When All is Accomplished

...I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father. (John 10:17-18)

Did Jesus die the Second Death? What is the Second Death? What parameters do we use to define that term? Are we willing to reexamine our assumptions about it in the light of emerging truths and new insights?

Our assumptions about just how the lost will die in the end, and particularly why they will die, makes an enormous impact on how we are willing to honestly examine our definitions of the Second Death. As long as we cling to suspicious notions about an angry, vengeful God waiting to execute people punitively to get even for the damage that sinners have caused, it will be impossible to objectively look at this issue and come up with anything outside the traditions of men and even doctrines of demons. Not until we first get on the right track about the nature of our Father in heaven can we approach this topic with new eyes to see glorious truths in this that we never imagined were possible.

While I am still learning much about this myself and want to remain open to be teachable by the right Spirit, the more I learn the more sense it makes and the more attractive God is becoming to my heart. Jesus said that if He was lifted up He would draw all to Himself. Far too long we have lifted up what I have to believe are doctrines of demons – lies about our loving God – in attempts to frighten people into what we supposed was salvation. But I am seeing more clearly that using methods of Satan in trying to work for God only distorts our views of God while failing to free us in the ways Jesus explicitly wants to do.

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Those include lies and deceptions that have kept us afraid of God, believing that He has a character more reflective of Satan's character than what Jesus came to reveal. Those works also include the suffering, pain, suspicion, fear and abuse that has all resulted from living out the lies we have grown up with or embraced. The writer of Hebrews makes it very clear what the real mission of Jesus was by explaining it this way:

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

What might we learn about the Second Death from the death of Jesus? Many have come to see that the kind of death God was talking about when He warned Adam and Eve against eating of the wrong tree in the Garden was never experienced by anyone until Jesus died. Yet at the same time there is much debate about whether the death of Jesus can be called the Second Death or not. Again, I am not wanting to revisit the issue of what model of atonement we believe, though that is a topic outside of this discussion that has great bearing on whether this will even begin to make sense or not. If we are still caught in any form of appeasement model, then all of this will simply sound like either nonsense or flagrant heresy. Right now I am only seeking to express something coming to my attention firmly within the model of salvation where Jesus and the Father are in no way in tension with each other.

I am currently reading very slowly through the crucifixion story seeking to perceive things I have never been allowed to see before because of my lifelong confusion from false models of salvation in which I was trained. Now after recent years of dramatic changes in the way I view God and His methods, I feel somewhat enabled to begin reexamining this story that has seldom made much sense to me before. And as I suspected, everything is coming up fresh and new and full of significance and new light. But I wasn't looking to discover more insights about the Second Death until yesterday when I heard something about this from a teacher that has contributed much to my current understandings of salvation. When I heard this insight it really caught my attention because if fits so perfectly into everything else I have been learning about God in recent years.

Understanding the truth about how the unsaved lose their lives in the end in parallel with how Jesus died are inextricably connected for many reasons. At the same time I have heard a number of debates as to whether or not it is right to view the death of Jesus as the Second Death. The main reason for reluctance to understand it that way is usually a definition applied to the Second Death as one from which there is no possibility of resurrection. That sounds plausible on the surface, but as I examine all four references to the Second Death, found only in the book of Revelation, I find nothing saying that there is no resurrection possible. The strongest statement that might be used to imply such a conclusion is that death and hades (the grave) are thrown into the lake of fire.

Again, this issue must be approached with openness, humility and a genuine desire to see things from God's perspective and with a healthy appreciation for the real truth about His character or all of this will sound like irrelevant speculation. If what I am saying sounds like that I would suggest you leave off reading this right now. But for those with a hunger to look further for more consistent answers that fit with everything else God has been revealing to many of us recently, I invite you to at least ponder this following proposition objectively, laying aside preconceived opinions at least temporarily.

Just for the purpose of exploring a different way of approaching this issue, let me suggest starting with Jesus as the standard of measurement or definition – the only safe example to use to unpack the definition of the Second Death. I did this years ago to look for a definition of temptation and discovered surprising insights that revolutionized my appreciation for the real nature of temptations. Now I see the similar usefulness for this issue. By taking the words and experience of Jesus and giving Him the freedom to define truth, I believe there is better potential for seeing things in new ways that are impossible when we only approach them with our perspective.

