Editorial August 19, 1939 Issue

Overcoming the Human by the Divine

Duncan Sinclair

Paul does not leave us in any doubt as to the attitude of the Christian towards carnality. In his first letter to the Corinthians, he writes, in terms which it is impossible not to understand, thus (I Corinthians 15:50): "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption;" and (verse 53), "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." The apostle's words are plainly directed against materiality, that which is foreign to the kingdom of God, which kingdom is entered only by the spiritualized consciousness.

In his denunciation of the corruptible, the mortal, Paul was following the Master, Christ Jesus, who, during his sojourn among men, taught not only the omnipotence of God, Spirit, but the powerlessness of matter, demonstrating what he taught by healing all manner of disease. Jesus understood so perfectly the truth of God's supremacy and the fact that spiritual law is perpetually active, that so-called material law, which in belief holds mortals in bondage to corruption, was time and again overthrown by him. Thus, on several occasions he actually overcame the belief of death, raising to life again those who had seemed to die. He proved the corruptible to be a myth, the mortal to be a lie, death to be an illusion. Jesus could do this because he had brought into captivity his "every thought to the obedience of Christ" (II Corinthians 10:5). His last great demonstration over materiality occurred at his ascension, when he rose entirely above the belief that matter is real. By this supreme act of spiritual understanding he proved that the real man is incorruptible, immortal.

The struggle between the spiritual and the material, the incorruptible and the mortal, has gone on ever since mankind glimpsed the significance, the value, of moral and spiritual living. We see this exemplified in the lives of the Hebrew people at all stages of their history, under the tutelage of their prophets and seers. We see it going on throughout all the centuries since Jesus spoke his burning words of spiritual zeal, and the disciples echoed his message. The struggle still goes on; and it will not cease until victory rests on the side of eternal Spirit, and "death is swallowed up in victory."

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