Resurrection Truth

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The Resurrection of the Just and Unjust


You are driving down the road and as you go around a bend another car meets you head-on. It's a head-on crash, a terrible scene, and there are no survivors. You are no longer among the living; you are all of a sudden non-existent-you are dead. Your body, once a living being (soul), is prepared for burial, and the process of corruption begins-returning the body to dust from which it came. What is going to happen next?

 According to the Scriptures, as Jesus tells us, Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his (Jesus') voice and come out - those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned (John 5:28 - 29, NIV). To the words of Jesus the Apostle Paul wholeheartedly affirms: there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust (Acts 24:15, KJV).

 Yes, everyone shall be resurrected in their bodies to give an accounting of what they did during their life before they died (see Matt. 12:36 - 37 and John 12:47 - 48). In examining the whole of the Bible, we find only a few passages speaking of the resurrection of the unjust in comparison of the many passages that speak to the resurrection of the just. But there is a vast difference between the just and unjust at the resurrection on that last day.

The just: Bodies of the just are changed in the resurrection, said the Apostle Paul (see 1 Cor. 15:12 - 58). In speaking of the just, Paul tells us that at the coming of our Lord Jesus believers will be changed so that they will never face death a second time. They will have bodies that will never corrupt as their earthly bodies did, for they will be imperishable, i.e., immortal. Yes, an existence that will never end.

The unjust: Bodies of the unjust are nowhere in the whole of the Bible said to be changed from what they were before they died. They are simply stated to be raised to face judgment and another death. The bodies they are raised with, for all purposes, will not be imperishable, nor raised to immortality. They will, it is apparent, be bodies just as mortal then as they were mortal while living previously on earth. All we are actually told in the Bible is that however their bodies will appear they will be subject to pain and to face death again - The Judgment God gives is called the second death (see Rev. 20:11 - 15).

 What category do you wish to be in, the just or the unjust? No one in his/her right mind would choose the category of the unjust. And as Jesus said, choose life or choose death: Whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die (John 11:26), and the reverse would say Whosoever lives and does not believe in me shall die. Yes, one must choose life or death while still living today.