As quoted at the beginning, Jesus clearly said that no one took His life from Him (not even the Father); He was the one who would lay it down and He would be the one who would pick it back up. This alone is startling if taken seriously, for most people believe that Jesus was killed by others. And while it is true that He made Himself vulnerable to the assaults of sinful beings both human and demonic, it seems to me that if it were not for the supernatural empowerment of His human body it would have been very likely He could not have even lived past the several beatings that He suffered, at least according to many experts. The fact that He lived as long as He did, even past the trauma He endured in the garden of Gethsemane, is very likely a miracle itself.

So what is becoming clearer to me is that Jesus really meant what He said when He insisted that it would be His choice as to when He would die, not someone else's. And as I was just reading this story in the book of John, only when Jesus knew that all things had been accomplished did He then choose to give up His Spirit and allow His body to die.

I find this phrase highly significant, especially as it is linked to similar phrases from other places in this gospel. John had what seem to be many 'inside scoops' on the plan of salvation that too often go unnoticed by the majority because of their dark views of God that blind them to what was really going on with Jesus and His sacrifice. But when we are willing to challenge our assumptions and allow God to increase the light in our souls, there are many things He is eager to reveal to those hungry to know Him and see His amazing plan of redemption more clearly.

This issue of timing is one of the running themes I see throughout the gospel of John that is very helpful for grasping the bigger picture. And seeing the life and death of Jesus from the larger perspective is vital if we are to perceive greater truths to unlock many things that keep confusing us. Here are a few links that I have observed connected with this verse:

Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God... (John 13:1-3)

Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. So Jesus, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, "Whom do you seek?" (John 18:3-4)

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, "I am thirsty." (John 19:28)

So, what does this have to do with how the lost will die the Second Death? There is much detail and context to take into account to adequately explain what I am seeing here, an to explain it all would take up far too much space here. But in short (very short), what I am starting to see as a very real possibility, given a correct understanding of the biblical definition of wrath etc., is that as the lost experience the fiery intensity of the passionate love of God (hell) – love that is the exact opposite of what they have insisted on believing about Him all of their lives – they find themselves wrestling against that reality in determined resistance. This resistance becomes so intense that it produces enormous suffering. Jesus described it as weeping and gnashing of teeth.

What is starting to emerge in my understanding is that this torture continues inside of them based on how much resistance against love they have stored up over their lifetime (see Romans 2:5) until at last in defeat, they make the final choice of their own free will that it would be better to lay down their lives in preference to accepting any more grace to keep them alive because of their intense misery of having to live in the presence of those whose spirit they find so reprehensible. (Note also that all the torment suffered in in the presence of the loving Lamb and the selfless, holy angels. Revelation 14:10)

For a number of years now after God broke through to me with the real truth about what happens in hell and captured more of my affections by doing so, I have continued to try to make sense out of more details of this event. This new perspective affirms even more what I originally discovered as well as confirming the truth about freedom that I am coming to see as one of the most central tenants of God's system of government. Satan's counterfeit system relies on force, coercion and deception to maintain control over the minds and hearts of his subjects; but God never indulges in such methods because to resort to intimidation and fear tactics like Satan uses would be to destroy the very atmosphere needed for the kind of love that is the essence of His own character. This is what the entire battle is all about – which system of living can be trusted to hold everything together in the long run.

What is becoming more and more clear to me in what I have been learning lately is that God is not the one who will execute sinners. The problem remaining however for many entertaining this new idea is how to better explain how all of this will transpire without those dark motives on God's part. I received part of my answer to this when God reminded me of something that happened many years ago when I got an actual taste of the real experience called hell. I suddenly realized that the suffering in hell actually results from an intense torment produced when one resists selfless love. God used that experience to enlighten me as to how the lost will feel tortured in the end, but not because in any way He is inflicting on them but because they have destroyed their capacity to allow His love for them to change them. That very act of resistance is what produces all of their pain and suffering.

In addition, I realized that the reason the lost suffer different lengths of time than others is because their own free will determines how long they will fight love. And that is determined in large part by how insistent and deeply entrenched they have become in the lies they cling to about the nature of God and His feelings towards them. As long as they cling to a belief in their heart that God is the problem and it is He who is at fault for their torture, they will continue to suffer. But when they let go of every last excuse and realize that to remain alive requires continuing to live in the atmosphere of pure love, both from God and from all those who are now embracing His love for them, at that point they come to freely choose to ask God to release them – hand them over (the biblical definition of our word wrath) – and God will do what is termed His strange act by respecting their choice to disconnect from Him who is the only Source of life that exists.

