Mortality Swallowed Up of Life.
By Epsilon
THE view taken by most Protestants of the first ten verses of the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians is, that at death an intelligent soul leaves the lifeless body and takes up its abode with Christ in Heaven. But this view is not consistent with this nor with other portions of Scripture. Paul uses the figure of a house to represent mortality, which is to be swallowed up of life at the resurrection. "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." 1 Cor. 15:54. That Paul alluded to the two bodies, the mortal and the immortal, is evident from 2 Cor. 5:6, where he says, "whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord." His desire is to be clothed with our house which is from Heaven. Being found naked is a state not to be desired, because it is sleep—unconsciousness. Is the earthly house the mortal body? Then the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, is the glorified body. But have we each a glorified body now prepared in Heaven? No; but we have the glorified body of Christ, our great high priest, as a pledge of those we shall receive when he comes to redeem us. "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Col. 3:3, 4. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." 1 John 3:2. Yes; when he shall appear, we shall also appear with him in glory, and he like him, immortal and glorified, inhabiting houses—bodies, "fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Phil. 3:21. But why should Paul speak of our house from Heaven? Because, "The first man is of the earth, earthly; the second man is the Lord from Heaven." 1 Cor. 15:47. "To be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord," is too clearly defined to be wrested in favor of separate soul entity, for the Scriptures define but one way of being present with the Lord, and that is by being clothed upon by our house which is from Heaven. "I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." The fifth verse is weighty, because it alludes to our having the earnest (pledge) of the Spirit. But what is the crowning work of the Spirit that is given us? "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Rom. 8:11. When we consider that our life is hid in Christ, that eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, that Christ is the resurrection and the life, that he who hath the Son hath the life, that the life is in his Son, and many other such statements, we see at once that it is not only natural, but forcible, for Paul to write of our house eternal in the heavens. For he is the second man Adam, the life-giving Spirit, the first-born (chief-born) from the dead, the pattern from which our glorified and immortal bodies will be fashioned, and himself holding the keys of death and of hades.