Temporal, or bodily, death is not the total annihilation of man (Russellism; atheism), but the deprivation of natural life, occuring through the separation of soul and body (Baier). That temporal death is not the annihilation of the soul is clear from Matt. 10, 28; that it is not the annihilation of the body follows from John 5, 28. 29, where Christ tells us that the dead bodies, though turned to dust, are awaiting in their graves the day of resurrection (cp. also Dan. 12, 2). That death, properly speaking, is separation of the soul from the body is clearly taught in Luke 12, 20: "This night thy soul shall be required of thee"; and in Matt. 27, 50 (John 19, 30), where the death of our Lord on the cross is described as the "yielding up of the ghost," or as the "giving up of the ghost."
Quenstedt fittingly directs attention to the fact that the death of Christian believers is depicted in Scripture by “sweet names,” such as “the gathering to their own people,” Gen. 25, 8. 17; a “departure in peace,” Luke 2, 29; “a turning away from the evil to come,” Is. 57,1; “a resting or sleeping,” Matt. 9, 24; 1 Thess. 4,13; etc. “Death has become the gateway of eternal life.”
On the other hand, the death of the wicked is usually described in Scripture by names which in themselves suggest its bitterness and dreadfulness, such as “going to one’s place,” Acts 1, 25; “being slain by the Lord,” Gen. 38, 7; etc.
The cause of temporal death is not that man was originally created mortal or at least with a propensity to die, Gen. 2,17, or that the matter of which the body consists is by its very nature perishable (Seneca: Morieris, ista hominis natura, non poena est; cp. also similar views of the Pelagians and Unitarians), but that man has fallen into sin, Gen. 2,17 ; 3,17 ff.; Rom. 5,12 ; 6, 23. Luther: “Der Tod kann die Suende nicht wegnehmen, weil er selbst verflucht und eben die ewige Strafe des Zornes Oottes ist.”
The view of some modern theologians (Kirn) that death existed already before sin, but became a punishment through sin, is unscriptural (ἄτερ γραφῆς). According to Holy Scripture, death did not exist until sin came into the world, Ps. 90, 7. 8. Sin is therefore a direct punishment (malum poenae), which God inflicts upon guilty man by His vindictive justice (iustitia vindicativa).
Other causes of death which Scripture mentions must always be viewed in connection with man’s fall and subsequent transgressions. Thus Satan is a cause of death inasmuch as he is a “murderer from the beginning,” John 8, 44, while Adam is a cause of the death of all his descendants, Rom. 5, 12, because his guilt is imputed to all his children (culpa hereditaria).
All calamities, such as pestilences, storms, famines, floods, the sword, etc. (Rom. 8, 35. 36), are properly called “instrumental causes” (Mittelursachen) of death because they directly bring about the destruction of life; but they are instrumental causes of death only because sin, its principal and primary cause, has “entered into the world,” Rom. 5, 12 ff. Hence we must not regard death as “nature’s way of ridding itself of the unfit” (Modernists), but absolutely and solely as the “wages of sin,” Rom. 6, 23. This truth the Christian believer must constantly keep in mind; for if he denies that death is a punishment of sin, he can neither understand properly nor estimate rightly Christ’s atoning death on the cross. In fact, quite consistently those who have denied the guilt of sin as the sole cause of death (rationalists) have denied also the vicarious atonement (satisfactio vicaria) of Christ.
Scripture teaches plainly that all descendants of Adam are subject to death (Rom. 5, 12: “Death passed upon all men for that all have sinned”); and this fact is corroborated by experience. Hence all attempts to find a cure for death are a priori futile. The only way in which sinful man may be freed from death is through faith in Christ, “who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light,” 2 Tim. 1,10; for while also the Christian believer is subject to temporal death, he does not “taste of death,” John 8, 52; 11, 25. 26.
If the question is asked why also believers in Christ must die, Scripture replies, a) that they, too, are sinners according to the flesh (παλαιὸς ἄνϑρωπος), so that also in their case death is the wages of sin, Rom. 6, 23; 7, 24; but b) that in their case death is not joined with the sense of divine wrath (sensus irae divinae) or the “sting of death,” 1 Cor. 15, 55—57, so that to them death is no longer death in its proper sense, but a blessed sleep in Jesus, 1 Thess. 4,13.14; Luke 23, 43 ; Phil. 1, 23.
The Apology writes (Art. VI, 56): “Death itself serves this purpose, namely, to abolish this flesh of sin that we may rise absolutely new. Neither is there now in the death of the believer, since by faith he has overcome the terrors of death, that sting and sense of wrath of which Paul speaks, 1 Cor. 15, 56. This strength of sin, this sense of wrath, is truly a punishment as long as it is present; without this sense of wrath, death is not properly a punishment.”
Instead of the sense of divine wrath (sensus irae) the Christian by faith rather experiences the sense of divine grace (sensus gratiae), so that, when death approaches him, he joyously commends his soul to His Redeemer and departs in peace, Luke 2, 29.30; Acts 7,59. (Cp. Luther, St. L., I, 1512.)
Moreover, the Christian believer knows by faith that he is free from the “second death,” Rev. 20,14, or eternal damnation, John 3,16—18; 5, 24; 1 John 3, 14 (cp. Luther, St. L., I, 1514), so that temporal death is without terror for him, Rev. 14,13.
Lastly, the Christian believer is also comforted by the “sweet names” (epitheta omantia) which Holy Scripture ascribes to the death of God’s saints. (Cp. Luther, St. L., XIII, 1328 ff.; VIII, 1230.) These sweet names (mortis dulcia nomina) are not empty titles, but true and blessed Gospel assurances of God’s grace and love, which give ineffable consolation to the dying believer.