I have heard a prayer by a minister, in reference to the death of our late Queen Victoria, in which he said that she is now reigning with Christ in heaven, in the highest sense of the term. I believe there is perfect harmony in Scripture, and although I have asked from a number of fellow-disciples an explanation of Luke 23:43; Philippians 1:21-23; 2 Corinthians 5:6-8, in the light that the dead are in a state of unconscious sleep, I have not as yet had it explained clearly. Can you help to remove the darkness? I shall be obliged if you can give an explanation of these passages.
Christ is the Light of the world, and it is "the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ," (2 Corinthians 4:4) who is the image of God, which, shining in us, removes all darkness. It is not by any dogmatic statements as to the meaning of certain isolated texts that we have come to the knowledge of the truth, even as set forth in those texts, but by the revelation of Jesus himself.
This is pre-eminently true as regards the subject before us, which is one of life and death, since the light which He gives is "the light of life." (John 8:12) "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." (John 1:4)
Therefore if you will kindly consent to defer the direct consideration of the texts referred to, until we have first had a little talk about the Gospel of life, I think you will be able to see the light in them yourself, when we come to them, without very much explanation.
The One Object of Christ's Coming
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." (1 Timothy 1:15)
This truth is worthy of "all acceptation;" that is, it is worthy of acceptation by all people, and not only so, but it is worthy of acceptation to the exclusion of everything else. Nothing else is worthy of acceptance; everything that is of any value is included in this. All men ought, with the Apostle Paul, to be content to know nothing, "save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2)
The sole desire of each soul should be, "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." (Philippians 3:10) "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple." (Psalm 27:4)
Jesus said that the work of the Comforter is to convince the world of sin and of righteousness. (John 16:8) Sin is in the world. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Romans 5:12)
Sin is a horrible thing in the world, and its presence means death and desolation. It separates man from God, (Isaiah 59:2) and heaven, and turns the earth into a hell. The one grand problem of the ages is how to get rid of sin, and nothing else is worth the attention of any mortal.
Saved by His Life
"Sin when it is finished, brings forth death." (James 1:15)
Death came into the world by sin, because it is in sin. "The sting of death is sin." (1 Corinthians 15:56)
This must not be forgotten, that sin and death are inseparable. Christ came into the world to save sinners, and He does it by giving life. "If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:10)
So although the sole thing for which Christ came into the world was to save sinners, it is likewise true that He came for no other purpose than to give life. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." (John 14:6) "I am the Bread of life. ... I am the living Bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John 6:48,51) "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10) "You know that He was manifested to take away our sin; and in Him is no sin." (1 John 3:5)
He takes away our sin by imparting to us continually His own sinless life. "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)
The blood is life, "and without shedding of blood is no remission." (Hebrews 9:22)
Grace Antedates Sin
When the earth was new, when: "God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good," (Genesis 1:31) the Garden of Eden was the chief feature of the earth, and the central thing in the Garden was the tree of life. (Genesis 2:8-9) So long as Adam remained obedient to the commandments of God, he had perfect life; but of the forbidden tree God said to him, "In the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die." (Genesis 2:17)
Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and instantly the sentence of death was in them. But for the grace of God in Christ, which antedated the creation of the world, they would have died instantly, never to see life again; that would have put a summary and eternal end to their existence; but while their fall was a total fall, they fell into "the everlasting arms," (Deuteronomy 33:27) and life was continued to them in order that they might have another trial of it, to see if they would choose it.
Sinful Means Mortal
If it now be asked, "What is the nature of man?"--the reply must be, "He is sinful by nature."
Since the fall of Adam all have been "born under the law." (Galatians 4:4,RV) "From within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man." (Mark 7:21-23)
In the flesh "dwells no good thing," (Romans 7:18) therefore "the flesh" is but a synonym for corruption. So because man is sinful by nature, he is by nature mortal.
The Incorruptible Life
In Christ is no sin, and therefore in Him is life. (John 1:4) He can lay down His life, and take it again. He swallows up death in His own life, just as He could take all the sins of the world upon himself, and yet never have the least trace of sin upon Him. His life is the light of men, and lights every man that comes into the world. (John 1:4,9) "The grace of God that brings salvation to all men has appeared" (Titus 2:11) in the life of Christ, so that whoever will accept the Son of God has the eternal life. Although "judgment passed upon all men to condemnation, ... the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Romans 5:18) "In Him we live and move, and have our being;" (Acts 17:28)--His life in us bears the curse that has come on us, and that is why we still have an existence although sin, and death as a consequence, is in us. The life of Jesus is to a degree manifested in the mortal flesh even of those who do not acknowledge Him.
