|
EQUIVOCATION1
Notice very carefully 1 Cor. 15:3-4 "For I give over to you among the first what also I accepted, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was entombed, and that He has been roused the third day according to the scriptures . . ." When it comes to the subject of death, as a subject of scriptural study, it is true that death entails the three-fold return of body, soul and spirit to their original state. It is true that the death state is one of extinction or oblivion. However, when using the verb "to die," this full-orbed teaching is not necessarily in view, in fact, it is seldom in view. When the Scriptures want us to particularly note one aspect of death various terms are used. "Being gathered to their fathers," "asleep," "put to repose," "breathed his last," "gave up the spirit," "being in sheol." These specific terms each emphasize various aspects of the human in death, as relating to either body, soul or spirit. The term "to die" means simply "to expire," "to loose life," "to cease to live." The particular emphasis of the word "to die" is in reference to the lack, or the end, of life; it is not per se referring to the full-orbed process which occurs when one does "die." To be sure that process begins, the person ceases not only to live, but ceases to exist as a conscious person or entity. But those details are not in view in the term "to die." The terms "die" and "death," in most cases, do not have in view the entire dissolution of the person, but simply the end of one's life. Some insist that people must believe that "Christ ceased to exist," in order for them to really believe that "Christ died." But, on the other hand, do those same people believe that "Christ was entombed"? Or do they not rather believe that Christ, the person, ceased to exist, and that it was only His body which was entombed? And how do they count three days? Does failure to count the three days correctly amount to a denial of the evangel? Such nit-picking is unseemly. These three "planks" of the evangel are not intended to be nit-picked, but regarded as a whole, a reflection of "the evangel of God, . . . concerning His Son, . . . Who is designated Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead . . ." The death that Christ died for our sins, is the death He died on Calvary's cross, not the state He entered into subsequent to His dying. We are saved by the blood of the cross, the cross on which the Saviour died, not by His extinction, nor by His descent into hades, whether consciously or not. Christ died. His physical human life ended. The Christ that died was laid in a tomb. On the third day the same Christ Who died and was entombed was awakened from the sleep of death. All who believe this evangel are believers. Richard C. Condon
|