#9 Question: If a man dies, shall he live again?

Explaining death and dying to children is hard for parents, especially when there is a death in the family or a pet dies. Children at a funeral usually want a full explanation of what has happened and what happens next.

What do we say to children? At death, life as we know it is over. Usually, we explain that the soul of the person will be resurrected at judgment. If they have lived as a Christian, we say they will go to heaven. If not, then we are usually silent.

The question in the title was asked in Job 14:13-14:

“If a man dies, shall he live again?”

What is Job asking? He is probably not asking whether the dead will be resurrected to live on this earth again. The overwhelming evidence that this would not happen would have been all around him and surely evident in the death of his ancestors. He must have been asking about eternal life in heaven, although it is not clear how much knowledge he had about eternal life or heaven.

Sometimes people still ask this same question. Is there life after death?

Death began when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and were driven out to labor on the earth and ultimately die. Death was the penalty for disobedience, Genesis 2:15-17:

“…the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Adam and Eve sinned by eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Before the flood, all but two of their posterity died. (There is no record of Enoch, the fifth generation from Seth, dying, because he walked with God. Instead, God took him. Later Elijah did not die. God took him in a flaming chariot of fire. The Bible records that all the other descendants of Adam and Eve sinned and died physically.)

Several other people like Lazarus—raised by Jesus—were resurrected but died again.

The resurrected Son of God, Jesus, however, did not die a second time but rose from this earth to be with God the Father, Acts 1:9-11:

“And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Additional information about this second coming and judgment is found in Matthew 25:31-46:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’…

…And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ …Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

This is the answer to the question posed in the title and by Job. Yes, the souls of every person will appear before Jesus to be judged, Hebrews 9:27:

“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,”

What do we learn about Job’s question?

  1. We will live again on judgment day and hear about our eternal reward.
  2. Since we will live again eternally, we should prepare by being obedient to the will of God as found in the New Testament.

#death #dying #heaven #eternalLife #matthew25:31-36 #acts1:9-11 #Job13:13-14 #liveAgain #genesis2:15-17 #Jesus #judgmentDay #Lazarus