LIFE AND IMMORTALITY by G. B. Thompson

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 45.

LIFE AND IMMORTALITY

By G. B. Thompson

By G. B. THOMPSON

GLORIOUS beyond description was man's Eden home. Beauty of which the sinful heart of man can not now conceive adorned the earth everywhere. Beautiful shrubs, and delicately-tinted and fragrant flowers were seen on hill and dale, by river and lake. In the garden was "every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food." Gen. 2:9. To all save one, man had free access. He could pluck the fruit of the tree of life, and "eat, and live forever." Everything teemed with joyous, happy life. There was nothing to mar the happiness of the race. Sin, with all its terrible results, was unknown. Then, as a reminder that He was the Sovereign and Creator of all, the Lord made the Sabbath, and gave it to man as he stood in his primeval innocence in his Eden home. Gen. 2:1-3.

But to-day how changed the scene! Because of disobedience a remorseless tyrant reigns in the earth. In the midst of the garden the Lord reserved for Himself one tree, and commanded man not to touch it. "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." Gen. 2:17. But man disobeyed this injunction of his Creator; he took of the forbidden fruit, and ate. "Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned." Rom. 5:12. As a result of this transgression we see the seared touch of the pitiless foe—death—upon all creation. His relentless clutch none can escape.

God not Surprised.

Eat and die was an irrevocable decree. "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23)—eternal death, and separation from God. The very day man disobeyed God, and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the sentence of death passed upon him. But sin did not take God by surprise, and find Him unprepared for the terrible emergency. It was foreseen in the councils of eternity, and a plan was formed to meet this crisis of the universe. In solemn compact the Father and His Son had agreed that, in the event of sin entering their domain, the Son would give Himself to meet the claims of the broken law. When man sinned, that very day Christ gave Himself a ransom for all. The only-begotten Son of God stepped into the yawning chasm, and received the stroke; the sword of justice fell, and He became the Victim, the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. 13:8.

What Man Lost by Sin.

Man lost his innocence, his home, his life. He forfeited all through transgression. We may well believe that there was sorrow in heaven while Jehovah said, "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: therefore Jehovah God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden the cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." Gen. 3:22-24.

How vain to talk, as some do, of sinners living forever in torment. No man, without Christ, can live forever. That man might not eat, and live forever, was why God sent him forth from the garden. None have since passed that sword of flame, and sin, bless the Lord, is not immortalized. "He that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." John 3:36.

The One Hope of Life.

But in the Gospel there is hope for all. "Who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, but hath now been manifested by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel." 2 Tim. 1:9, 10. Two things, life and immortality, are brought to man through Christ. "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life." John 3:36. "The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life." John 10:10, 27, 28. "He that hath the Son hath life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life." 1 John 5:12. God, through Christ, gives us life now, that we may serve and obey Him. Through faith we can now lay hold upon eternal life. "The gift of God is eternal life." Rom. 6:23.

The gift of immortality will be bestowed upon the righteous only at the resurrection of the just. When the Lord is revealed from heaven with all the angels of His power, He "shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things unto Himself." Phil. 3:21. "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. 15:51-54.

We Have a Wonderful Saviour.

He is worthy of our worship. He is the Creator, the Law-giver, the Redeemer, the Life-giver. He was associated with the Father in the creating of the worlds. It was His voice which evoked order from chaos, and brought into existence all the worlds which shine in the unmeasured regions of space, which, from the top of burning, quaking Sinai, proclaimed to quailing humanity the precepts of the Decalogue (Neh. 9:12-14).

It was His finger that traced the imperishable precepts of this law on the enduring stone. Ex. 31:18. This same heavenly One, when man was lost, "without hope," laid aside all the glory of heaven, and came to dwell in the cold, barren regions of a sin-cursed earth, where the very atmosphere was tainted with the miasma of iniquity, and the world, once fair and beautiful, was devastated by the awful ravages of the cruel monarch, Death, and used only as a burial-ground for the victims of Satan's merciless hate.

He did all this because He loved the sinner. With an unwavering faith He met the foe, and vanquished him. He voluntarily went down into his stronghold, the grave, to cope with him who has the power of death, and, in open conflict with the powers of hell, He wrenched from Satan the keys of Hades, and came forth a victor. He was stronger in death than the enemy. Since His ascension He has sent back from the throne of omnipotent power the cheering words: "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." Rev. 1:18. Let Satan now do his worst. Let him lock within the embrace of death our loved ones. The key to their prison house is in

safe hands. Erelong He who holds the key will come, and, bursting the gates of the tomb, will set the captives free.

Man's Hope Is in the Resurrection.

When the Life-giver shall come, His voice will pierce the long galleries of death's funereal abode, and millions of captives who sleep "in Him," will come forth from the bursting graves, and, with the living righteous, meet the Lord in the air. Well has Bishop Thomas said:

"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, moulding

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 mould it into a body spiritual, incorruptible, immortal, radiant as the sun, and fashioned after the glorious body of the God-man.”

And, reader, this power displayed by Christ in the creation and resurrection is for us now, to change our hard hearts, to give us victory over sin, and create us anew in Christ Jesus. Paul prayed that he might “know Him, and the power of His resurrection.” Phil. 3:10. It is the same power that converts the soul, causing the stormy, sinful passions to subside, that brings the dead from their graves in the last day. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). Redemption and creation are wrought through the same power, and the Sabbath, being the sign of creative power, became the sign of redemption as well.