"If A Man Die, Shall He Live Again?"
One of the most effective means of bringing truth to the heart of a person is by asking questions. Accordingly, the Bible often asks questions and, in most cases, answers them. In this study we want to consider some of the greatest questions that have ever been asked and then the answers inspiration has given to them in the pages of God's word.
Our first question is found in Job 14:14: "If a man die, shall he live again?" Men in every age and in every nation have had to face this question. This is true because death is the common enemy of all mankind. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Heb. 9:27). In every age and in every country men have hoped to live again. This question is of utmost importance to all. Not only does it affect the hereafter of man, but it affects the things we do now while we are alive. We need to know the true answer to this question.
(1) Job himself gave answer to his own question. Hear him: "All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee." (Job 14:14-15). Again he said, "And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed, then without my flesh shall I see God." (Job 19:26). Job answers that a man shall live again after he dies.
(2) David's answer is also in the affirmative. He declares: "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee?" (Psalms 73:24-25). Hence in that majestic twenty-third Psalm he gave vent to his longings and to the Holy Spirit's guidance by saying: "I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." (Psalm 23:6). David says a man will live again.
(3) Turning into the pages of the New Testament, we hear the apostle Paul saying, "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2 Cor. 5:1). As He wrote his final words to Timothy, his son in the gospel, Paul set forth his hope and ours in these words: "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." (2 Tim 4:8).
(4) The greatest of all answers to this question is seen in Jesus Christ. While here on earth, He taught that there is life after death. "Marvel not at this," He says, "for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." (John 5:28-29). Again He states, "Because I live, ye shall live also." (John 14:19).
But Jesus did not merely answer this great question by the words of His mouth. He proved it in His own death. Jesus died and was buried. But on the third day, He came forth in triumph over Hades and the grave. In speaking of the resurrection Paul tells us that "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures." (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
What is our conclusion to all this evidence? It is that if a man dies, he can live again. In order for this living again to be pleasant, we must live now in preparation for that life after death. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. . ." (Rev. 14:13). But to die in the Lord means that I must also live in the Lord. To live in the Lord indicates that one has been added to the Lord by his obedience to the Lord's word. God tells me to have faith in Him (Heb. 11:6). I am commanded to repent earnestly of every sin (Luke 13:3). I am taught to confess His holy name among men (Rom. 10:10). I am commanded to be baptized for the remission of my sins (Acts 2:38). Upon my doing this, I must live faithfully until death and then the crown of life will be given unto me. (Rev. 2:10).