Many people believe that once they die, they will enter into an eternal sleep in which they are no longer conscious. The subtle implication is that what has occurred in the person’s life prior to death has no eternal significance since life ceases after death.
Instead of termination, the Bible teaches that death is separation. James 2:26 tells us physical death is the separation of the body from the spirit. Spiritual death is described as the separation of the human spirit from God. “Your iniquities (sins) have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you.”
Therefore, a person may be alive physically and dead spiritually. He is physically alive because his body and his spirit are united. He is spiritually dead because his sin separates him in his spirit from God. He has not allowed the debt of his sin to be paid for him; therefore, the penalty of death (spiritual separation) is in effect. This person may live his entire physical life in a state of spiritual death: dead in his sins/spiritually separated from God. If this person dies a physical death (spirit and body separate) while he is spiritually dead, he spends eternity spiritually dead: separated from God. At death he does not cease to exist. He will exist forever…conscious and forever aware of his state of separation. The following footnote goes into more detail regarding this state of separation.