By the Scripture’s Own Writers
Life
Definition
The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic objects and dead organisms. The distinguishing manifestations of life are growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally.
In the fullest Scriptural sense, as applied to intelligent persons, life is existence with the right thereto. It may be in heaven or on earth. Life is brought about by the “life principle” or “life force” (spirit) that originates with God, activating a physical or spiritual body.
Divine: Life of the highest order, like that of the Divine Being, Jehovah God Himself. Reserved only for Christ Jesus and His 144,000 Kingdom ruling associates.—Acts 17:29; 1 John 3:1-3.
Immortality: Deathlessness, that is, the life principle of the person possessing it cannot be taken away by anyone except the Almighty Himself. Dependent only upon Jehovah, but not on any created thing.
Incorruptibility: Referring to the organism that cannot deteriorate, or be hurt or injured by any except Jehovah God. Incorruptibility and immortality are inseparably linked with the Kingdom. No others besides the Kingdom members in heaven receive these qualities of life.
Everlasting life: Life in a perfect organism, fleshly for humans who gain life on earth, spiritual for faithful angels who continue to live in heaven. No other creature can justly take such gift away. God through His organization protects the life of such individual for all eternity. Such a person, by his very creation, is dependent upon food, subject to God’s laws governing created things.
Jehovah Has Immortal Life, Incorruptibility; Therefore Life Has Always Existed
1 Timothy 1:17 “Now to the King of eternity, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Psalm 90:2 “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”
Jeremiah 10:10 “But Jehovah is the true God; He is the living God, and an everlasting King: at His wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to abide His indignation.”
Jehovah the Source and Giver of Life
Psalm 36:9 “For with You is the fountain of life: in Your light shall we see light.”
James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect present is from above, for it comes down from the Father of the celestial lights, and with Him there is not a variation of the turning of the shadow.”
Acts 17:25, 26, 29 “Neither is He attended to by human hands as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives to all persons life and breath and all things. And He made out of one man every nation of men, to dwell upon the entire surface of the earth, and He decreed the appointed seasons and the set limits of the dwelling of men. Seeing, therefore, that we are the progeny of God, we ought not to imagine that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, like something sculptured by the art and the contrivance of man.”
Psalm 104:29, 30 “You take away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. You send forth Your spirit, they are created.”
Job 12:9, 10 “Who knows not … that the hand of Jehovah .. . in whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?”
Life Comes to Obedient Mankind Through Christ Jesus
1 John 2:2 “And He is a propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, yet not for ours only but also for the whole world’s.”
John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that He gave His only-begotten Son, in order that everyone exercising faith in Him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.”
John 5:26 “For just as the Father has in Himself the gift of life, so He has granted to the Son to have also in Himself the gift of life.”
John 6:51 “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; If anyone eats of this bread he will live forever; and, for a fact, the bread that I shall give is My flesh in behalf of the life of the world.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages sin pays is death, but the gift God gives is everlasting life by Christ Jesus our Lord.”
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him: ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’ “
Adam and Eve Had Conditional Right by Virtue of Their Perfection
Genesis 1:27-31 “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that move upon the earth…. And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.”
Deuteronomy 32:4 “The Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice: a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He.”
Genesis 2:9, 17 “And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. … but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.”
This Right Forfeited Forever by Adam and Eve
Genesis 3:17-19 “And unto Adam He said, Because you have hearkened unto the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it: cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to you; and you shall eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return unto the ground; for out of it were you taken: for dust you are, and unto dust shall you return.”
1 Timothy 2:14 “Also Adam was not deceived, but the woman was thoroughly deceived and came to be in transgression.”
Hebrews 6:4-6 “For it is impossible as regards those who have once for all been enlightened and who have tasted the heavenly free gift and who have become partakers of holy spirit and who have tasted the right word of God and powers of the coming system of things, but who have fallen away, to revive them again to repentance, because they impale the Son of God afresh for themselves and expose Him to public shame.”
