QUESTION: Revelation 20:14 mentions the second death. What is this second death?

ANSWER: Revelation 20:14 reads: "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." Death itself means separation. The first death, physical death, is separation of the spirit and soul from the body. The second death is eternal separation from God for ever and ever.

Death is the result of sin. "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 5:12). When Adam sinned by disobeying God, death entered into the world (see Genesis 2:17). We read in Romans 3:23 that the "wages of sin is death." The first death is the wages of sin in this world while the second death will be the full and final wages for eternity. Death in the Scriptures is never, as some like to think, the cessation of existence so that they might escape the consequence of their sins.

Let's notice a few facts about the first death. Every person has a body, a soul and a spirit. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The human spirit is that God-conscious part of a person that distinguishes him from the animals. It includes both knowledge and judgment (Mark 8:12; 1 Corinthians 2:11). The soul is that part of a person that is the home of the affections—right or wrong—of love, hate, lusts and even of the appetites of the body (Job 23:13; 1 Peter 2:11). The body is the earthly house in which the spirit and soul dwell. At death a person's immortal spirit and soul leave the mortal (subject to death) body. This is the first death, or physical death.

First Death for a Believer
A believer's spirit and soul go immediately into a place of blessing at the time of death. This is evident in the well-known account of the thief on the cross. This repentant thief owned that he was getting what he deserved, and confessed Jesus as Lord, believing God would raise Him from the dead: "Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." The wonderful answer from the Lord Jesus was, "Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with Me in paradise" (Luke 23:39-43). This blessed truth of the believer being with the Lord Jesus immediately after death is also repeated in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 and Philippians 1:23.

It is especially comforting to the Christian to see that the Lord Jesus did not refer to the death of the believer as death. The Bible speaks of it as the body falling asleep (see John 11:11-14 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Death is the penalty of sin. The believer in the Lord Jesus does not come under the penalty of sin because the Lord Jesus took that penalty when He died on Calvary's cross.

First Death for an Unbeliever
An unbeliever's spirit and soul go immediately into a place of torment at the time of death. The Lord Jesus tells us of this awful torment in His account of the rich man and Lazarus (read Luke 16:19-31). "And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame" (vs. 23,24). The rich man was in torments, not because he was rich, but because he had not believed God's Word. People may disregard this account, but it came from the lips of the One who suffered sin's agony and torment on Calvary's cross so that no one ever would need to experience this awful judgment.

Second Death for a Believer
The believer will never experience the second death. He is waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus to take him home to heaven. When this event (commonly referred to as the rapture) occurs, the spirits and souls of believers will be united with glorified bodies. "For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself" (Philippians 3:20,21). "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). Every believer will then experience fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore (Psalm 16:11).

Second Death for an Unbeliever
The second death will take place after the one thousand years of peace that Christ will yet bring to this world. Following this millennium, the devil will be cast into the lake of fire and the Great White Throne judgment will take place. There all unbelievers will be judged according to their works and cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death—eternal separation from God for ever and ever (read Revelation 20:11-15).

There are people who have said, "How can a God of love cast anyone into the lake of fire?" God, however, in His wondrous love and grace, has provided a way of escape, a salvation from this awful judgment. God gave His only Son to die for men's sins so that anyone believing in the Lord Jesus Christ could be saved from that awful judgment. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

God made the lake of fire, known as hell, for the devil and his angels, not for mankind (Matthew 25:41). But when men refuse to accept the deliverance provided in the Lord Jesus, He must cast them into the lake of fire to suffer the penalty for sin.

Spiritual Death
Another kind of death is mentioned in the Bible. It is a spiritual death. This spiritual death took place immediately when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. This death is separation of man from God by his sins. We read in Ephesians 2:1 that every unsaved person is "dead in trespasses and sins." This is a spiritual separation from God. When a person turns to God in repentance, believing in Christ as personal Saviour, he receives the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23). This new life, eternal life, enables a person to have spiritual fellowship with God.

Should the reader be one who has never personally come to the Lord Jesus we pray that you will do so before it is too late.

—John D. McNeil