Man-Dies 3

WHEN A MAN DIES

PART 3

MAN was created with a capacity for an endless life. He was created with a desire for immortality. But he was not created with an endless life, nor was immortality made a part of his nature when God brought him into being. Whether he should obtain what God had in mind for him, however, was made dependent on the outcome of a test, a trail, a probation, to which God put him.

His immortality was conditioned on sinlessness, holiness, a retention of the image of God in which he was created. He did not successfully meet the test. He did not carry out the condition. He sinned, and sin brought death. Sin prevented his immortality. Sin kept him from obtaining that for which he was constituted.

IMMORTALITY IN CHRIST, NOT IN MAN

It is because of this tragic loss that a Redeemer came into the world. Christianity is the religion of redemption. What mankind lost in Adam may be regained in the second Adam.

And from this emerges the great truth that immortality is in Christ; it is not in man. If man is to obtain immortality, he must obtain it in and through Christ, its source. Out of Christ man is lost, with no prospect of an endless life. Immortality, so far as humanity is concerned, is conditional, conditioned on union with Christ. Endless being is dependent on absolute and endless sinlessness; and, failing that, upon reconciliation with God and the impartation of the life of God through the redemption of Christ.

Sin, in its very nature, is disorganizing and destructive. It is destructive not merely of happiness but of life itself. It is bound to bring to death those who persist in it and who reject the salvation from it which is provided in the gospel. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." (James 1:15). Nothing can exist eternally that does not conform to the will of God. There will be no eternal sinners. Everything in existence now that remains out of harmony with God's purpose will sooner or later go to utter ruin, pass out of existence, and give place to that which is loyal and pure.

When man sinned he became, in the essential nature and necessity of things, a mortal creature, even though he was constituted for immortality. He did not become partially mortal; that is, actually perishable so far as his body was involved but retaining immortality for his soul. He became mortal throughout — body, soul, and spirit — the whole man. He lost all reasonable hope, and even the possibility of immortality in any sense, except by some divine and supernatural remedy.

HIS THOUGHTS PERISH

Nothing is more common in our churches than to hear religious teachers speak of the "immortal soul," "the immortality of the soul," "the never-dying soul." Nothing like this, however, can be found in the Bible. It is in the creeds; it is not in Scripture. The soul of man in the Word of God is everywhere represented as mortal and transitory, sharing the fortunes and destiny of the body. It comes with the breath; it goes with the breath. It is imprisoned with the body, killed and poured out in the blood. It has no function or power of manifestation or of action, no existence, apart from the body. "His breath goeth forth; he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." (Psalms 146:4).

I am not unaware that this will be called heresy in certain quarters, for the accepted philosophy has attached such odium to this teaching as to frighten many from seeing or acknowledging the plain teachings of the Scriptures. But it is not heresy — or, if it is, then it is the heresy of the Bible, and will stand in spite of all the hard names that may be given it.

The Bible may be examined from Genesis to Revelation with scrupulous and searching care, as I have done for half a century, and no other conclusion can be arrived at than that the soul of man nowhere is represented as a separate, conscious part of man existing as such when the body sleeps in death. The current theology on this point is not sustained by facts, true philosophy, logic, common sense, or the Bible.

IMMORTALITY NOT A BIRTHRIGHT

Christian men should be willing to subordinate their speculation concerning the human soul, and the nature of man, to the Word of God. When they consent to do that, and receive its plain and positive teachings with respect to the mortal effect of sin, and the necessity of another and higher life than that received from Adam, they will discern that in order to have eternal existence and perpetuity of life, they must obtain the life of God Himself. And outside the gospel of Christ, that is not possible. Immortality is not inherent in man; it is not a birthright; it is conditional.

When the mortality and the transitory nature of man, constantly affirmed throughout Scripture, is accepted, it puts beyond all controversy or question — that is, to all who are willing to receive the testimony of God's Word as the truth — the fact that there is no immortality for man except in the possession of the eternal life which is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23). Without that, men must remain mortal, must perish and become extinct.

The Bible tells us how we have become mortal and transitory. It makes plain that perpetuity of life was expressly conditioned on perpetual holiness; that the boon of continued life was lost in Adam; that the very reason why he was put out of Eden was "lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever," after he had become a sinful creature (Genesis 3:22). It discloses how the blight of sin, like cancerous blood, has come upon the whole of Adam's race, and that it is inevitable, sooner or later, that it will develop until it ends in death and oblivion — unless some divine remedy be provided. It shows that holiness is necessary not only of well-being but of being itself; and that "sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." (James 1:15).

