The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 6:23 that "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
When Adam
sinned in the garden, it brought the consequence of death. That death is the opposite of eternal life,
which is a quality of life with God. After Adam and Eve sinned, something
changed within them, for they saw things differently, hiding themselves
from God. That death was an alienation
from the life of God.
Physical death was a
further consequence in the curse God placed on the human race--mankind would
have a limited time to escape the condition brought on by Adam's sin.
That death which is
alienation from God was why Jesus came into the world to
die. Jesus came to bear what sinned had caused on the human
race to make the way of escape.
The Book of Hebrews says that Jesus became a little lower than the angels--he took on flesh and blood--so that he "by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone." (Hebrews 2.9)
The Apostle Peter said of Christ: “who himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree.” (1 Peter 2.14)
Dr. James Denny writes, “His death, and his
bearing of our sins are not two things, but one.” Denney refers to several Old Testament
examples where the bearing of sin involved bearing the consequences of the them,
such as the Jews wondering in the wilderness for 40 years for refusing (their
sin) to go into the promised land—they had to bear their sin, that is, the
consequences of them, being one year of wondering in the desert for every day
(40 of them) that the spies spent spying out the land (Numbers 14.34).
Though Christ suffered for all on the cross that death caused by sin, it does not automatically release everyone from that death, resulting in everyone having eternal life.
Numerous Scriptures reveal that receiving eternal life is conditional, being through believing in Jesus Christ for it. People are still by nature (and actions) "alienated from the life of God" (Ephesians 4.18; Col 1.21).
Because of the death of Christ for sin, God is free and just in giving eternal life to all. God promises eternal life to all who believe in Jesus for it, because Jesus bore the penalty of sin, being death, for all.
Romans 5:12-21 lays this all out pretty well. This text speaks of how death came to all through Adam's sin, but through Christ, and through his grace--which was Christ becoming man and bearing the sin of the world--one can "receive" (that is, believe in Christ for) the "free gift" of justification (being declared righteous before God) which results in "life" (eternal life).
Jesus also spoke of the connection between his death and eternal life: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3.14-16)
Jesus in John 3.14-16 spoke of both the provision of the death he would die on the cross and the promise (the hope) of eternal life for those who believe in him for it.
Concerning the provision, Jesus in John 3.14 makes reference to the Old Testament account in which Moses put a brass serpent on a pole. The brass serpent was lifted up for those who were bitten by certain serpents (the bite brought certain death), with the promise that one would live, if they looked at that serpent on the pole (“when he looks at it, he shall live,” Numbers 21.8-9).
The serpent on the pole lifted up is an analogy of the provision of Christ who would be “lifted up” (on the cross), with the promise of deliverance from death and the giving of eternal life to whoever believes in him. This is how God "so Loved the world"; this was how God "gave His only son”; and he spoke of the promise, being that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life (to “perish” is to continue in this death and be forever separated from God in Hell after this temporal life).
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