Another View

Here are some thoughts I gathered

From a presentation by Dr. Myles Munroe,

They were his considered views on death

And may differ from what you hold.

You would notice I used were

For he no longer walks among us

Having passed from this earthly scene

He will one day meet with Jesus.

He posits that death had a birth

And that death one day was killed

And if our fore parents had not sinned

All like now death would be dead still.

In the Garden of Eden, he says,

Death was present there

It was inactive, powerless and useless

So Adam had nothing to fear.

God when he had created man

Had given him earthly control,

He was given dominion over everything

And in this he could be bold.

Death though present in the garden

Had no control over Adam

As long as they obeyed God’s directive

Death could never touch man.

While God had created death

In death there was no life,

However, Eve opened the Pandora’s box

That led to all the strife.

God had before commanded

That they eat not of a certain tree

But the serpent beguiled the woman

And that caused their misery.

Remember death preexisted Adam

But death really had no power,

It was only in the event of disobedience

That death became a horror.

  

Dr. Myles Munroe went on to posit

That death is in everything,

Nothing in life escapes its presence

For to everything living it clings.

He notes that death is life in reverse

And one cannot have life without death

Yet man had the power over it

But disobedience that power from him wrest.

Death had no power over obedient man,

Obedience to God’s word kept death in check

But man’s disobedience gave rise to sin

And now the death of man became its debt.

The soul that sins it shall die

For God always keeps His word,

“The day that you eat you will surely die,”

Both Adam and Eve had heard

Disobedience, the Bible defines

As rebellion to God’s known will,

Rebellion to God is the ultimate sin

And sin activates death’s power to kill.

Sin is the source of the power of death

According to Romans 5:12 and 13,

Sin entered the world by way of one man

And takes all men from off life’s scene.

Every word God speaks becomes law

And God never violates His word

For God and His word will always agree

Even when to us it seems absurd.

God Himself keeps watch over His word

And He is always faithful to perform it

He had to make sure death fulfill its purpose

And for man death became a habit.

So man activated the power of death

After death had been given its birth

And death reined and triumphed over man

And became the scourge of all the earth.

But all was not lost when death came to life

For death would one day lose its sting,

God Himself would suffer and die

And free and full salvation bring.

God fulfilled His word through Himself

And thus satisfied His own demands,

God became our substitutionary penalty

And in His way executed salvation’s plan.

This reminder comes from John 11:50

Which I choose to insert at this time,

Caiaphas was afraid of a full Roman takeover

If to belief on Jesus the Jews did incline.

Now Caiaphas was he that gave counsel to the Jews

This is stated in John chapter 18 and verse14

“One man must die for the people,” he said

So Jesus must be removed from the scene.

Caiaphas had stated that one had to die

As a result of the politics he knew

And the choice of Jesus was in this regard

For he was not aware of the Father’s view.

That Jesus had to die should be obvious by now

For through one man death came to life,

So too, by one man, death was put to death

And now for the believer death holds no strife.

Stewart Russell © May, 2017