Immortality In The Old Testament

(Continued from page 270.)

Chapter I

New Testament Indications

Before entering into a direct examination of the Old Testament to ascertain its answer to the questions proposed, we might ask :Does the New Testament indicate there is a doctrine of human immortality in the Old ? Does it assume or affirm it ? Or does it neither assume nor affirm any Old Testament pronouncement on the subject ?

If the New Testament has no indication of any teaching on immortality in the Old Testament, we may abandon at once the task we have proposed; but if it affirms or assumes such teaching, we are encouraged to seek for it. But this is not the only advantage to be gained from ascertaining what the New Testament leads us to expect.

While gathering the New Testament indications of what is in the Old on the subject of our inquiry, we shall familiarize ourselves with the manner in which the New Testament uses the Old; this will be a great help in our research. It will be very profitable to observe the deductions and inferences which both our Lord and the inspired writers make from the Old Testament passages which they quote or allude to.

Even a casual reading of the Old Testament gives the impression that a deeper and fuller meaning is often hinted at where its communications lack completeness. We should take careful notice of instances in which the New Testament takes statements of the Old as having a deeper sense than they appear to have. Again, we must not ignore those indications found in the New Testament as to the faith of the Old Testament saints penetrating into heavenly and eternal things through the earthly things, and those shadows which were put before them.

Of course there are dangers to be guarded against. We must not speculate on what is beyond the voice of revelation. We must not indulge ourselves in fancy, nor allow our imagination to govern us. We need to see to it that we do not exceed the limits of Scripture. Wherever Scripture leads us, however, we may boldly follow.

Let us turn, first, to Matt. 22 :23-32; Mark 12:18-27; Luke 20:27-38. In these passages our Lord quotes Ex. 3:6. He is answering a question put to Him by the materialistic Sadducees concerning the resurrection-state, in which they did not believe. Let us notice that in answering their question He first gives testimony based on His own personal knowledge, and then produces testimony from the Scriptures. He speaks as one able to say, as He did say on another occasion, "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen " (Jno. 3 :n). Speaking as one of the divine Persons testifying what He had " seen and heard " (Jno. 3:32), His utterances were the very "words of God" (ver. 34).

His testimony is a divine testimony. It is what He personally knows – an absolute, divine knowledge. What then is His testimony as to the resurrection-state ? As given in Matthew and Mark, the Lord shows what men in that state will be – not angels, but "as the angels of God in heaven." In the disembodied state men are spirits-not fully and completely men; but in the resurrection-state they will be men, complete men, having body, soul and spirit, which together make the true human condition; it will be a permanent condition-permanently and abidingly men, as angels are permanently and abidingly angels.

But there is more than this in what our Lord says to the Sadducees. To be as the angels means also that the relationships of man's present earthly existence will not be continued in the resurrection state. All relationships based on the male and female condition cease with the cessation of the present condition of human life, and are not resumed in the resurrection-state. Angels are not, never were, never will be male and female; we shall then be as the angels are.

What the Lord says, so far as is recorded in Matthew and Mark, applies to all men, whether saved or lost. He affirms a state of eternal existence for men analogous to the state of angelic existence, in which there will be no more dissolution-no separation of the constituent parts of the person. In this sense there will be no more death anywhere-it will be abolished, for the wicked as well as the righteous.

In Luke's account of the answer which the Lord gave the Sadducees, we find Him speaking specially of a class-not of all men, but of saints. He contrasts, with the sons of this age (the age of earthly human life) those who are deemed worthy to attain to that age. It is plain we cannot speak of all men as worthy to attain that age. Those who, through grace, are worthy, are worthy of what ? Of that age "-and the resurrection from the dead." And who are these worthy ones ? They are sons of God and sons of the resurrection. But the finally lost will not be either. Our Lord is not speaking of them at all. He is referring simply to saints. He is thinking of those who will share in, not the resurrection of the dead, but the resurrection from the dead.

