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"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
"Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." (Mat 10:28).
"Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins" (Jam 5:19-20).
"This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev 20:14-15).
The first death refers to physical death. Man can physically kill you, but your spirit lives on. The second death refers to spiritual death, death of body and soul. Only God can finally put someone to death in that ultimate way.
"But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you."
N. T. Wright,, The Resurrection of Resurrection: "For early Christians, resurrection was seen to consist of passing death and out the other side into a new sort of bodily life. As Romans 8 shows, Paul clearly believed that God would give new life to the mortal bodies of Christians and indeed to the entire created world: “If the Spirit of the God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised the Messiah Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 8:11)."
"What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory"
Mark Corbett, YouTube:
Conditional Immortality is Part of General Revelation (Hell in Romans, part 1).
Wrath and Immortality (Hell in Romans, part 2).
Jesus Died for Us (Hell in Romans, part 3).
Romans 6:21-23 Teaches Conditional Immortality.
Apolumi and Apoleia in Romans Refer to Annihilation (Hell in Romans, part 5).
"If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then they also who are fallen asleep in Christ have perished."
The Greek word for "resurrection" (ἀνάστασις, anastasis) implies a physical, bodily rising. Paul ties Christ’s resurrection to the general resurrection of believers, making the two inseparable. If Christ is not raised, the entire Christian faith collapses (v. 14). If Paul thought of "perish" as equivalent to conscious suffering in torment, it would conflict with his broader argument that resurrection reverses death and grants eternal life.
The traditional view requires believers and unbelievers alike to inherently possess immortality, yet this passage frames immortality as entirely dependent on resurrection.
Edward Fudge, The Fire That Consumes (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2011), 174: "The Bible exhausts the vocabulary of dying in speaking of what happened to Jesus. He “died for our sins” (1 Cor 15:3). He laid down his “life [psychē]” (John 10:15). He was destroyed (Matt 27:20, KJV) or killed (Acts 3:15). Jesus compared his own death to the dissolution of a kernel of wheat in the same passage that means losing one’s life (psychē) rather than loving it in order to find life eternal (John 12:23–26). Jesus “poured out his life (psychē) unto death” and in so doing was “numbered with the transgressors” (Isa 53:12). Every scriptural implication is that if Jesus had not been raised, he—like those fallen asleep in him—would simply have perished (1 Cor 15:18). His resurrection reverses every such estimation of affairs, assuring us instead of the death of Death (2 Tim 1:10; Heb 2:14; Rev 20:14)."
"For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive."
Paul contrasts Adam (humanity’s representative in sin and death) with Christ (the representative in life and resurrection). This echoes Romans 5:12-21. "For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ... The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly, that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom 5:17, 20-21). This is often referred to as the "covenant of works," described below.
Richard C. Barcellos, Getting the Garden Right (Founders: Cape Coral, 2017) 57: "Our working definition of the covenant of works is as follows: that divinely sanctioned commitment or relationship God imposed upon Adam, who was a sinless representative of mankind (or a public person), an image-bearing son of God, conditioned upon his obedience, with a penalty for disobedience, all for the bettering of man's state. Here we have the following: 1) sovereign, divine imposition; 2) representation by Adam (i.e., federal or covenantal headship), a sinless image-bearing son of God; 3) a conditional element (i.e., obedience); 4) a penalty for disobedience (i.e., death); and 5) a promise of reward (i.e., eschatological potential or 'betterment')."
Gordon Fee, Pauline Christology: An Exegetical-Theological Study (Baker: Grand Rapids, 2013) 115: "The reason for the analogy, therefore, is twofold. First, Paul uses it to point out that death is the result of sin—sin that was let loose in the world through 'a man' —so that all are heirs of our human progenitor in that we all die. But second, the main point of the analogy and now as an interpretation of the 'firstfruits' metaphor, the divine response to our death is resurrection, a resurrection that all who are Christ's will equally share, just as they shared equally in the 'death' of Adam. Hence, the emphasis in this first instance is on Christ's real humanity. Whatever else is true of Christ, in his incarnation he was a true human being, who died as Adam died; otherwise, the analogy does not work at all."
