It all began with Adam and Eve. Genesis 3:¹⁵ Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. ¹⁶ The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; ¹⁷ but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.” Die physically or spiritually? They woould eventually die phyically since they were kicked out of the garden of Eden and could no longer eat of the tree of life, but they did not die physically the very. day they sinned. So it must be that they died spiritually the very day they sinned. Spiritual death is the result of sin. Sin causes us to be separated from a relationship with God. Isaiah 59:But your wrongdoings have caused a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. Paul confirms that Adam’s sin brought spiritual death to himself and to all men, but why? Romans 5:¹² Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all mankind, because all sinned.” Romans 6:²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Jesus came to conquer spiritual death. Hebrews 2: ¹⁴ Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”  Isaiah 25:8 He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, And He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth;
For the Lord has spoken. ⁹ And it will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let’s rejoice and be glad in His salvation.” So when was Isaiah’s prophecy fulfilled? 1 Corinthians 15 tells us when. In that chapter Paul is discussing the resurrection and what kind of a body wll believers recieve in the resurrection. He says that the resurrected body will be a spiritual, imperishable body. He then says, 15:⁵¹ Behold, I am telling you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed.” Paul is clearly saying that the resurrection of the dead would occur while some of those he is writiing to were still alive. He is saying that, dead or alive, the believers would receive immortality. 15:⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ But when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵ Where, O Death, is your victory? Where, O Death, is your sting?” ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law; ⁵⁷ but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He quotes Isaiah 25:8,9 and says that in the resurrection “death would be swallowed up in victory”. That would be spiritual death caused by the sting of sin. He says that the power of sin was the Law of Moses. So when did the Law end? The Law ended in 70 AD. Hebrews 8:¹³ In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.” The Hebrew author wrote that about 60 AD and he said that the first covenent was “ready to vanish away” at the time he wrote the letter. That has to be 70 AD whe the Romans destroyed the temple and the city of Jerusalem. The temple has never been rebult since then. There have been no Levitical priests and animal sacrifices since then. God replaced the old covenant with the new covenant in 70 AD. Thus he destroyed death by taking away the Law which was the power of sin which caused spiritual death. Spiritual death was the last enemy conquered by Jesus in 70 AD. 1 Corinthians 15:²⁵ For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. ²⁶ The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” That would be spiritual death. Daniel had predicted that a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous would occur at the end of the age, i.e. the end of the Jewish Age in 70 AD. Daniel 12:² And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Paul predicted the imminence of that resurrrection in Acts 24:¹⁴ `And I confess this to thee, that, according to the way that they call a sect, so serve I the God of the fathers, believing all things that in the law and the prophets have been written, ¹⁵ having hope toward God, which they themselves also wait for, [that] there is about to be (mello in the Greek which always mean something about to happen when used in the New Testament but is usually mistranslated as “certainly will be”) a rising again of the dead, both of righteous and unrighteous.” (Young’s Literal Translation). Notice that Paul says that resurrection was predicted in the law and the prophets, so he must be referring to Daniel 12:2! That resurrection was fulfilled in 70 AD. The dead under the old covenant had been in hades awaiting their resurrection and final sentencing at 70 AD. In 70 AD the righteous dead of the old covenant and the believers in Jesus would be given immortality whether dead or alive. That is why Paul told the Thessalonians not to worry about their dead believing loved ones who died before that resurrection. They would still get their immortality. Immortality is only promised to believers in Jesus in the New Testament and never to unbelievers.

Jesus accomplished his mission of destroying spiritual death in the lives of believers. 2 Timothy 1:¹⁰ and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” John 11: ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life (spiritual). Whoever believes in me, though he die (physically), yet shall he live (spiritually), ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (spiritually).” I just had an epiphany! In one sense, he did conquer physical death. Not that he stopped believers from dying or that he abolished physical death all together. Instead, he conquered spiritual death for believers so that physical death was not the end for them. They would keep on living spiritually, eternally, after death. That makes Hebrews 2:15 even more meaningful: ¹⁵ and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” Believers don’t have to fear physical death any longer. Thank you Lord for that thought b/c many of us still have that fear of death that has a constant hold on us making us death’s slaves!