Some Definitions
Back to The Release of the Material Creation
Eternal life is the "knowledge" of God, in the sense of the "Presence" and "Virtue" of God.
The human soul and spirit can die, meaning they can be separated from the Presence and Virtue of God, from the eternal Life that God is.
A spirit can be "dead" (cut off from God’s Life), or "alive" (in union with the Holy Spirit of God), but never resurrected. An angel or demon never can be resurrected.
It is true that our reborn inner nature has already been united with the resurrection Life of the Lord and has ascended with Him to the right hand of God (Romans, Chapter Six). However, the resurrection taught in the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians has to do only with the resurrection of the material body, not with our inward nature.
To resurrect is to restore consciousness and function to the body.
The physical body can be spiritually "alive" (filled with God’s Spirit) or spiritually "dead" (because of sin and the resulting loss of God’s Spirit). It can also be "awake" or "asleep," referring to physical life or death.
To resurrect the body is to give it consciousness and function, and sometimes (but not always) eternal life. We know this is the case because Jesus spoke of "the resurrection of life" and "the resurrection of damnation" (John 5:29).
The degree and kind of life (none, thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold) our body receives after consciousness and function have been restored to it in the day of resurrection depends on the degree and kind of life that have been developed in our spiritual nature as we have patiently borne our cross behind the Lord Jesus.
The spiritually dead body is void of the Presence of God.
To "sleep" physically (in the sense of physical death) is for the body to lose consciousness and cease to function.
The spirit, soul, and body may all ascend to God. But ascension is not an integral part of resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ lived in resurrection glory in His body several weeks before His ascension. One of the areas of confusion caused by the doctrine of the pre-tribulation "rapture" is that the central hope of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has been changed from the victorious resurrection of the body into an ascension of nonvictorious believers to escape tribulation.
The adjective eternal, as it is used in eternal life, is not, according to scriptural usage, defined primarily in terms of chronological time. Every creature of God exists forever. The fallen angels will exist forever but they do not have eternal life. The demons will be conscious forever but they do not possess eternal life (the Life and Virtue of God).
The spirit and soul of man never "sleep." They never lose consciousness or function. They are not subject to decay. Therefore eternal life or death in the soul and the spirit are not referring to consciousness or function or the loss of them but to the "knowledge" of God and Christ—knowledge in the sense of Life, Virtue, Presence, fellowship, abiding acceptance. "I never knew you," Jesus says to the lawless, meaning He never has received the lawless to Himself.
However, since the material body is subject to loss of consciousness and function, eternal life in the body has two meanings: (1) eternal consciousness and function; and (2) possession of the Life and Presence of God. Apart from the possession of the Life and Presence of God the resurrection of the body would result only in eternal existence—and a dreadful existence at that!
If Christ is in us, in our inner man, our spiritual nature is alive but our physical body remains dead. It is cut off from the Life and Presence of God and Christ because of the sin dwelling in it.
It will be of benefit to the reader, particularly in understanding the release of the material creation, if he will carefully go over and implant firmly in his mind the above definitions. We are using these definitions consistently in our discussion of the release of the creation. While the Scriptures do not always define life, death, and resurrection with the same degree of consistency we are employing, we believe the reader will find our definitions are not inconsistent with any passage. They merely reflect a common usage by the Scriptures.
Every physical body, both of the wicked and the righteous, will be raised in the last day and will have perpetual consciousness and function restored to it. But the physical body of the wicked will never receive eternal life and glory in the sense of access to the Presence of God. Also, the physical body of the nonovercomer will not receive the fullness of the likeness of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before we can understand the release of the material creation or the rewards to the overcomer, we must have a grasp on the nature of eternal life and how eternal life is worked out in our spirit, soul, and body.
The goal of the Christian redemption is to acquire eternal life in our spirit, our soul, and our body.
In our Christian tradition, going to Heaven after we die is considered to be the goal of the Christian salvation. This point of view has little scriptural basis. To be on firm scriptural ground we must accept the fact that the goal of the Christian redemption is to gain eternal life.
The New Testament always stresses the gaining of eternal life, never the making of our eternal home in the spiritual Heaven. Adam and Eve lost eternal life through their disobedience. The Lord Jesus, our Redeemer, came to give us the opportunity to gain eternal life.
The Lord Jesus Christ gave us two definitions of eternal life. Neither one of them mentions the making of our eternal home in the spiritual Heaven.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? (John 11:25,26)
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)
Let us consider carefully the facts established by these three verses:
Christ Himself is the resurrection from the dead. The resurrection from the dead includes but is infinitely more than the raising of our dead body from the grave. The resurrection is a Person!
Christ Himself Is eternal Life. Life is Christ. This is where the preaching of Heaven misses the mark. Our goal is not eternal residence in Heaven. Our goal is to become part of Christ, part of Eternal Life.
There indeed is a spiritual Heaven. Heaven is the present home of God, of Christ, of the saints, and of the elect angels. When they die, the godly go to the spirit Paradise to wait for the Day of Resurrection. However, the personality of the Christian is not, by the Scriptures, considered to be "alive" until his body has received eternal life. The Christian will be made alive at the parousia, the Presence of the Lord (I Corinthians 15:22,23).
After having spent time in Heaven waiting for the Day of Christ, we will be disappointed in that Day if we have not laid up treasures of eternal life. Heaven is a place of rest for the saints, and it is conceivable that some ministry and preparation for the Day of Christ take place there.
But the goal of our Christian discipleship is not to go to Heaven, as marvelous as that experience doubtless will be. The goal is to acquire eternal life so when the Day of the Lord comes we will be filled with an abundance of the true riches, with the fullness of eternal life in spirit, in soul, and in body.
Eternal life comes by believing in Christ.
The Scriptures do not always use the terms "death" and "life" as we do. We know this is true because whoever lives and believes in Christ does die physically. But the Lord Jesus stated that whoever lives and believes in Him will never die. Our biologic, flesh-and-blood life is not true life and the biologic death of our flesh is not true death.
Eternal life is the knowledge of the true God and of Christ whom God has sent. Eternal life is life in the Presence of God and is the Presence of God.
Let us think for a moment about this last point.
Eternal life is to know the true God and to know Christ. We have stated previously that eternal life is the goal of the Christian salvation. Therefore the goal of salvation is to know God and Christ in the sense of possessing Their abiding Presence.
To gain eternal life is to possess God and Christ.
The knowledge that is eternal life is not "knowledge" as we ordinarily employ the term. It is knowledge that goes beyond knowing about someone or something.
To possess the knowledge that is eternal life is to have fellowship with God; to be in the closest personal contact with God; to be abiding in God and Christ and to have God and Christ abiding in us; to dwell in the Presence of God; to be part of that Life that always is flowing from God; to live and move and have our being in untroubled, complete union with God and Christ.
The true saint always is seeking Christ, striving to please Him in order that he may grow in the knowledge of Christ and possess more of the eternal life that is the Presence of God and Christ.
Death is defined as "separation." Life is defined as "union."
True death is separation from God and Christ. True life is union with God and Christ. Eternal death, the second death, is eternal separation from God and Christ. Eternal life is eternal union with God and Christ.