Notice now that of these the Lord says, "They are " (not as, but) "equal to the angels," 1:e., they will be in position and dignity equal to the angels. They will be no longer inferior to the angels, in a lower rank of creation, but exalted to a position and rank of equality with them. But this exaltation of equality with the angels implies a change of condition. They will be no more in the male and female condition, nor will they be any more subject to dissolution-to death.

Now, whether we think of men as a whole passing into a final state, in which they will eternally abide, or, of that equality with the angels which will be the eternal blessing of the redeemed, resurrection is involved. Did the Sadducees doubt the resurrection of the dead ? They had Scripture for it-Moses taught it. To show this the Lord quotes Ex. 3:6, in which (centuries after Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had died) God says, "I am the God of Abraham,"-not was their God. Here the resurrection of the body is shown to be an Old Testament doctrine. Moses " showed at the bush " the resurrection of the dead.

But some one says, How so ? Moses does not say a word about the bodies of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He does not even employ the term resurrection. True, yet he plainly proves that the dead will be raised. Two things are to be borne in mind. First, God had made promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which were to be fulfilled to them as men. They died without seeing the fulfilment of these promises ; nor can they be fulfilled to them while they abide in the disembodied state. To receive the promises they must be raised from the dead. In writing the isth chapter of Genesis Moses had shown that Abraham was taught of God to look forward to his resurrection from the dead to receive these promises, as in the disembodied state he could not possess them; for that, he must look and wait for his resurrection.

The second thing to be remembered is that with Moses, as we shall see more fully later, death is a temporary thing-a present dissolution of the man until the time comes for him to meet his eternal destiny, for which he must become again a complete man. Therefore in Ex. 3 :6 Moses teaches two things :one, that the spirits of men in the separate state are still living persons-living to God, if not to us; and the other, that there is to be a resurrection of the dead-a re-uniting of the soul and the body.

It may now be pertinent to add that Ex. 3:6 is not the only passage of the Old Testament in which these doctrines are taught. They underlie all that class of passages in which God is mentioned as the God of the fathers. The children of the fathers (1:e., the true children of faith) were thus taught to believe that as the heirs of their fathers' blessing, they would inherit it in company with them-?', e., in a future state of immortality. It was in this faith they died. They died, not without hope, but in hope-a hope they will surely realize- the hope of the resurrection of the body and of promise fulfilled.

Our Lord clearly considered that there is a doctrine of human immortality in the Old Testament. But I turn to John 5 :39, 40. In this chapter (vers. 19-30), the Lord Jesus has given testimony as to the nature and character of His relationships with the Father from whom He has come. He said that the character of His union with the Father is such, that He cannot possibly do anything independently of Him, and that by virtue of this union with the Father, the right both to raise the dead and to judge men is in His hands. Furthermore, He has declared that by virtue of this union, life is essentially in Himself as truly as it is essentially in the Father ; that thus, in the dependent human position which in grace He has assumed, He is the Source or Fountain of life to men as well as their authorized Judge. He has proclaimed His right both to quicken the soul out of its state of death towards God and to raise the body, whether it be to life or to judgment. This is His testimony concerning Himself.

But it is not testimony standing by itself, unconfirmed or unestablished testimony, which by itself alone is invalid as testimony. He produces four confirming witnesses of the testimony He has borne concerning Himself-John the Baptist's (ver. 33); the works the Father had given Him to do (36); the Father Himself (37); and the Scriptures (39). The appeal to the Scriptures is especially strong, as the Jews themselves acknowledged that they bore testimony of a life eternal through One that was to come, whom God had promised to send, and on whom they were dependent for the realization of their God-given hopes. They professed to believe that the Messiah whom God had promised would bestow upon them life and incorruption; yet, now that He was present among them, they would not come to Him to obtain the long-promised blessing. They were rejecting the very One that their Scriptures proclaimed to be the Giver of Life. There was no need that He should accuse them to the Father. Moses, whom they professed to believe, was their accuser.

There is in this passage, then, another suggestion, that our Lord considered the Old Testament writings to contain teaching, not merely on the continued existence of the soul after death, but also on a future state of life beyond the resurrection in bodies of permanent incorruptibility. C. Crain
(To be continued.)