SOME READERS MAY disagree that “death” should be called a metaphor. True, the choice may be stretching the meaning of death . . . or of metaphor! But I am taking my cue from the fact that there are two types of death referred to in the Bible: one physical and one spiritual. So, to clarify, I am referring to physical death as a metaphor for spiritual death.
Now, there are a number of scriptural metaphors that certain individuals simply cannot relate to—fishermen, shepherds, etc. But physical death is something everyone can (and must) relate to . . . inevitably.
We needn’t go any farther than the second and third chapters of the Bible to see the distinction between the two uses of the term. God declared to his newly created human beings that “on the day you eat of [the tree], you shall surely die.” Whether we take the term “in that day” literally or as a Hebrew idiom, it is true that Adam went on physically living, having children, tending (or now weeding) the garden, etc. for a total of—according to Genesis 5:5—930 years.
So, though Adam and Eve did not immediately die a physical death after consuming the forbidden fruit, as Paul says in Romans 5:12, on that day, “sin entered the world and death through sin.”
As with other metaphors, death can be subdivided further. For, as shown in other scriptures there are at least two other aspects of death. Separation is one, pain and torment being another.
Separation from God
By their act of disobedience, Adam and Eve were immediately separated from God to the point where God had to seek them out. “God called out to the man, ‘Where are you?'” (Genesis 3:9). Now, of course, God being all-knowing and everywhere-present, he did not need to actually find them. He rather was giving them an opportunity to come clean, to confess their disobedience to his one command.
Later in scripture, we hear the prophet speak similarly of God being hidden from his people: “But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you . . . ” (Isaiah 59:2) The original Hebrew word for “separated” implies being divided, separated by a barrier, or cut apart.
Separation from each other
Both shame and blame were suddenly new inhabitants of the created world as well. When God revealed and confronted his children, the excuses and accusations began: ” I was naked, so I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10), “The woman you put me here with, she gave me the fruit” (3:12).
Such language presumably was never heard before in this paradise. Such is the language of separation.
Separation from nature
Another of the results of disobedience was a separation from nature—or at least a broken relationship with nature. The physical world around them suddenly went from being a fruitful partner to an abused and abusive adversary. “Cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread,” (Genesis 3:17-19)
Beyond separation: Pain and torment
Physical death is an obvious separation from everything we know and love, everything we depend on and take for granted, everything beautiful, every sensation. For atheistic readers, this by itself might be their worst dread about death, their assumption being that there is no looming pain of hell. And, before our modern times, physical death was more commonly accompanied by mortal pain and physical torment as well, whether from sickness, injury, or battle.
But the Bible adds more physical elements to its picture of death by adding the torments of hell: unquenchable fire, undying worms, lake of burning sulfur, weeping and gnashing of teeth.
If the psychological threat of total separation from anything good—”shut out of the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.” (2 Thessalonians 1:9)—is not enough, a body cannot imagine and retreat from any of these other more tangible threats. A truly vivid and fearful picture, indeed.
Are we then just the walking dead?
Death is real and cannot be ignored—much less undone—by the mortal man. But it is not final: “The sea gave up its dead, and Death and Hades gave up their dead, and each one was judged according to his deeds.” (Revelation 20:13)
Therefore, as believers in a God who saves, “. . . we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16) And, “. . . to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21). Our only and ultimate warning, however, is to “fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).