Hi Eileen,
The way this reads; After Christ is put to death and his body put in the tomb, three days later, God raises him from the dead thereby "putting an end to the agony of death" (not putting an end to death but the AGONY of death). So even with Ray's explanation above, I still don't see how it can be said there is no consciousness while dead since it is the raising Him up which puts an end to the agony of death.
Act 2:24 whom God did raise up, having loosed the pains
OF the death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it, (YLT)
I think that the key word here is "of." It does not say "loosed the pains 'in' death," meaning the state of being dead. But "loosed the pains OF the death," which would have been the act/agony of dying, experiencing His own death. I believe that the agony was in the knowledge of knowing He would be death, all life removed from Him.
Rays has said over and over that the wages of sin is death (mortality). I never thought Ray was referring to the "act of dying" as the wages of sin. After all, some people die without pain at all.
Yes, "all have sinned" (Rom 3:23) and "the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). It is not the act of dying that we inherit from Adam, but death, the opposite of life, the cessation of life in this world. With life we have consciousness, in death there is no consciousness, "the dead know nothing" (Ecc 9:5). We all perish at death and our hope is in the resurrection of the dead, which Christ is the firstfruits.
1Co 15:16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ is not risen.
1Co 15:18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
1Co 15:20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1Co 15:21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
We need to set our sights on what real life is, the kingdom. For this life is a vapor (James 4:14), in death we will not even be aware of time or anything... the resurrection will be here before you know it.
James 5:8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
mercy, peace and love
Kat