Types of Death in the Bible

Types of Death in the Bible

When you read verses like the following, what does Paul mean when he says we must be dead to sin, or we have become dead to the law, or when sin revived, he died? This is obviously not physical death, otherwise Paul could not write the epistles in which we read these things. What death is he talking about, and what other types of death do we learn about in the Bible?

Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Rom 7:4  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 

Rom 7:9  For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 

There are many types of death depicted in the Bible, not just physical death.

• there's physical death (we all know what this is!!)
• there is the eternal (the second) death which an unsaved man dies and go to the hell 
• there is spiritual death in which an unsaved man (while he lives) is alienated from the life of God
• there is positional death: a saved man’s union to the death of Christ; the moment you believe the gospel (ie: baptized into his death) 
• there is functional death: concerning something that doesn't operate or function the way it's supposed to: 

Physical death

Life leaving the body.

Philippians 1:21, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

2 Corinthians 5:8, "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."

Spiritual death

Romans 5:12, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."

Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Eternal (second) death

The last judgment. This is the perpetuation of spiritual death into eternity.

Rev 20:11-15  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.  (12)  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.  (13)  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.  (14)  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.  (15)  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Positional death 

Identification with Christ in His death.

Romans 6:3-4: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Colossians 2:12: “Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.”

Philippians 3:10: “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.”

2 Timothy 2:11: “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him.”

Functional death

This is a believer out of fellowship.

A physical example of functional deadness in Abraham and Sarah: 

Rom 4:19  And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb. 

So, death in this context is that Abraham’s body was now at a point where it no longer operated and functioned to produce children. Sarah's womb was dead in the fact that it couldn't bear children.

Some spiritual examples:

Romans 8:6, 13, "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

When living after the flesh you cannot please God, and your life has zero value and usefulness to God. You have lost the functionality of operating in Gods will, producing the fruit of righteousness, and having His good works work out of you.

Romans 6:1-14, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that Grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 

Romans 6:12-13 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Colossians 2:13, "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses."