The distinction between these words should be carefully noted. Zoe is always rendered "life." Psuche is forty times rendered "life," but is fifty-eight times translated by the word "soul." This has tended greatly to confuse the subject, and mislead the reader. If some uniform rendering could have been given to this word, showing it to represent some lower kind of life than zoe, a distinction would have been preserved quite essential to a clear understanding of the subject.

Take these examples: "In him was [zoe] life; and the [zoe] life was the light of men." John 1:4. "And this is the record that God hath given to us [zoen aionion] eternal life, and this [zoe] life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath [zoen] life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not [zoen] life." 1 John 5:11, 12. "We know that we have passed from death unto [zoen] life, because we love the brethren." 1 John 3:14. But in only the second verse from this statement (verse 16) we have this: "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his [puschen] life for us; and we ought to lay down our [psuchas] lives for the brethren."

The psuche-life we derive from Adam; for "so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living [psuchen] soul." The zoe-life we derive from Christ; for "the last Adam was made a [zoopoioun] quickening spirit" (1Corinthians 15:45); that is, the one who gives zoe-life. This Adamic life we have first; we obtain the spiritual zoe-life afterward; for so the record continues (verse 46) "Howbeit that was not first which was spiritual, but that which is [psuchikon] natural; and afterward that which is spiritual." The psuche-life is never said to be eternal or everlasting; the zoe-life is always everlasting; that is to say, whenever the terms "eternal" and "everlasting" are used in connection with "life," it is always the zoe-life. The other is common to all living creatures; it is of the earth, earthy, transitory, and destined to come to an end. And he who possesses nothing better nor higher than this life, must at last perish and become extinct.

How, then, are we to secure a title to the life everlasting?-- Only through Christ; for he alone is the (zoe) life; and he that hath not the Son, hath not life. The psuche-life we obtain through generation; the zoe-life through re-generation. The latter comes to us from another source, through a different channel; it is of a different nature, spiritual and divine. It is the life of God, through which alone we become partakers of the divine nature. "For the law of the Spirit of [zoe] life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Romans 8:2. "The true antithesis," says Trench, "of zoe is thanatos [death]."

This life we do not now in reality possess. According to a text already quoted, God hath given unto us this eternal life (in purpose); but this life "is in the Son." So long as we are united to Christ by faith, so long we have a connection with this life which will, if continued, give it to us in actual possession at last. The evidence and representative of this life for the present time, is the Holy Spirit, which we have in our hearts. For the apostle says, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Romans 8:9. If he is none of Christ's, he has not Christ; and if he have not Christ (or the Son), the other text assures us, he has not (zoe) life. And this is the only life that takes hold upon the future. If a man has not the Spirit of Christ, he has no hold upon this life; if he has that Spirit, then he has a sure pledge of it. And if with that Spirit in his heart he even falls in death, he sleeps "in Jesus " and his ``life is hid with Christ in God." Colossians 3:3. And then "when Christ, who is our (zoe) life, shall appear." we, receiving from his hand the actual gift of the life everlasting, "shall appear with him in glory." Verse 4.

Thus Christ becomes the second Adam, sustaining the same relation to the multitudes endowed with eternal life that the first Adam sustains to the inhabitants of this world, possessed of their temporary, physical, and mortal life. He is the great Life-giver, the author of eternal salvation to all them that believe. But if we say that I every man has eternal life in his own nature by creation, we rob Christ of his high prerogative, and his crowning glory. And this is done by that system of theology which has been dominant in Christendom ever since the great apostasy was accomplished in the Christian church, and the Dark Ages settled down upon the world. And how tenacious still are multitudes of this view which so dishonors our divine Redeemer! In the language of another, "How unwilling dying man is to put his entire dependence on Him who died to redeem him from death! How reluctant he is to give him all the glory of his salvation! We point the reader to a more excellent way -- a way which shall in the end prevail; for finally every creature shall ascribe the praise and glory of his salvation to Him who sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. Let us begin here to anticipate the true strains in that song of adoration.