The Nature of Man—Life in Christ

Notes

The purpose of this lesson is to present in a simple manner the plain statements of the Scriptures concerning the nature of man, and to make it clear that he is wholly dependent upon the gift of Christ for life. Sin means death, but Christ is "our life." He who does not believe on Christ will perish. "Unless a reader had been warned beforehand that every man's soul, being destined by its nature to last forever, and not to die—(being immortal)—he must therefore not put upon the terms of Christ's discourses any meaning which will contradict that doctrine of natural immortality,—he would not have dreamed of imposing such a figurative sense upon them, or of making life eternal stand for happiness, or perishing stand for endless misery. It is altogether due to foreign and unusual considerations if readers have learned to take such words in an unnatural sense. For life signifies life, and to live forever signifies to live forever, and to perish signifies not to live forever, but to lose organized and conscious being. That is the first and natural meaning of the words."

Views, not warranted by any proper interpretation of the Scriptures concerning the nature of man and his condition in death, not only furnish the foundation for Spiritualism in its many forms, but also constitute the very backbone of heathenism, and make unnecessary the general judgment, the resurrection, and the second coming of Christ. When this far-reaching error has been corrected, by presenting the truth as it is in Jesus, the fundamental truth of the Gospel of Christ has been set forth.