Sunday Sermons
Immortality
The term immortality means literally, deathlessness, including the idea of the freedom from decay and dissolution. From almost the beginning of time, man has been fascinated by the idea of a deathless existence. Max Muller noted that without the concept of immortality, religion surely is like an arch resting on one pillar, like a bridge ending in an abyss. In fact, every nation and culture has a basic belief concerning immortality. One of the earliest epics written was the Gilgamesh Epic in which the lead character goes in search for the hero of the Flood in order to gain immortality. The ancient Egyptians built vast tombs and embalmed the bodies of the dead, so as if to last forever. In Greek mythology the various gods were immortal and at times granted the condition to men who accomplished great tasks. The Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon ended up discovering Florida while he was in search of the fabled Fountain of Youth. In the popular movie, the Lord of the Rings, elves are said to be immortal. But is the concept of immortality myth or is it true?
Cheap Counterfeits
There has been an increasing movement in our culture that believes that mankind is able to greatly extend his lifetime through exercise, nutrition, and modern science. For some this is their hope of immortality, but even through these methods living for 100 years is far from being immortal. In fact, living for 150 years would be no great accomplishment, for Adam lived to be 930 years and the text then says, “he died” (Genesis 5:5). Others claim that we will live on through our children, yet Solomon would have considered such an idea ridiculous. He noted that when he died he was not living through his children; rather, his son could turn out to be a fool! (Ecclesiastes 2:18-21) Others believe that we should freeze people and then “thaw” them when science has progressed to the point conquering the aging process; yet such people fail to remember that the person being “thawed” is typically someone who is already old and frail!
1 Timothy 6:16 “Who alone possesses immortality”
God alone has freedom from death, aging, and decay, this is one reason why Jesus had to become flesh, so He would assume a state in which He would be able to die (John 1:14). Jesus noted that the Father has life in Himself (John 5:26). This would also infer that whatever “immortality” is enjoyed by angels or the redeemed is an immortality that has been given to them. We will live on forever because God lives on, yet only God actually possesses immortality as part of His nature. God is the only one who can dispense immortality to others; He is the only true source.
2 Timothy 1:10
1:10 “Who abolished death”: The term “abolish” means to “put out of commission, render inoperative” (Reese p. 443). “To render idle, unemployed, inactive, to deprive of its strength” (Thayer p. 336). “To break the power of death” (Arndt p. 417). Remember the Hebrew writer noted that Jesus rendered powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil (Hebrews 2:14). Even after Jesus was resurrected, Christians still die and unbelievers still die in their sins and end up lost, so the verse is not teaching that Jesus removed all death from the world. The meaning of the above verse is that all forms of death, physical, spiritual, and eternal, have been rendered inactive for the Christian. We do not have to fear physical death, because our bodies will be resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:26,54; Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 1:18). We have been forgiven, so we are spiritually alive and we have been delivered from the prospect of eternal death. Compare with John 8:51; 11:25. “Death has not been abolished, but for the believer death has been deprived of its power and terror by the removal of its sting. It has now become the gateway into the presence of God for the believer. The ultimate destruction of death is still future (1 Corinthians 15:26)” (Hiebert pp. 40-41). “Brought life”: This kind of life is the abundant life, true life in its highest and completest sense, life as God would have it (John 3:36; Romans 6:23). “And immortality”: The word immortality means “incorruption, perpetuity” and is a word applied to the human body (1 Corinthians 15:42; Romans 2:7). This “life” is characterized by incorruption and imperishability. “The thought is that this life, in its full scope, applies also to our bodies, for corruption and decay pertain to our mortal bodies” (Hiebert p. 41). Eternal life includes the resurrection of our bodies (Romans 8:23). “Through the gospel”: “The hope of immortality was in the world before but He brought it into a certainty through His teaching” (Hiebert p. 41). “As Christians gain a clearer understanding of all that God has done for sinners, no sacrifice of ours can compare with His” (Kent p. 260). The gospel message clearly reveals what Christ has done for us and what the faithful can expect in eternity. Notice that Paul knew that the gospel is a message that brings things to light, it is not a message that confuses and keeps a person in darkness and ignorance (Ephesians 3:3-5; 5:17).
1 Corinthians 15:54 “This mortal must put on immortality”
The word “mortal” means that which is liable to death. What is “mortal” about man is his body. “Incorruption and immortality is not predicated of the soul, here, but of the body, and that truth is what most of the Greeks needed to hear. And it needs to be iterated today. The Bible does not teach redemption from the body (a view which is central to reincarnation and most Eastern religions), but the redemption of the body. (Romans 8:23)” (McGuiggan p. 204). This is a point that really needs to be stressed. “Immortality” in Greek thought was the complete release from the body, in the Bible immortality is the resurrection of the body to a glorified condition. Not only does the spirit of the Christian live on forever, but also the body of the Christian will be resurrected.
