Death... A dark cold pit of fear rises in the hearts of many at the thought.

Why do people die? Is death the end? These and many other questions might be looming in your mind.

Let's turn to the ultimate source of wisdom, the very own word of God for answers.

God is love. Being a God of love, in love He created a perfect man and women. Do you think a God of love would delight in death?

"[As] I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked" - Ezekiel 33:11

No! Absolutely not!

So God's plan was to create Adam and Eve to live eternally, companions together in the beautiful paradise of Eden.

But dear reader, pay attention to what happened Let's not just gloss over the well-known fact that, yes Adam and Eve ate of the fruit and so here we are today. No! Let the import of these words sink into our minds:

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return." - Genesis 3:19

After Adam and Eve eat of the forbidden fruit, imagine God speaking those words... I'm sure tears would have been in His voice... The masterpiece of God's creation, formed from the dust in His very own image, now sentenced to return to dust!

And why? Why such a harsh sentence? One word.

Sin

Transgression, disobedience to the King of Kings. The wages, the end result of sin is death. Sin disrupts the peace of heaven, the atmosphere of love.

Let's face it. We live in a luke-warm generation. We're a sleeping people! I pray if only we could catch just a glimpse of the Holy God we profess to serve. Isaiah when taken in vision, seeing just a small view of the glory and holiness of God, exclaimed:

"Woe [is] me! for I am undone; because I [am] a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." - Isaiah 6:5

We serve a holy God. Eternal life was, is and always will be on the condition of obedience. Do you think God will allow into Heaven, the very thing which caused Adam and Eve to be cast out? In up-coming parts of this gem we will dig deeper into victory over death, and just how this obedience is possible.

But for now we understand:

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" - Romans 5:12

So death is the result of sin.

However, how can we have victory over death? Over sin?

Anyhow, what is death? Are the dead still conscious?

How does God speak to us in His Word to answer these questions?

To be continued...