For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:22
There are some people who use today’s text to teach that everybody is going to make it to Heaven someday. Of course, in order to reach that outlandish conclusion, they have to toss out almost all of the rest of the Bible. And that includes the very next verse, in which Paul makes it clear that he is speaking only of those who are in Christ. These people are deceived into thinking that what they think is a loophole is more important than all of the rest of Scripture. They try to weave their misapplication through the law of the Old Testament, and the teachings of the prophets. They try to misapply this verse to the Gospel accounts and the plain declarations of the Lord Jesus. Such far-fetched grasping for invisible straws should give them no comfort, because Scripture plainly states that the soul that sinneth, it shall die (Ezekiel 18:20), and all of the rest of Scripture supports that statement. As Christians, we view today’s text not as an obscure loophole around God’s righteous demands, but as a source of greatest comfort.
The reality of the sentence of death that we inherited from Adam is apparent, especially to those of us who are getting older. Even if we take good care of our health, we can expect to do little more than delay the appointment with the Grim Reaper for a few years at most. Our birth marked the beginning of a journey that has but one destination (apart from the Rapture), and there is nothing that we can do about it. We are Adam’s children. We will all die. But death is not the end for those who are in Christ.
Time is such a short interval, and the portion of time allotted to each of us is so very brief. In contrast, eternity is vast and unending, a foreverness that exceeds our understanding. The birth that we received through Adam prepared us for the short bit of time. But the new birth that we received through Jesus Christ prepared us for the unchartable regions of eternity. Our bodies that serve us for awhile and then fail us here will be changed to a body that will be able to fully occupy eternity. Our minds that are so restricted and feeble here will be unloosed to appreciate all the glory of our Saviour and the splendour of His home. And we will have no interest in returning to the tiny restricted sphere for which the life – and death – that we received from Adam prepared us.
Our impending death as the offspring of Adam should not dismay us. Not when we consider the life we have as the offspring of Christ. -Jim MacIntosh