p. 6 | ETERNAL LIFE NOW by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 26, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 30.

ETERNAL LIFE NOW.

By Editor

SAYS a recent writer of a widely-circulated tract:—

“The gift of everlasting life will not be forced upon any. On the contrary, it must be desired and sought and laid hold upon by all who would gain it. 1 Tim. 6:12, 19. It is thus a hope, rather than the real life, that God gives us now; the hope that we may ultimately attain it, because God has provided a way by which He can be just and yet be the Justifier of all truly believing and accepting Christ.”

Nay, but God gives eternal life now. “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life.” John 6:54. “Those things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” 1 John 5:13. But, says our author, this is not actual eternal life; it is not the real life, it is a hope, it is by faith. But does not faith bring actual blessings? The impotent man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple was healed by faith; but was it not an actual, real healing? Or was it only a “hope,” an expectation.

The difficulty with this writer seems to be, as with many others, that he confounds eternal life and immortality; he can not see that a thing may be actual, which is not absolute. The children of God have actual life—eternal life—now which the wicked do not possess.

“If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” “The Spirit is life, because of righteousness.” That Spirit is the “eternal Spirit.” The life of that “eternal Spirit” is “eternal life.” That life is in harmony with God's righteousness, with the holy law of Jehovah. God is eternal. The wicked are “alienated from the life of God” (Eph. 4:18), while “the life also of Jesus” is made manifest in the mortal flesh of His people (2 Cor. 4:10, 11; Gal. 2:20). “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.

The believer has eternal life, the life of his eternal Father. In this life is power. Only by the power of this “endless life” (Heb. 7:16) can man overcome. It is that which makes the Christian a victor over sin. It is a new life, a new heart, a new spirit. It is the life of God in mortal flesh.

But man holds that life by faith. As long as faith abides, the life abides. If man yields his faith, he yields the life of God. He takes himself out of the channel of its flowing, and is left dry and barren, or poisoned with the putrid streams of Satanic error.

But tho man possesses everlasting life, he does not possess immortality; for immortality stands for incorruptibility, fixedness of character. When man wins that character, when the judgment finds him justified, and his Lord comes, this mortal puts on immortality; this corruptible body puts on incorruption. 1 Cor. 15:51-54. Man lives forevermore. If he lives at that time, he is changed to immortality; if he sleeps in Jesus, he is raised incorruptible. He then has eternal life absolutely. Faith is lost in sight. Man has so used eternal life by faith that God bestows it upon him forever.