Hebrews 10:26, 27 “For if we practice sin willfully after having received the accurate knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins left, but there is a certain fearful expectation of judgment and there is a fiery jealousy that is going to consume those in opposition.”
All Men Born Without the Right to Life
Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Matthew 7:18 “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, neither can a rotten tree produce fine fruit.”
Hebrews 9:27 “And as it is reserved for men to die once for all time, but after this a judgment.”
Mankind Considered Dead by God
Luke 9:60 “But He said to him: ‘Let the dead bury their dead, but you go away and declare abroad the Kingdom of God.’ “
Ephesians 2:1 “Furthermore, it is you God made alive though you were dead in your trespasses and sins.”
1 Timothy 5:6 “But the one that goes in for sensual gratification is dead though she is living.”
God Does Not Owe Anyone Life
Romans 9:14-24 “What shall we say, then? Is there injustice with God? Never may that become so! For He says to Moses: ‘I will have mercy upon whomever I do have mercy, and I will show compassion to whomever I do show compassion.’ So, then, it depends, not upon the one wishing nor upon the one running, but upon God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: ‘For this very purpose I have let you remain, that in connection with you I may demonstrate My power and that My Name may be published throughout all the earth.’ So, then, upon whom He wishes, He has mercy, but whom He wishes, He hardens. You will therefore say to me: ‘Why does He yet find fault? For who has withstood His express will?’ O man, who, then, really are you to be answering back to God? Shall the thing molded say to him that molded it, ‘Why did you make me this way?’ What? Does not the potter have authority over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for an honorable use, another for a dishonorable use? If, now, God, although having the will to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, tolerated with much longsuffering vessels of wrath made fit for destruction, in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,… what of it?”
The Vast Majority of Men Now Will Not Get Everlasting Life
Matthew 7:13, 14 “Go in through the narrow gate; because broad and spacious is the road leading off into destruction, and many are the ones going in through it; whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.”
Christ’s Ransom Sacrifice Provides Opportunity for Life
Matthew 20:28 “The Son of man came, not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give His soul a ransom in exchange for many.”
1 Timothy 2:5, 6 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a corresponding ransom for all—this is what is to be witnessed to at its own particular times.”
1 John 2:2 “And He is the propitiatory sacrifice for our sins, yet not for ours only but also for the whole world’s.”
Hebrews 9:26 “Otherwise, He would have to suffer often from the world’s foundation. But now He has manifested Himself once for all time at the consummation of the systems of things to put sin away through the sacrifice of Himself.”
Those Accepting Christ Considered as Living
John 5:24 “Most truly I say to you, He that hears My word and believes Him that sent Me has everlasting life, and he does not come into judgment but has passed over from death to life.”
Romans 8:6 “For the minding of the flesh means death, but the minding of the spirit means life and peace.”
Luke 20:38 “He is a God, not of the dead, but of the living, for they are all living from His standpoint.”
Future Life or Life Right in God’s Sight More Important than Present Life and Its Benefits
Matthew 10:28, 39 “And do not become fearful of those who kill the body but can not kill the soul; but rather be in fear of Him that can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna. He that finds his soul will lose it, and he that loses his soul for My sake will find it.”
Matthew 18:8 “If, then, your hand or your foot is making you stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you; it is finer for you to enter into life maimed or lame than to be thrown with two hands or two feet into the everlasting fire.”
Matthew 6:25 “On this account I say to you: Stop being anxious about your souls as to what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your bodies as to what you will wear. Does not the soul mean more than food and the body than clothing?”
1 Peter 1:24 ” ‘All flesh’ is as vegetation,.. . the vegetation becomes withered, and the flower falls off.”
Psalm 144:4 “Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passes away.”
James 4:14 “Whereas you do not know what your life will be tomorrow. For you are a mist appearing for a little while and then disappearing.”
