If you’ve been learning with us at Reform Church for a while, you know that we believe what the Bible says, namely that we have everything that Jesus has now. We are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. Part of that inheritance is eternal life.
If you’ve heard what we teach, you also know that the Bible teaches that eternal life is IN a person and can be given to our mortal bodies. With some mind renewal, that kind of life has the potential to keep one’s body living forever — just like Jesus.
That’s a super controversial thing for some reason, even though many people who would disagree with that would also say they believe they are joint heirs with Christ, and Jesus’ body lives forever. Hmm… maybe just partial joint-heirs?
But anyway, we’d like to address this verse…
1 Timothy 6:16 (NKJV) …King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality…
“Reform Church, how can you say you’ve been given immortality if this verse says only God has immortality. After all, we are just a vapor, like the flower we fade! Only God is immortal.”
Yes! God alone has immortality, but I will take it a few steps further!
God alone has wisdom…
Romans 16:27 (NKJV) …to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.
God alone is good…
Matthew 19:17 (NKJV) So, He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
And God alone is righteous…
Romans 3:10 (KJV) As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
So ONLY God is wise, good, and righteous? Then what about these verses?
1 Corinthians 1:30 (NKJV) …you are in Christ Jesus, who became for US wisdom from God…
Philemon 1:6 (NKJV) …by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in YOU in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (KJV) …that WE might be made the righteousness of God in him.
So, God alone is wise, good, and righteous. Then why do you have wisdom according to 1 Corinthians? In fact, you couldn’t have been saved without partaking of God’s wisdom.
And if God alone is good and righteous, how can you have every good thing in you according to Philemon? And how are you righteous according to 2 Corinthians?
This is because it’s not YOUR wisdom or goodness, it’s God’s wisdom and goodness that you have now! These verses are simply saying that no one else has any wisdom, goodness, righteousness, or immortality of their own! God is still the only wisdom, goodness, righteousness and immortality, but God’s inheritance has simply been shared with us!
Every believer would say they can receive wisdom from God, yet the Bible says God alone is wise? The same thing applies to immortality. We can share in God’s immortality and eternal life now as well!
2 Timothy 1:10 (NKJV) …our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel…
John 11:26 (NKJV) And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.
John 8:51 (KJV) Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keeps my saying, he shall never see death.
Hebrews 11:5 (KJV) By faith [by accessing what Jesus provided – Rom 5:1-2] Enoch was translated that he should not see death…
Romans 8:11 (NKJV) He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies… (also John 6:53).
Of course, this is through the renewal of our minds, but you see immortality (or eternal life) is in us and is given to our mortal bodies. Let’s read this verse one more time…
1 Timothy 6:16 (NKJV) …King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality…
You cannot use 1 Timothy 6:16 to say that we cannot receive immortality to our bodies, because the Bible also says God alone is wise and righteous. Yet we have no problem receiving wisdom from God and we have no problem saying that we are the righteousness of God. Immortality is no different. It’s not our own. It’s God’s and it has been shared with us, through Jesus.
Galatians 4:7 (NKJV) Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
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