Troublesome Topic: LIFE IS NORMAL DEATH IS ABNORMAL

In the Torah there are several spiritual lessons that can be learned from the use of the words “clean” and “unclean.” One of those lessons is that some things are normal, and some are abnormal. God has established what is normal for each realm. The Law used numerous regulations to teach that life is normal, and death is abnormal. In fact, the emphasis on not touching dead things and not associating with death was a major emphasis in the Law, as was its counterpart, the need to respect all life.

The reality that death is the normal and unavoidable end for humans does not change the truth that death is abnormal in God’s eyes. It is a normal part of human experience only because of the curse of sin, and we have already seen that Jesus has transformed the curse into a blessing.

In light of the restrictions against touching dead things, what should we make of the fact that Jesus suffered physical death for us?

The fact that death was something to stay away from, and yet Jesus suffered death, should not cause us confusion, rather it should cause us amazement. Look how far God was willing to go to bring us reconciliation!

However, there’s more.

Since the Bible teaches that life is normal and death is abnormal, that means resurrection is normal! It is not a rare exception. When we think about Jesus rising from the dead it seems amazing to us, but in God’s economy, resurrection is normal; it is the perfect expression of God’s intent, which is to take that which is under the curse of death and bring it into the realm of life! This is what God does; it is His modus operandi. God is constantly in the business of reviving, restoring, giving new life, giving true life. (As a serendipity, the concept expressed in this paragraph came to me on Easter morning, 2020.)

God wants us to learn to see things as He sees them; He wants us to see resurrection as the standard operating procedure for Him, not as a rare deviation from the standard that we know, which is the curse. Although God spoke the curse of death into existence, He has never accepted it as the true standard. What we think of as normal (death due to the curse) is not what God sees as normal. For Him resurrection is normal!

The next lesson in the Full and Medium series on Covenants is: The Resurrection and a Play on Words with the Phrase “Dead Person”

The next lesson in the Short series on Covenants is: A Dwelling Place for God