Psalm 102:11 “My days are like a shadow that declines; and I am withered like grass.”
Ecclesiastes 8:13 “But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he fears not before God.”
Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own soul, he cannot be My disciple.”
Christ Granted Immortal Life for His Faithful Course
1 Timothy 6:16 “The one alone having immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom not one of men has seen or can see. To Him be honor and might everlasting. Amen.”
Hebrews 7:15, 16 “And it is still more abundantly clear that with a similarity to Melchizedek there arises another priest, who has become such, not according to the Law of a commandment depending upon the flesh, but according to the power of an indestructible life.”
Ephesians 1:19-21 “It is according to the operation of the mightiness of His strength, with which He has operated in the case of the Christ when He raised Him up from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above every government and authority and power and lordship and every name named, not only in this system of things, but also in that to come.”
Romans 6:9 “For we know that Christ, now that He has been raised up from the dead, dies no more; death is master over Him no more.”
Life and Incorruptibility Brought to Light by Christ
2 Timothy 1:10 “Our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has abolished death but has shed light upon life and incorruption through the good news.”
Romans 7:18-25 “For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there resides nothing good; for ability to wish is present with me, but ability to work out what is right is not present. For the good that I wish I do not do, but the bad that I do not wish is what I practice…. I behold in my members another law warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive to sin’s law that is in my members. Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from the body undergoing this death? Thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Ephesians 2:12 “You were at that particular time without Christ, alienated from the state of Israel and strangers to the covenants of the promise, and you had no hope and were without God in the world.”
Immortal Life Given to Christ’s Body Members for Faithfulness Until Death
Romans 2:7 “Everlasting life to those who are seeking glory and honor and incorruptibleness by endurance in work that is good.”
James 1:12 “Happy is the man that keeps on enduring trial, because on becoming approved he will receive the crown of life, which Jehovah promised to those who continue loving Him.”
1 John 2:25 “Furthermore, this is the promised thing which He Himself promised us, the life everlasting.”
Revelation 2:7, 10 “To him that conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. . . . Prove yourself faithful even with the danger of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
1 John 3:2 “We do know that whenever He is made manifest we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.”
Apart from God and Christ Immortal Life Limited to 144,000 Persons; Only for Heavenly, Divine Persons
Revelation 7:4-8 “And I heard the number of those who were sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel.”
Revelation 14:1-3 “And I saw, and look! the Lamb standing upon the mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand having His name and the Name of His Father written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound out of heaven.. . . And they are singing as if a new song . .. and no one was able to master that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand.”
Angels Do Not Have Immortality and Incorruptibility
2 Peter 2:4 “God did not hold back from punishing the angels that sinned, but, by throwing them into Tartarus, delivered them to pits of dense darkness to be reserved for judgment.”
Jude 6 “And the angels than did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling-place He has reserved with eternal bonds under dense darkness for the judgment of the great day.”
Hebrews 2:14 “Therefore, since the ‘young children’ are sharers of blood and flesh, He also similarly partook of the same things, that through His death He might destroy the one having the means to cause death, that is, the devil.”
Isaiah 14:12, 15 “How are you fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning? how are you cut down to the ground, that did lay low the nations! Yet you shall be brought down to sheol, to the uttermost parts of the pit.”
Ezekiel 28:17-19 “You have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: .. . you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore have I brought forth a fire from the midst of you; it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold you. . . . you shall nevermore have any being.”
1 Peter 3:19, 20 “He went His way and preached to the spirits in prison, which had once been disobedient.”
“Divine Nature” for Christ and 144,000 in Heaven
2 Peter 1:4 “Through these things He has freely given us the precious and very grand promises, that through these you may become sharers in divine nature, escaping from the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
1 Corinthians 15:40-50 “And there are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and that of the earthly bodies is a different kind…. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised up in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised up in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised up in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised up a spiritual body…. we shall bear also the image of the heavenly One. However, this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s Kingdom, neither does corruption inherit incorruption.”
