"What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast wade him a little lower than the angels, and hast, crowned him with glory and honor. Thou modest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands:thou hast put all things under his feet:all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field:the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the seas." (Ps. 8:4-8.)
The beast was made out of existing material by a word-the earth "brought them forth"(Gen. 1:24):man was a distinct creation,- God's in breathing constituting him a living soul. Thus the formation of his body and this in breathing are directly from God, in strong contrast with the beast. Moreover, God' consults as to man:"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." (Gen. 1:26.)
Man represents God, and man was created Me God, however sin may have marred the image and spoiled the likeness.
Man is a triune being, having spirit, soul, and body (i Thess:5:23; Job 10:1,11,12). The spirit is the seat of the understanding,- that is, his intellect or reason, that by which he knows, (i Cor. 2:2:)
The spirit links man with God, who "is a Spirit" (John 4:24),-is "the Father of spirits." (Heb. 12:9.)
The beast has no understanding (Ps. 32:9); and man that is in honor and understands not is like the beasts that perish (Ps. 49:20; cf. 2 Peter 2:12). "There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. "(Job. 32:8.) Beasts have not spirit. (Isa. 31:3.) This spirit is formed by God. (Amos 4:13, margin; Zech. 12:1:)
Soul is another thing. It is the seat of the appetites, passions,-as love, hatred, and the like. Every
beast, every fowl, and every creeping thing, has a soul (Gen. 1:30, margin), and man has it in common with them.
Spirit and soul are never confounded in Scripture. (Isa. 38:15, 16; Job 7:n; Luke 1:46, 47; Heb. 4:12.) " In whose hand is the soul (nephesh) of every living thing, and the breath (ruach, 'spirit') of all mankind." (Job 12:10.)
In one place only, where man confesses his ignorance, his vision limited to what is "under the sun," is spirit connected with beasts, and there he asks "who knows?" No answer. (Eccl. 3:19-21.) God's order is "spirit, soul, and body,"-spirit first. Had man been controlled by his spirit in Eden he would have hearkened to God and been safe, but he allowed his soul – his desires – to lead him. (Gen. 3:6.) He desired to become as God, and he became his own god:his belly is his god. (Phil. 3:19.) Soul became uppermost, and man has been soulish (or soul-led, psuchikos) ever since. See this word in Jude 19; i Cor. 2:14; 15:44, 46; James 3:15.
A good illustration of a man governed by his soul is afforded by the drunkard. A shrewd, intelligent professional man is addicted to drink. He has an excellent wife whom he loves, bright children of which he is exceedingly fond, a snug little property which he values, and all going to ruin, and he knows it as well as any one can tell him. Why does he persist in his cups ? His soul is uppermost, his appetite governs.
Death is separation of soul and body. (Gen. 35:18.) "The body without the spirit is dead." (James 2:26.) At death the body goes to the grave. (Gen. 3:19; Eccl. 12:7), and the spirit returns to God
who gave it,- that is, to hades or the unseen world. The distinction between body and soul at death is carefully maintained in Scripture. The blessed Lord's body was not allowed to see corruption, nor His soul left in hades. (Acts 2:27, 31.)
If in Ecclesiastes the view is limited to that '' under the sun," in Luke 16:19-31 the curtain is lifted, and we are allowed to look beyond. This is not a parable, as many suppose; for the Lord says "There was a certain rich man," and "There was a certain beggar." Here we see that in the unseen world some are comforted whilst others are tormented. So far as this life was concerned, of the two paths one might have preferred the rich man's, but its "end," how awful! To see this "end," however, one must be "in the sanctuary of God" (Ps. 73:17), and the gulf is fixed and impassable.
One of the two crucified thieves went at once to Abraham's bosom, for he was a child of Abraham. (Luke 23:43; Rom. 4:16.) He believed God:the other went to the place of torment, to keep company with the inhabitants' of Sodom. (Jude 7.) In hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments," and seeth "Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." At death the believer passes at once into the presence of the Lord, – he is "absent from the body, present with the Lord." (2 Cor. 5:8.) It is surely wondrous joy and blessing to serve Christ down here, as Paul did (Phil. 1:21); but there was something still better, '' far better, "and that was to be with Christ up there,- "To depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better." To live and serve Christ was precious,-"to die is gain,"-gain because death would take him to be with Christ:in that sense death is a servant, as Paul, Apollos, etc. (i Cor. 3:22.) So that "death is ours," along with the other seven servants there mentioned.
