THE WRATH OF GOD.
Paul speaks (Col. 3:6) of “the wrath of God on the children of disobedience.” We have shown that wrath is a reprehensible passion, unworthy of men and impossible to God. The word can only be applied to God in a figurative sense, to denote his disapproval of sin.
Macknight (Presbyterian) gives a lucid exposition of the subject: “Thus, many words of the primitive language of mankind must have a twofold significance. According to the one signification, they denote ideas of sense, and according to the other they denote ideas of intellect. So that although these words were the same in respect of their sound, they were really different in respect of their signification; and to mark that difference, after the nature of language came to be accurately investigated, the words which denoted the ideas of sense, when used to express the ideas of intellect, were called by the critics metaphors, from a Greek word which signifies to transfer; because these words, so used, were carried away from their original meaning to a different one, which, however, had some resemblance to it.
“Having in the Scriptures these and many other examples of bold metaphors, the natural effect of the poverty of the ancient language of the Hebrews, why should we be either surprised or offended with the bold figurative language in which the Hebrews expressed their conceptions of the Divine nature and government? Theirs was not a philosophical language, but the primitive speech of an uncultivated race of men, who, by words and phrases taken from objects of sense, endeavored to express their notions of matters which cannot be distinctly conceived by the human mind, and far less expressed in human language. Wherefore they injure the Hebrews who affirm that they believed the Deity to have a body, consisting of members of the human body, because in their sacred writings, the eyes, the ears, the hands and the feet of God are spoken of; and because he is represented as acting with these members after the manner of men.
“‘The voice of the Lord walking in the garden.’—Gen. 3:8. ‘The Lord is a man of war’ ‘Thy right hand O Lord, hath dashed,’ etc.; ‘The blast of thy nostrils.’—Exod. 15:3,6,8. ‘Smoke out of his nostrils;’ ‘Fire out of his mouth;’ ‘Darkness under his feet;’ ‘He rode’ and ‘Did fly.’—Ps. 18:8,9,10.
“In like manner they injure the Hebrews who affirm they thought God was moved by anger, jealousy, hatred, revenge, grief, and other human passions, because in their Scriptures it is said: ‘It repented the Lord’ ‘It grieved him.’—Gen. 6:6. ‘A jealous God.’—Exod. 20:5. ‘The wrath of the Lord.’—Num. 11:33. ‘I hate.”—Prov. 8:13. ‘The indignation of the Lord’ ‘His fury’—Isa. 34:2. ‘God is jealous’ ‘Revengeth and is furious’ ‘Will take vengeance’ and ‘He reserveth wrath.’—Nahum 1:2.
“They also injure the Hebrews who affirm that they believe the Deity subject to human infirmity, because it is said: ‘God rested.’—Gen. 1:2. ‘The Lord smelled.’—Gen. 8:21. ‘I will go down and see,’ and ‘if not, I will know.’—Gen. 18:21. ‘He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh’ ‘Shall have them in derision.’—Ps. 2:4. ‘The Lord awaked,’ etc.—Ps. 78:65.
“These and the like expressions are highly metaphorical, and imply nothing more but that in the divine mind and conduct (to human perceptions) there is somewhat analogous to, and resembling the sensible objects and the human affections, on which these metaphorical expressions are founded. If from the passages of Scripture in which the members of the human body are ascribed to the Deity, it is inferred that the ancient Hebrews believed the Deity hath a body of the same form with the human body, we must conclude they believed the Deity to be a tree, with spreading branches and leaves which afforded an agreeable shade; and a great fowl, with feathers and wings; and even a rock. because he is so called.—Deut. 32:15; Ps. 17:8; 18:2-31; 91:4.”—Macknight on the Epistles, Essay viii: Sec. I.
The consequences of human misconduct, the judgments of God on wickedness, are ascribed to wrath, anger, hatred, to God, but always in a figurative sense; for he who is the same always, and whose nature is love, cannot literally be angry or wrathful.
“And said to the mountains and rock, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.”—Rev. 6:16. At the opening of the sixth seal, “the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, and the heavens departed as a scroll,” etc.—Rev. 6:12,13.
The fearful evils of the times here prophesied are figuratively attributed to God’s wrath. But all these scenes transpired on earth.
Dr. Clarke says: “All these things may literally apply to the final destruction of Jerusalem, and to the revolution which took place in the Roman Empire, under Constantine the Great. Some apply them to the day of judgment, but they do not seem to have that awful event in view.”
