Borrowed Truths

The Second Death

the second death
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The Second Death

“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” (Rev. 20:6)

The old saying is applicable here, born once, die twice, born twice, die once.

I do not claim to know what the second death means in its fulness, the first many would believe to mean the death of the flesh, but I am not so sure, simply because of the truth of Hebrews 9:27, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”

My questions arise because that death can only happen once, and those who are in hell are, in that respect already dead. “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Dan. 12:2)

The moment after one who has been crucified with the Lord Jesus Christ takes their last breath here on this earth, they are in the presence of the Lord, in what manner or form He knows, but that is where we go immediately after we die. “But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.” (Rev. 20:5)

But for us, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2nd Cor. 5:8)

I can only phrase it like this at the moment, for those in hell there is some semblance of hope, false hope, but hope nonetheless. The cessation of all hope, the unmitigated knowledge that all hope is gone is the reality of the second death. “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” (1 Thess. 4:13)

When a loved one of one of the wicked, those who will die in their sins dies, there is no hope for them that they will ever see them again, yet there remains a seed of hope, a semblance of it, for in their vain imaginations they have constructed an afterlife that does not include the Almighty or the truths of His Holy Word. Once they themselves arrive in hell, there is still that semblance of hope, of the mercy of the One they now know exists, the Living God. Even the most wicked of them, in the way that the human mind understands that word, will find within themselves at least one item in their life they lived here on earth that could be considered good, and those items will be their excuse on their day of accounting at the Great White Throne of Judgment.

There is hope in hell, there will be no hope in the Lake of Fire.

The loss of all possible hope is the second death.

I pity those who believe they can lose their salvation, for not only do they not understand these words offered, but they do not fully comprehend the love that went to the cross for them. “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)

Not even you, for the Lord does not cast off His children, He chastises them.

“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psalm 16:11)

Hope realized is joy, and we who have been saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ have that joy today, for we are today hid in Christ, we are today the righteousness of God in Christ. Our hope has been fulfilled. The assurance of our salvation, of never experiencing hell, of escaping the second death is secure in Christ, it is because of Him, not us, that we will live forever.

“But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.” (Psalm 22:6)

“Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:44)

I ask you today to remember a time in your life where you felt complete hopelessness, where death would have been better than the continuation of life, and then look at your neighbor who does not yet know the Lord Jesus Christ and see them in that hopelessness for all eternity.

“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matt. 22:39)

If you do not speak to them, who will?

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