The Resurrection of the Wicked
The Bible plainly teaches that all the dead will be raised, both the just and unjust (John 5:28-29). Yet nothing is said about the resurrected bodies of the wicked being glorious. It seems that they are given nothing more than a body fitted for eternal torment. There is no promise of having a body like that, which Christ now inhabits. Immortality is far more than mere eternal existence, for even the wicked will exist forever. Therefore, as eternal life is far different than eternal existence, immortality must also be something far superior to just always having some type of body. Immortality includes the idea of a complete release from decay, corruption, and death. By contrast, the final state of the wicked is pictured as one of decay and ruin (Mark 9:44).
Specifics About Our Promised Immortality
1 Corinthians 15:42 “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body”: The word sown is a fitting word to refer to the burial of the body, just like the seed mentioned in 15:36. The body that is placed in the grave decays, just like the seed that is placed in the earth. Such a body is then raised free from decay, not raised corrupt and then made incorrupt, but raised incorruptible, a body that is immune from time, disease, death, and decay. 15:43 “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory”: “Buried because it is repulsive and will become offensive: John 11:39” (McGarvey p. 157). “We, indeed, try to honor the dead whom we bury by clothing them in their best, giving them a fine casket, flowers, and our attending presence, yet the body itself is enveloped ‘in dishonor’--we soon hurry it from sight” (Lenski p. 712). “Sown in weakness”: “Lack of strength as shown in the victory of death” (Robertson p. 196). “The dead body is altogether without power. It cannot even resist being buried, much less the process of decay” (Willis p. 577). It is raised in power, that is, it is raised by the power of God and it is a body fashioned by the power of God. It seems that God is telling us that this new body is powerful. Immortality includes the idea of always being in your “prime” and of never losing your abilities because of time. 15:44 “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body”: “A natural body tells you where it is made for. It is suited for life here. Neither of these two adjectives (‘natural’, ‘spiritual’) tell us of the substantial nature of the body. They do not tell us what the ‘stuff’ of the body consists of” (McGuiggan p. 202). “Spiritual body”: That is, a body adapted and geared for a spiritual existence. “There is also a spiritual body”: “As surely as there is” (TCNT). Our resurrected body is just as certain as the bodies that we now inhabit.
Philippians 3:21
“Who will transform”: To change the form of. “The body of our humble state”: “The body connected with our present mortal existence...subjected to infirmities and suffering and decay. The change which the body will undergo will not only be an external one, but will affect the whole form and mode of existence” (Muller p. 134). The KJV rendering "vile body" gives the wrong impression. The body is not "vile", for everything that God created was good (Genesis 1:31). Christians are told to glorify God in their body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). “By many Greek pagans the body was viewed as a prison from which, at death, the soul will be delivered” (Hendriksen p. 184). “Into conformity with the body of His glory”: “And give it a form like that of his own resplendent body” (NEB); ”and change them into glorious bodies like His own” (Tay). “The bodies that the people of Christ will wear in the age to come will belong to the same heavenly order as His own resurrected (glorified) body” (Bruce p. 134. Wow! What a promise and what a glorious future awaits the Christian. The glorified body that Jesus presently inhabits in heaven is the same type of body that every faithful Christian will receive! “By the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself”: “The exercise of the power which He possesses...This is a reference to Christ's ultimate victory over all things. By the same power that He subjects all things (1 Corinthians 15:58), He will also change us”(Jackson p. 74). “If anyone doubts the power of Christ to do this transformation, Paul replies that He has power ‘even to subject all things unto Himself’” (Robertson p. 457).
1 John 3:2 “We will be like Him”
“The wondrous blessing which this promise includes--of being like him--should not be lightly regarded or passed over hurriedly. It is a summary of all the good things that the Father has in reserve for His own. There is a story often told of a group of heathen converts who, when they came to this verse in the process of translating it into their language, unable to believe that such could possibly be in store for sinful man, stopped and said, ‘No! It is too much’” (Woods p. 258). Where else in all the world can you find a more glorious promise? What is this promise worth?
Romans 2:7 “Immortality and eternal life”
It would seem that “eternal life” is a broad term that includes all aspects of our life with God in heaven. Eternal life includes eternal glory and honor from God and it also includes immortality, that is, absolute freedom from death and decay. What did Jesus say about the future state of the righteous? “For they cannot die anymore” (Luke 20:36).
