The Nature of Man.—Immortality through Christ

Notes

The purpose of this lesson, as compared with the preceding one, is to bring forward the teaching of the Scriptures concerning immortality. There is a distinction to be made between eternal life and being immortal. He who receives Christ by faith thereby lays hold upon "that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us," and so Jesus said, "He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life" (John 6:47); but that which is thus acquired by faith is retained only by faith, and may be lost by a lapse of faith. After immortality has been put on at the second coming of Christ, the eternity of being is fully assured. This was the purpose in view in the gift of Christ to take upon Himself humanity.

"The result of being driven out from the tree of life to Adam was not merely unhappiness or misery, but death—returning to dust; hence it is necessary to understand the work of Christ to be to confer immortality. If mankind already possessed, through the divine constitution, the attribute of everlasting life, in the most essential part of their nature, an ever-during soul, it can not be admitted that in the proper sense of the terms Christ 'gives eternal life,' to the saved. His title as the Life of men must be understood as applicable to Him only in a vague, metaphorical sense, as the giver of grace and happiness. But this would not correspond to the breadth and depth of Scripture language respecting redemption. 'He Himself is our life.' And the body no less than the soul is said to be saved by Him. Rom. 8:23."—"Life in Christ," by Edward White.

It was the evident intention of Jesus "to teach a doctrine that humbles man in the dust of death, and restricts the everlasting life to twice-born and believing souls,—a doctrine which represents the first Adam as 'a man of earth,' and the second Man as a 'life-giving spirit.' "