Whatever the phrase means, it applies wholly to this life, and has no reference to the world beyond the grave. The phrase “Wrath of God” is an adaptation of human language to human apprehension; to ascribe human passions to him, is a metaphorical employment of terms. Man, smarting under God’s chastisements, or beholding the results of his judgments, characterizes as wrath, hatred, what is dictated by love. God has not wrath as men are angry. There can be no such thing as hatred in him who is perfect love.
Prof. Stuart, in his comments on Romans, observes: “It is impossible to unite, with the idea of complete perfection, the idea of anger in the sense in which we cherish that passion; for with us it is a source of misery, as well as sin. To neither of these effects of anger can we properly suppose the Divine Being to be exposed. His anger, then, can be only that feeling or affection in him which moves him to look on sin with disapprobation and to punish it when connected with impenitence. We must not, even in imagination, connect this in the remotest manner with revenge; which is only and always a malignant passion. But vengeance, even among men, is seldom sought for against those whom we know to be perfectly impotent, in respect to thwarting any of our designs and purposes. Now, as all men and all creation can never endanger any one interest (if I may so speak) of the Divine Being, or defeat a single purpose; so we cannot even imagine a motive for revenge on ordinary grounds. Still less can we suppose the case to be of this nature, when we reflect that God is infinite in wisdom, power and goodness. This constrains us to understand the anger and indignation of God as anthropopathic, i.e., speaking of God after the manner of men. It would be quite as well (nay, much better ) to say that when the Bible attributes hands, eyes, arm, etc., to God, the words which it employs should be literally understood, as to say that when it attributes anger and vengeance to him it is to be literally understood. But if we so construe the Scriptures in this latter case, we represent God as a malignant being, and class him among the demons; whereas by attributing to him hands, eyes, etc., we only represent him to be like men.”
Dr. Clarke thinks that the word “wrath” in the new Testament ought to be “punishment.”
“Taken in this sense, we may consider the phrase as a Hebraism; punishment of God, i.e., the most heavy and awful of punishments; such as sin deserves, and such as it becomes divine justice to inflict. And this abideth on him (the unbeliever), endures as long as his unbelief and disobedience remain.”
These comments express our views, and they certainly afford no support to the idea of endless torment.
THE WRATH TO COME.
“O, generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”—Matt. 3:7
John Baptist addresses this language to the Scribes and Pharisees. By “wrath to come” he meant the approaching desolation of the Hebrew nation.
Bishop Pearce says, “the punishment to come in the destruction of the Jewish state” Kenrick, “the impending punishment in the destruction of the Jewish state;” Dr. Clarke, “the desolation which was about to fall on the Jewish nation.”
But the same words may be applied to the consequences of any sinful career, whether of an individual or of a nation. The wrath to come is awaiting, not in endless hell, but here, in this world.
THE SPIRITS IN PRISON.
“By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.”—1 Peter 3:19,20.
Why this passage is ever quoted against the Universalist faith cannot be seen. If Jesus went to hell to preach to the damned who were disobedient in the time of Noah, as many understand the text to teach, it was for the purpose of converting them, and therefore probation extends into the future state of existence We should be very glad to believe this to be the meaning of the text, but the facts compel a different view. What is the meaning?
The spirits in prison are the minds of men imprisoned in sin. By his spirit Jesus preached and preaches to such.
Dr. Clarke says: “I have before me one of the first, if not the very first edition of the Latin Bible, and in it the verse stands thus: ‘By which he came spiritually, and preached to them that were in prison.'”
Wakefield says Christ here makes comparison between the Antediluvians and the Gentiles:
“By which he went and preached to the minds of men in prison, who were disobedient, as those upon whom the long suffering of God waited, as in the days of Noah.”
That is, the Gentiles to whom Christ came to preach by his spirit were as disobedient as the Antediluvians. The language has no reference whatever to a future state of being.
There is no objection—based on our views—to the exegesis of the passage that represents Jesus as having gone to Hadees to preach to spirits there yet unredeemed, but the doctrine finds no warrant in this passage.
“I PRAY NOT FOR THE WORLD.”
“I pray for them; I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine.”—John 17:9.
