Commentary on John 6:50

In John 6:50, Jesus taught that all those who receive His salvation by grace while still alive in the flesh will not die. But Jesus could not have meant physical death since all men must suffer physical death. Jesus had to have meant a spiritual death which is separation from God. When believers saved by grace die, their recreated souls and spirits immediately go to heaven to be with God. God also creates a spiritual body for His Church believers which He will bring with Him and give to His Church believers at the Rapture of the Church. The physical death of believers saved by grace never becomes a separation from God. Therefore, in the sense of death being a separation from God, believers saved by grace never die. II Corinthians 5:1-8.

When unbelievers die, their souls and spirits go to one of three places according to the judgment of Christ. Hebrews 9:27. Revelation 20:13 definitely teaches that the dead who stand before God at the Great White Throne Judgment come out of three different places. Some come out of the sea, some from out of death, and some from out of hell. The Word of God does not inform us exactly what kind of places the sea and death are, but it does tell us that hell is a place of fiery torment. Probably, only the worst humans go to hell. But the souls and spirits of unbelievers in all three places are separated from God, and that is why they are called "the dead."

In I Corinthians 15:26, God promised that He would destroy death itself. Revelation 20:14 records the exact event when God destroys the place called death by casting it into the lake of fire. This also means that God must destroy hell when He casts it into the lake of fire. God will have no more use for hell since He has emptied it of all its dead, and it has therefore served God's purpose. Revelation 21:1 relates that God will also eliminate the place called the sea when He recreates the heaven and the earth. Since God destroys the first death, then the lake of fire, called the second death, must be something entirely different from the first death. Revelation 20:15. The difference must be that the first death is for unbelieving humans while the second death is for total evil itself. Revelation 21:8. In addition, if the lake of fire amounts to but a continuation of hell, then the first death would be the same as the second death, and that condition would contradict God's promise that He will destroy death itself which is separation from God. Since God destroys death itself, then this fact can only mean that He will recover from death all the goodness that He originally created to be recreated as new, righteous humans to live on a righteous, recreated earth. Revelation 21:3-5; Revelation 22:11-12; I Corinthians 15:25-28.