Part 2 - Why Is Man’s Human Life Temporary?

This Article is part of a multi-part Study Series called Life Defined.

Solomon wrote here of what occurs with the physical death of a human?

Eccl. 12:7 “Then… the dust (body) return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”

The fact is clearly obvious to all of us that human life is temporary. It is to be explained in this way.

Upon physical death the enlivening “breath/Spirit of God” (Gen. 2:7) that had originally given life and animated man in his soul, and body, then … “returneth unto God who gave it. This loss of ‘spirit life’ automatically brings death to the body and ‘sleep’ to the soul of man. This then is man’s state until His resurrection to be judged.

But again, why?

Man’s human life today is temporary because all mankind is under the sentence of death this owing to the Sin-nature in the flesh of mankind (Rom. 8:3), which has passed to all mankind in their human bodies… and this originated due to Adam and Eve’s rebellion against the words of God.

The Sin-spirit first entered humanity via Adam, lodging in the flesh bodies of all men (Rom. 8:3).

“Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12)

Recall that Adam was to die when and if Adam sinned. “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 2:17) All of us, as descendants of Adam, have physical bodies that contain the Adamic Sin infection that that “bringeth forth death” (1Cor. 15:56).

The sin-nature in man then resulted in ‘acts of sinning’ by all men as corrupted ‘self-seeking fallen souls.’ Having such sinfulness, Scripture says; “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” (Hebrews 9:27) Yet, thankfully, in spite of man’s sinfulness and his ‘sentence of death,’ God in His grace and mercy ‘stayed (delayed) man’s judgment and death for a timepending a God-given opportunity for man to be personally and individually saved from death and “eternal destruction” (2Thes. 1:9) … we are saved by and with ‘a new and righteous life’… the very life of the resurrected Jesus Christ.

You see, still having the temporary human life for a time gives every man an extended opportunity and thereby the potential of becoming ‘eternally alive’ by receiving Christ’s life at some point during their life-time. At some point we hear “the gospel of Christ” and choose whether to or not to receive Jesus Christ, as our personal Savior from our sins and from judgment.

With an affirmative decision to believe and receive Christ, the believer immediately receives the resurrected eternal “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” regenerating” his spirit of man within him.” He then becomes a ‘new creation’ man “in Christ.”

Titus 3:5 according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost (Spirit);”

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore If Any Man Be In (Union With) Christ, He Is A New Creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Today, all men, as sinners, need to receive Christ resurrected “Spirit of life” in order to live forever.

Christ’s Spirit after His death, burial, and resurrection is different from His Spirit before His Cross-death and resurrection in this important way. Christ’s “Spirit of life” now includes both the eternal divinity of Jesus Christ PLUS Jesus’ victorious, genuine humanity that He gained and proved by His human experience and sufferings. John here wrote of Jesus’ eternal life.

1 John 1:2 For the life was manifested (in Jesus), and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us (in Jesus);

John 3:16 For God (the Father) so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish (Gk. apollymi, be fully destroyed), but have (His Son’s resurrected) everlasting life

Having Christ’s resurrected “Spirit of life” in us as believers… brings the humanity of Jesus close to us, He as the One who can be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities (our frailties).”

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but (Jesus) was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

This verse means so much to me, it’s a comfort to me. Owing to His human experience and sufferings, Jesus Christ living in us today can “be touched with the feeling of our (human) infirmities.” He knows our frailty in body and soul, our frame, and our thoughts, and He is able to renew us to a joyful, restful, victorious, righteous lifeby now living in union with Him.

Today, it is only by receiving the ‘life’ of Christ that we have the genuine “life” for man. His life is the only uncreated, righteous, eternal life. Human life and all other life forms cannot be counted as genuine life since they are temporal, corruptible, and will cease. Again, the “Christ-life” we speak of is the Greek “Zoë,” meaning the Godhead life that is “in Christ,” which we receive as the “spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:2a).

“And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:11-12)