DEATH
Is taken in Scripture, first, for the separation of body and soul, the first death, Genesis 25:11; secondly, for alienation from God, and exposure to his wrath, 1 John 3:14, etc.; thirdly, for the second death, that of eternal damnation. Death was the penalty affixed to Adam’s transgression, Genesis 2:17; Genesis 1:3; and all his posterity are transgressors, and share the curse inflicted upon him. CHRIST is "our life." All believers share his life, spiritually and eternally; and though sin and bodily is taken away, and in the resurrection the last enemy shall be trampled under foot, Romans 1:5-21; 1 Corinthians 1:15-58.
Natural death is described as a yielding up of the breath, or spirit, expiring, Psalms 104:29; as a return to our original dust, Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 12:7; as the soul’s laying off the body, its clothing, 2 Corinthians 5:3, 2 Corinthians 1:5, or the tent in which it has dwelt, 2 Corinthians 5:1; 2 Peter 1:13, 2 Peter 1:1. The death of the believer is a departure, a going home, a falling asleep in Jesus, Philippians 1:23; Matthew 26:24; John 11:11.
The term death is also sometimes used for any great calamity, or imminent danger threatening life, as persecution, 2 Corinthians 1:10. "The gates of death," Job 38:17, signify the unseen world occupied by departed spirits. Death is also figuratively used to denote the insensibility of Christians to the temptations of a sinful world, Colossians 3:3.