Notwithstanding all this, however, the Bible also makes it plain that the condition of man is not hopeless. God in His mercy has provided a ransom and a remedy. The desires and aspirations of perishing man are not altogether unwarranted or futile. God designed man for immortality, constituted him for it — but not in sin. How, then, shall this great possibility, lost by sin, be recovered? How shall man be lifted up from the mortal condition into which he has fallen, and come into fellowship with God, his Maker? How shall the life of God be imparted to his soul? How shall man become a subject of the everlasting kingdom of God?

REPEATING THE DEVIL'S LIE

The tempter assured our first parents that they would not lose their lives even by disobeying God, that is, by sin. They chose to believe him, notwithstanding God's positive word to them. He has been repeating this lie to their posterity ever since, even to this day. Philosophers and theologians have had glimpses of the possibilities of man's nature, and have interpreted these as evidences of his inherent immortality, even without a Saviour. So have their willing disciples in all ages. But none of them has been able to tell men how to make sure of the good for which they yearn.

It is not in philosophy, or in nature, or in theology, to teach this truth. It can be taught only by a divine revelation. There is nothing in the natural endowment of humanity that would enable men to grasp it without such a revelation. It is supernatural — the gift of God through Jesus Christ. It is not within the reach of men by any effort of their own. It cannot be earned by good works.

It is a free gift to all who will receive it as such. This is the eternal life that is brought to light in the gospel. It was for this that the Son of God came from heaven and died, not merely to save us from sin and suffering, but from that to which sin and suffering inevitably lead — death. That life, that escape from death, is in the gospel of our divine Lord.

THE ULTIMATE LOSS OF LIFE

The doom pronounced upon Adam and his posterity was the ultimate loss of life. He was to have a transitory life of pain and sorrow on earth until he returned to the dust from which he was taken.

Look now at the execution of that doom, the carrying out of that sentence of death.

If Adam has possessed immortality as an endowment from his maker, he might have been capable of transmitting it to his posterity. But Adam did not have it to transmit. And as a stream can rise no higher than its source, so the posterity of Adam, inasmuch as he had no immortality to transmit, are born without everlasting life. They receive by birth, by inheritance, only the transitory and perishing life that Adam had to transmit. He could beget children only in "his own likeness," "of sinful flesh." He had no immortality. Consequently his posterity are born without immortality. If they obtain it, they must get it from Him who alone has it.

DEATH INEVITABLE

This is in harmony with the clear and uniform teaching of God's Word. Men possess, like their fallen progenitor, only an earthly and transitory life. Sooner or later death is the inevitable lot of the whole race of man.

If men ever come to have any other life than the transitory, perishable life inherited from Adam, it must be by the quickening power of the Spirit of God. This blessing will be supernatural, not natural. This spiritual and supernatural life, which is immortal, is revealed in the gospel of Christ.

Even when the sentence of death was passed upon our first parents, they were allowed a glimpse, and given a hint, of this possibility. Intimation of it became clearer and more distinct as man passed over the course of time from age to age. Growing brighter and brighter, it bursts into assured certainty of life and immortality through Jesus Christ the Redeemer.

It is this that was offered to give man hope after the Fall. It is this that was designed to keep him from utter despair and demoralization, and to encourage him to look heavenward in expectation. It is this that drew out his soul in longing for the coming of the Life-giver, the Messiah.

It is because of this that "the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God," while "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." It is this that lay at the foundation of the faith which characterized the patriarchs and prophets and other men of God, to whom He more plainly revealed His purposes of grace. This is the otherwise undefined "better thing" which He had provided (Hebrews 11:40). It was in anticipation of this that the ancient worthies, placed on the roll of honor in Hebrews 11, were enabled to live as "strangers and pilgrims on the earth," though they died "not having received the promises." It is because of this that there has been an unbroken succession of faithful ones, till in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, and the veil is rent, and the future life of His people through Christ as the second Adam, which is immortal life, is fully disclosed in the gospel.

Let it be clearly understood that this future, immortal life is no part of the old life; it is not the continuation of the natural life into another state. It is an altogether new life, another life through the Spirit.

The former passes away. This, dating from the new birth, endures forever. The first was natural and perishable. This is supernatural and imperishable. The first was mortal. This is immortal. In order to possess it one must become a new creation, or rather, the very possession of it makes one a new creation. He is "quickened" by the Spirit of God. He is "born again," "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:13).

It is clear from what we have learned that the decree of death pronounced upon our first parents because of their sin, and which has passed upon their descendants, the whole race of men, is God's method of protecting His universe from sin's becoming immortal. His original purpose of a clean, sinless world will yet be carried out. There will be neither immortal sin nor immortal sinners.