Jesus was offering a special prayer for his disciples. He frequently employs this form of expression; that is, he uses the negative in order to give the greater emphasis to the affirmative, as when he says, in reference to forgiveness: “Not seven times, but seventy times seven;” or, “Lay not up treasures upon earth, but lay up treasures in heaven.” He does not forbid us to forgive seven times, nor to lay up treasures on earth, but he precedes his command to forgive seventy times seven, and to lay up heavenly treasures, by a negative, in order to give the greater force to what follows. He offers a special prayer for his disciples, but in verse 21 he extends it to others, and on his cross he prayed for his murderers (Luke 23:34); and he also prayed for all men when (John 10) he prayed for all the sheep for whom he had laid down his life.
“Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring; and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.”
Barnes (Presbyterian) says: “This passage settles nothing about the question whether Christ prayed for sinners.” Whitby says: “He made this prayer out of affection to the world, and with this design, that the preaching of the apostles to them might be more effectual for their conversion and salvation.”
The language is simply a special prayer for the disciples.
THE RIGHTEOUS SCARCELY SAVED.
“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear?”—1 Peter 4:18.
In preference to any comments of our own on this passage, we present the views of “orthodox” commentators, who express our opinion of the passage exactly.
Dr. Macknight says: “Indeed the time is come, that the punishment to be inflicted on the Jews as a nation, for their crimes from the first to last, must begin at you Jewish Christians, now become the house of God. And if it begin first at us, who are so dear to God, what will the end be of those Jews who obey not the gospel of God? And when God thus punishes the nation, if the righteous Jews, who believe in Christ, with difficulty can be saved, where will the ungodly and sinful part of the nation show themselves saved from the divine vengeance? That the apostle is not speaking here of the difficulty of the salvation of the righteous, at the day of judgment, will be evident to anyone who considers 2 Peter 1:11. What he speaks of, is the difficulty of the preservation of the Christians, at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem; yet they were preserved, for so Christ promised (Matt. 24:13). But the ungodly and wicked Jews were saved neither in Judea, nor anywhere else.”
Dr. Adam Clarke: “Judgment must begin at the house of God. Our Lord had predicted that, previously to the destruction of Jerusalem, his followers would have to endure various calamities. (See Matt. 24:9,21,22; Mark 13:12,13; John 14:2, etc.) Here his true disciples are called the house or family of God. And if it first begin at us, Jews who have repented and believe on the Son of God, what shall be the end of them, the Jews who continue impenitent, and obey not the gospel of God? Here is the plainest reference to the above Jewish maxim; and this, it appears, was founded upon the text which St. Peter immediately quotes.
“Verse 18—And if the righteous scarcely be saved. If it shall be with extreme difficulty that the Christians shall escape from Jerusalem, when the Roman armies shall come against it, with the full commission to destroy it, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? Where shall the proud Pharisaic boaster in his own outside holiness, and the profligate transgressor of the law of God, show themselves, as having escaped the divine vengeance? The Christians, though with difficulty, did escape, every man; but not one of the Jews escaped, whether found in Jerusalem or elsewhere. I have, on several occasions, shown that when Cestius Gallus came against Jerusalem, many Christians were shut up in it; when he strangely raised the seige, the Christians immediately departed to Pella, in Cœlosyria, into the dominions of King Agrippa, who was an ally of the Romans; and there they were in safety; and it appears from the ecclesiastical historians that they had but barely time to leave the city before the Romans returned under the command of Titus, and never left the place till they had destroyed the temple, razed the city to the ground slain upwards of a million of those wretched people, and put an end to their civil polity and ecclesiastical state.”
This salvation relates exclusively to deliverance from the approaching terrors of those times, and not to any sufferings after death by those to whom Jesus spoke, or to any others.
But by “accomodation” we may apply the language to all men, and say that if now, in this world, even the righteous but just escape the temptations and evils that surround them—”scarcely be [not shall be] saved”—the ungodly and sinner experience no such deliverance. “They are like the troubled sea, whose waters cast up mire and dirt continually.” But in no event can the words be applied to any other state of existence than the present, without perverting the meaning of the Savior.
WRESTING THE SCRIPTURES TO DESTRUCTION.
“As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”—1 Peter 3:16.
When these words were written the land of Judea was full of confusion, and many portents indicated its approaching desolation, which was usually spoken of as identical with the “coming of the Lord.”
Jesus had said: “And when ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.”—Luke 21:20.
