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Selected Messages Book 1
Jesus Christ: which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and
only Potentate, the King of kings, the Lord of lords; who only hath
immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto;
whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power
everlasting” (
1 Timothy 6:11-16
).
Writing again, Paul says: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of
all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;
of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in
me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern
to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be
honour and glory for ever and ever” (
1 Timothy 1:15-17
).
Immortality Brought by Christ
Christ “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”
(
2 Timothy 1:10
). No man can have an independent spiritual life apart
from Him. The sinner is not immortal; for God has said, “The soul that
sinneth, it shall die” (
Ezekiel 18:4
). This means all that it expresses.
It reaches farther than the death which is common to all; it means
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the second death. Men start back at this, saying, Would you make
man no more than a beast? This is thought to be degrading. But what
is it that elevates man in the sight of God? Is it his accumulation of
money?—No; for God declares, The gold and the silver are mine. If
man abuses his entrusted treasures, God can scatter faster than man
can gather. Man may have brilliant intellect; he may be rich in the
possession of natural endowments. But these are all given him by God,
his Maker. God can remove the gift of reason, and in a moment man
will become as Nebuchadnezzar, degraded to the level of the beasts of
the field. This God does because man acts as though his wisdom and
power had been gotten independently of Him.
Man is only mortal, and while he feels himself too wise to accept
Jesus, he will remain only mortal. Men have done wonderful things
in the intellectual world, but who gave them power to do this?—The
Lord God of hosts. If in their fancied efficiency men triumph because
of their own power, and glorify themselves, following the example
of the antediluvian world, they will perish. The imagination of that
long-lived race was only evil, and that continually. They were wise to