CONTENTS
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FUTURE AND ETERNAL LIFE
uture life and Eternal life are not necessarily synonymous, or expressions of the same import. Christ is "the resurrection and the life." There is no future life but what comes as a favor of God by Christ; hence, there is no future life except such as is a blessing bestowed on him who is the subject of it, or that is not the result of God's love. That life is eternal to all who have improved the present life, to form a union with Christ by the reception of his Spirit; thus becoming "partakers of the Divine nature." - 2Pe 1:3,4. These being raised from among the dead, thereby become permanently " the children of God," and cannot "die any more," or are possessed of eternal life. If others have a future life, it is because "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." - Ro 5:20. And, "If through the offence of the one (that is Adam) the many have died; much more, the grace of God, ... by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto the many." - Ro 5:15. "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:.. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life: for as by one man's disobedience [the] many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall [the] many be made righteous." - Ro 5:12, 18, 19. On Ro 5:19 we give the following remarks from "Dr. Bloomfield's Critical Notes on the Greek New Testament," edited by the late Prof. Stuart. Dr. Bloomfield says:
"This verse is explanatory of the preceding, and oipolloi should be rendered -- the many,-- which, as appears from the foregoing, is equivalent to pantes. It is very important to attend to this force of the Article, and to bear in mind that throughout this whole passage it is (as Abp. Whately observes) -- the main drift of the Apostle to set forth the universality of the Redemption, as being co-extensive with the evil introduced at the fall, which it was designed to remedy. -- So the great BENTLY, in his masterly Sermon on Popery, after quoting what is said in Ro 5:12, and the redditio at Ro 5:15, remarks: -- Who would not wish that our translators had kept the Article in the version they saw in the original? thus, -- If through the offence of the one (that is Adam) the many have died, much more the grace of God, by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto the many. -- By this accurate version, some hurtful mistakes about partial redemption, and absolute reprobation, had been happily prevented. Our English readers had then seen, what several of the Fathers saw and testified, that oi polli, the many, in an antithesis to the one, are equivalent to pantes , all, in Ro 5:12, and comprehend the whole multitude, the entire species of mankind, exclusive only of the one. So again, Ro 5:18, 19, our translators have repeated the like mistake; where, when the Apostle has said, that "as the offence of one was upon all men ( eis pantas anthropous ) to condemnation, so the righteousness of one was upon all men to justification:' 'for," adds he, 'as by the one man's disobedience ( tou enos ) the many ( oi polloi ) were made sinners, so by the obedience of the one ( tou enos ) the many ( oi polloi ) shall be made righteous.' By this version the reader is admonished and guided to remark, that the many in Ro 5:19 are the same as pantes, all, in verse 18.' The meaning therefore of Ro 5:18, 19, may be thus expressed (with Mr. Holden): 'As, by Adam's disobedience, all men are brought into a state of condemnation; so, by Christ's obedience, all men are brought into a state of justification and life; i.e., have the means of attaining that justification which will be crowned with eternal life."
So much for the critical examination of this portion of Scripture. Thus much is made evident, No man remains in death for Adam's "one transgression" except himself. Christ is constituted "Lord both of the dead and the living." Ro 14:9, and that includes "the many," or all men descended from Adam. In this respect, Jesus has taken "away the sin of the world," Joh 1:29; so that nothing can hold any man in death but a willful rejection of the Son of God as the LIFE-GIVER, whom God gave, in His love, to "give life unto the world;" for, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." - Joh 6:33, and Joh 3:16.
Are we to admit the idea that because millions on millions have gone down in death without ever having heard of the love of God to them, or the provision for their obtaining life everlasting, that therefore God has no means to reach them with the Gospel message? Perish the thought. If there are no other means of their hearing that message, they will as certainly be revived from the dead as that Abraham will be revived from the dead to inherit the land promised because he never did inherit the land promised because he never did inherit it while in this life. So "all the families of the earth shall be blessed in Abraham and his seed;" and literal death is no obstacle in the way of God's fulfilling his "Promise and Oath" that it shall be done. If any choose to "stagger through unbelief," in this matter, let them enjoy the pleasure of that unbelief; but it will not annul "the word of God," which "shall not return to" Him "void, but it shall accomplish that which" He please; and that to which He has sworn; and all for whom Christ died, whether dead or living, shall hear of God's marvelous love to them, and have the offer of life eternal through Him, "Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." - 1Ti 2:6. God's "times and seasons" He hath put and kept "in His own power." - Ac 1:7. If He pleases to take "the ages to come" ( Eph 2:7) to "show the exceeding riches of His grace," and to unfold "the unsearchable riches of Christ," ( Eph 3:8), who of the children of men, saints or sinners, shall say He cannot or will not do it, even though we, short-sighted mortals, cannot see how it is to be done?
