The Immortality of the Soul
We hear Christians speak of the “immortality of the soul.” We understand that to usually mean that the souls of men continue to exist after death. We agree, too, that this needs to be emphasized over against the teaching of some sects that the unbelieving wicked are annihilated, body and soul, after death, rather than being punished eternally in hell.
To call the continued existence of the souls of the wicked “immortality,” is, however, a somewhat careless and unbiblical use of that word. The Bible uses the word “immortality” to refer only to eternal life in heaven with Christ and the final blessedness of those who believe in Jesus Christ.
“Immortality” means “not able to die.” Adam did not have immortality, therefore, since he not only could die, but did die, body and soul, when he fell into sin (Gen. 2:17). Fallen mankind is not immortal, for all are dead, body and soul, in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). Jesus Himself says that those who do not believe shall never see life, because the wrath of God abides on them (John 3:36).
We would point out, too, that the Bible never identifies mere existence as “life.” “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). “In his favour is life” (Ps. 30:5).
In I Corinthians 15:53-54, therefore, the word of God teaches plainly that we are not immortal but mortal: “… this mortal must put on immortality.” Only by grace are we made immortal. Immortality is the gift of God to those who are in Christ Jesus. From Adam we receive mortal life; only through Christ do we receive immortality, for He is the Lord from heaven (I Cor. 15:45-47).
But are we merely quibbling about words? We do not believe so.
To speak of man’s soul as “immortal” tends to hide the truth that through sin man has fallen, body and soul, into death and therefore needs to be saved, body and soul, from death by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Furthermore, the teaching that man’s soul is “immortal” tends to elevate the soul above the body and even to despise the body. In the history of the church, especially in the early church and in Roman Catholicism, this idea led to the abuse and affliction of the body. Scripture teaches rather that, by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, our bodies are not to be despised or abused, but are temples of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 6:18-20).
Would it not, therefore, be better to use the word “immortality” as Scripture itself uses it, to refer only to that glorious gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ? When by grace we receive eternal life, death is swallowed up in victory and we shall not be able to die anymore. Rev. Ron Hanko
Loving Our Enemies (6)
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:43-48).
Before we go on in our discussion of this passage, we ought to emphasize once more the fundamental point that rain and sunshine are not in themselves indications of God’s love or favour—any more than floods and hurricanes are, in themselves, indications of God’s hatred.
Things, mere things, are neither blessing nor curse.
God always accomplishes His own sovereign purpose in all that He does.
God sends the good things in life to bring destruction upon the wicked in the way of their sin. But God sends these same good things in life to His people to bless them and bring them salvation.
God also sends the evil things in life to bring destruction upon the wicked in the way of their sin. Drought and pestilence, cancer and heart disease, are judgments of God against the sinner. But drought and pestilence, cancer and heart disease, are blessings to God’s people, for they are means in God’s hand to work salvation to His elect.
“All things work together for good,” Paul writes, “to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
Paul is filled with awe at this truth and expresses it in what is almost a doxology when he says to the Corinthians: “Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s” (I Cor. 3:21-23).
The Psalmist speaks even of the blessings of affliction when he writes: “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word” (Ps. 119:67). And, lest there be any mistake, he adds: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes” (71). In verifying this thought, the church has correctly sung: “Affliction hath been for my profit, That I to Thy statutes might hold.”
It is striking that the Psalmist speaks of his afflictions and the profit of them in contrast to the prosperity of the wicked: “The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease; but I delight in thy law” (69-70).
All things are curses to the wicked for “the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked,” but all things are blessings for His people, for “he blesseth the habitation of the just” (Prov. 3:33).
The problem is that we always think of blessings and curses in the light of what we happen to want, or what we happen to dislike. But we often want the wrong things, things that are not good for us, things that will harm our spiritual life. If God sends them, we think we are blessed when, in fact, we may very well be cursed. How true it is, e.g., that sometimes we think that riches are blessings in our own lives, when they really destroy us spiritually.
And also the opposite is true. We are quick to complain in affliction that God does not bless us and that His heavy hand upon us must be evidence of His curse. But it may very well be that these very afflictions are the means God uses to fit us for His place in glory. He is, after all, the Master Builder and He shapes and forms His people for their place in His temple.
We have to get rid of the notion, once and for all, that blessings are in things and that curses are in troubles. Scripture contradicts it on every page. If we could once get rid of that notion, we would have no trouble with “common grace” either. And we would open up treasures of comfort.
There is no comfort in the notion that blessings are in things, for when I have not things I can then only conclude that I am being cursed. And this is unbearable for the saint, for the lovingkindness of his God is more than life to him (Ps. 63:3).
But when all things are for his good, then he can be thankful in prosperity and patient in adversity, knowing that all things come, not by chance, but by the hand of his heavenly Father” (cf. Heidelberg Catechism, Q. & A. 27). Prof. Herman Hanko
Who Are the Jews?
One reader has asked concerning the nation of Israel in God’s eternal plan, with special reference to Romans 11:26: “And so all Israel shall be saved.”
Let it be emphasized, first, that we do not believe that there is any justification in Scripture for the idea that there is still a special earthly future promised to the nation of Israel. Before we show why, however, we need to show what Scripture teaches about the Jews. The question is, then, “Who are the Jews?”
Scripture teaches that the true Israelites are not those that are born as physical descendants of Abraham, but those who by spiritual rebirth have the faith of Abraham. So too, mere outward circumcision is really not circumcision at all, nor does mere physical Jewish lineage make one a Jew in the sight of God (Rom. 2:28-29, 9:6-7). The word of God in Romans 2:28-29 says, “He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly.”
For this reason Paul could call the circumcised Judaizers “the concision” (slashers), while telling the Gentile Christians in Philippi that they were the true circumcision (Phil. 3:2-3; cf. Col. 2:11). This is especially striking since there were no Jews in Philippi, not even a synagogue (Acts 16:13). In other words, a Gentile who believes is more truly a Jew, more genuinely circumcised in the sight of God, than a Jew who does not believe.
All this is very important as far as God’s promises to the “Jews” and their future are concerned. At least it raises the question whether the promises of future blessing belong to those who are Jews only outwardly.
We accept the teaching of God’s Word that those who are descendants of Abraham only according to the flesh are not really Jews at all. Therefore we also believe that the promises of God were not really for them. The promises belong only to the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16), that is, the elect, the regenerated, the called. Acts 2:39 says that the promise belongs to “as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
The other side of this truth is that the promises given to “Israel” belong to those who are elect though they are not physical descendants of Abraham. Thus, the Gentile believers in the New Testament can and do take hold of the promises and the word of God in the Old Testament, though addressed to “Jews.” They claim these promises for their own, since they, through regeneration, calling, and faith (Gal. 3:7, 9, 29) are true Israelites.
To understand this, we must also see that the promises of God to Israel even in the Old Testament were essentially spiritual; but that is one thing we will write about in our next article. The point here is 1) that “they are not all Israel that are of Israel,” 2) that “Israel” are the elect (Rom. 11:5), the called (Acts 2:39), believers (Gal. 3:9), born both Jews and Gentiles according to the flesh, and 3) that they and they only are the heirs of the promise (Gal. 3:29). Rev. Ron Hanko
