Chose Your Resurrection

For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. (John 5:26-29)

I keep coming back to a question here about why Jesus says not to marvel at this. But when I go back a little ways in the context I see a previous place where He talks about works that will make us marvel (v.20). As I look at these two references I believe I may be seeing the outlines of a chiastic structure in the text with is very common, particularly in New Testament writings. There are a number of parallel thoughts connected with these two that tell me that likely the climax is somewhere maybe halfway between them. As far as I can determine at this point that is likely to be somewhere around verse 24.

In addition to this, another thing that caught my attention here was this reference to the two resurrections that are going to take place that will involve every person who has ever lived on this earth at any time in history. Whether a person chooses to believe it or not, we will all find ourselves involved in one or the other of these resurrections, and which one we participate in will also reveal what our future is going to be for all eternity.

It is not an arbitrary determination by God that decides which resurrection we will come up in and how our eternal future plays out. It is simply a consequence of the internal choices and the cumulative effect that those choices are making on our characters that is the factor that determines our eternal destiny. We are totally responsible for where we end up on the day of Judgment and Jesus talks about that in this passage. Everyone is going to hear His voice and come up from the dead. But some will hear it first and participate in the first resurrection which is certainly the preferred way to rise as noted in the book of Revelation.

This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:5-6)

Today there is great confusion about this thousand years that is fast approaching and that is mentioned different times throughout prophecy. But that should be no surprise, for Satan is a master deceiver and will leave no attempt untried to keep us in ignorance about the true nature of final events predicted in the Bible. He spreads his lies about God in order to prevent us from being prepared for eternity by believing his lying interpretations of Scripture so that when the truth is finally seen clearly it will be too late to respond to grace. There are all sorts of false ideas that play into the popular beliefs about this time of the millenium as it is sometimes called, but it is very important that we not only understand the truth about it from the Bible's perspective but also realize why it is important to know that truth.

One of the most dangerous deceptions being spread among Christians today is the idea that it doesn't really matter if we obey God's commands and instructions because people will be given another chance to repent after certain events alert them that their last chance is now approaching. There are all sorts of theories about a supposed rapture, a time of seven years of tribulation (which is based on serious distortions of prophetic time-lines) and various related scenarios of end-time events. But most of these are calculated to cause sinners to relax their attention about the warnings being given to this earth of the nearness of the end and the kind of preparation we need.

If Satan can keep us relaxed and reluctant to respond to the pleadings of a loving God who is seeking to turn us away from our sins and heal us from the deadly virus of selfishness and fear, then without our even knowing it our hearts will become so calloused and hardened through that very resistance that we will not be able to hear the sweet voice of Jesus at the first resurrection and will find ourselves remaining in death until the next resurrection when it will be far too late to enter into the bliss of heaven with our Saviour for eternity. And those who are still alive and not taken with Jesus when He returns will soon join the dead who are awaiting the second resurrection because the glory of Jesus during His second coming will literally scare the life out of them.

One point of confusion that derails the thinking of millions of Christians are the references to reigning with Christ for a thousand years. They make the fatal mistake of basing their time-lines and belief systems on the idea that the saved people of God will need someone else to rule over if this is to happen the way they imagine it. Therefore, it is concluded that this thousand years must be something that takes place on this earth where the wicked are subjected to the dominance and political control of the righteous in an earthly government structure imposed through force by Jesus on the whole world.

As these scenarios progress based on these false premises, ideas then proliferate about how all of this might play out. An intensely popular video series has projected all sorts of ideas based on these false theories and very few people are willing to investigate the real truth of the Bible and question what popular theologians have proposed along these lines. Thus millions may be lost because they place their confidence in someone else's version of end-time events instead of listening carefully to the words of Jesus and the prophets through which He has sent His messages of hope and warning.

The more carefully I have considered these coming events in the light of Scriptures the more convinced I am that this thousand year period has a very special purpose for developing and finishing the work that was begun in the hearts and lives of all those who chose to listen to the voice of Jesus in their hearts and submitted their lives in obedience to that voice. Only those who have chosen to submit their will and lives to the authority of Jesus, whether they consciously knew who He was or whether it was only through their conscience, but only those who were willing to obey Him instead of following their own natural desires will be available for God to finish shaping into the full stature of the body of Christ.

This period of a thousand years is going to take place for the saved in heaven where the final period of maturing and development of perfection is going to take place in their lives. Meanwhile back on earth, Satan will find himself deprived of any living human beings to tempt or harass because all of them will have died or been taken to heaven at the second coming of Jesus. This will result in the most supreme discomfort for Satan and his demons, because the distraction of being able to tempt and destroy God's children for 6,000 years has kept their minds off their own situations and the final destruction that is awaiting them. (see Rev. 20:1-3, Matt. 25:41)

These parallel circumstances of the saved being cultivated into the perfect habitation for God to dwell in and the lost all sleeping in death until the second resurrection (Rev. 20:5) is radically different than the movie thriller versions being propagated around the world today. The battle between good and evil is extremely different in nature than most people make it out to be primarily because most people make the mistake of believing that God will pit force and fear against the force and fear employed by the prince of darkness. The whole Star Wars scenario and its emphasis on force is one of the themes that has brought confusion and reflected our confusion about this. The real problem is the false ideas that most people have about how God relates to His opponents.

