Our Imperishable Inheritance by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 22, 1909

Our Imperishable Inheritance

By C. M. S.

On Trial for Eternity

A RIGHT conception of immortality should be one of the greatest concerns of our life. A right understanding of what is involved in that word opens to our vision a system of truth complete and glorious. A wrong understanding of it leads us into a system of error whose ramifications are infinite, and all alike lead away from God. From the standpoint of a misconception of immortality, the plainest and most vital truths of God’s Word are spiritualized away, and the mission and work of Christ are misinterpreted and made to appear null and void.

We have spoken of the fall of man through the deceit of the tempter. Two questions arise: From what did he fall? and, What was lost in the fall?

We learn from the first chapter of Genesis that man was made in the image, or likeness, of God. The dominion of the whole earth was given into his hands. Everything that moved upon the earth or in the sky or through the waters of the sea or grew out of the soil was placed under man’s jurisdiction. His commission as world ruler was conferred upon him not merely as a gift, but as a command. “Subdue it,” and “have dominion,” are the words of the Creator sent forth to the head of the human family. And that command carries with it no right to transfer that dominion to another.

Man was secure in the position given him of Heaven unless he should, by act of his own, relinquish it. It is not too much to assert that all the powers of heaven were at man’s service to protect him against the violent usurpation of his dominion by any hostile power. But God himself would not force man’s will. He constituted the soul of man a citadel which he, the Creator of all, would not invade. Man must decide what power was to rule in that citadel. If man chose the rule of his Creator, the dominion would be man’s forever; for the same power that gave the dominion would preserve it and maintain man’s title. But if man refused the rule of heaven and chose the rule of self, Satan, the fallen angel, the enemy of God and heaven, would overpower earth’s sovereign, make man his subject, and rule in his stead. On that choice hung the destiny, not of Adam only, but of the entire race at whose head he stood.

Inspiration, answering its own question as to the original position of man in the earth, says: “Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet.” Heb. 2:7, 8. Having, therefore, been set over the earth and all things in the earth, it could fittingly be said that all things were gathered together in him, brought together under his control or dominion. “But now,” says the Word, “we see not yet all things subjected to him.” Heb. 2:8. We find that “the first dominion” has passed from under his control, and can be brought back only through the agency of another, as declared in Micah 4:8. And because man thus lost his dominion, it has become necessary to “gather together in one all things in Christ.” The things that were lost through the man Adam, flung outside the purpose of God, are brought back again through man’s Redeemer into the channel of the divine will.

For that work he must step in and succeed where man failed; he must obey where man disobeyed. When the work of creation was completed, God looked upon it all and pronounced it “very good.” That verdict included man. “This only have I found,” says Solomon, “that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” Eccl. 7:29. Those “inventions” were processes by which man, through the gratification of his own desires as opposed to God’s purpose, brought himself down from the plane upon which the Creator placed him. From being “very good,” he came to be very bad, so that “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Gen. 6:5. Man, made in the likeness of God, through cherishing that evil imagination, lost the likeness of the divine, and became more like the one who tempted him than like the One who created him.

God gave man life, made him a living ruler over a living realm. Until man sinned, there was no declaration from the Creator that man’s life should ever cease. It was not in God’s purpose that it should ever cease; for he says, “I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.” Eze. 18:32. It is not conceivable that God should create something that was displeasing to himself. Death is not a child of God, nor a necessary adjunct of his purpose. The warning that God gave to the sinless pair further shows it to have been God’s purpose that man should live forever. He said: “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” The necessary inference is that if they continue obedient forever, they will live forever. Their choice of obedience will necessarily result in everlasting life; while their choice of disobedience God declares will result in death. They were on trial for eternity.

Were they, then, created mortal? Mortal means “subject to death,” “appointed to die.” They were not “subject to death;” for as yet death had no valid claim upon them. They were not “appointed to die;” for they had not transgressed the divine command. They were therefore not created mortal. No judgment of death had been pronounced upon them.

If not created mortal, must they not, then, have been created immortal? Immortal means, “having unending existence; deathless; worthy or fitted to endure.” Its synonyms are “indestructible, incorruptible, indissoluble.” Man was given the right to choose whether he would have “unending existence.” He had not yet made his choice at the time of his creation. In view of the fact that God warned man of the death penalty for disobedience, man was not created “deathless.” Man must determine by his own course of life whether he was “worthy or fitted to endure.” He had not at the time of his creation made that demonstration. The possibility of death—the certainty of death if disobedient—makes it certain that man was not created “indestructible,” or “incorruptible,” or “indissoluble;” for none of those qualities are inherent in any organism that has in it the possibility of death.

It is demonstrated by the foregoing that man was not created either mortal or immortal. He was put upon a plane

where he could choose mortality or immortality. He was a probationer, but in a different sense from what we are, in that we are mortal through the choice he made, whereas he was not yet “appointed to die,” not yet mortal.

But Adam made his choice. Urged on by the tempter, he disobeyed God. Then came the pronouncement, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Now, what is his condition? He is not “worthy or fitted to endure;” for in the test he has failed. He is therefore not immortal. Judgment of death has been pronounced upon him; he is “appointed to die.” He is therefore mortal. He has made his choice. The Word speaks of him now as mortal: “Shall mortal man be more just than God?” Job 4:17. “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body.” Rom. 6:12. “This mortal must put on immortality.” 1 Cor. 15:53. As if to leave no occasion for any one to believe that man now possesses immortality, Inspiration makes this declaration concerning the King of kings and Lord of lords: “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable.”

We are ready now to answer the questions, From what did man fall? and, What was lost in the fall? Man fell from a state of innocency to a state of guilt; from the opportunity of endless living to the certainty of dying; from being the ruler of the world to being a subject of the great fallen angel; from a condition described by the Creator himself as being “very good” to a condition that reflects no credit upon his Maker. He lost the dominion of the world, the approbation of heaven, his own self-respect, and his life. He gained sorrow, misery, degradation, death, and that not only for himself, but for his posterity also as long as time shall last.

An understanding of these facts will enable us to apprehend what the work of Christ for man is and what it does, and will fortify us against the myriads of delusions now prevalent whose purpose is to eliminate Christ entirely from the work of man’s redemption, and leave man without a Saviour, lost in the wilderness of sin. C. M. S.