Joe Biden said a couple of days ago while encouraging people to get vaccinated, “You don’t have to die!” Of course what he meant was, if you get vaccinated your risk of dying of Covid is greatly diminished. “You don’t have to die!” makes a better sound bite, but it’s just not true.

Now I am that rare bird, a conservative vaccine advocate. I think the evidence is in and these vaccines actually perform as advertised. In fact, if you’re an old person like me (over 65), you should get the Shingrix and the Pneumovax as well. Having shingles or choking to death from pneumonia are not all giggles, so why run the risk when a few shots will cut the odds in your favor?

But that’s not where I’m picking a fight with Mr. Biden. He said, “You don’t have to die!” And that’s just flat out wrong. You and I do have to die. Maybe not today, and maybe not from Covid, but we’ve got to die and for some of us it is sooner rather than later. Hebrews 9:27 says, “. . .it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” (ESV)

Adam (and Eve) sinned. That is, they refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Creator of the universe. They chose to shove him – or try to anyway – off his throne and take his place as rulers of their lives. That’s what sin is, by the way. Sin is not just breaking some law. Sin is rejecting the lawgiver and claiming to be a law unto oneself. Well, with sin came death. If God is the One who breathed life into dust, kicking his hand away is bound to turn out badly. And badly it did! Every child born of Adam (and Eve) has felt death drag him into the grave. (Yes, there are two exceptions listed in the bible, I say so for the nitpickers who might read this, but Enoch and Elijah are the exceptions that prove the rule.) Death is the collective, universal result of insurrection against the Sovereign.

The bible, however, tells us of TWO deaths we might have the “pleasure” of experiencing. There is this universal experience that come to all the children of Adam as his rebellious nature is passed from father to son, and there is the more dreadful and individual experience of death that comes to the rejectors of the Sovereign’s second chance. The gracious gift of God is eternal life through the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. He says, “Come to me everyone who is burdened by their sins and bowed down by their rebellions and I will give you rest.” By his blood he has bought and brought back every child of Eve who looks to him for healing.

Jesus said, whoever believes in me will never die. He wasn’t talking here about this death we share with Adam and all humanity. This is him sparing us from the Second Death.
I am one who believes the Second Death is just that: a second death that comes after God raises the dead and pronounces judgment upon all those who kicked his hand away when offered the second chance. I have dear Christian brothers and sisters who believe this Second Death will an eternal dying away from God’s presence. We’ll see soon enough. I think I’m interpreting the scripture correctly, but we’ll all know the truth when the time comes. What’s important to know either way is that life is given to all who believe on the Son, and death is given to all who turn away.

So, Mr. Biden, you’re wrong. We all have to die – if not from Covid then from cancer or heart disease or any of the myriad ways that will come to the some 3 million Americans and 60 million men, women, boys, and girls worldwide this year. But we don’t have to die forever. We can look to the Son and live. I choose to look.