THE OFFER OF A HIGHER LIFE

The first pair of our race had their genesis on this earth. Though they were the highest of all its created beings, nevertheless, like all animal creatures, they were made of and from the earth. They were given the name Adam — earthmade — because they were essentially earthly. They were of the same physical organization as all other earthly creatures, made of the same materials and designed to breathe the same air, subsist on the same food, come into life by successive generations in the same way; but they differed from the animals in possessing reason and the power of choice. They were candidates for immortality, but not yet possessed of it.

Their character was yet undetermined and immature. They must first submit to a period of probation to demonstrate their fitness for immortality. If they gave themselves to obedience, they would prove themselves worthy of the endowment of immortality offered to them, as well as capable of enjoying it. On the other hand, if they turned away from Him who is the source of life and blessedness, and went contrary to His will in disobedience, then they must lose their right to the tree of life and continued existence.

The test was applied. They failed. Instead of believing God, they chose to believe the tempter. God warned of death as the result of disobedience; the devil declared that God was wrong, that they would "not surely die." The penalty threatened by God, he assured them, would not be executed. Instead of suffering the loss of live, they would be great gainers by transgressing, would gain the knowledge they desired, and become as gods, knowing good and evil, and they would never die. They believed this lie, and disobeyed God. As a consequence the penalty threatened was executed upon them. They fell under the sentence of death, and with them the human race which was in their loins.

THE PENALTY VISITED UPON SIN

The penalty visited upon the race was precisely that which had been threatened — death. It was not eternal torment; it was not continued life in misery. Every principle of honor and of truth demands that God should have said what He meant, and meant what He said, in announcing to them the penalty for their disobedience. The supposition that He had in His own mind a penalty wholly different, indeed one so terrible as to shock the moral sense, and that He covered it up and concealed it, revealing it only when the offense was committed, can be credited only by those who repudiate the truth and justice of God.

We have God's own interpretation of His meaning when He declared, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." They lost at once and forever all claim to immortality. They fell immediately under the sentence of death. However long their transitory existence might continue, it would surely end in returning to the earth from which they came.

From that moment of their sin they became subject to death, and continued in a dying state until death itself overtook them. They passed from a state in which death was not the necessary end of their days to a state in which the seeds of ultimate death began to work in them. They passed from a state of access to the tree of life, continuance in which could have conferred immortality upon them, to a state in which they were barred from that tree, and thus became wholly mortal and perishable.

That literal death was meant by God, and all that accompanies it of the dissolution of the entire being, is manifest when we are assured, in Genesis 5:5, that Adam "died."

UNFIT FOR IMMORTALITY

The human race thus proved itself unfit for immortality, and has never had this attribute. If mankind had not, because of the mercy and grace of God, been granted another probation, immortality would have been forever denied the human race.

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THE BIBLE AND IMMORTALITY

IMMORTALITY is an attribute of God. It is not an attribute of man. Man is not born with it as an inheritance. He does not have it by nature. He does not have it at all except as he obtains it from God. He can obtain it from God only on conditions which are plainly set forth in the Book of God.

Man's relationship to immortality is that of a seeker. The idea of natural immortality is something quite unknown to the Bible. The teaching of the immortality of the soul is quite unscriptural. No such expression is found within the pages of the Bible. Man is said to be mortal, never immortal. And this is true throughout the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. There is not even the slightest hint in the Scripture of the inherent immortality of the human soul.

On the contrary, the teaching of man's natural immortality is uniformly and constantly denied in the plainest terms on almost every page from Genesis to Revelation. Indeed, one of the main objects of the Word of God appears to be to make plain how brief, vapory, shadowy, evanecent, transitory, the life of fallen man is; and how enduring, substantial, and eternal is the immortal life which is God's, and which may be imparted to the souls of His children on the conditions laid down.

Those who have taken the pains to examine the matter declare that the human soul is spoken of in the Bible more than sixteen hundred times. Not in one solitary instance of these sixteen hundred references is the soul spoken of as immortal or deathless in its nature. It is always described as short-lived and perishable. Its only hope of an eternal future existence is the hope held out by the offer of salvation through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

THE RULE OF FAITH

It is neither my desire nor my purpose to put forth any philosophy of my own. My sole aim is to point to the teachings of revelation as set forth in Scripture. I have no theory or hypothesis to offer, no new definitions to give. My simple desire and object is to know and believe what the Bible, which is the rule of faith for every genuine Christian, has to teach regarding this, and every other subject.

After the most careful and earnest examination of the Word of God no other conclusions can be arrived at than those which have been set forth, and which may be summarized thus:

Man was created with a capacity for an endless life, and a desire for it.

It was assured to him, however, only on condition of perfect obedience and sinlessness.

By a law of his being, and of all being, sinlessness is absolutely and basically essential to perpetuity of existence.