No Life Apart from Christ
"This is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life." (1 John 5:11-12) "What is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away." (James 4:14)
The millions who go about their daily business, seemingly full of life, have no life in reality; the life of the Lord is lent them for a little season, to see if they appreciate it enough to lay hold on it; but if God should gather unto himself His Spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would turn again unto dust. (Job 34:14)
There are many who do not know the Lord, having never yet heard of Him; others have heard of Him, but have not yet seen the life that is manifested; many revile Him, and say that they want nothing from Him, yet He knows that they do not know what they are talking about, and waits the time when they will understand and know Him; and there are doubtless even now many who have definitely and finally rejected the Lord as their Master, yet even these are suffered to live, as monuments of the forbearance and longsuffering of the Lord.
But the time will come when every person will have definitely and understandably decided either for or against the Lord, and then only those who have become one with Him will live; all others "will be as though they had not been." (Obadiah 1:16)
The Fountain of Life
Let us put the case in another way, and then the truth of this statement will be more apparent. Remember always that the great plague to be got rid of is sin, and that sin and death are one and inseparable, so that: "The soul that sins it shall die," (Ezekiel 18:4) or, which is the same thing, the life that sins, it shall cease to be. There is no way possible for sin to be exterminated except by death. This is set forth in the words already quoted: "Without shedding of blood is no remission." (Hebrews 9:22)
Now let the fact once and for ever fixed in your mind, that with God is "the fountain of life." (Psalm 36:9)
He is the life. His name is I AM. He is "the living God," the self-existent One, and this is that which distinguishes Him from all false gods. (Jeremiah 10:6-12) The possession of life is a characteristic of the Godhead. The King of kings and Lord of lords is a one "Who only has immortality." (1 Timothy 6:16)
He not only possesses life, but He is life. If there were in the universe any other being possessing life in himself, and not either directly or indirectly deriving it from God, then that other being would likewise be God, and not subject to God. There would be two Gods, and there would inevitably be a question between them as to the extent of their respective dominions, and which of them should be supreme.
Such a state of things is an impossibility; but there is a being--Satan--who has claimed to be God, and who disputes God's right to rule, and denies that God has any authority over him.
Life the Attribute of God Only
I repeat, then, that life is the attribute of God, and whoever claims to have life in himself, claims to be a god. "The Spirit is life because of righteousness," (Romans 8:10) so that for one to claim to have life in himself is the same as the claim to have no sin, or to be able to free himself from sin. But no one has nor can have righteousness from himself, since no one has life of himself.
Every creature and every created thing springs from and depends upon God. Lucifer, now Satan, who originated sin, as well as men who have followed Satan in the sin, depend upon God for the life with which the sin is committed. The man who blasphemes God and denies His existence, does so with the breath of life which God breathes into his nostrils. God says, "You have made me to serve with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities." (Isaiah 43:24)
It was God's life that was perverted by Lucifer from its rightful use, and employed for sin and rebellion; and there has never been a single sin committed, except with the life of God. It is for this reason that God, in His infinite mercy and goodness "was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses on to them." (2 Corinthians 5:19)
Inasmuch as sin was committed with God's life, although through no fault of God's, He assumed the responsibility for it, and gave up His life in order to be freed from it, to demonstrate the fact that He has no complicity with it, and to save all who will consent to die with Him.
God can save those who die with Him, for He alone can die and yet live. He lays down His life solely to take it again, so that all who die with Him are sure to live with Him. The cross means the resurrection, so that: "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
But since God has given up His life, because of sin, it follows that whoever refuses to acknowledge absolute dependence on God for life and righteousness, cuts himself off from the resurrection life, and so perishes. "The world passes away, and the lust thereof; but he that does the will of God abides for ever." (1 John 2:17)
From all these things it is evident:
a) That life comes only from God, since righteousness comes from Him alone.
b) That sin must eventually cease to be, since God has laid down His life.
To claim immortality for the sinner, is to claim that God is defeated in His fight against sin. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." (1 John 3:8)
To say that sin and sinners will continue to exist throughout eternity anywhere in God's universe, is to deny the efficacy of the atonement; it is to say that God failed in that which He undertook. Outside of and away from God there is absolutely no life.
Next week we shall continue the consideration of the subject, coming direct to some of the texts which trouble our friend.--Present Truth, March 7, 14, 21, 28, 1901. [This is the first in a series of five "Editor's Private Corner" articles which answer this one question, and deal with the topic of man's mortality. The five are titled: "The Nature of Man," "From Death to the Resurrection," "Departing and Being with Christ," "Absent from the Body, and Present with the Lord," and "The Evil of Spiritualism."]