Thursday, November 22
At Creation, “God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7, NKJV). This account of the creation of humanity reveals that life derives from God. Is immortality an intrinsic aspect of this life? The Bible tells us that only God is immortal (1 Timothy 6:16); immortality is not given to humans at birth. In contrast to God, human beings are mortal. Scripture compares our lives with “a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:14, NKJV), and at death our lives enter a sleeplike state in which there is no consciousness. (See Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6, 10; Psalm 146:4; Psalm 115:17; John 11:11-15.)
Although people are born mortal and subject to death, the Bible speaks of Jesus Christ as the source of immortality and tells us that He gives the promise of immortality and eternal life to all those who believe in His salvation. “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23, NKJV). Jesus “has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10, NKJV). “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, NKJV). So, there is hope of life after death.
Read 1 Corinthians 15:51-54 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. What do these passages tell us about life after death and when immortality will be given to human beings?
The apostle Paul makes it clear that God bestows immortality upon people, not at the moment of death, but rather at the resurrection, when the last trumpet will sound. While believers receive the promise of eternal life at the moment they accept Jesus as their Savior, immortality is given only at the resurrection. The New Testament knows nothing of the idea of souls going off to heaven immediately at death; this teaching has its roots in paganism, going back to the philosophy of the ancient Greeks, and is not found in either the Old or New Testament.
How does our understanding of death help us appreciate even more the promise of the Second Coming? How does this belief powerfully unite us as Seventh-day Adventists?