Now Peter wrote this epistle to keep the church in remembrance of the prophecies of the coming event. He refers to those who asked, “Where is the promise of his coming?” (v. 4) and added (v. 42) “Watch, therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.”
He gives, in similar imagery to that employed by Jesus, the signs of the coming: “The heavens passing away with a great noise, and the elements melting with fervent heat.”
Jesus had said: “The stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.”—Matt. 24:29. See also 2 Peter 3:10.
He exhorts (v.11) “seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.” Thus they misunderstood, perverted, the words of Jesus and Peter, and so were destroyed in the coming calamities, “before that generation passed;” when, had they understood and obeyed the Scriptures, they would have escaped. Those who misunderstood and misapplied those Scriptures were involved in the general overthrow.
NO MURDERER HATH ETERNAL LIFE.
“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.”—1 John 3:15.
This language shows that there are millions of murderers who never destroyed life, for every one who hates his brother has already committed murder. If no murderer can ever reach heaven, then millions must be lost forever, for, observe, it does not say that a murderer who does not repent before he dies, but “no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him;” that is, no one who hates his brother.
Partialists of every name do not act on the theory that the murderer must be lost, for every felon’s cell and gibbet is surrounded by zealous Christians seeking to secure the repentance of the murderer: and it is notorious that nearly every executed murderer anticipates heaven, notwithstanding his crime, and there have been thousands of murderers who have, if the popular view be correct, by a repentance on the gallows escaped all punishment.
Now we accept no such easy, immoral theory as this. We are confident that no murderer swings from the gibbet to glory in a moment of time. The Scriptures include all transgressors when they say:
God ‘will by no means clear the guilty.”—Exod. 34:7. “He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong that he hath done; and there is no respect of persons.”—Col. 3:25. “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.”—Prov. 11:21. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”—Isa. 57:21.
The murderer who dies unpunished will receive what he deserves before he can be happy. But here or hereafter it will always be true that no murderer, whether he hate his brother or destroy his brother’s life, hath eternal life abiding in him.
There is no more difficulty in applying infinite grace to convert and save the murderer than any other sinner. Indeed, as if to guard Christians against refusing to apply God’s converting power to such, Paul says:
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God.”—1 Cor. 7:9-11.
Some of Paul’s associates had been guilty of the grossest sins, and had cast them off. As long as they were thus sinful, they had not eternal life, but when they were reformed, regenerated, they possessed that life.
This will always be true of all souls. No murderer, or other gross sinner, no one whose heart is controlled by evil, possesses eternal life; but when the bad spirit is exorcised, the divine life will enter.
LET HIM BE ACCURSED.
The word anathema, improperly rendered “accursed” in Gal. 1:8, has no such meaning. It’s real significance is: “Let him go,” “Ignore (or disregard) him.” It really means “to separate.” The apostle uses it here as he applies it to himself (Rom. 9:3): “I could wish myself separated from Christ.” This is the view of all good critics.
Hammond: “And if any attempt to do that, though it were I myself, or even an angel from heaven, I proclaim unto you mine opinion and apostolic sentence, that you are to disclaim and renounce all communion with him, to look on him as an excommunicated person, under the second degree of excommunication, that none is to have any commerce with in sacred matters. And that he may take more heed to what I say, I repeat it again: Whosoever teaches you any new doctrine, contrary to what I at first preached unto you, let him be cast out of the church by you.”
Wakefield: “But, if even we, or an angel from heaven, should preach the gospel differently from what we did preach it unto you, let him be rejected. As we told you before, so now I tell you again, if any one preach a different gospel to you from what ye received from us, let him be rejected.”—Trans. in loc.
Clarke: “Perhaps this is not designed as an imprecation, but as a simple direction; for the word here may be understood as implying that such a person should have no countenance in his bad work, but let him, as Theodoret expresses it,be separated from the communion of the church. This, however, would also imply that, unless the person repented, the divine judgments would soon follow.”—Com. in loc.
Nothing like what is implied in the common use of the English word “anathema” is meant by the Christian use of the Greek word. The Catholic church has employed it to mean accursed, or damned, in the Evangelical meaning of those words, which is as foreign to the spirit of Christ and Christianity as it is to curse and damn in common profanity.
THE SECOND DEATH.
“But the fearful, ant unbelieving, and the; abominable, and murderer, and whoremonger, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.”—Rev. 21:8
“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God’; and the; books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in those books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them, and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”—Rev. 20:12-14.
