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MORTAL and IMMORTAL

 

 

Because of the use of the above terms in the prophecies which appeared in the previous issue of "The Manifested Sons", we have written this article to help clarify their meaning. The word "mortal" means "dying" - that is, the forces of corruption and decay are at work in the physical body, eventually making that body subject to death. The word "immortal" means simply not mortal, or not dying. In such a body the forces of corruption and decay are not at work, therefore the body would not be subject to death but would continue to live on indefinitely in perpetual youth. Such a body would not "wear out" under the stress of time as a mor­tal body does. If Jesus had not voluntarily given up His life as a ransom for sinners. He could have continued to live in­definitely, and could be living today in the same physical body that walked in Palestine over nineteen hundred years ago. The Bible says that the "wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23). How can we say that Jesus was subject to death (sin's wages) when He never sinned? Also, if He were mor­tal, or subject to death Himself, He could not have given His life a ransom for others!

 

Since Jesus was born of mortal woman (even though virgin born) He had a physical body which was potentially capable of corruption and death if He had followed in the path of other men. Paul says that the result of Adam's sin passed to all men, because all sinned (Rom. 5:12). All except Jesus! He fully overcame the world, the flesh, and the devil. He was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. (Heb. 4:15). After His final contest with Satan in the wilderness following His baptism, He strode forth com­pletely victorious, beginning His ministry as a fully mani­fested Son of God. He was the first human (He constantly referred to Himself as the "son of man") to manifest deathless life in the flesh since Adam and Eve, completely undoing the effects of their fall, and opening up the way for restored deathless paradise on earth, by yielding up His own sinless life as a perfect ransom. (I Tim. 2:5-6). We do not mean to imply that Jesus was not also fully divine by reason of the God-spirit incarnated within. If Jesus had been just a human, His life's blood could not have atoned for the sins of the world. It was the God-life coursing through His veins that availed unto the cleansing of all when vicariously spilled on the cross. But of necessity it had to be a sinless life that was yielded up; a life not subject to death.

 

The Bible says that the life is in the blood. (Lev. 17:14). But in fallen man that "life" in the blood can sustain the physical body only a certain number of years, and then it yields to death working through corruption and decay. But when Jesus fully overcame all the temptations of the enemy, and had proved Himself complete master, His blood stream was changed from potentially corruptible to incorruptible—not yielding to decay and death. How do we know this? Jesus demonstrated this in symbolic form by the first miracle which He performed after beginning His ministry; a miracle by which He manifested forth His glory - the turning of the water into wine. (John 2:1-11). Jesus identified wine with His blood. At the last supper He took the cup of wine and said, "This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." (Matt. 26:27-28). There is no doubt but that Jesus was referring to a matured wine when speaking of His blood. Fresh grape juice or NEW wine is subject to souring, fermentation and spoilage. It has no keeping qualities of its own; neither can it preserve anything immersed in it. However, a fully matured wine has been completely changed; its sugar content has been transformed into spirit. Such a wine has indefinite keeping qualities, and can also preserve that which is immersed in it.

 

Thus we see that fresh grape juice, or NEW wine (be­ginning to ferment), is a type of the blood in a mortal which is subject to spoilage, putrefaction and death. Common human blood courses with the lusts of the flesh, which are typified by the natural sugars in the grape juice. But the blood of an immortal is typified by a fully matured wine. The blood of Jesus did not course with sin, neither was it subject to corruption and death. His blood, like matured wine, had keeping, cleansing and preserving qualities.

 

Some have felt that Jesus was using fresh grape juice at the Passover supper when speaking of His blood. However, we find that in Palestine the grapes are harvested in Septem­ber. When we consider that Palestine is a semi-tropical cli­mate, and that the Passover was in the spring, about six months after the vintage, it becomes evident there could be no fresh grape juice at the time of the Passover. If kept at all it would be fermented and well on its way to being a matured wine. Thus Jesus used a matured wine as a symbol of His blood.

 

Now let us consider further the miracle in John, Chap­ter 2. Jesus not only performed this miracle first to show in symbolic language that which had taken place in his own physical body, but also to show that which would be avail­able to others through His vicarious atonement. You will notice that the miracle (which was actually a parable in liv­ing drama) took place on the third day. (John 2:1). With God, a day is a thousand years (II Peter 3:8). Because the generation to which Jesus came failed to fully believe in His finished redemption, and failed to appropriate the death­less immortality for the physical body then available, a per­iod of "wilderness wandering" was decreed. This is pictured to us a number of places in the Bible as approximately two days or two thousand years. But the miracle shows us that on the third day, after two thousand years, the way would again be opened up for an entrance into the promised land of im­mortality in human flesh.

 

It should be pointed out at this point that the two thous­and years are not necessarily to be reckoned according to our solar years of 365 days a year. The Lord's perfect time may be reckoned according to the earth's original sin free orbit of 360 days a year. This would result in a shortening of the time from the present solar reckoning. If figured out accord­ing to this reckoning you will find that the 2 days (2,000 years) are almost up and we are near the inception of the 3rd day.

 

There are some details in this miracle-parable that we will not take the time to go into. But notice briefly. There were six waterpots which Jesus commanded to be filled with water. Six is man's number, and the physical body is referr­ed to by Paul as an earthen vessel (II Cor. 4:7). Water is a type of the soul within the physical body. Water is also a type of the cleansing of the Word (John 15:3, Ephes. 5:26), and the working of the Spirit (John 7:37-39). The earthen vessels (waterpots) were filled to the brim with water, indicating a complete work of the Word and the Spirit reaching into the depths of the human soul until every taint of sin and uncleanness is removed, and the full fruit of the Spirit has been imparted. When this point is reached, and the individual in question has fully understood and met the requirements, fully believing that death is no more, then is the water turned to wine. This speaks to us of a transformation of the soul elements (water) in the human (6) bodies (earthen water­pots) to that of an incorruptible blood stream (wine). The result is immortality in human flesh.

 

Since there is yet so much to be revealed on this sub­ject, and since we are just beginning to get our "sleepy eyes" open to a few glimmers of light in this new day, it is best not to go deeper or into greater detail at the present time. We do, however, need to consider this question from one further perspective. Although an immortal in human flesh cannot die (in the sense that mortals do), yet the life of an Immortal can be yielded up for a certain purpose if God so decrees it. Remember that Jesus said, "No man takes my life, but I lay it down of myself" (John 10:18). An im­mortal is under the absolute protection of God and nothing can happen to him unless permitted by God. It would have been impossible for anyone to have killed Jesus if He had not willingly yielded up His life. Even on the cross you will notice that He did not die until He personally dismissed His Spirit into the hands of the Father (Luke 23:46). When His body was in the tomb it did not suffer corruption (Psalm 16:10). In Acts 2:24, Peter states that Jesus' physical body was loosed from the "pains of death" because it was "not possible that He should be held by it." Death had no dominion over Him, in the sense that it could hold Him. Not just because He was divine, but because He was a sinless human not sub­ject to death. He was humanity's first manifested son with a physical body that "tasted death" (Heb. 2:9) only because He "laid down" the life thereof as a ransom for sinners.

 

[Next: THE TWO WITNESSES” ]

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