Douglas J. Moo, A Theology of Paul and His Letters: The Gift of the New Realm in Christ (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2021), 155: "The 'all' in the second part of verse 22 might be inclusive of all humans... But the following verses suggest rather that Christians only are in view; we could perhaps translate 'all who are in Christ will be made alive.'191 This resurrection of Christians will take place 'when he comes,' that is, at his ultimate 'coming' or 'appearance' at the end of history (v. 23; see also 1 Thess 4:13–18). After that will come 'the end,' 'when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power' (v. 24). As Fee notes, Paul employs Psalm 110:1 in verses 25–26 to explain 'after he has destroyed,' and Psalm 8:6 in verses 27–28 to elaborate 'when he hands over the kingdom.' These two psalm verses are linked by the language of 'under his/your feet,' and they are used together elsewhere in the New Testament (Heb 1:13; 2:5–9; cf. Eph 1:20–22). The goal of this unfolding plan of God is that he might be 'all in all' (v. 28).
191 E.g., Fee, First Epistle to the Corinthians, 831; Fitzmyer, First Corinthians, 570; Harris, Raised Immortal, 179–80."
"But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming. Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father, when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death."
The metaphor of "firstfruits" (ἀπαρχὴ, aparchē) is drawn from Old Testament agricultural practices (cf. Lev 23:10). It signifies the initial harvest, guaranteeing the rest to follow.
Paul describes death as an enemy that will ultimately be abolished (καταργεῖται, katargeitai). This abolishment refers to the eradication of death, not its perpetuation through conscious torment. Paul’s eschatological vision is one where all enemies, including death itself, are no more, which aligns with conditional immortality rather than eternal torment.
The argument has been made that because death is "swallowed up in victory" when the dead are raised, everyone must raised be immortal. This flies in the face of Revelation 20:14 in which God's enemies suffer the second death on judgment day. If there is no death whatsoever at the resurrection, there is no second death.
This misses the distinction between the first and second death. The traditionalist interprets the first death as separation of soul from body and the second death as separation of soul and body from God. The conditionalist interprets the first death as death of body and the second death as death of soul and body. Reading it in this strict way, it would follow that 1 Corinthians 15:26 is about the abolishment of the first death. The unrighteous will still face the second death at the resurrection or else one must deny the second death and therefore deny eternal punishment.
But it is not necessary to see the chronology this way. It is reasonable to assume that God could destroy the last enemy at the second coming when the dead are raised, the saints are made immortal, and God's enemies are judged. When the last enemy is defeated, God's enemies are gone and no more death will take place. Then death will have been defeated. All of these events happen on judgment day.
"If the dead are not raised, then 'let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'"
Paul argues that Christian practices lose their meaning without the resurrection. Without the hope of resurrection, life degenerates into hedonism. Paul’s citation of Isaiah 22:13 critiques such futility, while emphasizing the hope that resurrection gives believers for life after death. According to Paul's logic here, if there was no resurrection, the first death is final and unbelievers too might as well live hedonistically; however, this is not the case, for unbelievers will be raised and held accountable for deeds done in this life.
"It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body... As is the one made of dust, such are those who are also made of dust; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly."
N. T. Wright, Early Traditions and the Origins of Christianity: "Paul, remember is contrasting the present body, which is a psychikos, with the future body, which is a pneumatikos. Now, since psyche is regularly translated into English as “soul,” we might have assumed, on a strictly hellenistic basis, that Paul would mean that the present body, too, is nonphysical—a “soulish” body! Since that is clearly out of the question, we rightly cake both phrases to refer to an actual physical body, psychikos on the one hand—animated by psychē, “soul”—and pneumatikos on the other—animated by “spirit” (clearly, God’s Spirit). Having established his point, Paul in verses 44 to 49 is concerned to counteract the argument of those who were denying the resurrection: presumably they were saying that the “spiritual body” was created first, and then the “soulish body.” Paul insists that the order is the other way around; first the present “soulish” body and then the future “Spiritual” one. The present body cannot be affirmed forever as it stands, but neither should it be dismissed as irrelevant. It is to be changed, transformed."
"Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable."
