SPIRITS OF JUST MEN MADE PERFECT.
By John Nevins Andrews
The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is a wonderful testimony relative to the time of the saints’ reward. It takes up all the Old-Testament saints, and says: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Verse 13. And this statement is repeated at the close of the chapter in even stronger language: “And these all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” Verses 39, 40. One of these promises which they did not receive was the possession of the city which has foundations, which is the new Jerusalem. Verse 10. When they died they saw the things promised “afar off.” Paul does therefore forbid the idea that the saints from the time of Abel to his own time had entered into the holy city. They were all in the situation of David of whom Peter speaks thus: “For David is not ascended into the heavens.” Acts 2:34. And Paul says of him: “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers.” Acts 13:36. The other saints who had died were in the same situation. But does not Paul in the next chapter teach that these ancient worthies are actually now in the New Jerusalem? He says: “But ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, . . . and to the spirits of just men made perfect.” Heb. 12:22, 23. The first thing to be noticed here is that the apostle speaks not of perfected spirits, but of the spirits of perfected men. The original is decisive on this. And the next thing worthy of attention, is that the previous chapter closes with the statement that the saints of the Old Testament are not to be perfected till the same is accomplished for the saints of the New. A comparison of Heb. 11:40, with Heb. 12:23, proves positively that these spirits of perfected just men cannot be the body of Old-Testament saints set forth in that chapter. The fact is made more manifest in the original than in our translation, and it is sustained by statements already examined that they received not the promises, but saw them afar off. But there is, however, no contradiction between Heb. 11:40, and 12:23. The latter text speaks of perfected or immortalized just men who were then in the New Jerusalem. The former speaks of the saints who had died before Paul’s time, that they were not to be perfected, that is, immortalized, till those of the New Testament should be. This is true of the body of Old-Testament saints. But there were some exceptions. Enoch and Elijah had been translated, and there were many saints who were resurrected when our Lord arose from the dead. When Paul speaks of Christ in his resurrection state he terms him “a quickening spirit.” 1 Cor. 15:45. He is thus distinguished from the first Adam, who is spoken of in the same verse as “a living soul.” Paul goes on to say that “as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” Verse 49. This will be in the resurrection state. The new birth which begins with conversion, and extends forward through Christian experience, is perfected at the resurrection when the just become immortal. And thus our Lord describes it: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” John 3:6-8. This will be true of every immortalized saint, as it was certainly true of Christ when he showed himself to his disciples. John 20. It was true in Paul’s time, not of all the Old-Testament saints, but of those above named, while those still sleeping in death are not to be thus perfected till the resurrection of the just. J. N. A.