All will rise one day

“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) 

Authority of Jesus Christ in Heaven and on Earth

"The great authority of Christ"
How many of us think about real purpose of  life? The questions about the purpose and our destiny are in so many of our minds. Most people  are just satisfied in achieving their own  goals  and enjoy only the present time.  Did God have any purpose in creating us if our goal was just to live that short life on earth and then die and be forgotten? Are we all scrod up? The answer is surely no.

 The Bible tells us clearly more  about  much greater things . It talks about our restoration, about the restoration of all things.
The creative purpose of God to redeem the mankind  was in the very beginning.
 It was all planned with wisdom before this present  creation. Jesus as the redeemer was  God's plan and all things came into being through him.
He  is the ultimate  expression of   God and His love for us. His plan was expressed in pieces  and parts in history, as people acted  and in prophecy, as people spoke.  The plan was being expressed  as Abraham set off to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, about which we read in the Old Testament.   In John 3;16 we read that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in him, shall not perish but have everlasting life." Then as Moses lifted up the serpent on the desert Old Testament) - so is the Son of Man  (Jesus) lifted up by God so whoever believes in Him has everlasting life.
We read in  the prophecy in the Isaiah that the Servant of God would be pierced for our transgressions, we read in Psalms about all he faced on the cross. No coincidence,  coming of Jesus was planned by God and He  foretold  him in so many ways throughout  Old Testament scriptures.  God   wasn't to surprise  anybody with  sending the savior as  if  He made up His mind to redeem us from our sin  in the middle of our life' history.   He clearly foretold him to us.   Christ is a real person with a real meaning.  We  can understand this important meaning  in our lives  by studying the scriptures about the  authority given him by God  both  in heaven and on earth.
He said " all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth" Matthew 28;18
"The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son. So that  all many honor  the Son  just  as they  honor the Father who sent him." John5;22-23
"The Father loves the Son, and  has given all things into His hand." John 3;35

In  the above verse  "He has given all judgement to the Son" , we see  that it will be Jesus Christ  who will judge all men and that thereby all men will honor the Son even as they honor the Father.
That is what we saw in Philippians  2;10-11
 "Every knee will bow down  and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord , to the glory of God the Father."
 Jesus Christ the one who was judged, condemned  and executed by men,  raised from the dead  seated at the right hand of God-will be the one to finally judge all men.

.Every person who has ever lived will be judged by him.  But there are 2 different  'finals'. Believers in Christ will be judged for what they have done in the body, but they are not the subject to God's condemnation.
"For we must all appear  before judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." 2 Cor 5;10
For those who trusted Jesus, the judgement is not for death and condemnation;
"Very truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word  and believes Him who sent me has eternal life, and will not be condemned, he has crossed over from death to life." John 5;24
Those who listen to Him and trusted him, those who are born again are justified.
God didn't sent Jesus to die on the cross just in vain. He offered you and me the way out, to avoid God's wrath.
So all unrepentant people, all who don't want to know him, who rejected Him,they will be subject to God's wrath.
"(...) he who does not believe  the Son  shall not see life  but the wrath of God  abides on him. " John 3;36

John 12;48  " He who rejects  Me, and  does not receive My words, has that which judges him- the word that I have spoken  will judge him  in the last day."

More about Jesus as the judge we read in John 5;27-29;
v.25." I tell you the truth, a time is coming  and has now come  when the dead will hear the voice  of the Son of God and those who hear will live."
                                We see that it is Jesus Christ who will call people  to new  and everlasting life.
v.26." For as the father has life  in himself , so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself."
v.27 " And He has given Him authority  to execute judgement , because He is the Son of Man."

It will be Jesus Christ's voice all people will hear in their graves and it will be Him to decide who is to live  and who is to die;

v.21." For just as the father raises the dead  and gives them life , even so the Son  gives life to whom  He is pleased to give it."
v.28 " Do not be astonished at this, for the hour is coming  when all who are in their graves will hear  His voice."
v.29 " and will come out -those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation."
This is what is commonly known as the resurrections of "the just" and "the unjust". The Bible clearly says that all people who have ever lived will get up  from the dead.

We can be sure His judgement is just as He is always doing God's will;
John 5;30 " I can do nothing  on my own, as I hear I judge, and my judgement is just, because I seek  to do not my own will  but the will of Him who sent me."
Because  Jesus Christ  works in perfect harmony  with his heavenly Father, there will be justice for all.
v.19." Jesus said to them;'Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing  on His own, but only what He sees the Father doing,  for what ever the Father does, the Son does likewise."

"Who do you say I am"?
Jesus of Nazareth put this question  to His followers nearly 2000 years ago, and  the question still hangs in the air, requesting the answer  from every person living now. But is it not just to know who He is in general but who He is for you. Your time on earth, your life now is to accept Him as your Lord and savior.  This the the only way out given by God  to avoid His judgement and not to be condemned but have new life.
It is not the life of limitations but the life of abundance.   " I have come that they may have life,, and that they may have it  more abundantly." John 10;10