Popularly “hell” and the “lake of fire and brimstone” are the same thing; but it is seen, as we read the description in Revelation, that they are entirely different. In chap. 20, verses 13 and 14, it is said that “death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”
There are four opinions as to what the second death is. 1. Some suppose it refers to those who, having once been dead in trespasses and sins, have become quickened into newness of life, and then have returned to their wicked ways. 2. Others apply it to the apostasy of the Christian church. 3. Others to the second destruction or death of the Jewish people, which soon occurred. 4. Others refer it to the endless torment of the soul after death.
This last view is evidently incorrect, for a man’s death in trespasses and sins is the first death, the dissolution of the body is the second death, and the endless torment of the soul would be the third death, if the term death were allowable. But it bears no resemblance to death, and if such a fate were in store for any it could not be called death.
The first, second, or third opinion may be adopted. Jude describes those who were “twice dead, plucked up by the roots.” Such are all who have once been good, and who have fallen into evil ways.
We favor the first or third view indicated above; but whichever view we take, the popular one has no warrant in the language employed.
The careful reader of the book of Revelation will see that this second death is a temporal destruction to befall the Jewish nation soon after the book was written. The Apocalypse was written just before Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. It had once before been laid waste. The Jewish nation had lost its national life, and now it was to pass through a similar experience, undergo a second death, which it did when Titus (A.D. 70) overwhelmed the people, and inflicted national death on the Jews. The first death lasted seventy years, the captivity in Babylon; the second has lasted now eighteen centuries, and justifies the term everlasting.
The first death is described by the prophet Ezekiel, chap. 37:12-14: “Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves. And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land; then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.”
The second death was when the Jews were again extinguished as a nation. The revelator declares it was to be very soon.
“And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.”—Rev. 22:12,20.
Jesus thus announces the same event: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”—Matt. 24:30.
John says: “Behold, he cometh with clouds;” Jesus says: “The Son of man cometh in the clouds of heaven;” John: “And all the kindred of the earth shall wail because of him;” Jesus: “And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.”
In Rev. 21:8, the same idea is taught. “The fearful, unbelieving,” etc., are to be burned in “the lake of fire, and this is the second death.” The lake of fire denotes the fearful judgments of those days during which the Jews experienced their second death. Or, it may be used as a figure, and denote the idea marked “1” above.
THE FIRST RESURRECTION.
“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power.—Rev. 20:5,6.
The first resurrection was when the morally dead of our Savior’s time heard and obeyed his call:
“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.”—Eph. 5:14.
They lived and reigned with Christ. This spiritual living was the first resurrection. It was here in this world. Those who experienced it were not exposed to the second death; it had no power over them. Eusebius, the historian, says not a Christian was slain during those fearful times. They lived and reigned with Christ. The first resurrection and the second death were entirely confined to this world.
If any one objects to the exclusive application of these terms to the times and circumstances to which they were applied by John, it may be said that they also are applicable to us. We are dead in trespasses and sins. If we awake to righteousness, we rise out of this moral death, and this is our first resurrection. But if we continue indifferent and sinful, we are experiencing the second death, a condition that will continue until he who led captivity captive shall destroy our destroyers, and “the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed,” and the final resurrection shall come, beyond which there shall be “no more death, neither shall there be any more pain.”
LET HIM BE UNJUST STILL.
“He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still.”—Rev. 22:11.
This language is often understood to teach that those who are unjust, or filthy, or righteous, or holy, at the death of the body, will remain unalterably fixed in that condition forever. If this were true, then millions of infants would be miserable to all eternity, for those who understand the text to relate to the future state of existence also teach that infants are born and die with depraved and corrupt natures.
But a careful reading of the context shows that the revelator has no such reference. He declares that the time of its application was “at hand;” saying, “Behold, I come quickly.” The whole book was written, according to its author, to “show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.” The approaching destruction of Jerusalem, and overthrow of the Jewish state are the topics prophetically described throughout the book. The second overthrow of the Jewish nation was at hand. This event was to signalize the establishment of the Christian religion, and therefore it assumed immense importance. When the great event took place, those who had not previously become converted were fixed in their wicked ways, were filthy still; while those who had embraced Christianity were righteous still. The death of those spoken of is not referred to; the condition described is in this life. Tomson’s Beza gives the correct view:
“This is not as were other prophecies, which were commanded to be hid till the time appointed, as in Daniel 12:4, because that these things should be quickly accomplished, and did even now begin.”
