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Salvation?
(Continued from page 3)
" immortality" can be found only
fiv e times in all the Bible. In Ro–
ma ns
2:7
you will read it is some–
thing for us to seek. Of course!
lt
is
the gift of God, who has it to give!
You don't need to seek for some–
thing you already have! In 1 Corin–
thians 15:53, and again in verse 54,
immortality is something the saved
shall put on at the time of the res ur–
rection. In 1 Timothy 6: 16 it speaks
o f the resurrected and glorified
Christ, who only, of all who have
been born human, has immortality.
And finally, in
11
Timothy
1: lO,
im–
mortality is something Jesus Christ
brought to light- made possible fo r
us to receive-through the gospel.
So the Bible teaches that the soul
is not immortal, but is mortal; sub–
ject to death as the penalty ofsin!
All have sinned. That includes
you. The penalty is death! You do
no t possess eterna! life from natural
birth. Christ said : "That which is
bo rn o f the ftesh is ftesh" (John 3:6).
So you are only mortal, material
fle sh. You are "of the earth, earthy"
(1
Cor. 15 :47). The life you were
born with is merely temporary
chemical existence! You live by
breathing air in a nd out of your
lungs- the breath o f life.
You are only one breath away
from death-the cessation of the
existence we call " life." lf you don ' t
draw that next breath, you can't
keep alive or conscious ten more
minutes. There is no immortal soul
that will keep you alive and con–
scious. You are a soul (Gen.
2:7)
that has sinned. and so shall die,
unless saved from death by Christ's
grace.
If your heart does not make that
next beat. there is nothing in you to
kee p you alive ten minutes. You ex–
ist by breathing of a ir and circula–
tion of blood-and are fed by food
and water. You have only tempo–
rary chemical existence. You are
like a dock wound up, and running
down. You don't know at what sec–
ond it will stop!
You can't give yourself any life
beyond this dwindling chemical
The
PLAIN TRUTH Aprll 1978
existence. There is no eterna! life
inherent in you. Nothing you can do
wi ll produce it, supply it, or earn it.
You can't get it by your own works !
What your own works have done
is earn for you the penalty of death .
And it is eterna! dea th- etemal pun–
ishment!
It is not " eterna! punishing" in
life but eterna! punishmen/ in death
(Matt. 25:46). Notice, Jesus said the
punishment, dea th, is to Jast for–
e ve r- "everlasting punishme nt. "
Again, in 11 Thessalonians 1:9 ,
speaking of those who reject God 's
salvation, they "shall be punished
with everlasting destruction." The
punishment is not
lije
in torture
but
destruction
to be final, total ,
fo rever.
God-and only God - has immo r–
ta lity ! Instead of a ssuming ca re–
lessly the pagan teaching of th e
" immortality of the soul ," turn
again to
1
Timothy 6:16 and read it
with your own eyes in your own
Bible! The risen Christ, and He only
o f a ll who were born human, has
immo rtality. God has immorta lity–
life inherent- in H ims elf (Jo hn
5:26). He has give n to the Son, Jesus
Christ, also to have life in Himself.
And only God can impart eterna)
life to you!
lt
comes through Christ.
But how are you going to go to
God?
Your
past sins not only have
condemned you to the penalty o f
death, they a lso have put a total
barrier between you and God. They
have cut you off from all access to
God !
Read it! See it in your own Bible:
" Behold, tbe Lord's hand is not
shortened. that it canno t save; nei–
ther hi s ear heavy, that it canno t
hear: but your iniquities have sepa–
rated between you and your God,
and your sins have hid his face from
you, that he will not hear" (Isa.
59: 1-2).
How Should You Seek God?
So how, when this barrier stands be–
tween you and God, are you going
to go to Him to obtain eternallife?
Again Isaiah answers: "Seek ye
the Etemal while he may be found ,
call ye upon him while he is near:
Let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts.
. . . For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways
my ways, saith the Eternal" (Isa.
55:6-8).
So now you seek God that you
may obtain e terna! life from Him.
You repent! You forsake your way
o f life, and turn to God's way- o r a t
least you think you do. But some–
thing is still lacking! You still are
cut off! The barrier is still there! Do
you know why?
At this point we need to stop a nd
find out what is mea nt by that word
"sin."
Haven' t you honestly been a bit
confused by this religious terminol–
ogy? You hear people talk about
"sin," "getting saved," " under law,"
" under
grace,"
"justification,"
"sanctified." " heaven," " hell," " pre–
destination," and dozens of o ther
terms. Haven ' t they been pretty
vague to you- rather meaningless?
Do you know that most religious
people who use all these terms usu–
ally don' t know any more than you
do what they really mean?
What Do You Mean-Sin?
We started by quoting the scripture
"AII have sinned." We said that in –
cluded you!
But what is sin? Why, when men
preach, don' t you hear that ex–
plained, defined, made clear and
understandable? Why are these reli–
g ious terms used most of the time
loosely, vaguely, meaninglessly?
Once, in Springfield, Oregon. a
young man with a Bible in his hand
accosted me on the street. An eva n–
gelist had come to town and pitched
a tent. He brought with him a "gos–
pel team" including sorne eight
young men of college age, who
roamed the streets carrying Bibles.
stopping people and inviting them
to attend the services. One stopped
me.
"WeU now," 1 said, "does your
evangelist teach that Christ saves us
from sin?" He assured me he did.
"Well, what
1
want to know," 1
persisted, "is what I have to quit
doing or what
r
have done that you
call 'sin.' Just what is 'sin'?"
"WeU," he answered, "Christ died
for our sins."
" But that doesn' t tell me exactly
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