Will there Really be a Coming Resurrection from the Dead for Everyone?
The thought of a coming resurrection from the dead and a day of judgment before God for us is something that we all might think about more often than we even realize. When we do that good deed, whether it’s giving to a good cause, or helping out someone in need by acts of kindness, showing compassion for them and for their situation from the heart, there’s that little something on the inside of us that just feels good about what we just did to help, which at times may lead us to think latter on within our heart that hey,….”God saw what I did, and that’s true, He did. The Bible tells us that “the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good,.. (Proverbs 15:3). Not only does the Lord watch over everything we do in life, but because He’s God, He sees our thoughts, and knows what motivated us to do everything we do, and say for that matter during our entire lifetime. In (Proverbs 21:2), God’s Word reminds us of that fact,..
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the hearts…. (Proverbs 21:2)
Every once in a while, I find myself thinking back to the time in my life before I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ personally as my Lord and Savior and what I really thought about my life back then. I remember thinking that if there really was going to be a resurrection from the dead and day of judgment coming, I had a good idea what that day before God would look like for me. I felt that it would be close, because I knew I wasn’t perfect, but my thinking was, I know I’m not a bad person and God knows that too,… so I honestly really felt I would be okay, until I opened up the Bible one day and looked at what God Himself actually said about every one of us ,and that “resurrection form the dead and day of judgment” that every one of us is heading to. Literally, the confidence I had about what that day would look like for me before God was completely shattered when I saw what God had actually said about what was necessary to be justified before Him on that day and what I felt would make me acceptable before God. What seemed right to me, in my mind at the time, was not at all right in God’s sight. In fact God Himself declares to us that His thoughts and our thoughts are not the same in (Isaiah 55:8-9), where God says,..
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord.. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts…(Isaiah 55:8-9).
It doesn’t end there, but God goes on to say in,… (Proverbs 14:12),
“There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”
The way I thought about my life at the time seemed right to me,.. and I thought God felt the same way I felt. How could He not feel the way I felt? I mean trying to be the best person I could be and helping somebody out when I could, to me I thought would be like hitting a home run as far as what I thought God’s thoughts toward me were. That is, until I decided one day to look at what God had actually said in the Scriptures, and what I found out is that I was wrong about how I thought God felt about me. If the truth be told, every single one of us has been wrong at one time or another about how we thought another person felt about us, or about how we thought they felt about some issue, either because we don’t know the person personally or if we do happen to know them, we never bothered to ask them how they felt. We simply presumed to know how they felt. There is no doubt millions of people, who like me,.. believe they know how God sees their life and what that coming resurrection day before God will look like for them,.. and they feel that way having never even taken the time to look into the Word of God for themselves, which plainly reveal to us God’s thoughts and what God has said is the only way anyone becomes righteous,.. in His sight. This was a mistake many of the Jews in the nation of Israel made in the early days of church history and God, speaking through the apostle Paul tells us about this in his letter to the Romans,..
Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God….( Romans 10:1-3).
What this says to us is that you can believe in God and even be zealous for God to the point that you think the things you say and do make you right with God and be totally wrong about how God sees you. I am living proof of that just as those Jews were. Undoubtedly many of them died in their sins without ever really knowing the only way God says anyone can be made righteous in His sight, which God reveals to us in the Scriptures. Paul unashamedly tells those in Rome this truth,..
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith;” as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.“…. (Romans 1:16-17).
