My view of
the immortality of what is created - the creature - is different to yours. Most Christians misunderstand what immortality is, I've noticed. Not all Christians - but most.
ABSOLUTE TRUTH: Immortality
is dependent on life - eternal life - forever and ever.
The only source of life is the Creator. The only source of all life
is the only source of immortality, because
immortality is dependent on life - eternal life.
Consider God's creation, but do not consider
the life God gives to the created thing AS THOUGH the created thing is the Creator (the source of that life).
If you do you will misunderstand the immortality of the created thing:
Genesis 2:7 (Septuagint): καὶ ἔπλασεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον χοῦν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς καὶ ἐνεφύσησεν εἰς τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ πνοὴν ζωῆς καὶ ἐγένετο ὁ ἄνθρωπος εἰς ψυχὴν ζῶσαν.
"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [zoe]; and man became a living [zao] soul [psuche]."
Zoe: life. Source: God, who is Spirit.
Zao: to be alive | to be living. In the case of created human beings, always associated with living in the body God created human beings to exist in.
Eternal Zao: Immortality.
Eternal Zoe: Eternal life. Source: God
Before Adam
began to die,
he was living | alive [zao] forever, freely able to eat of the tree of life. God had breathed the Spirit of life [zoe] into Him and he had become a living [zao] being.
That's immortality.
On the other hand,
Zoe (life)
- the source - is associated with
the Spirit of Christ / God,
in Whom is life.
In the case of human beings who are created,
zao (not zoe) is always associated with being alive | living
in THE created human body that God designed human beings to live in. (God did not create a spirit and place it on the earth calling it Adam).
Adam died. He died because the creature - the created thing -
is not the source of the (eternal) life that it's dependent on. Adam
lost the only source of his life - and because
immortality (being alive forever) is dependent on eternal life, Adam began to die
.
Life is in the Word of God - the Logos - the Creator of all things. (John 1:4). The Word of God said to Adam:
"Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:
for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17).
In the Hebrew it reads,
"dying you will die".
But Satan deceived mankind - and the deception started with these words:
"Ye shall NOT surely die". (Genesis 3:4).
Before he sinned, Adam believed the lie. Believing the lie was in effect calling God a liar.
Those who believe that it's impossible for the CREATED thing - that
does not possess eternal life
in itself -
to lose its immortality if it sins against God,
do not understand what immortality is, because immortality
is dependent on having eternal life.
Also, because the created thing is not the source of life, the
created thing could also NOT produce its own
resurrection from the death of its body. Only the Word of God - who is the Creator of all things - could do that - by taking on human flesh, and dying for the created human being AS a created human being (though not a
created human being Himself),
and rising again.
Eternal life (zoe] is in the Word of God, and only comes through believing the Word of God.
Having
the Spirit of Christ in you is the gospel - because
the Spirit of Christ in you will make your mortal (dying) body alive and your mortal body will be resurrected from the dead, and then you will have become
zao forever - immortal.
The first time a created human being lost his immortality, he died. But the created thing is STILL not the Creator, so we will always need to have a reverential fear of Him
who is able to destroy both soul and body in gehenna,
and we need to fear Him and know that He is able to destroy both soul and body in gehenna
even when we have become immortal - because
even though immortality means being alive in your own created (and resurrected) body forever, (without dying),
it does not mean that you possess the eternal life [zoe] in yourself that your immortality will always, always, always be dependent on.
This is why Christ (the Son of the living God) ALONE
possesses life [zoe] in Himself (from eternity):
"For as the Father hath life [zōḗ] in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life [zōḗ] in himself." (John 5:26).
Jesus has (eternal) life [zoe] in Himself.
This is why He ALONE possesses His immortality:
"Who
alone possesses immortality and lives in unapproachable light, whom no human has ever seen or is able to see. To him be honor and eternal power! Amen." 1 Timothy 6:16
I'm not surprised that
@Spiritual Israelite is also confused by this. It's scary how FEW Christians there are in 2025 who understand it.
They think immortality means God created other Gods besides Himself that will possess eternal life in themselves (like ONLY GOD does) which (eternal life) is the source of immortality.
But God - the Spirit of God - is the ONLY source of all life.
So the way most Christians understand immortality, they seem to think that immortality means that God created other Gods besides Himself, because they think that the source of our immortality is ourselves - instead of GOD being the source.
If the source of immortality is eternal life and the source of eternal life is not YOU, then you CAN lose your immortality..
The first time a created human being lost his immortality, he died. But the created thing is STILL not the Creator, so we will always need to have a reverential fear of Him
who is able to destroy both soul and body in gehenna,
This is the lie those who believed they cannot lose the source of immortality (Adam & Eve) believed:
"You will NOT surely die".