Life And Death - From Moses To Jesus

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. (Genesis 2:16-17 KJV)

But Adam went on to live till 930 years, far longer than any of us.

Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:60 KJV)

How can the dead bury their dead?

Actually, the Bible basically promise life to those who obey God and death to those who disobey.

I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (John 10:10b KJV)

The theme of life and death was developed throughout the Bible with more and more detail and we now know that death will be the last enemy to be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26).

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away. (Revelation 21:4 HCSB)

Adam was dead when he disobeyed God. The nice people who explain things to laymen like us (the theologians) define this as "spiritual death". Eventually Adam died physically. This was when his soul separate from his body. This is "physical death". Thus what Jesus was saying is really let the "spiritually dead" bury the "physically dead". Thus death is really separation, not a loss of consciousness. Spiritual death is separation of our spirit from God and physical death is the separation of the soul from the body.

To all humans, physical death is the death they see. It is this death that all religions address to. God does not care about physical death. It is spiritual death that is His concern. In the Law (or the Pentateuch), God does not even bother to distinguish between the two. Right down to Jesus, death was used to describe both condition without distinction.

Thus from the beginning (in the Law or Pentateuch), God laid down the most important definition of life, death and redemption. He promised redemption or life (Genesis 3:15, Genesis 22:13-14, Exodus 12:12-13) to those who believe.