This gives interesting significance to the phrase John used concerning Jesus just before He gave up His own life by freely laying it down. ...all things had already been accomplished... When I apply this to the next time this kind of death shows up, the Second Death, it looks like it could again apply with stunning accuracy. God's great purpose in the plan of redemption, besides saving as many as are willing to let His love flow through them, is to fully vindicate His reputation. When this is accomplished without ever resorting to using any of Satan's alternative methods, then all things will have been fully accomplished and it will be fully seen by all that God's love is the only source of life that there is and to live apart from His love is to not live at all.

When this great plan of God is fully accomplished – and that comes about in the last solution that fully resolves every doubt and question about God's integrity forever – then it will be completely plain that God has always been consistently fair and has never once resorted to employing any of Satan's methods to accomplish His purposes. God never uses force against the will of others; God does not rely on fear or threats of punishment or artificial impositions of force to manipulate His subjects, and He does not need to for built into the natural cause and effect principles upon which everything operates He has installed all the consequences with no need for outside enforcement. God's system is all based on love and love alone, and our problem of perceiving this is because we are coming from confused backgrounds about what is real and true. It is us who are the ones in desperate need of changing how we think about God's ways of love and how life can only exist in the atmosphere of perfect freedom.

It is when this grand truth about reality is at last accepted fully by each person who has destroyed their own capacity to live in love that they finally choose eternal death instead of life. This likely will occur when, like Jesus, they finally see how God has fully accomplished all things including the vindication of the truth about His character. As every sinner including Satan Himself comes to agree fully that God is love and in Him is no darkness at all, can the controversy be finally resolved without God ever having fired a shot. This is what I think may be the real meaning of all things being accomplished in the final analysis.

Sin in its simplest explanation is distrust with all of the consequent effects of disconnecting from God, the only source of love and life. This is why sin results in death, for death is simply a label used for the absence of life. God longs for every created being to live and thrive in His love, for He entertains no animosity towards any of His children despite all accusations to the contrary by His enemies. But He also knows that freedom is the only atmosphere in which true life-giving love can exist, so for all those who demand to remain outside the parameters that govern life He gives them His respect by at last handing them over to the natural effect of their lifelong choices to be incompatible with Life.

In no way should God ever be charged with imposing punitive suffering on those who are at last lost. Letting them go is a deeply painful act for the heart of God who loves them with a passionate, everlasting kind of love that we cannot begin to even imagine. But as each of those who are lost one by one beg Him to let them die instead of living in the only atmosphere left in the universe – pure, selfless, love and care and affection – the only the loving thing left to do to respect their choice and allow them to end their suffering through choosing eternal extinction over living in the presence of Life itself. The stunning part of this for me is that when I allow the description of Jesus' death to reveal how the lost will die, I am starting to see that they too may choose to lay down their life, only they cannot take it up again like He could. Their reasons for laying it down will be very different than His, but in seeing that it is their choice and not God's it makes all the difference in the world in how we view God's part in all of this.

So how does this affect the definition of the Second Death as one from which no resurrection is possible? First, I can't find that definition in the Bible. However, something Jesus said gives me a very strong clue as to why it is very possible that Jesus indeed died the Second Death and yet was resurrected while the lost die the Second Death and never live again. Note the passage at the beginning of this and think about it carefully. The difference between Jesus and everyone else is that Jesus is both human and divine, and He is the resurrection Himself. It is true that Jesus laid down His human body in death and even surrendered His divinity in total submission to His Father's will in the grave. But because Jesus in His divine nature never actually died (for that would be impossible), then when God informed Him that He was free to rise again,, Jesus Himself acted with His own power to take up His human life again, though with a glorified human body this time.

But here is where the significant difference shows up between Jesus and all others who die the Second Death. No one else has the power to raise themselves again like Jesus, so they hopelessly remain dead for eternity. And the only reason that Jesus did not do the same is for at least two reasons: He was completely innocent of any offense or sin that might be 'legally' used to keep Him in the grave, and He had internal power (even though fully surrendered to His Father) to reverse His condition after death, unlike any others who will at last die that same kind of death.

This not only gives me compelling insights about the death of the wicked, but even more importantly urges me to appreciate much more the potential each one of us has to enter fully into the experience described as being in Christ. The New Testament is full of glorious insights about the privilege offered to every one of us to live in Christ and thus to also participate in the power of His resurrection. But that is a compelling topic that must wait for more time and space than what I allow myself right here.