Our Day Part 40

[Ill.u.s.tration: JESUS RAISING THE SON OF THE WIDOW OF NAIN

"The gift of G.o.d is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom.

6:23.]

"G.o.d so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

As there is none other name under heaven by which men can be saved, so there is no other way of everlasting life or immortality, save in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When Immortality is Bestowed

Christ said, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." John 11:25.

He has turned death, that would have been eternal, into a little time of sleep, from which he will awaken the believer. In the resurrection of the last day immortality is bestowed, "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pa.s.s the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. 15:52-54.

"There is a blessed hope, More precious and more bright Than all the joyless mockery The world esteems delight.

"There is a lovely star That lights the darkest gloom, And sheds a peaceful radiance o'er The prospects of the tomb."

Not until the resurrection, "at the last trump," is immortality conferred upon the redeemed. Note that it is not something immortal putting on immortality; but this "mortal" puts on immortality. Mark this: there is no life after death, save by the resurrection. "If there be no resurrection of the dead,... then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." 1 Cor. 15:13-18.

This resurrection, as stated by the apostle Paul, is not at death, but in the last day, when Christ shall come, and all His children that are in their graves shall hear His voice. Jesus says:

"This is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:40.

That is why the coming of Christ has been the "blessed hope" of all the ages.

Man's State in Death

Between death and the resurrection, the dead sleep. Jesus declares that death is a sleep. Lazarus was dead, but Jesus said, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." John 11:11. It is the language of Inspiration throughout. The patriarch Job said:

"Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more [the heavens will be rolled back as a scroll at Christ's coming], they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Job 14:10-12.

This hope of the resurrection at the last day was no indistinct hope to the believer in G.o.d's promises. The patriarch continued:

"If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands." Verses 14, 15.

Job tells us of the place of his waiting for the Life-giver's call: "If I wait, the grave is mine house." Job 17:13. It is thence that Christ will call His own when He comes. "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." John 5:28, 29.

Death is an unconscious sleep. It must of necessity be so; for death is the opposite of life. Therefore there is no consciousness of the pa.s.sing of time to those who sleep in the grave. It is as if the eyes closed in death one instant, and the next instant, to the believer's consciousness, he awakens to hear the animating voice of Jesus calling him to glad immortality, and to see the angels catching up his loved ones to meet Jesus in the air.

These scriptures, out of many, will suffice to show that man is not conscious in death:

"His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. 146:4.

"The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything....

Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun." Eccl. 9:5, 6.

Death is a sleep, which will continue until the resurrection. Then the Lord will bring forth from the dust the same person who was laid away in death.

Some have said that this Bible doctrine of the sleep of the dead until the resurrection is a gloomy one. Popular tradition thinks of the blessed dead as going at once to heaven, which, say some, is a beautiful thought. But they forget that the same teaching consigns their unbelieving friends to immediate torment--and that, too, while awaiting the judgment of the last day.

No; the Bible teaching is the cheering doctrine, the "blessed hope." All the faithful of all the ages are going into the kingdom together. This blessed truth appeals to the spirit that loves to wait and share joys and good things with loved ones. Of the faithful of past ages the apostle says:

"These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: G.o.d having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Heb. 11:39, 40.

They are waiting, that all together the saved may enter in. And the time of waiting is but an instant to those who "sleep in Jesus."

David was a man of G.o.d, but the apostle Peter, speaking by the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, declared to the people of the city of David: "He is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day....

For David is not ascended into the heavens." Acts 2:29-34. They without us have not been made perfect. They are all awaiting that glad day toward which the apostle Paul turned the last look of his mortal vision:

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." 2 Tim. 4:7, 8.

What joy in that day to march in through the gates into the eternal city, with Adam, and Abel, and Noah, and Abraham, and Paul, and all the faithful, and the loved ones of our own home circles, and dear comrades in service, every one clothed with immortality, the gift of G.o.d in Christ Jesus our Redeemer! Horatius Bonar's hymn sings the joyful hope as the loved are laid away to "sleep in Jesus:"

"Softly within that peaceful resting place We lay their wearied limbs, and bid the clay Press lightly on them till the night be past, And the far east give note of coming day.

"The shout is heard, the Archangel's voice goes forth; The trumpet sounds, the dead awake and sing; The living put on glory; one glad band, They hasten up to meet their coming King."

In a word, the Scripture teaches that G.o.d alone has immortality, that man is mortal, that death is a sleep, that life after death comes only by the resurrection of the last day, that the righteous are then given immortality. Further, the Scripture teaches that later there will be a resurrection of the unjust, not unto life, but unto death, the second death, from which there is no release.

Every doctrine of Scripture and of the gospel is in accord with this Bible teaching as to man's nature and his state in death. But the traditional view of the natural immortality of the soul and of life in death, nullifies the Bible doctrines of life only in Christ, and the resurrection, and the judgment, and the giving of rewards at Christ's coming, and the final judgment upon the wicked and its execution.

A Few Questions Briefly Considered

_1. The "Living Soul"_

Says one, "Did not the Lord put into man an immortal soul?"

No; the Scripture says:

"The Lord G.o.d formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Gen.

2:7.

The soul was not put into the man, but when the life-giving breath was breathed into his nostrils, the man himself became a living soul, a living being. The ordinary version (King James) gives "a living soul" in the margin of Gen. 1:30, showing that the same expression is used of all the animal creation in the Hebrew text. The famous Methodist commentator, Dr. Adam Clarke, says on this phrase, "living soul:"

"A general term to express all creatures endued with animal life, in any of its infinitely varied gradations."

_2. Are "Soul" and "Spirit" Deathless?_

"Are not the soul and spirit said to be deathless?" questions another.

No. One writer says of the Scriptural use of the words "soul" and "spirit:"

"The Hebrew and Greek words from which they are translated, occur in the Bible, as we have seen, seventeen hundred times.

Surely, once at least in that long list we shall be told that the soul is immortal, if this is its high prerogative.