The expression “death” found in various passages of the Holy Scriptures does not always have the same meaning. In the ordinary sense it indicates bodily death, with the failure of the physical organs, motivated by a material factor, making the organic life cease. In another sense, the word “death” is used to speak about the death of the soul before sin. How does this happen? The soul, after being begotten by the Eternal God, transits for long existential periods in the visible region of Creation, living in a death situation without knowing it. Since she is not yet aware that God wants to rescue her for a life in the kingdom of Light, she lives an experience of darkness, dominated by her instincts. It is the ancestral and semi-civilized phase of humanity. Spiritual death is a condition inherent in the early existential days of the soul, when, although moved by the law of progressivity, it has not yet come to the light of the Eternal.
Through successive experiences, animating diverse characters, the soul will inevitably come to the kingdom of Light. But first, it will know the Law of God, so that its conscience can recognize that until then it was dead in its sins. Hence the expression “man is given to die only once, after which judgment comes,” observed in the Letter to the Hebrews 9:27. From this encounter with the Divine Light, the soul will never die in the sense of this spiritual death, though it passes through all its lives through physical death, which is a natural phenomenon inherent in the visible world.
Jesus is the Messiah. He came into the world to save souls called the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” At the same time, by the sacrifice on the cross, He became the Lamb who would definitely take the death of the world. Salvation through faith is the only possibility for the soul to leave spiritual death to enter the light of the Eternal. The exit from death to life occurs by the justification of faith. Among the Jews, the target is Adonai and among the Christians, the Christ. But one Lord is the Eternal God who justifies both.
Often theologians and pastors confuse these two ways of understanding the word “death.” The God-chosen People, to give life to the world, should not fear the death of the body, but the sin that causes the death of the soul. Physical death is a natural phenomenon common to the living, and should not be feared by the children of the Most High. We must all remember the words of Christ: “He that keepeth my words shall never see death.”