Life in Spirit Organism for Angels
Hebrews 2:6, 14, 16 ” ‘What is man so that You are mindful of him, or the son of man so that You look after him?’ Therefore, since the ‘young children’ are sharers of blood and flesh, He also similarly partook of the same things. … For He is really not assisting angels at all, but He is assisting Abraham’s seed.”
Hebrews 1:4, 5 “He has become better than the angels to the extent that He has inherited a name more excellent than theirs. For example, to which one of the angels did He ever say: ‘You are My Son; today I have become Your Father’?”
“Human Nature” for Those Living on Earth
1 Corinthians 15:45-49 ” ‘The first man Adam became a living soul.’… the first is, not that which is spiritual, but that which is physical, … The first man is out of the earth and made of dust…. As the one made of dust is, so those made of dust are also; … we have borne the image of the one made of dust.”
Resurrection Change to Immortal Life for 144,000
1 Corinthians 15:51, 52 “Look! I tell you a sacred secret: We shall not all fall asleep in death, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, during the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised up incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
1 Thessalonians 4:16 “Those who are dead in union with Christ will rise first.”
Some Living May Never Die
John 11:26 “He that exercises faith in Me, even though he dies, will come to life, and everyone that is living and exercises faith in Me will never die at all.”
Resurrection Provides Opportunity for Life for Others
John 5:28, 29 “The hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.”
Acts 24:15 “There is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Everlasting Life Granted to Tested Persons on Earth After the End of Christ’s 1,000-Year Reign
Revelation 20:5, 7-12 “(The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) … Now as soon as the thousand years have been ended, satan will be let loose out of his prison, and he will go out to mislead those nations in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. The number of these is as the sand of the sea. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. But another scroll was opened; it is the scroll of life. And the dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds.”
Luke 20:35, 36 “But those who have been counted worthy of gaining that system of things and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. In fact, neither can they die any more, for they are like the angels, and they are God’s children by being children of the resurrection.”
Life Not Possible by the Law, Nor Can It Be Legislated into People
2 Corinthians 3:6 “Who has indeed adequately qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, not of a written code, but of spirit; for the written code condemns to death, but the spirit makes alive.”
Galatians 3:21 “If a law had been given which was able to give life, righteousness would actually have been by means of law.”
Life for All Persons Dependent on Jehovah Forever
John 17:3 “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of You, the only true God, and of the one whom You sent forth, Jesus Christ.”
Psalm 27:4 “One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire in His temple.”
Dedication Essential to Start on Road to Life
Hebrews 10:7 “Then I said, ‘Look! I am come (in the roll of the book it is written about Me) to do Your will, O God.’ “
Mark 1:9-11 “In the course of those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. And immediately on coming up out of the water He saw the heavens being parted, and, like a dove, the spirit coming down upon Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: ‘You are My Son, the beloved; I have approved you.’ “
Matthew 28:19 “Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit.”
Progress to Maturity Must Be Made
Hebrews 6:1-3 “For this reason, now that we have left the elementary doctrine about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying a foundation again, namely, repentance from dead works, and faith toward God, the teaching on baptisms and the laying on of the hands, the resurrection of the dead and everlasting judgment. And this we will do, if God indeed permits.”
1 Corinthians 14:20 “Brothers, do not become young children in powers of understanding, but be babes as to evil; yet become full-grown in powers of understanding.”
Hebrews 5:12-14 “For, indeed, although you ought to be teachers in view of the time, you again need someone to teach you from the beginning the first principles of the sacred pronouncements of God, and you have become such as need milk, not solid food. For everyone that partakes of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to mature people, to those who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong.”
Hebrews 10:38, 39 “‘But My righteous one will live by reason of faith,’ and, ‘if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.’ Now we are not the kind that shrink back to destruction, but the kind that have faith to the preserving alive of the soul.”
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