Life and Death-the Why by B. L. Post

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 12, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 18.

Life and Death—the Why

By B. L. Post

Questions with Answers in Scripture Texts

1. Upon what conditions is our life from God to be retained?

"He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words; keep my commandments, and live." Prov. 4:4.

"And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive." Deut. 6:24.

2. Why are these conditions necessary?

"And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life." Deut. 32:46, 47.

"In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death." Prov. 12:28.

"The Spirit is life because of righteousness." Rom. 8:10.

"It is the Spirit that quickeneth; . . . the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63.

Words are but thoughts expressed. God's thought expressed is life itself. A creature's thought expressed is not life, and therefore can not impart life. A continual life, then, depends upon receiving the expressed thought of God, His word.

3. Can God's word, with a man-meaning attached, give life to those who receive it?

"And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death." Rom. 7:10.

"For to be carnally minded is death; . . . because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. 8:6, 7.

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Harken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. . . . They say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you. . . . Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal My words every one from his neighbor." Jer. 23:16, 17, 30.

From the above texts, we conclude that the carnal mind may, when giving consideration to the word of God, find no life therein; for in looking at God's word through the eyes of a carnal concept, a carnal meaning is attached to the Word, that steals from the Word God's thought, which is life. When the commandment is read with a carnal meaning attached, that which is ordained to life is found to be to death.

4. When one assumes the right to give his own meaning to God's word, can he at the same time be subject to God as his King?

"In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Judges 21:25.

"For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." Rom. 10:3.

It is evident that the natural man, in so far as he attempts to obey the word of God, but obeys his own idea of it. In reality, he obeys himself, and not God; for when the Word requires of him that which is contrary to his own thought, he rejects the Word for that which is right in his own eyes. He then rejects God as his King.

5. In view of our natural tendency to give our own meaning to God's word, what counsel should be heeded?

"Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes." Deut. 12:8.

"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; . . . for My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isa. 55:7-9.

6. How may we be sure we are getting God's thought from His word?

"Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak." John 16:13.

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." 1 Cor. 2:12, 13.

To receive, then, an interpretation of God's word which originates in a creature's mind, is to find it to death; but to receive an interpretation from the Holy Spirit, one text explained by other texts, bringing together the evidences on the subject under consideration, in this way allowing the Bible to interpret itself, is to receive God's thought as expressed in His word, and consequently life. B. L. POST.