`So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their

sleep' (Job 14:12).

`They shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake' (Jer. 51:57).

`Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death' (Psa. 13:3).

`Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake' (Dan. 12:2).

`And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose' (Matt. 27:52).

`Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep ... Then said Jesus unto them plainly,

Lazarus is dead' (John 11:11,14).

`For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his

fathers, and saw corruption' (Acts 13:36).

`For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep' (1 Cor. 11:30).

`They also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished ... Christ ... the firstfruits of them that slept' (1 Cor.

15:18,20) .

`We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed' (1 Cor. 15:51).

`Even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him' (1 Thess. 4:14).

`Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him' (1 Thess. 5:10).

The Psalmist apparently had no idea of the intermediate state of blessedness prior to resurrection; he says `When

I awake', (not during the interval) `I shall be satisfied', and satisfied because he will awake in the likeness of his

In what does this `likeness' consist? Here in this life we are enjoined to have `the MIND' which was in Christ

Jesus (Phil. 2:5) but to look forward to a glorious transfiguration, when this body of our humiliation shall be

fashioned like unto His glorious BODY (Phil. 3:21). Romans 8 follows this order. First the Spirit of Christ

indwelling the believer now and `quickening' his mortal body, but looking forward to `the redemption of the body';

for God has predestinated every redeemed believer to be `conformed to the image of His Son' (Rom. 8:9-11,23,29).

`As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly' (1 Cor. 15:49).

If the immortality of the soul be Scriptural, the Word of God will at least say so. We find that `immortality'

whether aphthartos, aphtharsis incorruptible, incorruption (1 Tim. 1:17; Rom. 2:7 and 2 Tim. 1:10) and athanasia,

deathlessness, (1 Cor. 15:53,54; 1 Tim. 6:16), is used either of God or Christ, or of the believer in resurrection, and

in no other way. It is something that men seek, which evidently they do not possess, and the answer to their seeking

is eternal life:

`To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life'

(Rom. 2:7) .

Immortality will be `put on' at the resurrection and not before (1 Cor. 15:53,54). Christ alone, the King of kings

and the Lord of lords, He `only hath immortality' (1 Tim. 6:14-16). 2 Corinthians 5 speaks of the present body as `a

tent' which will be `dissolved'. The apostle does not wish for an `unclothed' state but that he might be `clothed

upon ... that mortality might be swallowed up of life' (2 Cor. 5:1-4). What this figure means, we learn by its earlier

use in 1 Corinthians 15:54 :

`When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be

brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory'.

The believer's satisfaction awaits the realization of `that blessed hope' when:

`We shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is' (1 John 3:2).