In aempng to answer this queson concerning which there

not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are

not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the

things which are not seen are eternal.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were

dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with

hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly

desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from

heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found

naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being

burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed

rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the

Lord. Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent,

we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the

judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things

done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it

be good or bad.

This passage abounds in striking contrasts. I want to point out

more than a dozen. Doubtless a careful analysis would reveal

others.

First, we have the “outward man” contrasted with the “inward

but the inward man is renewed from day to day.

Then in verse 17 we have three more decided contrasts:

“light” is contrasted with “weight,” “aicon” with “glory,”

and that which is “for a moment” with that which is “eternal.”

Aicon oen seems to the tried and distressed saint to be

heavy indeed and long-connued, but the spirit of God calls it

“our light aicon which is but for a moment.” We realize this

in all its blessedness when we see it in full contrast with the

“far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” which is to

be our poron throughout the ages to come.

The sixth contrast is in verse 18, where “the things which

are seen” is put in apposion with “the things which are

not seen.” The former are declared to be temporal and the

systems, that the word generally rendered “eternal” in the

New Testament does not necessarily bear that meaning. But

here we have this very word put in direct contrast with the

word “temporal,” which clearly means that which has an end.

Eternal, therefore, must mean that which has no end. If we

think of several other instances in which the same word is

used we will perhaps realize more than ever the truthfulness

and solemnity of this statement. We read of the eternal God,

the eternal Spirit, eternal redempon, eternal inheritance; on

verse of chapter 5. There we have “our earthly house of this

tabernacle” and side by side with it, “a building of God, a

house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” The

one may be “dissolved,” the other is “eternal.” Observe that

this is the third me we have the word “eternal” used in this

remarkable series. Once more it is in direct contrast with

that which passes away, or comes to an end. That which is

temporal may be dissolved, but that which is eternal will

never know dissoluon.

We next have the contrast between being “unclothed,” which

refers to death, and “clothed upon,” which is resurrecon.

Mortality will then be swallowed up in life.

contrasts, will have no diculty with regard to the future state

of those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. Let us

proceed to look carefully at the passage as a whole.

In the rst place I call your aenon again to the fact that we

are not to confound the “outward” man with the “inward”

man. I am not my body. Man is disnctly said to be spirit, and

soul, and body. The body is the outward man. The spirit and

the soul together constute the inward man. The spirit is the

seat of the intellectual being, a disnct enty. The soul is the

seat of the man’s emoonal nature. These two, spirit and soul,

received a new nature, and this new nature is also called

“spirit”; it is the characterisc feature of the inward man.

“That which is born of the esh is esh; and that which is born

of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must

be born again.”

Unless it should be our happy lot to be among those who

are sll living in the body when the Lord Jesus descends

from heaven with that assembling shout spoken of in

1 Thessalonians 4, we who believe in him must go the way

of all esh. Our earthly house of this tabernacle must be

dissolved; that is, the body will die. What then will be the

moves out. This is clearly what the apostle here teaches and

it is conrmed by the words of his brother-apostle, Peter, in

2 Peter 1:13-15: “Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this

tabernacle, to sr you up by pung you in remembrance;

Knowing that shortly I must put o this my tabernacle, even

as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. Moreover I will

endeavor that ye may be able aer my decease to have these

things always in remembrance.”

While le on the earth Peter was in the tabernacle of his

body; at death he put o his tabernacle. He speaks of this as

his decease; this word here translated “decease” is the word

“exodus,” which is the same as the tle of the second book

of the Bible. That book is called “Exodus” because it relates

the going out of the people of Israel from the land of Egypt.

the earthly tabernacle. This was so with Paul, for he tells us in

Philippians 1:21-25:

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the

esh, this is the fruit of my labor: yet what I shall choose I

wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to

the saints, the new Jerusalem.

days of my appointed me will I wait, ll my change come.”

man gives up the spirit, and where is he? If a man die, shall

he live again? The rst queson has to do with the state of

the man between death and a possible resurrecon; the

aempng to answer these quesons from scripture, let us

remember that we are conning ourselves to the Christless

man. Where is he when the body dies, and will that body ever

in our colleges. People sll go back to those ancient Greeks

for arguments regarding immortality. Their comments are

interesng and much that is advanced is fairly convincing and

even probable. But there is no authoritave assurance, and

the soul is le in uncertainty.

