Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:9; Heb. 2:14; 6, Rom. 8:13; 2 Tim. 1:10; 1 Cor. 15:21-22, 25-26, 54-55; Matt. 25:34, 46b; 7:14
The heaven and earth that God first created was committed to the archangel. Later, the archangel fell and became Satan, and God came in to re-create the world. In addition, He created man to rule over the earth. Satan had lost all dominion through his fall, but he was not willing to concede defeat. He tried his best to gain and destroy man in order to overthrow God's plan. From that time forward, a warfare has been waging between man and Satan.
The main battle between Satan and man has to do with life. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2 do not seem to be direct opposites, but after verse 17 speaks of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the next sentence says, "For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." We can say that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the tree of death, because God said that the day man ate of the tree he would surely die. This tree speaks of the fact that Satan has no other motive in man except to bring him death. His goal is for man to die. Unfortunately, Adam was deceived by the serpent and ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As a result death came upon all men. First Corinthians 15:21 says that death came through one man. The one man is Adam. When he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he brought death to humanity, and man became fallen.
This world is evil not because it is sinful. Sin is just the means; the end result is death. Satan's work is to bring death to the man God created. This is his goal. Today the root of malady in this Satan-corrupted world is death, not sin. When Adam chose the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he introduced not only sin into the world but also death. This refers particularly to spiritual death. Because of this death, sin came upon all men.
Sin and death are "co-workers" of Satan. A man who spreads death is one who collaborates with Satan. Satan's goal is not only to cause man to sin and fall but also to bring man into the bondage of death. Death is the characteristic of Satan's work. The ultimate goal of his work is to saturate man with death. Today our meeting does not depend on numbers. If we have a bigger number, it does not mean that we have better meetings. The important thing is that we have to overcome death in our meetings. We have to swallow up death and release life. If we see death in the meeting, it means that life is absent. A Christian must realize that there is nothing more evil than death. At the same time, there is nothing better than life. In God's eyes death is the most ugly thing, while life is the most precious thing. What is life? Life is not a doctrine. A person who has life has the experience of life, but it may be very difficult for him to describe what he has experienced. Life is not excitement or good feelings. Life is just Christ Himself.
How can we overcome death? We can never overcome death in ourselves, because Satan has injected death into us. The only One who has overcome death is the Lord Jesus Christ. The goal of the Lord's work on the cross was to put Satan to death. Satan ruled the world through death, but Christ destroyed Satan through death (Heb. 2:14). The Lord's death is a terminating death, while Satan's death is a non-terminating death. Christ's death is complete and thorough. All other deaths are merely deaths, but Christ's death is a termination. Neither the death of Hades, the death of the body, nor the death of the lake of fire can terminate anything. Only Christ's death terminates. His death has terminated Satan and has terminated even "death" itself.
Second Timothy 1:10 tells us that Christ nullified death and brought life and incorruption to light. Christ's death is different from Adam's death. In Christ death is halted; it is nullified. This is the gospel. Everything can be burned except for one thing — ashes. When a house burns, the person who set fire to the house cannot burn it down again. Christ's death is not only a redeeming death but also a Satan-destroying death. When Satan was dealt with, death was dealt with as well. Hence, death reigns no longer; it has been swallowed up.
A man can be free from sin, but he cannot be free from the satanic operation of death. Romans 8 says, "For if you live according to the flesh, you must die" (v. 13), and "the mind set on the flesh is death" (v. 6). The death spoken of in these two verses is not the death of the body nor the death of hell but spiritual death. The power of death is suppressing our spirit and putting it to death. Every believer can be under the effect of the power of death. For example, a Christian may have offended the Spirit and spoken something that should not have been said. Not only is the speaker under the power of death, but the words themselves spread death. When the power of death comes upon a man, it kills his spirit and depletes him of any vitality or energy. As soon as a man sets his mind on the flesh, he falls under the power of death. Any act that is according to the flesh affords death an opportunity to prevail upon man.
As long as Satan has not been cast into the abyss and the lake of fire, it is still possible for the power of death to operate in the believers. Once this power of death operates, a believer's spirit becomes bound and suffers damage. When a man hits a wall, the first part that is hurt is his nose, because the nose is the part that protrudes from the body. When a man spreads death, the spirit of others is the first part that is hurt, because man's spirit is the "protruding" part as far as life is concerned. Not only must the speaker release life in the meeting, but the ones in the audience must be receptive to life as well. How good a meeting is depends as much on the condition of the consuming elements as it does on the supplying elements. If the number of those who consume life becomes too large, the meeting will be taken over by death. On the other hand, if the number of those who supply life becomes larger, the meeting will be full of life. None of us should be a bystander in the meeting; even more none of us should spread any death. Whether we are speakers or listeners, our spirit should be on the alert and not allow death to take over; rather, we should drive away the power of death through prayer.
First Corinthians 15 says that death comes from Adam, while resurrection comes from Christ. In Adam all have died, while in Christ all will be made alive (v. 22). When the kingdom comes, the sting of death will be gone, and death will be completely annihilated. At that time mortality will put on immortality, and death will be swallowed up unto victory (vv. 54-55). From the time of Adam, death has been man's enemy. But in the end, this enemy will be annihilated. At that time Christ will be king and all things will be put in subjection to Him. The last enemy — death — will also be abolished (vv. 25-26). Hence, the kingdom will be a time when eternal life reigns. Not only will sin be terminated in the kingdom, death will be terminated as well. Although eternal life will not reign until the age of the kingdom, we can have a foretaste of the power of the kingdom — victory over death — today. As long as we walk by the Spirit and put to death the practices of the body by the Spirit, we will live with the Lord. "For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6).
