Life Through Christ by G. B. T.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 11, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 43.

Life Through Christ

By G. B. T.

THE doctrine of the soul's immortality and consciousness in death, if true, would destroy the great central truth of Christianity, that of life through Jesus Christ.

“Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” 2 Tim. 1: 9, 10.

If man has an eternal, immortal living principle within him, he has life and immortality without the gospel, thus making the statement that life and immortality were brought to light through the gospel untrue. Why should Jesus die to bring immortality to light, if man possessed it by nature?

“Life” and “immortality” are not synonyms. Christ brought two things to light through the gospel; one is life, the other is immortality. Man by nature has neither. He is dead in trespasses and sins. He is a “mortal man.” Job 4:17. We receive life through believing on Christ. “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5:11, 12. We receive life when we believe; but immortality will be bestowed at the resurrection of the just. “This mortal” will then “put on immortality.”—1 Cor. 15: 51-54.

The unrepentant sinner has no life; he is “alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them.” Eph. 4:18. But the believer receives and retains, by faith, life everlasting. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” John 3:36.

By faith, therefore, we lay hold upon and embrace this life everlasting. It is ours now by faith. But that which we receive by faith, we can lose through unbelief. But in the resurrection at the last day, when the dead are summoned back to life, and in the twinkling of an eye are made immortal, eternal immortal life will be given in the absolute to those who believe.

What a glorious truth is the blessed doctrine of the resurrection of the dead! What a comfort to those who mourn for loved ones! Their hope is in the resurrection, not in an immortal soul. Says Bishop Thomson:

“I have sat silent and solitary in my closet, and thought over, one by one, my Saviour's miracles. I have pictured to my mind the Almighty molding the earth of the fresh creation into a human form, and then breathing the breath of life into the nostrils of Adam; but never has my heart been so agitated as when I thought of Jehovah coming forth, at the blast of the last trumpet, to summon together the scattered dust of the corpse and mold it into a body spiritual, incorruptible, immortal, radiant as the sun, and fashioned after the glorious body of the God-man.”

Blessed hope indeed! No more corruption for God's people! No more death! No more funeral trains! No more tearful eyes and broken hearts, mourning for those who are dead! Standing, in the morning of the resurrection, on the brink of the desolated and destroyed grave, they can triumphantly exclaim, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” 1 Cor. 15:55. The angel who has attended and protected one through life, watched him fall in death, marking the place where he lay down in silence and in dust, will no doubt stand by this same grave again when the voice of the Archangel summons the scattered dust of the corruptible body back to life, and “together” we will be “caught up” by angelic hands to “meet the Lord in the air.” 1 Thess. 4:17.

Any so-called Scriptural teaching which makes unnecessary this “blessed hope,” is a false hope, and is not founded on the “Scripture of truth.” We are exhorted to “fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.” Aside from Christ, man does not have this life everlasting, for he would not be instructed to “lay hold” upon that which he already had by inherent right. Through believing, we lay hold upon life, and thus live through Christ. G. B. T.