"O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit."
2 Nephi 9:10
The ideas of death and hell are interesting here, defined as the death of the body and of the spirit. Christ overcame both of these barriers to eternal life for us. Because he was resurrected, he made it possible for that to happen for all of us... so physical immortality, right? A pretty heady idea.
The idea of spiritual death is a little harder, and I think that it might be best conceptualized if we imagine someone we would be absolutely devastated to lose from our lives, to the point where we imagine death might be better than suffering that loss (though I am not suggesting that is ever actually true). Spiritual death isn't the same kind of death as physical death, since our spirits can never be destroyed. Instead, it is the separation of our spirit from God... that loss of connection.
We get a taste of what it means to be without God at those times when we're off track and we feel like there is a hole in our lives where something is missing, or we feel isolated from everything good. It's kind of a taste of hell, although in this life that is always temporary, which is a good thing, because I don't think that we want to take that any farther. Those are the times that we realize how much God has been helping us in our lives. We notice it when it is missing.
Today, let's work on making sure we repair our relationship with God if there are issues, and let's do all we can to draw closer to him. Hell isn't a punishment that God slams us with... it is the actual consequence of being without him. Let's stick close, and try to understand how connected we are. Let's talk to him about it, and let him teach us and help us.
2 Nephi 9:10
The ideas of death and hell are interesting here, defined as the death of the body and of the spirit. Christ overcame both of these barriers to eternal life for us. Because he was resurrected, he made it possible for that to happen for all of us... so physical immortality, right? A pretty heady idea.
The idea of spiritual death is a little harder, and I think that it might be best conceptualized if we imagine someone we would be absolutely devastated to lose from our lives, to the point where we imagine death might be better than suffering that loss (though I am not suggesting that is ever actually true). Spiritual death isn't the same kind of death as physical death, since our spirits can never be destroyed. Instead, it is the separation of our spirit from God... that loss of connection.
We get a taste of what it means to be without God at those times when we're off track and we feel like there is a hole in our lives where something is missing, or we feel isolated from everything good. It's kind of a taste of hell, although in this life that is always temporary, which is a good thing, because I don't think that we want to take that any farther. Those are the times that we realize how much God has been helping us in our lives. We notice it when it is missing.
Today, let's work on making sure we repair our relationship with God if there are issues, and let's do all we can to draw closer to him. Hell isn't a punishment that God slams us with... it is the actual consequence of being without him. Let's stick close, and try to understand how connected we are. Let's talk to him about it, and let him teach us and help us.
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