Death is a complete cessation of existence, not a shedding of the body that frees an immortal soul. Man does not have a soul; he is a soul, which became living when God breathed life into Adam. The soul that sins will die, God alone has immortality, and the wages of sin is death. Physical death is the end of a human life through age, disease, accident, or violence: the breath of life leaves, consciousness ceases, and the body decays. This is the fate of all. In the grave there is no thought or consciousness, and nothing happens unless God resurrects the person. Adam was made of flesh and was never immortal, so he would have died physically even without sinning; he needed the Tree of Life to live forever. The death that entered the world through his sin was spiritual: separation from God and condemnation, which spread to all his offspring. Adam did not die physically the moment he sinned, which underlies Satan's lie that life goes on after sin. Those without a relationship with God are the spiritually dead, though they go about normal life. Physical death does not pay the penalty for sin; only a life taken in judgment does, as Christ's sacrifice did. Yet death is not final. God will resurrect everyone in his own order and give each the opportunity to repent. Those in Christ who overcome rise in the first resurrection to immortality, and the second death has no power over them.

Solomon in Ecclesiastes 7:1 declares that the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth, reflecting an ideal that is not always realized in life. Some squander the precious gift of life from God, leaving their deaths without hope. The implication is that a better conclusion to life depends largely on the choices made during it. There exists in all a measure of apprehensive awareness of death that influences attitudes and conduct, stemming from a spiritual source. This fear, though not a constant dread, creates a vague influence on behavior, wrapped in hopelessness, because many do not fully believe God-given truths about death. The bondage to sin, induced by satan's lies, holds humanity in deceptive ignorance, as most fail to connect their personal sins directly to death or recognize satan as their spiritual father. As long as death seems distant, it garners little attention, yet the fear persists in the mind, affecting conduct due to disbelief in God's truth.

The first death, familiar to all, marks the end of physical life for every human during the 6,000 years allotted to man. Even before the Flood, when many lived for centuries, all eventually died. Afterward, God shortened the average lifespan to 70 years, perhaps to reveal the consequences of long lives of disobedience, as seen in the pre-Flood world, the Tower of Babel, and Sodom and Gomorrah. Death, as the wages of sin, serves as the penalty for failing to live God's way. Yet, it is not death itself that is the true evil, but sin, which incurs this penalty. God, in His design, built death into man's existence for good reasons, not desiring any to live eternally in misery but to learn obedience and reject sin for eternal joy. If any persist in sin after sufficient opportunity to understand the consequences, they face further judgment, but the first death remains a universal experience, a temporary sleep until God's plan unfolds further.

All men are appointed to die once (Hebrews 9:27), and that general rule holds: each person dies physically at least once and then awaits resurrection. Some few have already died twice, such as Lazarus, Dorcas, Eutychus, and those who came out of their graves when Christ died, because they were physically resurrected and then died again. Those who are converted and accepted for the Kingdom will be raised at Christ's return, in the first resurrection, and changed in the twinkling of an eye into immortal spirit beings (I Corinthians 15:52). Even those alive at His return will go through a kind of death, since the corruptible must put on incorruption and the mortal immortality (I Corinthians 15:53). Over those who have part in the first resurrection the second death has no power (Revelation 20:6). Symbolic deaths also precede and accompany Christian life. Baptism symbolizes death (Romans 6:2-11), and Christians die daily by crucifying the old self and renewing the inner man (I Corinthians 15:31; II Corinthians 4:16-17; Galatians 5:24). Each of these deaths is as difficult as the one before, and they are essential to overcoming and reaching maturity. Because Christians are judged now, the later resurrections have no personal impact on them.