Again, it is our assumptions about God's motives and methods of operation that lead us to very distorted ideas about last-day events and how they are going to play out or the true meaning of prophecies that foretell these events. If we do not start with a correct understanding of how God feels about sinners and the methods He employs to motivate us to choose to be saved, then everything from there on is totally going to be serious distorted and will not reflect truth as it is in Jesus.

My attention was just drawn to the words of Jesus a little later in this chapter that addresses this very problem. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? (John 5:44) Popular theologians and movie producers are usually more intent on seeking recognition and popularity from the mainstream (glory) than they are on humbling themselves to seek the wisdom that comes from above to those who submit themselves to the ways of God. The dark, distorted views of how God feels about us and how He is going to resolve the sin problem come from an unwillingness to believe that love really is enough to overcome evil. We struggle to bring ourselves to imagine that what appears to us to be weakness can ever overcome the enormous power that appears to threaten righteousness from the forces of evil.

As a result of this flawed thinking it is too easy to interject our own imaginings and scenarios about end-time events and weave into them pictures of a God resorting to using the weapons of darkness to overcome that darkness. But this is a fatal mistake and accomplishes just what Satan set out to do from the very beginning – to paint God in dark pictures of fear and tyranny and threatening destruction to accomplish His will in the universe. Satan has ever sought to cause us to view God as one altogether like himself, One who treats people like Satan treats people and thus prevents people from coming to trust or love God because of these lying reports about His character.

In my study I have come to realize that because God respects everyone's freedom to choose that He is going to allow the lost to stay out of the picture for a thousand years while all those who have chosen to accept the real truth about Him will be nurtured and healed and matured in a safe environment far from the devil's reach. This will happen in an environment where they can learn the full truth about God and about reality and develop close, intimate bonds with each other. That this will take a full one thousand years to finish is a testament to the enormity of the effects of sin and what it has done to deface the image of God in humanity. But this truth is also consistent with the ways of love that will never force or coerce anyone against their will but patiently nurtures and cultivates the spirit of each person to draw them out into greater expressions of joy and love and loyalty as they are restored back into the image of God as displayed in Christ Jesus.

In this passage in John, Jesus says that the Father has given Him full authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. To me that means in part that Jesus, by becoming a human and experiencing life like we experience it, has earned the legitimacy and respect of all involved to be able to determine who is safe to be saved and salvaged and who will wait until the second resurrection of judgment. After this second resurrection will occur a time of unprecedented reunions as every person who has ever lived throughout all of history will have opportunity to see everyone else in person, all alive at the same time. This will be the period of time known as the Day of Judgment but is not necessarily a literal day in time as we think of a day. I believe that this period of time may even last considerably longer than many suppose, for it will be enough time to once and for ever settle the issues of who is right and who is wrong in the great dispute between Christ and Lucifer now turned Satan. This will be the final day of reckoning, the time when every witness in God's trial will be testifying by the history of their life and choices as to who's version of truth they have chosen to believe.

Those who have sided with Satan's accusations that God is not as loving as He says He is and have clung to these lies in the face of evidence from God offered to them in various ways will face the judgment unprotected by the grace and healing of Jesus in their hearts. They will then have to experience the glory of God without being internally prepared to endure it. On the other hand, all those who have initially chosen to respond to God's promptings of love and offers of grace in this time of probation on earth, on that day will have finished their maturing process during the thousand years of close fellowship with Christ and with all the rest of His saved children. They will then be ready to be fully exposed to and inhabited by the powerful glory of a full revelation of the character of the Father.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. (John 5:24)

This may well be the central climax of this chapter. If we listen to the testimony of Jesus about what God is really like and believe the truth about the Father that Jesus came to reveal, then we have already entered into eternal life and have escaped the fate of those who refuse to believe that truth about God. For to enter into judgment while believing lies about God in our heart sets us up to experience death, just as surely as a resistor in a circuit suffers destruction when the voltage is increased beyond its capacity to handle. That is why it is so critical that we allow the Holy Spirit to remove all sin and resistance to the truth about God from our hearts, so that when the full revelation of God's character is finally exposed that we will become brilliant stars in the firmament of heaven instead of smoldering corpses like ruined resistors that can't survive the extreme high voltage that we have been warned is going to come. (Dan. 12:3, Isa. 66:24)

Father, dwell in my heart today and help me to fully let go of all unbelief in what You are showing me about who You really are. Each day I find myself amazed as Your Spirit reveals yet more truth and glory about Your character to my mind and heart. Cleanse me of all resistance to Your love and fill me with the spirit of obedience that motivated Jesus when He demonstrated Your character while here on earth. Transform me into Your image that You originally designed for me to reflect. Do all of this for Your name's sake, for Your glory and to attract others to want to participate in Your glorious plan of salvation.