1 Timothy 6:16, commentary and pictures

Only God in Himself has deathless, endless life, dwelling in light no human can approach and whom no one has seen or can see, to whom belong everlasting honor and power. Human beings do not possess natural immortality, but must seek it and receive it as eternal life through Christ alone, who has life in Himself and gives life to all created beings. The dead sleep in the grave until the resurrection, when the righteous will be clothed with immortal life. Rightly held, this truth guards against the lie that sinners do not die, which is the foundation of Spiritualism with its prayers for the dead, purgatory, denial of the resurrection and Judgment, eternal torment and Universalism. Because He is so holy and exalted, His name is to be spoken only with awe, and those who would dwell in His presence must put away all deception and impurity and be made pure through humble repentance.

Paul's Charge and Appearing

Paul's charge to Timothy is to flee evil and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience and meekness, to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life to which he was called and which he professed before many witnesses, and to keep the commandment without spot and without rebuke until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. That charge was given before God who gives life to all things and quickens all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate. It is extended to all who profess to be Christians, calling for firm, spiritual-minded, earnest workers who arouse to duty, are not deceived, and do not turn to the right or left to accommodate a worldly standard.

The appearing will be shown by God in His own times and appointed time, displaying Christ as the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords. The light given in Daniel and Revelation directs minds to this coming of the Lord Jesus Christ the King, to be appreciated and kept before the people as long as probationary time lasts. His unfailing mercy and love keep flowing earthward despite accumulated sin and Satan's dark false interpretation of His Word, shown in giving His only Son to endure abuse, insult, mockery and rejection beyond what any human could endure or suffer.

Together with the warning about departing from the faith and the love of money, the charge to keep the commandment without spot until the appearing points out the peril of seducing spirits and doctrines of devils in the latter days. God's unique majesty as the only one who possesses immortality in Himself, dwelling in unapproachable light unseen by human beings, to whom belong everlasting honor, glory and power, is the ground for faithful obedience and for trusting Him rather than uncertain riches.

Only God Has Immortality

Only God inherently possesses immortality in Himself, deathless and endless life underived from any other, and to Him belong everlasting honor and glory and power. He is eternal, incorruptible and invisible, dwelling in light beyond human approach, whom no one has seen nor can see. His unique majesty is the ground for faithful obedience and for trusting Him rather than uncertain riches.

Human beings do not possess natural immortality, and the human soul is not immortal. Immortality is not something every soul already has but something people must seek, to receive as eternal life and the crown of life. Keeping God's commandments is the way to live, for human beings are mortal, health may fail and life is uncertain. This contradicts the claim that the dead live on, which is the foundation of Spiritualism.

The dead sleep in the grave until the resurrection. The righteous dead await that day to be clothed with immortal life, which they receive as eternal life rather than possessing it naturally.

Immortality belongs only to God and is received through Christ alone, for all created beings depend on the Son of God for life. Christ has life in Himself, with power to lay down His life and take it again, and because He possesses this divine life He could declare, I am the resurrection and the life, and raise Himself from the grave, having repeatedly vanquished death. The knowledge of immortality and the life it reveals are not inherited but are obtained through Him, lighting the path of human life with hope. Human beings do not have this endless life by nature, but repentant souls through faith in Christ may gain immortality and enter new life, and for those who believe this truth is the beginning of a new life that makes their lives of infinite value. Those who make Him their wisdom and cling to Him in belief will have secrets hidden for ages revealed to them and the most difficult problems solved for them, advancing as fast and far as their powers can reach over as broad a field in spiritual and natural things as they can compass, since He is infinite in knowledge and the Maker of both nature and the Bible.

Light No One Approaches

God dwells in light that no one can approach, beyond human approach and comprehension, and no one has seen Him nor can see Him, nor see Him and stay alive. He alone inherently possesses immortality, and to Him belong everlasting honor, glory and power. He is eternal, incorruptible and invisible.

