This thread will necessarily get into just what is human death —is it only physical death that is meant by, "The wages of sin is death"? That will not be Off-Topic. I also happily expect it also to divert into the meaning of "eternity", and its implications.
But, first,
@Arial said, in another thread:
This is not exactly what Arial meant to address, but it provoked the thought in me that remains unresolved, concerning the meaning of one's death.
When I was growing up, it never entered my mind that Christ's death on the cross was only the passing of his physical life. I always assumed that he suffered every bit the penalty I would have had to pay, to include the infinite ('eternal') suffering of Hell and the Lake of Fire.
When my mother looked at me shocked one day at the notion that Jesus more than simply suffered horribly at the hands of 'legal' murderers, and endured the scorn and rejection of humanity, and lost his physical life, and asked in a dramatic whisper if I really thought he suffered the spiritual death I would be suffering if God was to count my sins against me, I said, yes, of course I believe that! She's gone, now, so I'm sure she knows better than I can understand it, what Christ did on my behalf.
But, I have no recourse but to think that Christ died precisely the death that all the redeemed would have died.
Was the 'mere', 'simple', fact of his temporal suffering and physical death, all that happened here?