Testament. There are those of a materialisc tendency,

bearing a Chrisan name, but misguided people, who insist

that scripture teaches the unconsciousness of the dead

between death and resurrecon, and in some instances the

annihilaon of the wicked aer the day of judgment. Rarely

indeed do these people quote from the New Testament in

invariably to Old Testament scriptures. The bulk of these

are found in three books, Job, the Psalms, and in parcular

Ecclesiastes.

The Old Testament was not given to unfold the eternal future,

but chiey to show God’s dealings with man in this life,

than other Old Testament books, give us human experience in

striking detail.

going to be with their fathers, and Abraham could count on

God to give him back Isaac from the dead if called on actually

reecon, “He shall not come back to me, but I shall go to

him.” And elsewhere he exclaimed, “I shall be sased when I

awake in thy [God’s] likeness.”

I will not dwell on the striking incident of Samuel’s appearance

to the witch of Endor, and his message to Saul, “Tomorrow

shalt thou and thy sons be with me,” nor need I quote many

passages in the prophets that give evidence of a knowledge of

life aer death. But, granng all these, it is certainly evident

that it was not the specic purpose of any Old Testament

writer to reveal this great truth, and in the experience books

referred to, we need not be surprised if some passages even

seem to indicate the contrary. These need to be carefully

Here let me make a statement, seriously and soberly, that may

People oen think that a text from any part of the Bible seles

some controversial queson, but a text out of context may be

used to bolster up the worst kind of error; it may in fact be the

declaraon of an absolute falsehood.

his client was on trial for his life. The prosecung aorney,

addressing the jury, said, “Gentlemen, we have it on the very

highest authority that ‘all that a man hath will he give for

his life.’” This made quite an impression on the jury, for they

understood that he was quong from the Bible, which he

was. When he had concluded his address, the other aorney

arose and said, “My opponent has told you that on the very

highest authority we may know that all that a man hath will

2, where the devil said, “Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath

will he give for his life.” “Now,” he exclaimed dramacally,

“Gentlemen of the jury, you know for yourselves who the

aorney for the prosecuon considers to be the very highest

authority — even the devil himself!”

too true with many. But it is not invariably true that “all that

a man hath will he give for his life.” Myriads of our Lord’s

devoted followers have imitated their master in laying down

their lives rather than surrender one jot or le of the truth of

God.

not true. Not only are there statements in the Bible that are

said to be from the devil himself, but there are some things

spoken by good men, such as the friends of Job, for instance,

and reasonings of the natural man’s mind are somemes

given, as in the book of Ecclesiastes. It is very important to

bear this in mind when reading the experience books of the

Old Testament.

its face value it would directly contradict New Testament

revelaon, as well as Solomon’s own declaraon by divine

inspiraon at the end of the book where he says, “Let us hear

the conclusion of the whole maer: Fear God, and keep his

commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God

shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing,

whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”

Ecclesiastes? Surely not. What then does this scripture mean?

In his book Solomon wrote that he was giving us a record of

what he said in his heart as he pondered things under the

sun. He saw people die, they were buried, and he never saw

them come back from the tomb. We read elsewhere, “The

dead know not anything.” Does this mean they are absolutely

elsewhere contradicts such a thought, but a lifeless corpse

knows nothing of the aairs that occupied that busy brain but

yesterday.

Shallow thinkers take such a passage as this, “The dead

know not anything,” and in the face of all the New Testament

the “sleep of the soul.” But the expression means nothing

of the kind. The same words are used in that incident told in

1 Samuel of the compact between David and Jonathan. David

go out into the eld and shoot an arrow, and if he said to

the lad, “The arrow is beyond you,” David would understand

Saul was seeking his life. But if he said, “The arrow is behind

you,” he knew he was safe. The program was carried out,

and Jonathan called to the lad, “The arrow is beyond you,”

and David understood; but we read that “the lad knew not

anything.” Was the boy in a state of unconsciousness? Not at

all, but he knew nothing of the compact made between David

and Jonathan.