Peter Grice, The Neglected Doctrines of Resurrection and Bodily Transformation: "While all resurrection bodies will still be physical (Luke 24:39; Dan 12:2), the bodies of believers will be redeemed and dramatically transformed, making resurrection a victory over death (Rom 8:23; Phil 3:21; 1 Cor 15:51-55). They will be “glorious,” “imperishable,” “powerful,” “spiritual,” “of heaven,” not merely “flesh and blood,” and “immortal” (Phil 3:21; 1 Cor 15:42-54; Rom 8:11; 2 Cor 5:4). The bodies of everyone else, however, will remain as they were beforehand, and are now: “lowly” (Phil 3:21), “perishable” (1 Cor 15:42, 50-54), “dishonorable” (1 Cor 15:43), “weak” (1 Cor 15:43), “soulish” (1 Cor 15:44, often translated “natural” in contrast to “spiritual”), “of the dust” (1 Cor 15:48, like Adam’s earthly body), mere “flesh and blood” (1 Cor 15:50), and “mortal” (Rom 8:11; 2 Cor 5:4; 1 Cor 15:53-54). To be mortal means to be liable to death, such that to be raised mortal still leaves one liable to a second death. To be raised in the mortal condition, which results from sin, while others are raised to “glory, honor and immortality” (Rom 2:7), will be a most shameful and shocking experience."
"But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.'"
Paul quotes Isaiah 25:8 and Hosea 13:14 to celebrate death’s defeat. The resurrection is God’s ultimate triumph over sin and death.
N. T. Wright, Mind, Spirit, Soul and Body: All for One and One for All Reflections on Paul’s Anthropology in his Complex Contexts: "Further, there is never a hint of the psyche being immortal in and of itself. 1 Timothy 6 again, this time v. 16: God alone possesses immortality. When Paul speaks of humans having immortality in the future, it is the whole mortal being to which he refers, not the psyche specifically (1 Corinthians 15.54): ‘this mortal thing,’ he says, ‘must put on immortality’, without being more specific. When he says, a few verses earlier (v. 50) that ‘flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom’, the phrase sarx kaihaima functions as a composite technical terms precisely for corruptible, mortal existence."
"For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."
"whose end is destruction, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who think about earthly things."
And Paul again contrasts the fate of destruction with believer's bodily transformation in the following two verses: "For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself" (vv. 20-21).
Likewise, in Philippians 1:28 Paul says, "and in nothing frightened by the adversaries, which is for them a proof of destruction, but to you of salvation, and that from God."
"who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might"
The previous two verses, vv. 7-8, provide important context: "when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, punishing those who don’t know God." This is a clear reference to Isaiah 66:15: "For, behold, Yahweh will come with fire, and his chariots will be like the whirlwind; to render his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire," which goes on to say, "For Yahweh will execute judgment by fire and by his sword on all flesh; and those slain by Yahweh will be many." (Isa 66:16).
Eternal indicates that this destruction will never be reversed. The unrighteous will be eternally destroyed. Whether this destruction arises directly from an act of the Lord as this verse seems to indicate, or whether it stems from a definitive and complete separation from God, the fountain of life, as traditionalists contend the outcome is the same: the result is that "Yahweh will execute judgment by fire and by his sword on all flesh; and those slain by Yahweh will be many... They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind." (Isa 66:16, 24).
"A senseless man doesn’t know, neither does a fool understand this: though the wicked spring up as the grass, and all the evildoers flourish, they will be destroyed forever. But you, Yahweh, are on high forever more. For behold, your enemies, Yahweh, for behold, your enemies shall perish." (Ps 92:6-9).
Peter Grice, Annihilation in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 - Part 1, 2016: "So what does 'eternal destruction' mean, in context? It means just what it means in everyday English (i.e. destruction with an eternal outcome), just as 'destruction' in English refers to something that is brought to an end (cf. 'bring to nothing' in 2 Thess 2:8)."
Ronnie Demler and William Tanksley Jr., Annihilation in 2 Thessalonians 1:9 - Part 2, 2016: "While the Greek most literally reads, 'everlasting destruction from [apo] the presence of the Lord,' the translators of many modern English versions take the apo to mean separation. They therefore insert the word 'away' to guide the reader to this alternate meaning."
"However, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might display all his patience for an example of those who were going to believe in him for eternal life."
"but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News."
"that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
"For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries."
"Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy."
"Brothers, if any among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins."
Albert Barnes (1798-1870), Barnes' Notes on the Bible, James 5:20: "The word death here must refer to eternal death, or to future punishment. There is no other death which the soul is in danger of dying... This passage proves, then, that there is a death which the soul may die; that there is a condition which may properly be called death as a consequence of sin; and that the soul will suffer that unless it is converted."
