1 Timothy 6:15–16

The Greek word, athanasia, immortality, occurs only three times in the Scriptures. First, as to God Himself. He only has immortality. It is inherent in Him — not given, not gained, but His, belonging to His own nature and being (1 Tim. 6:16). The other two cases (1 Cor. 15:53-54) concern the saints alive on this earth when the Lord comes.

When it is said of God that "He only has immortality," the reference is to essential, not to conferred, being. Even those who misuse the text do not deny that the angels are immortal. Our Lord Himself said this is their condition, and that the risen saints will be like them in this way. "They cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels" (Luke 20:36). So God's having immortality alone fits perfectly with the immortality of angels — and, if so, with the immortality of the human soul. The soul is immortal as angels are, but only because God makes both so.

He dwells in light unapproachable, not in darkness, but in light infinitely brighter than any created eye can bear. Honour and power everlasting are His alone. The heart that gladly gives Him this praise will willingly accept a place where he himself is given no honour or power.

This character of the epistle is very remarkable. Nowhere else does Scripture present the unapproachable majesty of God, as God, in this way. Elsewhere it often teaches and shows His character. Here He alone has essential immortality. He dwells in inaccessible light. He is always invisible to the eyes of men. He alone has power. He has dominion over all who reign. This is God in His own pure essence, unchanging in His being, holding the rights of His majesty — veiled to all men.

Moses and the privileged group who climbed Sinai with him "saw the God of Israel," and this does not contradict 1 Timothy 6:16, which refers to God in His essential being and glory. As Ezekiel saw "the likeness of the glory of the Lord" (Ezek. 1:28), and as John on Patmos saw One who sat on the throne, who was "like jasper and carnelian" (Rev. 4:3), so these saw a manifestation of God. We note that no attempt to describe Him is made.

He is "the Word" — the expression of all that is in the divine mind — the full and blessed revelation of God. Until He became man, God was unexpressed, and so unknown, for "no one has ever seen God." But "the only God, who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known." (John 1:18; older translations read "the only begotten Son.") God is in the light, and the Person of the Son perfectly discloses everything that belongs to His nature and character.

The blessing we are brought into is deep and full, and here is a wonderful witness of it. Through the Holy Spirit — God dwelling in us and we in Him — we come to know Him, and we know the blessedness into which no creature can enter. God dwells in the light which no one can approach — yet we know Him as dwelling there. We know what light is, and we understand that in that essential being and glory He must be unapproachable — and still we know Him there.