The Resurrection of the Just

. . . a.k.a. The First Resurrection

.... When Jesus returns to the earth, He will bring with Him those who had previously fallen asleep in Christ. Descending from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God, He will gather together all who have made a covenant with Him through His death, burial and resurrection:

.... "The Mighty One, God the LORD, has spoken and called the earth from the rising of the sun to its going down. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people: "Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice." Let the heavens declare His righteousness, for God Himself is Judge. Selah."

(Psalm 50:1-6)

.... In a previous posting we described how the dead in Christ have already received a prima facie judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Now those who are alive in Christ and remain will be joining them, beginning with a prima facie judgment of their own. Basically, this is to determine whether they were truly abiding in Him or not. For Jesus Himself spoke of this in a series of three stories, recorded in Matthew 25.

.... "Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom."

(Matthew 25:1)

.... In the first of these stories, the kingdom of heaven is likened to ten virgins. All ten were a part of the kingdom, but it turned out that only five of them really knew Him (v 12). Despite their religious intentions, a relationship was simply never formed with the other five, so they were left outside like the unbelievers. (Scriptures like Matthew 7:22-23 speak of those in the same category.)

.... At the end of the same chapter, Jesus gave another story to describe the next step in this prima facie judgment. It is the familiar story of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46). Once again, the story envisions those who were still alive at His coming. They had made it this far because they did develop a relationship with Him. But Jesus now applies a ‘litmus test’ to see if they were sincere or disobedient in terms of fruitfulness in their relationship.

.... As we read this passage, we find that the ‘litmus test’ was as simple as giving someone a glass of water in the name of a disciple (Matthew 10:42); but for all of that simplicity, a great multitude could never, even once in their entire lives, claim to have passed this test of sincerity. They were totally unfruitful. So in the end, it was an acid test after all:

.... "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

(Matthew 25:46)

.... And it is in this sense that Paul would later speak, in telling us that Jesus would return:

.... ". . . in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power."

(2 Thessalonians 1:8-9)

.... And therefore, Peter also speaks of those same persons:

.... "For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire."

(2 Peter 2:20-22)

.... Sandwiched between those two stories, in Matthew 25, is another instructive story of judgment pertaining to Christian stewards. This has a special bearing on the millennial reign so we will discuss it further in another posting. But we will also give further discussion to the judgments of the saints in the postings that follow.

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Daily Bible Reading: 2 Timothy 2