It is used in 1 Cor. 9:25, to describe the heavenly crown of the overcomer: “And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an _incorruptible_.” It is used in 1 Cor. 15:52, to describe the immortal bodies of the redeemed: “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised _incorruptible_, and we shall be changed.” It is used in 1 Tim. 1:17, to describe God as already quoted. It is used in 1 Pet. 1:4, to describe the inheritance reserved in Heaven for the overcomer: “To an inheritance _incorruptible_ and undefiled, that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for you.” It is used in 1 Pet. 1:23, to describe the principle by which regeneration is wrought in us: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of _incorruptible_, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” It is used in 1 Pet. 3:4, to describe the heavenly adorning which we are to labor to secure: “But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is _not corruptible_, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” And these are all the instances of its use. In no one of them is it applied to man or any part of him, as a natural possession. But does not the last text affirm that man is in possession of a deathless spirit? The words “incorruptible” and “spirit” both occur, it is true, in the same verse; but they do not stand together, another noun and its adjectives coming in between them; they are not in the same case, incorruptible being in the dative, and spirit, in the genitive; they are not of the same gender, incorruptible being masculine or feminine, and spirit, neuter. What is it which is in the sight of God of great price? The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. What is the nature of this ornament? It is not destructible like the laurel wreath, the rich apparel, the gold and gems with which the unsanctified man seeks to adorn himself; but it is incorruptible, a disposition molded by the Spirit of God, some of the fruit of that heavenly tree which God values. Does man by nature possess this incorruptible ornament, this meek and quiet spirit? No; for we are exhorted to procure and adopt this instead of the other. This, and this only, the text affirms. To say that this text proves that man is in possession of a deathless spirit, is no more consistent nor logical than it would be to say that Paul declares that man has an immortal soul, because in his first epistle to Timothy (1:17), he uses the word immortal, and in his first epistle to the Thessalonians (5:23), he uses the word soul. The argument would be the same in both cases. FACT 3. The word “immortality” occurs but five times in the New Testament, in our English version. The following are the instances:--