In Malachi 4:1-3 there is a passage that many seem to think

seles the queson as to the fate of the wicked dead.

of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But

unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness

arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow

up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked;

for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day

that I shall do this. saith the Lord of hosts.

Now observe what the prophet was here telling Israel. Was

he speaking of judgment to come on the wicked aer death?

Not at all. The passage is prophec of what shall befall the

wicked on the earth at the Lord’s second cong. In other words,

this judgment is pre-millennial, not post-millennial. There

is nothing here about the resurrecon and people brought

is, root and fruits. Then the righteous shall tread down the

wicked. They shall be ashes under their feet in the day that

God shall do this.

Does this prove the annihilaon of those who die in their

sins? No, it is similar in character to the judgment that fell

on Sodom and Gomorrah. The day that Lot and his company

le the city the re of God’s wrath burned up the people of

the cies of the plains, root and branch. Had Lot himself and

Abraham, his uncle, gone down to see condions a few days

aer the judgment, the wicked would have been ashes under

the soles of their feet, but that does not imply annihilaon.

In Jude, wrien centuries aer, we read of “Sodom and

Let us turn to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ himself,

rather than to those of his apostles. I do not place the

teaching of the Lord Jesus on a higher plane than that of his

inspired apostles, but many say, “I am not prepared to accept

Paul, Peter, or John, but give me what Jesus says.” So I shall do

this.

Men, who reject the solemn warnings given elsewhere in the

Bible as to the eternal judgment of the wicked, foolishly say

that the teaching of Jesus is all they want, that the sermon

punishment is taught in the sermon on the mount? If you tell

me that you will accept the teachings of Jesus Christ, don’t

forget that he has told us more of the actual state of the

ever walked this earth. It was not Peter who rst spoke of

“the re that never shall be quenched”; it was not Paul who

spoke of being “salted with re”: it was not John who said, “It

is beer to enter into life maimed than having two hands to

be cast into hell re.” It was the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And

whatever instrucon you get in the New Testament in regard

to the punishment of the wicked is all based on the teaching

of the Son of God.

We have this teaching in its simplest and clearest form in Luke

16. Some object that this poron is only a parable, but this

is not so. A parable is an illustraon, or story, told to picture

some truth. The parables are generally announced by some

such expression as this, “He spoke a parable unto them,” but

we have no such expression here. This incident of the rich

parable it certainly is meant to illustrate the fearful danger

of dying unreconciled to God. The impression made on the

minds of his hearers and on those of millions of people from

that day to this, is that Jesus was here teaching that it is a

fearful thing to die in one’s sins.

Our Lord was addressing the people, and in the course of

his instrucon he said in verse 19, “There was a certain rich

man who was clothed in purple and ne linen, and fared

sumptuously every day” Was there a certain rich man, or not?

Jesus said there was. He did not say, “Let us suppose there

might have been such a person.” Rather, he denitely declared

recently converted. When I complete my message you come

up to me and say, “I was interested in what you told us about

that Indian. How long ago was he converted?” “Oh,” I say, “I

Now this is exactly what Jesus did. He gave every hearer that

day to believe that he was relang a story of fact. When he

began to speak of the other man in the story, he said, in verse

20, “There was a certain beggar, named Lazarus.” When you

He goes on to say that the beggar died and was carried by

the angels into Abraham’s bosom. This, of course, was before

the death and resurrecon of our Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham

was the father of the faithful, and in paradise. As a son of

Abraham, this redeemed beggar was welcomed to his bosom.

Believers now are said at death to be “absent from the body

and present with the Lord.” To be in Abraham’s bosom was

the poron of Old Testament saints.

And what about the rich man? He also died and was buried,

and we follow his disembodied spirit into the other world.