"This verse is explanatory of the preceding, and oipolloi should be rendered -- the many,-- which, as appears from the foregoing, is equivalent to pantes. It is very important to attend to this force of the Article, and to bear in mind that throughout this whole passage it is (as Abp. Whately observes) -- the main drift of the Apostle to set forth the universality of the Redemption, as being co-extensive with the evil introduced at the fall, which it was designed to remedy. -- So the great BENTLY, in his masterly Sermon on Popery, after quoting what is said in Ro 5:12, and the redditio at Ro 5:15, remarks: -- Who would not wish that our translators had kept the Article in the version they saw in the original? thus, -- If through the offence of the one (that is Adam) the many have died, much more the grace of God, by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto the many. -- By this accurate version, some hurtful mistakes about partial redemption, and absolute reprobation, had been happily prevented. Our English readers had then seen, what several of the Fathers saw and testified, that oi polli, the many, in an antithesis to the one, are equivalent to pantes , all, in Ro 5:12, and comprehend the whole multitude, the entire species of mankind, exclusive only of the one. So again, Ro 5:18, 19, our translators have repeated the like mistake; where, when the Apostle has said, that "as the offence of one was upon all men ( eis pantas anthropous ) to condemnation, so the righteousness of one was upon all men to justification:' 'for," adds he, 'as by the one man's disobedience ( tou enos ) the many ( oi polloi ) were made sinners, so by the obedience of the one ( tou enos ) the many ( oi polloi ) shall be made righteous.' By this version the reader is admonished and guided to remark, that the many in Ro 5:19 are the same as pantes, all, in verse 18.' The meaning therefore of Ro 5:18, 19, may be thus expressed (with Mr. Holden): 'As, by Adam's disobedience, all men are brought into a state of condemnation; so, by Christ's obedience, all men are brought into a state of justification and life; i.e., have the means of attaining that justification which will be crowned with eternal life."
So much for the critical examination of this portion of Scripture. Thus much is made evident, No man remains in death for Adam's "one transgression" except himself. Christ is constituted "Lord both of the dead and the living." Ro 14:9, and that includes "the many," or all men descended from Adam. In this respect, Jesus has taken "away the sin of the world," Joh 1:29; so that nothing can hold any man in death but a willful rejection of the Son of God as the LIFE-GIVER, whom God gave, in His love, to "give life unto the world;" for, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." - Joh 6:33, and Joh 3:16.
Are we to admit the idea that because millions on millions have gone down in death without ever having heard of the love of God to them, or the provision for their obtaining life everlasting, that therefore God has no means to reach them with the Gospel message? Perish the thought. If there are no other means of their hearing that message, they will as certainly be revived from the dead as that Abraham will be revived from the dead to inherit the land promised because he never did inherit the land promised because he never did inherit it while in this life. So "all the families of the earth shall be blessed in Abraham and his seed;" and literal death is no obstacle in the way of God's fulfilling his "Promise and Oath" that it shall be done. If any choose to "stagger through unbelief," in this matter, let them enjoy the pleasure of that unbelief; but it will not annul "the word of God," which "shall not return to" Him "void, but it shall accomplish that which" He please; and that to which He has sworn; and all for whom Christ died, whether dead or living, shall hear of God's marvelous love to them, and have the offer of life eternal through Him, "Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." - 1Ti 2:6. God's "times and seasons" He hath put and kept "in His own power." - Ac 1:7. If He pleases to take "the ages to come" ( Eph 2:7) to "show the exceeding riches of His grace," and to unfold "the unsearchable riches of Christ," ( Eph 3:8), who of the children of men, saints or sinners, shall say He cannot or will not do it, even though we, short-sighted mortals, cannot see how it is to be done?
