Is Sin Eternal?

IS THE death that men die in Adam a spiritual or a literal death? This must be made plain by an examination of the Scriptures relative to the case of Adam. Adam and Eve after their creation were placed in a beautiful Eden with permission to eat freely of all the productions of the garden, save the tree of knowledge of good and evil, a tree standing in the midst of the garden. The Lord said of it, "Thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Gen. 2:17. Did this mean simply that in the day Adam should eat of the forbidden tree he should become a sinner? or did it really mean that in that day he would become a mortal being subject to death and dissolution? That he should become a sinner by partaking of the tree, and lose his fellowship with God was a consequence of the transgression, but not the penalty. The penalty (see margin of text) was "Dying thou shalt die." He should become mortal and dying, the death process commencing in his body to result in his final physical dissolution. If there were any doubts in our mind relative to the meaning of the death threatened, it is made plain in reading the record of what transpired after the sin. The Lord having called the guilty parties before him, said unto Adam: "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. 3:17-19. What was called death before the transgression is now called returning to dust. The same is expressed by the psalmist, "Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust." Ps. 104:29. St. Paul, when reasoning on this matter makes a plain distinction between the sin of Adam and the death of Adam. "By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men." Rom. 5:12. Again, "Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression."

From these and other similar statements of Scripture it is very evident that the death we die in Adam, or in consequence of Adam's sin is literal death—the dissolution of the body.

Adam's probation was for the purpose of deciding whether he would obey God and live eternally, or disobey and become a mortal being, entailing mortality, suffering and death on all his posterity. He sinned, and so death has passed upon all men. All are born into this world with mortal natures—with the results of Adam's sin, and, in reality, the penalty of Adam's transgression upon them. This is stated by St. Paul in another form, "For the creature was made subject to vanity (death), not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same." Rom. 8:20. The sentiment of this scripture seems to be this: God has subjected the whole race to death ("appointed unto man once to die." Heb. 9:27), not that we individually have willed it, but, in consequence of the course of our father Adam, all are subjected to death. That there may be no ground of complaint by any human being, the Lord proposes that the atonement work of Christ shall so far affect the whole of Adam's race that every one shall have a resurrection from this death which comes upon us in consequence of his sin. At the same time he places before us a hope, if we will but accept of it, of eternal deliverance from death and mortality.

We might say, if we were subjected to such a trial as Adam and Eve we would not do as they did. In reality the Lord is giving us opportunity to decide the same question of life eternal or the second death. He promises us a resurrection from the death in Adam, and places before us life and death, good and evil, saying to us, choose life that ye may not die the second death. Alas! how many cast aside the offer of life eternal through Christ, and run more greedily in the way of death than did Adam.

With these remarks let us examine further the words of St. Paul, "Therefore as by the offense of one (Adam) judgment came upon all men to condemnation (death passed upon all men); even so by the righteousness of one (Christ, the second Adam) the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Rom. 5:18. By Adam's offense death passed on all the race; by Christ's death all men shall have a resurrection. He says, "They which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ." Verse 17. "So might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Verse 21. In the next chapter we read, "What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death (second death); but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:21-23.

We see, then, that the death men die in Adam is a literal death, so being made alive in Christ is to have a resurrection from that death. All shall thus be raised; but a plain distinction is made between the resurrection of the good and that of the evil. Our Saviour said, "For the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." John 5:28, 29. This same distinction is also kept up by the apostle Paul in writing to the Corinthians, "Even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order." 1 Cor. 15:23. The Greek word tagna, here rendered order, is defined by Greenfield as band, or cohort. McKnight translates it, "His proper band." Dr. Gill says of this text, "There seems to be an allusion to the ranging and marshaling of the Israelites, every one by his own standard; which both the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan render, by or according to his own order. . . .The sense is, that every man shall be raised from the dead, according to the head under which he is ranged and marshaled. Christ the head is risen first; next all those that are under him, as an head, will rise from the dead; the dead in Christ will rise first; and then, a thousand years after that, those who are only in their natural head, by whom death came to them, and have lived and died in a natural estate, will rise last."