No one can behold His person or the excellence of His form. The elders did not behold the Deity itself but saw the glory of His presence, a revelation of His power and greatness that they were then able to endure. The Father is recognized through the light and glory enshrouding Him, the visible body of light coming from His own person, and when that covering light rises from the throne it makes known that He Himself has moved.

He is infinite, omnipotent, exalted above all lords and gods, holy, glorious, all-wise and all-powerful yet full of love and goodness, living for all eternity. He upholds all things by His powerful word and directs and keeps the heavenly bodies in place, and that separate holy standing belongs to Him alone. In the plan of redemption mercy and truth meet and righteousness and peace come together, and Jesus lives to intercede so that those who doubt or tremble can give glory to God for the gift of His Son whose death was not in vain. Those who belong to Christ are His sons and daughters and will be brought to Him when He comes in power and glory.

His purposes span all human history and will be fulfilled through eternity, while His government and humanity's destiny reach beyond finite understanding. Human searching can never interpret that light and it cannot be represented in figures, so human beings must not speculate about His personality beyond the language of the Word. Venturing onto that holy ground risks a revealing manifestation that would extinguish the speculator, as men were slain for opening the ark to see what was in it and how His power was manifested. It is safe to contemplate God and Jesus Christ as His express image, because through Christ's righteous character people may behold the character of God, and the redeemed must be made pure and clean to dwell in His eternal presence.

Though enthroned in that light over a vast dominion of which this world is only an atom, He is surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of holy, happy beings who wait to do His bidding and carry His communication to other worlds and to this world. He stoops to watch every living being and every action of men, has every transaction written in His books with no secret wrong escaping notice and no righteous deed forgotten, and works through divine and human agencies to save, lift the oppressed and show the way to mansions above. He leads His people onward from light to light, and when men cooperate with Him light from His throne spreads into every highway and byway of life, making all things possible for those joined to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. He works independently and judges righteously.

That unapproachable glory is made known in the meek and lowly Jesus, whose self-sacrificing love reveals God's character as the law of life for earth and heaven. The image expresses that Christ was one with the Father before the world was made, existing from everlasting and manifesting the light of that eternal glory to the world.

He is infinite in knowledge and wisdom, the Author of both nature and the Bible with the same principles running through the spiritual and natural worlds under His masterly power. All who seek knowledge should make Him their wisdom and cling to Him, advancing as fast and far as their powers can reach over as broad a field as they can compass without exalting science above Him. For believing minds He reveals secrets hidden for ages and solves the most difficult problems. Divorced from Him and His wisdom education is lame, one-sided and dead to saving power, leaving man incapable of acquiring immortality through faith in Christ, while by connection with Him every soul may be complete in Christ.

Christ, Life and Access

The verse describes God as holy and infinite, dwelling in light no human can approach. After Adam's fall and disobedience humanity stood fallen and guilty under God's wrath with the sentence of death hanging over it, so that no direct communication could any longer exist between man and his Maker. Execution of the death sentence was delayed because Christ entered to become man's Redeemer and refuge, bearing the wrath that in justice should fall on man. Through Christ alone people now find access to God, and through Christ alone God holds communication with them, so that in the midst of death there is life if by faith they run into the refuge provided.

Though the infinite Father dwells in light beyond human approach, He receives people to Himself through the merits of His Son. In the light of the cross His character is seen joining mercy, tenderness and forgiveness with equity and justice. That light turns the threatened message of vengeance and misery into a promise of life to penitent and believing souls, because Christ has paid their ransom. In the plan of redemption mercy and truth meet and righteousness and peace come together, for God is all-wise and all-powerful yet full of love and goodness. Jesus lives to intercede for people, so that those who doubt or tremble can give glory to God for the gift of His Son whose death was not in vain.