In its very nature sin is disorganizing and destructive, not merely of well-being, but of being itself, when it is finished.

Nothing can exist eternally that does not conform to the law of its own being and the will of God, its Creator. It must, sooner or later, go to utter ruin, pass out of existence, and give place to that which does conform to the will of God, the loyal and the pure.

When man sinned, as sin he did, he failed in the test or probation applied to him to determine his fitness for immortality, for which he was constituted. He lost all hope, and even all possibility of immortality, unless some divine and supernatural remedy should be provided.

By sin he became a wholly transitory creature, subject to death and extinction.

LIFE OUT OF DEATH

God's purpose in man's creation, however, was not to be foiled by the malice of Satan or the folly of man himself. God's plans were laid deeper and reached farther than at first appeared. God had taken into consideration the possibility of human sin.

God has power to bring life out of death, salvation out of ruin, and make what seemed a great and remediless disaster contribute to the display of the riches of His wisdom and grace through Jesus Christ His Son, and even to the higher glory and blessedness of man himself. This He has set Himself to do.

The purpose of God is to lift man out of the ruin into which he precipitated himself by sin; to set before him again the possibility of eternal life through a second Adam and a new birth; to give him another life; to make him a new creation, a spiritual being; and ultimately to place him in His own everlasting kingdom.

This purpose was hinted, though but vaguely, immediately after the Fall. It was prefigured in the sacrificial system in the death of the victims on the altar. It was foreshadowed in the Mosaic ritual, and gradually unfolded to the faith of the patriarchs and prophets as that "better thing" which God had provided for His people.

It was fully revealed in the coming of the redeeming Messiah Himself, through whom life and immortality are brought to light in the gospel.

THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT

This was the purpose for which the Son of God came to earth. This was the object of His incarnation and death — to make it possible for dying man to live forever.

This is the gift of God, "the unspeakable gift," the gift of everlasting life through Jesus Christ to man.

But it is forced on no man. It is conferred on those alone who believe. It cannot be bought. It cannot be earned. It cannot be deserved. It cannot be demanded as a right. It is a gift, a free gift. It must be received as such, or not received at all. It must be desired, sought, asked for, and received from the only One who has it to confer — Jesus Christ our Saviour.

These are the conditions, the indispensable conditions, the only conditions, of the bestowment of immortality. To as many as receive Him He gives "power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." (John 1:12).

This will constitute them heirs and subjects of His everlasting kingdom. There sinlessness, happiness, and immortality will be united in endless perfection.

All other kingdoms are destined to come to an end. All other life is transitory. The kingdom of this earth, Satan's kingdom, is a kingdom of darkness and death. However long it may endure, it contains within itself the seeds of death and utter ruin. It must fade away before the light and glory of the everlasting kingdom of our Lord, and He alone "shall reign for ever and ever.

IMMORTALITY CONDITIONAL

It is difficult to read the Bible without being struck by the fact that the nature of man is everywhere contrasted with the nature of God. God is infinite; man is finite. God is immortal; man is mortal. God is eternal; man is transitory. God has immortality in Himself; man has no immortality in himself.

His only hope of living forever is dependent, or conditional, upon union with God through Christ.

The Bible, in the very plainest terms, reveals that the life of man is brief and temporary. It never once calls him immortal, or deathless, or ever living. It emphatically declares him to be the opposite. He is said to be "mortal" in Job 4:17; Romans 6:12; 8:11; 1 Corinthians 15:53, 54; and 2 Corinthians 4:11.

In James 4:14 the question is asked, "What is your life?" and immediately we are given the inspired answer, "It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

Man's life is said to be like grass, which in the morning flourisheth and groweth up, but which in the evening is cut down and withereth. (Psalms 90:5, 6).

Human life is like a shadow, like a shadow that continues not and a flower that is cut down. (Psalms 102:11; Job 8:9; 14:2 ).

It is like "smoke" (Psalms 102:3). Like the "flower of the field." (Psalms 103:15, 16). Like the grass that withereth and fadeth. ( Isaiah 40:6, 7).

Peter writes, "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away." ( 1 Peter 1:24).

A SHADOW

Inspiration declares, "Man is like to vanity; his days are as a shadow that passeth away." ( Psalms 144:4).

"Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; . . . verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity." (Psalms 39:5; 62:9).

Perhaps the most concise and impressive and convincing way we can get before us the content of Bible teaching on this subject of immortality is by the catechetical form. In the forty questions and Biblical answers that follow, every passage of the Scripture that uses either the word immortal or the word immortality will be included.

It may come as a surprise to many to learn that the Bible uses the word immortal only once, and immortality but five times.