Lange, in his Commentary, says on this text: "It is not possible to prove from our text, nor yet from the whole context, the doctrine of a so called restoration of all things, which asserts that at last, both good and bad, even the devil and his angels, shall be made partakers of divine grace. Elsewhere, Paul speaks of 'a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust.' (Acts 24:15.). . . . .The expression, 'be made alive' might be used to signify the resurrection of both classes. (Rom. 4:17.) It means to be restored to life in general. . . . Christ, as the risen one, is the informing principle, and commencement of all restoration to life in the race on the part of God. In this respect he constitutes a parallel to Adam, who was the informing principle and commencement of all death."

On the word ORDER he says, "The word tagna does not mean series, but a well ordered multitude, a division of the army, a cohort; and only in this sense can it be translated order. Those who are raised at successive periods of time are conceived of as coming forth in troops or bands; in some one of which every one will be found."

This, I am aware, is a very different interpretation of the text from that given by Canon Wilberforce. He says: "This making alive in the passage seems to be spread over the whole succession of the ages, a close attention to the context showing the gradual character of this unfolding—Christ the first-fruits, then, after an interval, the interval of this aeon or age, they that are Christ's at his coming—this being as yet unfulfilled. Then followed another prolonged interval of what we call time, and this prophecy reached on to the consummation of the reign of Christ. 'Then cometh the end,' when the Son in his mediatorial aspect shall be, as it were, absorbed into the Father, when all darkened understandings shall have been enlightened, and fellowship with the life of God attained through the convincing ministration of fatherly love."

The expression, "then cometh the end," seems from the text to apply at the time when Christ comes and raises those who are his at his coming. It is then that his mediatorial work ceases. The kingdom he has then delivered up, is not his own kingdom, of which "there shall be no end," (Luke 1:33) but his Father's throne on which he sits as a priest (Zech. 6:12, 13). As predicted by the psalmist, "The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Ps. 110:1. In the Revelation to St. John, Christ speaks of himself as then upon his Father's throne while his own throne was future. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." Rev. 3:21.

We have already shown that this making alive relates to the literal raising of the dead by the power of Christ, and not to the change of character of the wicked, and the Scriptures clearly indicate, in other portions, the time when these resurrections shall take place. Those who are Christ's will be raised at his second coming. These are the blessed and holy who come up in the first resurrection, on whom the second death can have no power, while the ungodly who come forth in the second resurrection, at the end of the one thousand years, are to die the second death in the lake of fire. See Rev. 20:4-6.

The promise that all nations shall be blessed in the seed of Abraham is no proof that all men are to be saved. It is proof that the offer of life would be made to all who would accept it, both Jews and Gentiles; but whether the people, as individuals, are benefited is decided by their faith in an acceptance of Christ. Every one, as we have shown, will have a resurrection from the dead by his power, and so far, every individual will derive a benefit from the death of Christ, but their final acceptance before God depends on their own course. Christ has become the author of eternal salvation "to all them that obey him." Heb. 5:9.

If the position of the Canon, in his interpretation of being "made alive" be admitted, it certainly involves some conclusions respecting Christ, contrary to plain Scripture statements. God "made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 2 Cor. 5:21. "He was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin." 1 John 3:5. The Canon told us, "To be made alive was to be brought into conscious fellowship with God, by the spirit of his love, power, and wisdom." Christ was the "first-fruits" of this making alive. Are we to conclude that Christ was first out of fellowship with God and was brought into fellowship as first-fruits of the final harvest? Such a position is too absurd to occupy the mind, and yet it is involved in the above claim.

St. Paul's own statement is that "Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 1 Cor. 15:20-22. The making alive of Christ was his resurrection from the sleep of death, which St. Paul proves by his literal appearance to Cephas, the twelve, and above five hundred brethren at once. Verses 5, 6.

We conclude, then, that there is no proof of "Eternal Hope" in St. Paul's argument on the resurrection, but rather a clear proof that in the resurrection each will come up in his own band, either in the resurrection to life eternal, or to die the second death.