6/17 Romans 5:12

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned-

This is a fundamental Christian doctrine, but one the world has a very hard time accepting. Adam and Eve would have lived eternally had they not sinned. They were made to live forever. Body and soul were meant to live on and walk in fellowship with God. Death is the rightful claim of the destroyer on the soul that sins, for the soul that sins shall die (Ezekiel 18:4).

Because Adam sinned, we as his offspring have his fallen nature. With that nature we are prone to sin, and therefore we forfeit the right to live on. This is just what Jesus came to change. He told Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, ^26a and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die" (John 11:25-26a). While our bodies will die due to the corruption of sin, the Lord who is life will cause us to live. He is resurrection as well and in His time will raise our bodies and transform them into imperishable bodies (1 Corinthians 15:52-53).

Death is the work of Satan, but it is his rightful work because all have sinned. We will lose our loved ones and our own physical life, too. The only solution is the One who is the resurrection and the life. There is no other escape from the consequences of our sins.

Consider: Man's greatest dilemma has only one solution, Jesus. How we need to share that at every opportunity!