Looking For the Living Among the Spiritually Dead
Bernard Pyron

In Luke 23 women from Galilee came to the tomb where Christ was laid, bringing spices to anoint his body. But in Luke 24: 4-6, "And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee."

At this point Christ was not dead. He had risen. So the two angels at the tomb said to the women, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?"

Christ said in John 10: 10, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

He is talking about spiritual life, that he came to bring spiritual life and it more abundantly. In the body of a man, Christ died on the Cross to make it possible for him to bring spiritual life to those who became his own. He overcame physical death, and rose from the dead. Likewise, in him we can overcome spiritual death and in him rise from that death into life.

Jesus said in Luke 9: 60, "Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God."

The physically dead cannot bury the dead. So Christ is talking about being spiritually dead.

I Corinthians 2: 14 says "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

The natural man is two part man, with only body and mind. But man was created in the image of God (Genesis 1: 26) which implies that because God is a Three Part God, that man was created to have three parts, body, mind and man's own spirit, which survives physical death.

James 2: 26 says "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

The human body and mind are dead without man's spirit.

"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20. But ye have not so learned Christ;
21. If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22. That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Ephesians 4: 17-24

Look especially at verses 18 and 21 above. Other Gentiles have their understanding darkened. But in verse 21 Paul says "If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus." After Christ reaches down and gives us ears to hear and eyes to see his truth, then we put off the old man, and are renewed, or transformed as Romans 12: 2 puts it, and put on the new man in Christ Jesus.

We rejoice that God reaches down and gives the natural man, dead in his spirit, new life as the ability to hear the message that Christ came to bring spiritual life, and that as Ephesians 4: 21 says is now taught the truth, whereas before he did not have ears to hear the truth and rejected it.

John 8: 31-32 says "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

But the question "Why Seek Ye The Living Among The Dead?" has other implications.

Those who are two part beings, or natural men, are spiritually dead without the renewing and transforming ability given by Christ to hear his truth and come to love it. The question can become "Why look for the living, the spiritually alive, along the spiritually dead?"

This is where the dialectic argument comes in. The dialectic argument tries to debate the absolute truth of scripture and find compromises, loopholes, places where there is both yea and nay, ambiguity, or the "Yes, But" reply.

Those who have a relationship of feeling with a group who are two part beings and spiritually dead want to find arguments which justify - before men (Luke 16: 15) - that relationship of affection with the spiritually dead, the organized spiritually dead.

But Christ talks about the two-edged sword in Matthew 10: 34-25, the two edged sword of truth – the one which threatens relationships:

“I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law."

“The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine” (II Timothy 4:3).

I Timothy 4: 1-2 says "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the
latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2.Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a
hot iron;"

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy..........Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away..........Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith." II Timothy 3: 1-2, 5, 7-8

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for
that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and
that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;" II Thessalonians 2: 3