Pastor Bola Bello
Immortality is not the same as resurrection. Immortality is not an unending life; it is simply the life of God in man.
[biblegateway passage=”1 Corinthians 15: 38 – 39″ display=”1 Corinthians 15: 38 – 39″] Man was not made of an ephemeral substance. Man is both a mortal and an immortal person as a result of the breath of God that was breathed upon him at creation. God expected man to make a choice between the ephemeral and the immortal. What was given to man at creation was a terrestrial body and a celestial life. If Adam was not a spiritual person that had the immortal Ife, he could not have had the fellowship he had with God at the beginning.
[biblegateway passage=”Genesis 3: 1 – 9″ display=”Genesis 3: 1 – 9″]
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a test of Adam’s loyalty to God. But Adam ate the fruit of that tree and died, subjecting the whole human race unto death too.
Literality, there are 3 trees that are planted in the midst of men that have implications.
The first is the tree of life. This is a template of the word of God, the law, the Prophets, the gospels, the Epistles and the Revelation. The scripture is a kind of tree that produces life to those who read and do what is in it. So, the more the word of God you engage, the more the life of God is embedded in you.
The second is the tree of pleasure. What the tree of pleasure seeks to fight in us is the immortal life that has been imputed into us. The effect of pleasure in us is the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. [biblegateway passage=”Daniel 1: 5 – 8″ display=”Daniel 1: 5 – 8″]
[biblegateway passage=”1 Corinthians 15: 50″ display=”1 Corinthians 15: 50″]
Man can transpose between the terrestrial and the celestial. The meal of the terrestrial body is pleasure and convenience. The terrestrial body doesn’t want the celestial body to dominate it. Sin is what makes the body to be corrupted. We need to go from having a terrestrial body to a celestial one before we can have an inheritance in the Kingdom. Without the eternal substance, we can never inherit immortal life. The last set/generation of believers is the one that will not see death.
[biblegateway passage=”Hebrews 5: 1 – 3″ display=”Hebrews 5: 1 – 3″] There is no greater infirmity in the body than death. Death is an infirmity of the mind, we should not allow it to cripple us.
[biblegateway passage=”John 11: 25 – 26″ display=”John 11: 25 – 26″] Resurrection, as well as immortality, is not an occasion, it a person. The reason why Christians are still dying even after having the life of God resident in us is that we are yet to believe in immortality.