Paul says, I want to… be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith…(Philippians 3:9)
Over and over and over again the Lord Jesus Christ, referred to the Scriptures, God’s written words when He wanted to point to God’s thoughts about what is right in the sight of God whenever He spoke on any subject before the crowds that gathered to hear Him speak. As you search the Scriptures you will never hear Jesus say, “This is how I feel about this” or that. He always referred to the Scriptures to bring Heaven’s view to any subject matter He spoke about while He was on this earth. It is with that in mind that I say to you,….you whom God loves, and I say this on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ,.. if you don’t remember anything else I say in this post, I urge you remember this…”you don’t make the mistake that I did of thinking you already know how God will feel about you on that day you are resurrected from the dead to stand before Him without first looking at His thoughts on how He says we become righteous in His sight. God in His great mercy He shown toward me, allowed me to live long enough to come into the knowledge of the truth through the Word of God, before I died,.. and God did that not because of any righteous works which I had done, but He graciously chose to show His mercy towards me..(Titus 3:4-5). He chose to have mercy on me in spite of all I did in His sight before I came to the knowledge of the truth,….His truth,.. and I am eternally grateful to the Lord for His patience and His longsuffering He showed toward me in that He did not allow me to die in my sins. Beloved, God right now is extending that same mercy to you in granting you opportunity to know the only way to peace with Him, while you are still alive. In His longsuffering and great patience He is extending toward you, He is waiting on you, just as He waited on me. When that day came that I looked for myself at what the Scriptures had to say about that coming day we will be resurrection from the dead to stand before God, there were four things that I saw that really stood out to me. Those four things that God actually said, still impact me to this very day, more than four decades latter,…
First, and maybe thee most important thing I found out is this,.. “a resurrection day before God for every human being that has ever lived on the face of this earth,.. is certain. I am not going to just die and just cease to exist, or come back as a bird or something else in the next life as some people actually believe. Every single one of us that has ever lived will be resurrected from the dead to appear before the God who created us to be judged by Him. It is a day that is certain,..It is a day that is sure, just as sure as you are right now reading this post. You might ask,.. “How can I be so sure? Well,..I can be sure because God Himself has sworn it is coming in the Scriptures. He says,..
“Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every knee shall bow,….(Isaiah 45:22-23)
For it is written: “As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us shall give account of himself to God….. (Romans 14:11).
It was this coming resurrection day that the Lord Jesus Christ had in mind when He warned those who had gathered to hear Him speak, about their hasty words they spoke in the gospel of Matthew,..
“But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment…. (Matthew 12:36)
Look, there are times that we hear about things in life that we just simply choose not to believe. There’s that little something on the inside of us that just thinks,..that’s not true, and we may very well be right, or we may be wrong. But even if we are wrong,.. depending on what it is, we may think within ourselves,.. you know what’, it ain’t no big deal, and it very well may not be. Beloved,.. this is one of those things that’s not only a big deal, this is an extremely big deal. So big, that if you are wrong about what you believe about the resurrection of the dead that Jesus warns us is coming, and what’s necessary to be found righteous before God on that day,..and you die in that condition, the consequences of being wrong about that will be eternal separation from God forever and ever in a place of torment called Hell. God loves you and God wants you to know the truth about this even though it might not sit well with some. God loves every single one of us in spite of what we may think of ourselves,.. or what others may think of us, and He does not want any of us to go to that place. The Scriptures tell us that it is not God’s will that any perish, but that all come to repentance. Look at it,..
“But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance….(2 Peter 3:8-9)
There is a coming resurrection of the dead and day of judgement before the Lord of all the Earth for every single one of us. It is a day that’s certain,..It is a day that is sure, because it is God,..who the Scriptures say cannot lie, who said it is coming.
Then there’s a second thing that stood out to me as I looked at what Scriptures had to say about that coming resurrection from the dead, and that is this,..It is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who will be our judge on that day. It is not God the Father that will judge us,.. it is God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ who will judge us on that day. Jesus warned the crowd gathered around Him about this very thing. In (John 5:22-23) He says this,..
“For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, (Why?), that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him….. (John 5:22-23).
The apostle Paul in his letter to Timothy, a young pastor encouraging him as he dealt with problems in the church, charged him not to shrink back from declaring God’s message, keeping in mind always who we all will stand before one day. Paul says,….
I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom….Preach the Word!!.. (2 Timothy 4:1)
The Scriptures warn us about our attitudes toward one another in the church and not just in our church, but fellow church members of other churches who have put their trust in Jesus Christ and are a part of God’s family when it says,..
