Many of the Old Testament concepts which are difficult to understand, Jesus clarified in the New Testament. The differences between physical and spiritual death in the Old Testament can be subtle, but in the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead, Jesus cleared up the differences between physical and spiritual death. John 11:1-44.
In verse four of this story, Jesus declared that Lazarus' sickness was "not unto death." But in verse fourteen, Jesus plainly stated that "Lazarus is dead." These two statements cannot be contradictory because Jesus meant spiritual death by His first use of the word and physical death by His second use of the word. This distinction can clearly be seen in verse eleven where Jesus declared that Lazarus was merely asleep. One who is asleep is still alive. So Jesus was saying that Lazarus was still spiritually alive even though he was physically dead. Lazarus was spiritually alive because he was a believer in Christ. Lazarus was one whom God had caused to pass from spiritual death to life as Jesus had taught in John 5:24. In verse fifteen, Jesus actually declared that He was glad Lazarus had died because his death gave Jesus the opportunity to prove, by raising Lazarus from physical death, that He also had power over spiritual death.
By that which Jesus said to Martha in verse 23, He clearly meant that God would raise Lazarus to life as a whole person, both spiritual and physical, but in a future resurrection.
Jesus responded to Martha's faith in verse 25 by assuring her that Lazarus still had to be alive because of his faith and that Jesus, being the very power of resurrection and life, could certainly restore Lazarus to physical life. One can only believe if one is conscious. Jesus was telling Martha that Lazarus was still conscious and spiritually alive, and that He had the power to restore him to physical life. As Jesus used the word "dead" in this verse, He had to have meant both physical and spiritual death. By raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus meant to prove that He also had the power to raise a believer from spiritual death to spiritual life as He had taught in John 5:24.
In verse 26, Jesus further assured Martha that all those who possess spiritual life because of their faith in Him can never die. Jesus could not have meant physical death. He had to have meant that believers will never suffer a spiritual separation from God forever. God not only creates a new, living spirit and soul for believers the moment they believe, He also creates a new spiritual body for them that He holds for them in heaven until the Rapture of the Church. At the Rapture of the Church, God will restore every Church believer to being a whole, living person by uniting their recreated souls and spirits with their created spiritual bodies that God will bring to them from heaven. Living believers must leave behind their physical bodies in order to be clothed upon with their spiritual bodies. II Corinthians 5:1-5; I Corinthians 15:50.
By all His teachings about life and death, Jesus demonstrated that consciousness always resides in the spirits and souls of humans. Unbelievers possess a spiritual death because they have no consciousness of faith, but believers possess eternal life even if physically dead because of their consciousness of their faith. Dead bodies have no consciousness whatsoever. Therefore, physical death never constitutes a separation from God, and this means believers never die. In addition, God created life and He can never lose anything He has ever created. This fact means God will eventually recover and recreate new, living persons from all His goodness that He originally put into them. Revelation 21:1-5; Luke 20:38.
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