Revelation 20:6 “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
And so we see that it is the second death that Jesus has incurred for us, and it is this death that men no longer have to incur. This is why the above quoted passage of scripture teaches us that the second death has no power over the Lord’s saints. All men still incur physical death and all men still incur the first spiritual death. But all men do not have to incur the second spiritual death, because Christ has already incurred this death for us. But I want you to notice from the passage of scripture quoted earlier, that it is only those who are baptised into Christ that are baptised into His death. In other words only those who believe the gospel are baptised into Christ’s death. And so because all unbelievers have not incurred their second spiritual death in Christ they will incur the second death of the lake of fire for all eternity.
1 Corinthians 2:7-8 “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, (8) which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
And so when Jesus died both spiritually and physically He was put under Satan’s authority, who then took Jesus into Hades where He suffered the punishment of our sins for three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40). Throughout all of this time Satan and his angels thought that Jesus was being punished for His own sin. At the end of three days and three nights however, all the sin of mankind had been accounted for. And now an astounded Satan and his angels saw God’s plan of redemption manifested, for God the Father did something that they thought was impossible. God made His Son who was spiritually dead, spiritually alive once again (Psalm 18:28). God was never able to that for anyone else before, because if He did He would have acted illegally and Satan knew that. The difference now however, was that Satan and his angels had in fact acted illegally by holding a sinless Jesus captive in the heart of the earth. Too late, Satan and his angels realised that Jesus had in fact being paying the price for the sin of the world, and not for His own sin. And too late they realised that Jesus had died spiritually, not because of His own sin, but rather because He had tasted spiritual death for the whole world. This is why the scripture quoted above reveals to us that Satan and his angels would never have crucified Jesus, if they had any idea as to what God was doing. They had no idea, for even though Satan was devious God had showed him just how shrewd He could be (Psalm 18:26).
Ephesians 2:4-6 “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
And so when God made Jesus spiritually alive once again, He not only made His Son alive, but He was also able to make all alive who were already in Christ, for we had already been immersed into Christ when He died, and we were still all in Christ when He was made spiritually alive once again. God could now legally do this, because Satan had held His Son illegally through death. This is why the above quoted passage of scripture teaches us that we have been made alive together with Christ, for this passage is referring to us being made spiritually alive. Notice in this passage that we were first made alive together with Christ, and only after that were we raised together with Christ. Not only that, but God has also seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ. All of this is past tense. In other words God did all of this when Christ died and rose again. Now you can see why it is that God could not immerse the whole world into Christ’s death, because He would then have had to raise the whole world in Christ, and He would have had to seat the whole world in Christ in the heavenly places. Therefore God could only immerse into Christ’s death those who would believe the gospel.
Michael E.B. Maher
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