Jesus said, “In hell he li up his eyes, being in torment.” Now

the Bible if I could, and even now I can well understand the

feelings of Richard Baxter as he prayed, “Oh, for a full heaven

and an empty hell!” I have searched this book, and read scores

name of the place does not do away with the torment.

condion in which men are found aer death. Hades is simply

the grave.” I do not believe this for one moment. Scripture,

with the torment. You may call it the tomb; you may designate

it simply the unseen; you may call it the spirit world; you

may use any term you like, but the solemn fact remains that

wherever that rich man was, and whatever that word means,

he was in torment.

Need we follow the story further? Need we dwell on its

able to kill the soul.” Manifestly, a soul that cannot be killed

when the body is killed must be what we mean when we

speak of “an immortal soul.” The Advenst was taken aback

for the moment, but though silenced, refused to part with

the $10,000. The fact is that in scripture the actual words,

“mortal” and “immortal,” are only used in reference to the

Turning again to Genesis 1:27 we see a third act of creaon:

beneath him? The fact is that by no possibility could creatures

possessing only body and soul have become possessed of a

thinking, reasoning spirit, unless it were communicated by

God himself. It is this that lis man above all else in God’s

creaon. Zechariah 12:1 says, “The burden of the word of

the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the

heavens, and layeth the foundaon of the earth, and formeth

the spirit of man within him.” Observe that the formaon of

the human spirit is there viewed as though it were as great a

Now just what is the spirit in man? Perhaps the clearest

passage in the Bible is found in 1 Corinthians 2:11: “For what

which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man,

but the Spirit of God.” Here the spirit of man is shown to be

the seat of intelligence. It is by the spirit man knows; it is the

spirit that reasons; it is the spirit that receives instrucon

from God. Several other scriptures will help to make this

clear. Romans 8:16: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with

our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Romans 1:9:

“God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the

gospel of his Son.” Job 32:8: “There is a spirit in man: and

the inspiraon of the Almighty giveth them understanding.”

Noce that understanding is received by the spirit through

divine inspiraon. Proverbs 18:14: “The spirit of a man will

sustain his inrmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?”

by communicang his truth to the spirit. We might quote

many other scriptures, but these will suce as they clearly

emphasize the case in point. It is the spirit that thinks; it is the

At death the spirit leaves the body. This, in fact, is what death

is, the separaon of body and spirit. In James 2:26 we are told,

“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works

is dead also.”

We have already seen that when the body of the beast dies,

the soul, which is linked with its body, dies too. That is the end

of its existence. But when the body of the man dies, his spirit

leaves the body, whether the person is saved or unsaved.

“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the

spirit shall return unto God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

Leaving the earthly dwelling place behind, the spirit goes into

the unseen world and has to deal with the God who created

account to God.

Materialists insist that the spirit is but the breath. They

point to the fact that in both the Hebrew and the Greek the

words for “breath,” “wind,” and “spirit” are the same, and

they insist that therefore in each instance the word may be

to remember that even in English the word “spirit” has a

number of meanings, according to the connecon in which it

is used, and these meanings cannot be confounded without

doing violence to the language. We speak of a man of spirit,

and we mean someone of decision of purpose, and of energy.

We speak of a spirit, and we mean a wraith or a ghost. The

“breath” in the various passages we have already quoted, and

see if it ts. For example: I pray God that your breath may

be preserved blameless (1 Thessalonians 5:23). We all agree

The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than

of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a

discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Here we learn that God’s word disnguishes between soul

and spirit. It does not separate them, for the two are never

separated, either in life or in death. The spirit is the higher

seen, to which the Spirit of God speaks. The soul is the lower

part of the unseen man, and is that part which links the body

and the spirit. It is not merely the natural life, but is also the

seat of man’s emoonal nature.

Again let me give a number of quotaons from scripture. First,

shall live by faith: but if any man draw back my soul shall have

no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38). And in the next verse we

read, “But we are not of them that draw back unto perdion;

with his own. Hindrances to this are found in our bodily lusts.