Against Soul's Natural Immortality

Immortality belongs to God alone, and the human soul does not possess natural immortality. The word of God nowhere teaches that the human soul is immortal. Pulpit teaching of the immortality of the soul merely repeats Satan's lie to Eve that sinners will not surely die. The claim that people do not truly die repeats that deception.

Rightly understood and applied, the verse is a safeguard against Spiritualism. The claim that the dead live on is the foundation of Spiritualism. Denying that only God has immortality corrupts faith, is opposed to the plainest statements of Scripture, and is part of the wine of Babylon received through unlawful connection with the great ones of the earth. That denial exerts a corrupting influence on the world and opens the way for Satan's working through modern Spiritualism and for purgatory, prayers for the dead, and invocation of saints. It leads many Protestants to deny the resurrection and the Judgment and gives rise to eternal torment and to Universalism.

The non-immortality of the soul is to be held with the seventh-day Sabbath. In a new field it must not be announced at once along with the name Seventh-day Adventist and the Sabbath, because saying it immediately erects a formidable barrier between the worker and those to be reached. Workers should first speak on points where there is agreement, dwell on practical godliness, and show a peace-loving Christian spirit and conscientious love for souls to gain confidence. Only when the heart is won and the soil is prepared should the truth as it is in Jesus be presented in love, for there is time enough for this doctrine afterward.

Reverence and Holy Living

The verse means that God lives in light no person can approach, and no person can see Him and stay alive, which shows His greatness and majesty as the great and dreadful God who will judge in the last day and whose name is fearful. Because He is so great, His holy name and titles such as God Almighty must be taken on the lips only with reverence and holy awe, never spoken together in a careless and thoughtless way in prayer or in meeting. Those who speak irreverently show they have no real sense of God or of the truth, and this reverence must be understood and corrected where it is lacking before the church can prosper.

Entering His presence requires holiness and sincere, lived-out, experimental piety, for He is pure and holy and not one particle of deception nor the least impurity of character can live before Him. Only such piety gives a true, pure, elevated, heavenly character fit to stand before Him, and that character must be formed on earth or it can never be acquired at all. Therefore deception, falsehood, levity and impurity must be put away by humble confession and deep and sincere repentance before God, going back to make past wrongs right as far as possible even though it causes death to self. Those who exalt themselves to rule others with tyranny are not fit to dwell with Him but must be converted through and through and experience the new birth necessary to enter God's kingdom, for the redeemed must be made pure and clean to come into His eternal presence and dwell there.

Those who do not love and fear God cannot approach His throne or understand the mysteries of His kingdom, while His servants can receive and explain the things He reveals. He is exalted above all lords and gods in separate holy standing that belongs to Him alone, holy and glorious in brightness no human can come near, so no sinful fallen mortal should take the divine title reverend to himself or make himself equal with God by sacred names and clothing. Men who do so show by disobedience that they are ignorant of God and His holiness, for a true sight of Him makes men meek and lowly.

His holiness makes worship offered with deliberate defilement an offense and insult to Him, and He does not accept worship polluted by tobacco and liquor. To bow in worship, pray, sing, preach Bible truth and Bible holiness, and take God's word in lips stained and breaths polluted with liquor and tobacco mingled with its stench is positive defilement and strange fire most acceptable to Satan. It is a terrible deception and an offense in His sight before so holy and sin-hating a God, whose inconsistency Christians would discern if the faculties of the mind were in healthful vigor.

Instead of filling papers with the explanation of sophistries and wasting words on that which is nothingness, at this time God's people are to be pointed to Him who dwells in light unapproachable and who alone has immortality. The grand testing truths for this time in their infinite magnitude are to be brought before the churches in the power of the Spirit. As the Omnipotent One who upholds all things by His powerful word and directs and keeps the heavenly bodies in place, people are to study and obey His lessons reverently and place themselves under His discipline. Those who belong to Christ are His sons and daughters, and dwelling in unapproachable light and living for all eternity, He will have them brought to Him when He comes in power and glory.