“But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before “the judgment seat of Christ”…. (Romans 14:10)
The Scriptures tell us plainly who the judge of will be of every one of us when we are resurrected from the dead. Therefore, since we know it is the Lord Jesus Christ, the question every one of us has to ask ourselves is this,.. “Are the words that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke in the Scriptures, really worthy of my time and my attention while I am still alive on this earth? Is it worth my time at all to read them or listen to what He has said?,.. And if I do look, am I willing to trust what He said, rather than my own feelings about what I believe will get me into heaven? Can I see myself willing to submit to Him as God, my Lord, my Savior, my judge and my Creator,.. now,… while I am still alive in this life? The thought of saying “no” to all this, is the very thing that the Lord Jesus Christ was warning those who were listening to Him speak about,..and His warning was not just to them in that generation, but to all those who would hear His words in the generations to come, including ours. He says in… (John 12:47-48),
And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 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.… (John 12:47-48)
Beloved, the Scriptures declare plainly that there is a coming a resurrection of the dead for every single of us, it is certain,..it is sure,..and the one who will judge us, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Then there’s a third thing stood out to me as I look at what the Scriptures had to say about that coming resurrection of the dead, and that is this,..there’s not one, but “two resurrections days” the Lord Jesus Christ talks about in the Scriptures when He taught about the resurrection from the dead. Think about that one for a minute, because so often when we think of the resurrection, we think it as one day and yet the Lord Jesus Christ tells us there are two resurrection days coming. The first one Jesus talked about is the “Resurrection of the just”, sometimes He called it the “Resurrection of life” and the second one He talked about, is the “Resurrection of the unjust” sometimes He called it the “Resurrection of condemnation”. Jesus taught the crowds that had gather around Him about both of these resurrection days in, (John 5:26-29), when He said,..
“For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation….. (John 5:26-29)
Two resurrections days are coming the Lord Jesus Christ said, and please notice, it says it is the Lord Jesus Christ that calls forth the dead from the graves to stand before Him. Look at it again, He says,..
“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth…(John 5:28)
The Lord says that these two resurrection days are for two very different groups of people. He says those who have done good appear at “the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil appear at “the resurrection of condemnation. What’s really interesting about this is when you look a little closer at what (Revelation 20:4-6) has to say about these resurrections, what you see is that there appears to be more than 1,000 years of time between the end of the first resurrection and the beginning of the second resurrection, which is the resurrection of condemnation. Look at it in,…. (Revelation 20:4)
(v4)….And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Notice in this passage what it says about those who have died. It says those that have died, they died because of their witness to Jesus Christ and for the Word of God. They are resurrected to live and reign on this earth with Jesus Christ for 1,000 years. Look at the last part of verse #4 again,…
“And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years…..(Revelation 20:4)
It is right here on this earth the Scriptures said,.. is where those who reign with Christ will be reigning with Him. We know that to be true because John tells us in (Revelation 5:9-10), that the 24 elders, who are representative of the church, sang this song in heaven before the throne of God saying,…
“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.”….(Revelation 5:9-10)
Note the last part of this passage, it says, “And we shall reign on the earth.” On the earth the Scriptures said. Now looking back again at our previous passages in Revelation 20,.. in (Revelation 20:5),.. it tells us two very important things that you don’t want to miss about those who lived again and reigned with Christ a thousand years on this earth. First, it says that “the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished “ . In other words, nobody else is resurrected after them for at least 1000 years. Then the second thing we are told is that, “this is the first resurrection”. Look at it right here in,.. (Revelation 20:5),
“But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection”. …(Revelation 20:5)
Those that are resurrected and alive again here on the earth, are in resurrected bodies reigning on this earth with Jesus Christ for 1000yrs. It is their resurrection from the dead the Scripture says is “the first resurrection,.. and what Jesus called “the resurrection of the just”, which would also have included previous to this point, all those of every generation who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures tell us that the church,.. those who have repented of their sin against God and place their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins will reign with Him…
