IF A MAN DIE SHALL HE LIVE AGAIN?
By Ethan Lamphear
IN Gen. 2:17, we read God's command to Adam, after placing him in the garden: "But 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." In Gen. 3:19 is the sentence pronounced after man had eaten: "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Thus the question seems to be settled that man must die, though the serpent declared that he should not die. But all human experience proves that God was true; that all men must really die. All men shrink at death's door, especially those without hope. The last enemy to man is death. 1 Cor. 15:26. To stop here would leave man out of the world at death as he was before he was created. Did Job believe this when he asked the question, "If a man die shall he live again?" Job 19:26: "And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." Job, though afflicted in this life, had hope beyond. Was there any ground for such hope? Isa. 12:2: "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation." John 13:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life;" or, "have life age-abiding." (Rotherham's translation.) Light now breaks in. Jesus Christ "hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel." 2 Tim. 1:10. "I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." John 11:25, 26. Thus we find that our life, our immortality, comes through Christ. And how?—He gave himself a ransom for all (1 Tim. 2:6)—"freely by his grace." But who shall receive this salvation, this immortality, this new life? Luke 14:14: "And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." John 5:21: "For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." The fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians (as well as other passages) is conclusive upon this question. Verses 51,52: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." Christ comes to fulfill his promise. How miraculous the change! "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." Verse 54. What a triumph over death and the grave through faith in "our Lord Jesus Christ"! "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection." "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." But it will not be so with the wicked. Matt. 13:49, 50: "So shall it be at the end of the world; the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Now mark Jesus' question: "Have ye understood all these things?" There are none so blind as those who will not heed and understand Christ's words. "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be" when the Son of man cometh. 2 Peter 2:6: "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample to those that after should live ungodly." The wicked shall be as stubble, and shall be burned up root and branch. Mal. 4:1. This is the second death. See also Heb. 6:8, the parable of the tares, and other passages. But what of those who have kept the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus? (Rev. 14:12.) "On such the second death hath no power." Reader, do you believe these teachings? or do you say there is no "resurrection of the dead," as did the Sadducees? But "if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished." 1 Cor. 15:16-18. And we are without a Saviour! But we thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ that we are not without a good hope of eternal life.