The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

III. Christ the Source of Our Immortality

1. CHRIST CAME TO “RESTORE” RIGHTEOUS TO LIFE

In book 4 (“Of True Wisdom and Religion”) Lactantius presents the Christian faith in sharp contrast with futile pagan views, and presents the story of salvation through Christ (chapters six to ten). Then, in chapter eleven, he comes to the cause and necessity of the Incarnation—that “there might be no nation at all under heaven to which the hope of immortality should be denied.” ¹⁸ CFF1 1037.3

In chapter twelve Lactantius deals with the “Life, Death, and Resurrection” of Christ—how He was “born of man,” and how He “should twice come to the earth,” in two contrasting advents—the first time “clothed with flesh,” having “assumed the form of a man and the condition of mortality,” like other men. And all this was that He might suffer death and rise again, and return to His Father above. Then “He shall come again with majesty and glory to judge every soul, and to restore the righteous to life”—and to introduce the “golden age,” with “righteousness and peace.” ¹⁹ And all this is based on the word of the prophets as the Biblical basis for his position. CFF1 1037.4

2. TOOK OUR MORTALITY TO RESTORE IMMORTALITY

Chapter twenty-four tells how this “teacher sent from heaven,” with His “divine nature” and possessing “immortality,” took to Himself “a mortal body,” for “mortal eyes” could not endure the glory of heavenly majesty. It was necessary that He “closely resemble man,” to provide overcoming power, for “if” He were “immortal,” and not subject to death, He could “by no means propose an example to man.” So He was God, but “clothed with a mortal body.” But He must be subject to death and suffering. ²⁰ Thus, though “clothed with mortal flesh,” He was not born “of a mortal on both sides,” but was “heavenly even in the form of man.” CFF1 1038.1

He took a place “in the middle between God and man,” and became the “mediator” (note 6), “that He might be able to lead back men to God—that is, to immortality.” Man must “earn [“obtain,” mote 1] immortality.” It is not his inherently. And Christ “bestows on those who conquer [sin, and the flesh, the crown and reward of immortality.” ²¹ CFF1 1038.2

God “determined to set man free,” and sent “His ambassador [Jesus] to the earth” that He might “open the way of righteousness,” and that “man might attain to eternal life.” And all this that He might hold out “the hope of safety,” “laying down His life and of taking it again.” ²² And once again, in book five Lactantius refers to the “lofty reward of immortality.” ²³ His emphasis is unmistakable. CFF1 1038.3

3. IMMORTALITY IS OFFERED TO ALL

In book six (“Of True Worship”) Lactantius directly addressing Emperor Constantine, adverts to the well-known “two ways”—“the one which leads to heaven, the other which sinks to hell,” or of “life” and “death.” This is because “immortality is promised to the righteous, and everlasting punishment is threatened to the unrighteous.” ²⁴ These are the inevitable “rewards” and “punishments.” And in it all God “denies immortality to ho human being” who chooses aright. This Lactantius refers to as the “reward of immortality.” He who “follows truth and righteousness” will be rewarded with “perpetual light” while those who choose evil “must be borne to the setting of the sun, and to darkness.” ²⁵ CFF1 1039.1

4. CONTRASTING ENDS OF THE TWO WAYS

But Lactantius warns of passing “the point from which there is now no return,” and of falling “headlong into a deep abyss.” Such as “follow after death,” having turned away from God, “truly will be cast down to hell, and be confined to everlasting [aionion] punishment.” But the “heavenly way,” leading upward, extends “hope beyond the present,” while the road of the “wicked and the unrighteous” is “downward and on the decline.” ²⁶ CFF1 1039.2

These are the ways “God has assigned to human life”—“temporal evils followed by eternal goods,” or “temporal goods followed by eternal evils.” But the “enemy,” among other deterrents, “dashes philosophy before their eyes, that he may blind them with the appearance of light, lest any one should grasp and hold fast the truth.” ²⁷ Such were Lactantius’ clear concepts. CFF1 1039.3

In chapter seven (“The Way of Error and of Truth”) Lactantius warns against the “way of destruction and death,“ with its devious windings, that “plunges them into death.” And he urges the way of “truth, and wisdom, and virtue and justice.” ²⁸ The way of life, he counsels, is to be sedulously followed as a mariner follows his course over the deep, observing the sun and the heavenly lights. So we are to follow the “everlasting and unchangeable” law of God and the “great Master and Ruler of all, God.” ²⁹ CFF1 1039.4