Douglas Moo, The Letter of James, NICNT (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids: 2021), 319. Commenting on James 5:19-20: "It is by sharing with James the conviction that there is indeed an eternal death, to which the way of sin leads, that we shall be motivated to deal with sin in our lives and in the lives of others."
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (1882), James 5:20: "The soul is obviously that of the sinner who is converted. Death, bodily and spiritual, would be the outcome of the error if he were left alone, and in being rescued from the error he is therefore saved also from death."
"and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly,"
The flood which destroyed the whole world and killed everyone in it except Noah and his family is given as an example of the final judgment. God destroys sinners and annihilates their way of life. God puts a full end to sin and evil. Jesus compares the days of Noah and Lot to the coming judgment, emphasizing the sudden and complete nature of the destruction in Luke 17:26-30.
"and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way,"
Mark Corbett, Downburned and Ashified, The Annihilation of the Unrighteous, 2017: "The Greek word tefroo is a verb derived from the noun that means 'ashes'. tefroo means to 'ashify', or to put it into more normal English, 'to turn something into ashes'... The use of the words katakaio, tefroo, and similar words is not at all consistent with believing in eternal conscious torment. Are the ashes being tormented?... They will be completely consumed by the fire and burned to ashes. Ashes, smoke, and dust may remain, but not people."
"But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed, receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you;"
"Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a fiery furnace in the time of your anger. Yahweh will swallow them up in his wrath. The fire shall devour them. You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from among the children of men." (Ps 21:8-10).
They will be destroyed in their destruction; they will perish in their perishing; they will die in their death; they will be burned up in their burning; they will be consumed in their consumption; they will be slain in their slaying; they will receive the wages of sin by losing their life in the judgment.
"Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day."
In the parallel passage, Peter uses the word Tartarus, the equivalent of the Greek Hades or Hebrew sheol. Angels are currently being held in Tartarus for the judgment day. This verse says nothing about the final judgment itself, and it isn't even about humans.
John Gill, Commentary on Jude: "He hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness; by these 'everlasting chains' may be meant the power and providence of God over them, which always abide upon them; or their sins, and the guilt of them upon their consciences, under which they are continually held; or the decrees and purposes of God concerning their final punishment and destruction, which are immutable and irreversible, and from which there is no freeing themselves."
The Pulpit Commentary: "The word by which the idea of the everlasting is expressed is a peculiarly strong one, occurring only once again in the New Testament, viz. in Romans 1:20, where it is applied to God's 'eternal power.' It designates these bonds as bonds from which there never can be escape."
"Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having in the same way as these given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire."
Darren J. Clark, Hey Jude, Don't be so Tense: A Note on the Grammar of Jude 7, 2022: "Imagine I said to you that Jesus serves as an example of suffering and therefore loving your enemies... What if someone argued that the use of the present tense 'loving' must mean that Jesus really is loving the enemies with him in heaven right now?... If traditionalists are responding to conditionalist exegesis of Jude 7 and all they have is an argument from the present tense, then the appropriate response is to ask them what else they have got to offer."
Joseph Dear, What the Bible Actually Say about "Eternal Fire" - Part 1, 2018: "Jude seems to be describing eternal fire as something that Sodom and Gomorrah experienced... The fire that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah was described as being eternal fire, yet those cities are not still burning... it is a fire that does not burn things for ever and ever, but rather burns them up completely."
— What the Bible Actually Say about "Eternal Fire" - Part 2, 2018: "the idea that Sodom and Gomorrah were already in 'eternal fire' goes against what most of us (of all sorts of eschatological beliefs) would take as a fairly clear and straightforward part of eschatology: no one is in their final state yet... Everyone knew what was in view whenever someone mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah – especially when vengeance and fire are mentioned as well."
Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 453: "This fire functions as an example because it is a type or anticipation of what is to come for all those who reject God. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is not merely a historical curiosity; it functions typologically as a prophecy of what is in store for the rebellious. The narrative stresses the devastation of the Lord raining fire and brimstone upon the cities (Gen 19:24–28)."
"[These are] wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever."
They are shooting stars who are here one moment, gone the next. They are destined to perish and fade to nothing.
"The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God’s will remains forever."
"The testimony is this: that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son."
"These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God."