understand that problem spiritual death was caused by Adam's fall. However, God so loved the world that he sent His son Jesus to reconnect the broken fellowship through His death, burial and resurrection. Through the means of repentance and salvation, we have now have the promise of eternal and abundant life with Jesus Christ.

Questions

Why is death an enemy of God?
What is spiritual death?
How did man receive spiritual death?
What can man do to receive spiritual life?

Essential Thought- "If a man dies to sin and its consequences, he won't have to die the second death."