This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him. If we endure, We shall also reign with Him…..(2 Timothy 2:11-12)
Now when we go back and look closely at our (Revelation 20:6) passage we see, that those who have part in this first resurrection are blessed,..and then we see why they are blessed. Look at it…
“Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years…. (Revelation 20:6)
They are blessed to have part in the first resurrection,.. because “the second death has no power over them”. … And, they are blessed to have part in the first resurrection because,.. “they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years…. (Revelation 20:6)
The question that comes to mind at this point is this,..”What is the second death? What we know for sure at this point, is that those who have part in the first resurrection will not be hurt by the second death. The second death has no power over them. Tragically, that can’t be said of those who have part in the second resurrection. To this very day whenever I read passages about the second resurrection, which the Lord Jesus Christ called at times, “the resurrection of the unjust” and at other times, the resurrection of condemnation, but here in this passage we are about to read, it is referred to as, “the great white throne judgment”, it has always troubled my spirit when I think about the souls that will end up there because no one resurrected to appear at this resurrection day, will ever enter Heaven but will go to a place of eternal torment. They will go to a place that was never intended for human beings, created in the image of God. Jesus said, it is a place that was prepared for the Devil and his angels (Matt 25:41). This is why Jesus calls this resurrection, the “resurrection of condemnation”. The Scriptures tell us in (Revelation 20:11-15),…
Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on It, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. (v14)…Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire….(Revelation 20:11-15)
Beloved, the Scriptures tell us right here in (Revelation 20:14) what the second death is and only those who appear at this resurrection are cast in there. Their names are not in the Book of Life. Those whose names are in the Book of Life were resurrected in the Resurrection of Life, which is the first resurrection which took place more than 1000 years ago at this point. Those appearing at this second resurrection are not blessed. They are there to be judged and given a just penalty by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, which is the second death,.
Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. “This is the second death”. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire….(Revelation 20:14-15)
John tells us here in (Revelation 20:12),….”And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.
Beloved in those books that are opened at this resurrection will be Jesus’ words that those appearing at this judgment had opportunity, after opportunity, after opportunity to hear and believe during their lifetime, but they rejected them. We saw earlier where Jesus gave a warning about this judgment day in (John 12:47-48)…
And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. 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.… (John 12:47-48)
In those books will be their refusal to believe in Jesus Christ as God who came into this world and dwelt among us, His creation, so that He could die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins because He loves us and wanted us to spend all eternity with Him in that heavenly city, He prepared for us. They refused to believe in spite of inner witness to the truth God gave them in their hearts that Jesus Christ is His Son and chose instead to trust in their own feelings about what would make them righteous in the sight of God. Others simply did not want anybody including Jesus Christ, to reign over their lives simply choosing to believe we just all end up in a better place without anything whatsoever to base that on in the Word of God. In those books will be the words of people God spoke to them through in their lifetime, be it coworkers, friends, neighbors, preachers, relatives, even strangers God sent across their paths during their lifetimes. Make no mistake about this one fact. Those people have been sent into your life and my life by God Himself to call you to believe on His Son Jesus Christ whether you realized it or not because God does not want you to end up at this resurrection of condemnation.
Look for a minute at the warning the apostle Paul’s uses to appeal to those in the church at Corinth where he sees himself and those with him as God’s messengers to those in the church there when he says this,…
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him…. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)
Then this same apostle Paul, gave this testimony after he had been arrested and brought before the Roman authorities and given a chance to speak for himself about the charges the Jews had bought against him for preaching about Jesus and the resurrection. He says this,..
I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men…(Acts 24:15-16).
Beloved, the Scriptures have told us there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust,.. and it is the Lord Jesus Christ that will call forth everyone that has ever lived on this earth from the graves to be judged by Him.
