“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out. Those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned." John 5;28-30
This is one of the great devotions Charles Spurgeon wrote based on these words spoken by Jesus.
Have you ever thought about the magnificence of what this means? One day Christ will raise all the dead out of their graves. All does not only mean all whose bodies are actually in the grave at this time, but all who ever have been buried, all who have ever existed. Try to imagine all the people who lived in the earth, who lived before and after the flood.
Think of the all Adams descendants from Tarshish to Egypt, people in Nineveh, Babylon, Chaldea, Persia, Greece, Rome. These were vast empires of men. Then the Saxons and the Franks and Celts, yet these nations were only some of a numerous group of nations. Think of the whole continent of Africa, people in India and China and Japan. Out of all who have ever lived not one will be left in the tomb. We can say the same words as the psalmist did of another matter;
" Such knowledge is too wonderful to me, it is high, I cannot attain unto it." Ps 139;6
How has God marked all of the bodies , how has He tracked the remains of each one? More of this - He even knows all the stars and knows them by name. Billions of billions of stars in every galaxy!
How will Jesus Christ be able to raise them all? We do not know it but He will do it for He declared it and God has purposed it.
Jesus proved this fact that He can raise the dead ones to life on several occasions in His lifetime; at the gates of Nain where He met the funeral procession of the widow's son; then in the room of the dead daughter of Jairus, and again at the tomb of the almost-decaying Lazarus. Jesus had power to raise the dead ones to life when He was on earth and He still has power to speak to those who have passed away and command them back to life.
"For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will".
John 5;21
" All that are in the graves will hear His voice." All the righteous and the wicked, no single individual will be omitted.
We all we see Him coming again in His glory; Revelation 1;7
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
and every eye will see Him,
even those who pierced Him;
and all peoples on earth will mourn because of Him.
So shall it be! Amen."
As`surely as you are alive right now, you will stand before the once- crucified Son of Man. It is not possible that you will be forgotten. We must all rise without a single exception. This is an amazing truth, and we should not doubt it. We may be in awe of this and admire the Lord who will bring it to pass.
The first voice you will hear after you 'wake up' to life again, will be the voice of Jesus Christ himself.
He knows everybody by name.
For those who don't want to hear the voice of Jesus Christ now, they will surely hear it then whether they wish it or not.
"You may plug up your ears today, but there will be no doing that in the Day of the last trumpet, on that day, you will have to hear." Charles Spurgeon.
If you do not respond to His voice this life, you will hear only the summons of judgement. Those who hear and obey His voice they hear the summons to mercy and life with Christ. We all will become subject to the power of God's omnipotent command and will appear before His sovereign judgement seat
The judgement, the future resurrection to life, seems to us temporarily far away as we are busy with the present.
But Christ said; "The hour is coming(...)" In God's mind the day of resurrection is very near.
It may be thousand years off , yet to God it is only one day ( 2 Peter 3;8)
"Christ wants us to try to think God's thoughts about it, He does not wants us to consider any amount of time to be long , since time is very short by its own nature and will be regarded it that way by us when it is past and the day has arrived. It is practical and wise for us to come face- to face with what is inevitable and act as though it was as soon as tomorrow that the trumpet would sound and we would be judged." Charles Spurgeon.
This day is appointed for all of us for the Scriptures says; Acts 17;31
"For he has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead."
If people weren't going to be risen and be accountable for what they have done in their lives, think about the evil ones just sleeping forever and never paying for what they have done, would you call it a justice? Definitely not! We all have to face the Lord.
Speaking about the resurrection the second part of John 5;28-30 is sometimes confusing for some believers as it talks as if we were justified by works;
v.30" (...)those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned."
Will men then be saved by their works? No, by no means! Salvation is completely the gift of grace
or else Jesus wouldn't have to die for us.
But the judgement will be guided by our works. We are justified by faith but not by the dead faith.
The faith that justifies is that which produces holiness for without 'holiness' no man shall see the Lord. (Hebrew 12;14)
Knowing that there is life after death should help us to be aware that our actions are not confined to this present life so we shouldn't be careless about them. They are reaching far, they are casting influence across an eternal destiny." Charles Spurgeon.
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." 2 Corinthians 5;10.
The holiness is the evidence of your faith because the faith without any works is considered dead.
"What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." James 2;14-26
But there is a promise that by abiding in Christ you will be producing good fruit. Your heart will change if your life will be with Christ. (John 15;5).
Those who trusted and obey Him -they don't have to be afraid of the Judgement Day as Christ is able to keep them from stumbling and present them before His glorious presence with great joy without fault.
( Judy 1;24-25)
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