(c) The ultimate result of tliis indwelling of the Spirit of Christ is to assert the complete triumph of life over death even in the bodies of believers (Ro 8'M- The full manifestation of this life will bring deliverance for creation (v.^^) from the bondage of corruption {(pdopd). For St. Paul, then, immortality is not ddavacrla, but dcpdapcria. It is an integral part of the triumph of the King- dom of God, bernnning with the Resurrection of Christ (1 Co 15=0-23: dTrapxv Xpiards).
(3) The corporate nature of the future life. — The last point that comes out from the study of St. Paul's teaching on this subject is the corporate nature of the future existence, in strong contrast to the immortality presented by Plotinus and the later Neo-Platonists — an immortality of ' the Alone with the Alone.' The indwelling Spirit of Christ is the ground of unity, as well as the assurance of immortality ; the future life of bliss is the life of a blessed community of glorified persons, united to Christ and like Him morally and spiritually, finding their joy in the activities of eternal life, doing the will of God.
The Pauline view of the subject is also bound up with the Parousia and with the closely allied subject of the resurrection of believers. Hence the reader is referred to the articles on these subjects in this Dictionary for supplementary discussion of the Pauline teaching.
2. Petrine and other primitiye teaching. — For
the sake of convenience, the general teaching of the Catholic Epistles and the Pastorals is taken together with the Petrine doctrine of immortality. The doctrine of 1 Peter may be said to represent the general standpoint of the primitive Apostolic Church on this matter, while the Pauline and the Johannine teaching contain developments which profoundly affected the thought of the Church but which were never wholly understood and accepted.
(1) The First Epistle of Peter shows the same eschatological background that we find in St. Paul and everywhere in the primitive Church, and the same view of the ethical value of the Resurrection of Christ : ' who through him are be- lievers in God, which raised him from the dead, and gave him glory ; so that your faith and hope might be in God' (1 P pi).
But there is nothing of the extraordinary development of the consequences of the Resurrec- tion-life of Christ in the Spirit, and the resultant view of the Kingdom as already manifested in its working. The most important passage for our purpose is 1 P 3^^'=", the 'Descent into Hell' of the Creeds.
Eendel Harris (Side-lights on NT Research, 190S, p. 208) has proposed the emendation ev aj koI 'Eviox on the supposition that 'EvMX bas dropped out by haplography, and would refer the passage to a reminiscence of the visit of Enoch to the con- demned watchers and his intercession for them (see Enoch xii., xiii.)- But the interruption to the general sense of the passage ia too serious, except on a very low estimate of the logical VOL. I. — 39
sequence of thought in the Epistle, to admit of the probability of this ingenious suggestion.
If the passage be interpreted to refer to the visit of Christ to the souls in Sheol during the interval between His Death and His Resurrection, then this is the only NT passage which supports such a conception, and it is a possible view that the Christian interpretation of the passage has been influenced by the strong belief which grew tip in tlie primitive Church in the descent of Christ to Hades. But the passage requires fuller treatment than space allows of here (see, further, art. DE- SCENT INTO Hades). If the credal interpretation be accepted, the passage is evidence rather for an intermediate state than for any clearly defined doctrine of the immortality of the soul. It does not necessarily imply more than is implied in the later Jewish view of Sheol. Still more perplexing is 4^, if the same interpretation be attached to it. But it is possible to interpret both passages of the preaching of Noah to those who though dead now, were alive at the time when the Spirit of Christ in Noah preached to them. Then the last clause of 4^ may be evidence for the future state of the condemned. After judgment they continue to live in spirit in relation to God. Apart from this the writer's attention is fixed on the coming • glory,' ' the crown of glory,' to be revealed at the Parousia.
(2) Hebrews. — The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews retains the eschatological background common to the early Church, but adds to our in- quiry one important new conception — that which is implied in the term rereKnojiiivos. Christ in His present risen state is spoken of as rerfXeicofxevos (7--) ; the spirits in the heavenly Jerusalem are called the spirits of 'the perfected righteous,' diKawv reTeXeLUfiivuv (12=3 ; cf. also 5^ 11^», Lk IS^^). It is difficult to find the Pauline conception of a glorified body here. It would rather seem to present the Alexandrian Judaistic point of view that the righteous immediately after death reach their perfected state of bliss in full communion with God. The writer undoubtedly believes in the Resurrection of Christ and also in the ethical aspect of it already mentioned, but he does not seem to carry on, as St. Paul does, the conse- quences of this to the bodily resuri'ection of be- lievers. But he clearly looks forward to a (xa^^ar- la-fios for the people of God, a heavenly city, and a corporate immortality, all based upon the pre- sent risen life of Christ.