Then finally, the fourth thing I learned as I looked at what the Scriptures had to say about the resurrection of the dead and day of judgment,.. and that is this, “there is one way, and only one way, to be declared righteous before God and have the full assurance that you go to Heaven and escape the wrath that will come on those who are cast into the lake of fire at the resurrection of the unjust on the day they stand before the God,.. and that is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
Some people would call this being narrow minded,.. and what they may not realize is that is exactly what Jesus Christ said it was. Look at it in Matthew 7,…
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it… (Matthew 7:13-14)
Notice Jesus does not mince words,..He says the way to eternal life, is a narrow way. Look again at what He says here in John 14,…
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me….(John 14:6)
Every true believer in Jesus Christ will bear witness to the words of Christ. You see that in the words of His apostle Peter that he spoke in the book of Acts where he says,…
“Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” ….(Acts 4:12)
This is one truth you simply can’t afford to be wrong about. This is one truth where there can be no compromises at all about. There are not many ways to God as some would have you believe. There is no other faith or leader in any other faith on the face of the whole earth that has ever lived, that you can go through or believe in, to get to heaven. It is faith in Jesus Christ alone. It is not a religion, or religious deeds that get you to heaven,.. it is knowing a person, Jesus Christ personally,..as the Lord over your life. This is what eternal life is Jesus said.
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent…….. (John 17:3)
Eternal life does not come from knowing or following any other person,.. and this one my shock some,.. but there is no amount of good deeds that can be done, no matter how many or how great they are in the sight of man, or how much praise you may receive for those good works from people, that can cause God to look from heaven and say, “look at that, you are forgiven because of all that I have seen you do”. As we saw earlier, God sees good works, but He does not bring people to heaven because of those works. God’s heavenly call is to whosoever is willing to hear, no matter who they are. It does not matter with God what your status in life is, rich or poor, educated or no education at all, celebrity or an unknown person, extremely successful or of those who feel they have failed miserably in life. God is not a respecter of persons the Scriptures says, (Acts 10:34). There’s only one deed that you can do that will win God’s approval that will assure you a place in heaven and that is to believe on His Son, Jesus Christ as Lord as your Lord and your Savior. Jesus does not want to be believed on as the Lord,.. He wants to be,.. your Lord. Jesus was ask by some who came to hear Him one day,.. “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.“… (John 6:28-29)
In these days we live in today, believing in Jesus Christ means different things to different people, and so let me urge you to read the post titled, “What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ” in this website so that you when you say you believe, you can compare what that means to you with what God said it actually means. Always compare your feelings and your thoughts with what God actually said by looking at the Scriptures. That’s the example Jesus Christ set for us and that’s the example He wants us to follow. The Lord Jesus Christ said those alive even now and do not believe in Him are condemned even while they live. Look at it in John 3,… These are Jesus’ words,..
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God…. (John 3:18)
The one and only way to peace with God and be justified before Him is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,…
“Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses”……( Acts 13:38-39)
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”…… (Romans 5:1)
Beloved, let me end all this by saying this, and I say this in all honesty, and I say this from my heart. The impact of knowing the truth about all these things about the resurrection has had a lasting effect on my life for more than four decades now because I know these are the words of God. It has impacted my prayers, on how I pray and who I pray for, as well as the persistency of my prayers, even the day-by-day decisions about things I will and won’t do as I live in this world. Why,…because my aim in life now as I live in this world, in this little window of time God has given me,.. is to please Him. It is to fulfill the very purpose He intended for my life when he ordained that I live in this generation. It is to take the message of salvation to this generation as He has called me to do. When I stand before Him in that “first resurrection, my heart’s desire is to hear the Lord say to me, “well done good and faithful servant”. And I want to hear Him say that not just to me,.. but to all the people God blessed me to know and love during the time He has given me on this earth as well you,..yes you, who God has given the grace to read this post in its entirety. This is my prayer and it will continue to be my prayer right up to the time I finish my appointed time here and go on to my heavenly home with my Lord. Yes,..there is a coming resurrection of the dead for every one of us Jesus said. God actually said that.