(Rev. xxi. 2, 9, 10). But He will never die again (Rom. vi. 10; Rev. i. 18). Christ's tomb, whether at Jerusalem or at Medina, is empty now and for ever; and by His Atonement and His Resurrection He hath "abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the Gospel" (2 Tim. i. 10).

193. M. Your Bible says that death is the wages of sin (Rom. vi. 23)—death of the body and death of the spirit, that is to say eternity in hell (Rev. xx. 14). Did Christ undergo for men both parts of the penalty, eternity in hell as well as death of the body?

C. No. He does not endure eternal existence in hell.

M. How then can you say that He bore the punishment of your sins?

C. We do not say so, for it is of the nature of punishment that it cannot be borne except by the guilty, and Christ was without sin. If an innocent man suffers instead of a guilty one, it is incorrect to say that the innocent man was punished, though he endured suffering for, on behalf of, or even instead of, the criminal. The Bible says, therefore, "Christ suffered for us," . . . and He "bore our sins in His own body on (or up to)the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed" (1 Pet. ii. 21-24). Notice that the word punishment is not used.

194. M. Does Christ deliver those who believe

in Him from both parts of the penalty, from the death of the body as well as from eternity in hell?

C. (vide § 182). He saves from the death of the body those who are alive in Him and are found living at His Second Coming (1 Cor. xv. 51), and He then raises to an eternal life of purity and happiness those who have died in the true faith, thus overcoming death and giving them deliverance from and victory over it (1 Cor. xv. 54-57). Moreover, He delivers His faithful followers even now in one sense from the death of the body, for death to them is devoid of terror and is therefore called sleep in the New Testament. In this sense "Jesus Christ . . . abolished (annulled) death" (2 Tim. i. 10), since He has delivered from its fear and sting those who, before believing and receiving the new life which He gives (John iii. 3, 5; vi. 50, 58; xi. 25, 26), "through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. ii. 14, 15).

195. M. Does it not seem to you, then, a strange thing that the part of the penalty that Christ underwent is the part from which He does not deliver you, since you must die in the body, and the part which He does not undergo is the part from which He does deliver you, that is from hell-fire?

C. Hell-fire is the doom of the finally impenitent, of those, that is, whose hearts are hardened against the love of Christ, who died to save them from their sins (Matt. i. 21). True believers in Him are not