ATTAIN UNTO THE RESURRECTION.
“If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”—Phil. 3:11.
All men are to attain unto the literal resurrection. It does not depend upon human effort. What resurrection can man accomplish by his efforts” The context shows. Paul is exalting the Gospel when he says:
“And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death: if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”
Evidently he refers here to a rising into that moral condition that Jesus occupied. He frequently employs this idea.
“Knowing this, that the old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”—Rom. 6:6.
The resurrection to be attained follows the crucifixion of “the old man.” Seeing he had not yet reached that condition, Paul says: “Not as though I had already attained, neither were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.”
He inculcates the same idea when he says: “How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?” Again he says that we should “walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together, in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.”
The resurrection which Paul strove to attain unto, and for which we should all strive continually, is from sin to holiness, from the death in trespasses and sin to the life in Christ. The Greek word ana-stasis signifies “resurrection.” The element stasis may be traced back to the old Sanscrit root sta, “to stand,” or, “to stand up.” The element ana is intensive, and in this case has the sense of “again.” The word ana-stasis, then, signifies literally a standing up again, or the “resurrection.” It is standing up a second time, after having fallen down in death. The resurrection to be attained by human effort is the rising out of sin into Christian manhood or womanhood.
SHALL NOT SEE LIFE.
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.”—John 3:36
This is a simple statement of the effects of belief and unbelief, regardless of the duration of the consequences. As long as one believes, life abides with him, the aionian life of the Gospel, while the unbeliever is deprived of this life. “He that believeth hath everlasting life,” though by unbelief he may forfeit it, and regain it again by believing again. Such passages as these illustrate the New Testament use of the term:
“You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.”—Eph. 2:1. The believer hath “passed from death unto life.”—John 5:24. “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren.”—1 John 3:14. “To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”—Rom. 8:6.
The question of the duration of the life or the “wrath is not raised in this passage. It remains, in either case, as long as the condition reamins that causes the life or the wrath.
“AS THE TREE FALLS SO IT LIES.”
“And as death leaves us, so judgment finds us,” is the home-brewed method of mis-quoting the language of Solomon. There is no such text or idea in the Bible, nor anything like it. The language referred to reads thus:
“If the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.”—Eccl. 11:3.
It has no reference whatever to death, or the end of probation, though so often quoted both in and out of the pulpit. The book of Ecclesiastes is the wail of a misanthrope, who looks back at the end of a wasted life, spent in the gratification of ambition and sensuous appetite, and from its wreck draws a lesson for those who are setting out upon the voyage which he has ended. In the eleventh chapter, he counsels men to prepare for misfortunes before they come, and in this counsel is embodied the advice of the text, which may thus be paraphrased: “It never rains but it pours; and when the wind has blown over the trees you have planted with such care, that is the end of them; there is no putting them up again.”
THE DEAD IN CHRIST SHALL RISE FIRST.
“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”—1 Thess. 4:15-176.
We regard this as obscure and highly figurative language.
Christ’s second coming was not a literal, visible, but a spiritual coming. All the other language is to be interpreted in harmony with his coming. There was no shout, no literal trump, nor did the literal dead literally rise at his coming, which occurred during the generation which was on earth when he lived. “The dead in Christ were first;” that is, those who had died Christians rose to the first position in the estimate of mankind.
The imagery all points to that second coming which occurred while some of those lived to whom the words of the epistle were addressed.
THE HARVEST PAST AND WE NOT SAVED.
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”—Jer. 8:20.
This is the text of many a revival sermon, the word “saved” being wrested from its true meaning, and forced to relate to deliverance from an endless hell. The prophet applies it to deliverance from those national calamities to which the Jewish nation were at the time subjected by Nebuchadnezzar. They were besieged, without preparation, on the verge of winter after harvest, and were not saved from their enemies.
Dr. Clarke says: “The harvest is past. The seige of Jerusalem lasted two years: for Nebuchadnezzar came against it in the ninth year of Zedekiah, and the city was taken in the eleventh. (See 2 Kings 25:1-3.) This seems to have been a proverb: ‘We expected deliverance the first year—none came; we hoped for it the second year—we were disappointed; we are not saved—no deliverance is come.ʼ”