The glorified body he does not receive until the Lord comes (Phil. 3:21; i Cor. 15:52), but the body is not the man, since there may be "a man in Christ, out of the body." (2 Cor. 12:2, 3.) Peter was soon to "put off" his body (2 Peter 1:14); and, as we have seen, the believer is "absent from " his body, when "present with the Lord."
Both Lazarus and the rich man, in Luke 16:, were without bodies, and both conscious, – one comforted, and the other tormented. Thus death is not ceasing to exist. These two did not cease to exist at death, but went to their several abodes, where the gulf was "fixed." "After death the judgment." (Heb. 9:27.) The wrath of God abides on the unbelieving. (John 3:36.) It is after man has killed the body, which is as far as he can go, that God can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matt. 10:28; Luke 12:4, 5.). The first death ends – not in extinction, but – in resurrection. "All that are in the graves . . . shall come forth . . . they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of Judgment." (John 5:29.) "And death and hades delivered up the dead which were in them:and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hades were cast into the lake of fire.* And this is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20:13-15.) *This is in the eternal state, after earth and heaven have fled away.* The second death is the lake of fire, and not extinction, as the beast and the false prophet have already existed 1,000 years there, when Satan is cast into it. (Cf. Rev. 19:20, and 20:10); and the torment is day and night, for ever and ever, in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. (Rev. 14:10, 2:) Thus it is clear that the portion of the believer and of the unbeliever are alike eternal, the same word being used as to both (Matt. 25:46),- a twofold and abiding witness to the righteousness of God (2 Thess. 1:5-10). On the one hand the eternal fire from which, as a brand, the believer has been snatched; on the other, the eternal glory which has been despised by the sinner.
All such passages as Mal. 4:i, 3, refer to the punishment of the wicked on earth, and have to do with the first death, not the second. All the subjects of those judgments must hear the Son of God, and come forth (John 5:29) and stand before the great white throne. (Rev. 20:12.) They are judged according to their works,- a discriminative judgment (Luke 12:48), which would be impossible if extinction were their common doom.
Existence is not life. The rock exists, but it has not life. The Egyptian of 3,000 years ago exists in the Smithsonian Institute, at Washington, in the form of a mummy, but he does not so live. Life really and fully consists (i) in the possession of all the faculties; (2) their exercise in the sphere God has appointed; and (3) for the purpose God intended.
The sinner has not God in view, does not live for God, so is dead in trespasses and in sins. (Eph. 2:1,5.) So is the Christian widow who lives in pleasure:"she is dead while she lives." (i Tim. 5:6.)
He who has not eaten of the flesh and drunk the blood of the Son of man has no life in him (John 6:53), while he who has the Son has life (i John 5:12), has the capacity – the nature – to enjoy life as it is before God, and perform its functions, but his environment is not yet adapted to the life he has received; he has not yet "entered into life." (Matt. 18:8, 9.)
When the blessed Lord conies the external sphere will be made to correspond with the life we have received:each will be adapted to the other,- the external and the internal, – and both perfectly suited to God. That, indeed, will be "life," according to God's original purpose. (Tit. 1:2.) Happy is he who hears Christ's word, and believes Him who sent Him. He has eternal life, and will not come into judgment. (John 5:24.) Again:"Blessed and holy is he that hath part 'in the first resurrection:on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years." (Rev. 20:6.)
It may be added that the soul is never said to sleep. Sleep is but another term for death. (John 11:13, 14),- only applicable, however, to the child of God, as to whom death is abolished. (2 Tim. 1:10; Heb. 2:14, 15.) It is not really death to him:he really never dies. (John 11:26; 8:51.) No longer the king of Terrors, it may afford a special opportunity of glorifying God. (John 21:19; Phil. 1:29.)
"And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches o his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:6, 7.) J. B. J.