Immortality and Eternal Life.
Men are called immortal, and souls are called immortal, in common theology, never so in the Bible. Many times people confound immortality and eternal life, but there is clear distinction between the two. Immortality refers to the substance, to the entire physical man: “This mortal shall put on immortality,” but not until Christ comes. Now God “only hath immortality.” But eternal life is the energy and power of God’s Spirit which the believer receives. “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life” (John 3:36), a life which the worldling does not have, which has not been received by the unbeliever. Life is power, and the life is needed that the sin may be overcome and that the believer may walk at liberty. But it comes only to the believer in Christ. Faith opens the channel, and the current of life from God flows into the heart of the believer. “But he that obeyeth not the Son [the margin has, ‘He that believeth not the Son’] shall not see life [that is, this eternal life], but the wrath of God abideth on him,” and that wrath ends in the ultimate destruction of the unbeliever. How simple, indeed, is the gospel word to the child of faith! We may not understand, but we may apprehend. We may not comprehend the process by which God does this, but we may know that He does it; and it is highly reasonable to believe that the infinite God, who loves His children, will do it.