1 Peter 2:11 states: “Abstain from eshly lusts, which war

against the soul.” The soul in harmony with God nds its joys

in him, and in this the spirit fully shares. Luke 1:46 47 states:

“And Mary said, my soul Both magnify the Lord, And my spirit

hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.”

The soul suers. Luke 2:35: “A sword shall pierce through thy

own soul also.” Psalm 107:26: “Their soul is melted because

of trouble.” Joseph’s brethren “saw the anguish of his soul,”

but took no heed. Jesus said, “Now is my soul troubled.” Of

his agony on the cross it was wrien, “His soul was made an

oering for sin,” for there “he poured out his soul unto death,”

when “he was numbered with the transgressors.” (See Isaiah

53:12.)

The soul loves. “Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?” exclaimed

the bride in the Cancles. 1 Samuel 18:1: “The soul of

Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved

him as his own soul.”

The soul hates. 2 Samuel 5:8: “The lame and the blind, that

are hated of David’s soul.”

The soul mourns. Job 14:22: “His soul within him shall mourn.”

he doeth.”

body is so largely a creature of emoons, the soul is made to

designate the man as a whole. Man is disnctly called a soul

over and over again. “Man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).

Someone has likened man as originally created by God to a

three-story house; the lower story or basement is the body;

and “sensual” in the New Testament is really “soulish.” It is an

adjecve derived from the word for soul.

Man, however, is not bere of the spirit even though fallen,

but he has “the understanding darkened, being alienated

from the life of God, through the ignorance which is in him.”

No act on man’s part can ever restore the spirit to its proper

place, for all his facules have been perverted by the fall. His

spirit has been made lthy by sin. We read of the “lthiness

of the esh and spirit.” His soul has become uerly debased

and corrupt; he now loves what God hates, and hates what

other words, man is a hopelessly ruined creature, apart from

the regenerang grace of God.

and not only to restore him to his adamic condion, but to

li him to a higher plane than unfallen man ever knew In

order that this might be so, God himself, in the person of the

Son, came into this scene as man. He not only took a human

body, but was possessed of a true human spirit and human

soul. Many do not see this, and think of the divine logos,

the eternal word, bearing the same relaon to his body as

our spirit and soul do to our body. This is a mistake. Christ

not only took a body as a tabernacle for deity, but he took

That he had a human soul is clear from the passages already

quoted. In another place he said, “My soul is exceedingly

troubled in his spirit” and “he rejoiced in spirit,” and as he

was about to lay down his life, he exclaimed, “Father, into

thy hands I commit my spirit.” He oered himself a sacrice

in full — body, soul, and spirit — on behalf of our ruined

humanity.

blood untainted by sin. The body given on the cross was a

human body, holy and undeled. The anguish of his soul

was the anguish of a human soul, which we can but faintly

enter into as he suered there in the deepest recesses of

his being. All his most tender aecons were lacerated as

he took our place in judgment on the cross. The darkness

behalf.

every part. The awakened spirit now receives the word of

God, and the man is renewed in the spirit of his mind. The

building is being renewed so that once more he is able to

look up to God and enter into communion with him through

the spirit. Humankind is able to take in and understand the

mind of God, and to discern what is according to the word.

His soul also is saved; its aecons are puried; its longings

and yearnings are now turned from things evil and things

mundane to things holy and heavenly.

The body alone remains for the present unchanged.

Eventually, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, he will

change this body and make it like the body of his glory. Then

we shall be completely saved — spirit, soul, and body. We shall

then have put o the natural body and have put on a spiritual

Some, however, when reading 1 Corinthians 15:44, mentally

contrast a material body with an immaterial one. But this is

not the thought of the apostle nor the mind of the Spirit. A

natural body is a body suited to the soul: the word rendered

“natural” is simply, as already menoned, an adjecve derived

a body of spirit, but a real body suited to the spirit. At the

present me the spirit oen is willing, but the esh is weak.

In the glorious future the body and spirit will be in perfect

harmony. This will be our complete salvaon, when spirit,

soul, and body will be conformed to the image of our Lord

Jesus Christ, the rstborn among many brethren.

And what of life beyond the grave? What