Question
Why do you think the generation from Adam down to Moses and the rest....why did they live so long?Answer
Death reigned from Adam to Moses. After Moses (i.e. the dispensation of the law), death was overthrown and NOW LIFE (ZOE) reigns [Rom 5:14; Rom 8:2; John 3:16; John 10:10]. The former generation lived longer because sin was not as saturated within the human race and existence as it became with the passage of time. In addition, before the law was instituted, GOD winked at disobedience (Acts 17:30)....meaning he did not punish it. The strength of sin is the law (1Cor 15:56). Rom 5:13 says sin is not imputed when there is no law. Thus before the Law i.e. before Moses, because sin was not imputed, men were not to pay for the wages of their sins so they could live longer. Once the strength of the sin [the law] was introduced, man started to pay the wages of their sins because sin was now imputed to them. In other words, penalty of sin was enforced after the law was introduced. The wages or penalty of sin is death (Romans 6:23) so after the law was introduced, men started to die earlier. After Christ, sin is once more no longer imputed to the believer (Romans 4:5-8) because he became sin for us and we became righteousness. In the NT its righteousness that's imputed. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John1:17). Imputation of sin leads to death and imputation of righteousness, grace and truth leads to LIFE. Whenever you see life, it refers to Zoe. Zoe is "the absolute fulness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, and through him both to the hypostatic "logos" and to Christ in whom the "logos" put on human nature." It is also defined as, "life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last forever". When man was created he was not created to die but rather in the image and likeness of GOD—to be immortal. He was full of the life (Zoe) of GOD. GOD cannot die so man could not die either. Then a virus was introduced into the system called sin. The wages or result of sin included but was not limited to physical death (Romans 6:23). Prior to sin there was no death. As time increased, sin also increased so life expectancy declined. People died earlier. This continued until Christ. It is my firm belief that when Jesus took upon himself "sin and its wages [i.e. death]" man was to die no more even physically. But men still died and continue to die. Question is why? It is simple. You can only have what you believe and receive (lambano). If you believe that eternal life which is called Zoe [i.e. the GOD kind of life] extends to your mortal body (Rom 8:19-11), then you will never die. This revelation of life will come slowly. Revelation is still being restored to the church from the dark ages. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. The church has gotten the revelation of the way. We are now in the phase of acquiring the truth. Eventually the revelation of the life will hit us and we'll start growing longer and longer till we die no more. Jesus talked about how we were not to die any longer. Read the following carefully:Joh 11:25-26 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: (26) And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
Christ called himself two separate things. We know this because he used a conjunction "and". What are they? First he called himself...-
The RESURRECTION: meaning those who had died before his coming [like Lazarus] and those who will yet die for lack of belief in Zoe or the GOD kinda life, he will raise the up when he returns.
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The LIFE: Those who live and believe in him thus attaining eternal life of John 3:16 and John 10:10....these folks should never die.
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Those that believe in him and died
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Those that believe in him and were yet alive
