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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Saved by Judgment, continued
I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. (Revelation 20:4,5—NIV)
It seems very clear to me that those who expect to be raised from the dead in the first resurrection and ascend to meet the Lord in the air, at the next coming of the Lord, must be judged in advance. Peter says the Lord is ready to judge the living and the dead, so it must be true that somehow, in a manner we do not understand, the believers who lived victoriously in ages past are also being prepared for the coming of the Lord although they are not in the present hour living on the earth.
Think for a moment. If our judgment and consequent salvation involves fiery trials, it will not be possible for us to be revealed at the Judgment Seat of Christ, receiving the good and the bad we have practiced, after we are raised from the dead and ascend to meet the Lord in the air. Can you see the logic of this?
Our participation in this earlier resurrection (termed the first resurrection in Revelation 20:4-6) is in fact the sentence imposed on us as a result of a prior judgment. It may be noticed in Revelation 20:4-6 that no books of record are opened. This is because the participants already have been judged, already are free from the authority of the second death.
The remainder of the dead will be raised and judged at the conclusion of the thousand-year Kingdom Age. The books of record will then be opened. The sentence imposed at that time will be either life in the Kingdom of God or death in the Lake of Fire.
The first resurrection must be attained, as Paul instructed us in the third chapter of Philippians, by participation in the power of Christ's resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. We attain the first resurrection by following the Spirit of God faithfully as He conforms us to the moral image of Christ and brings us into untroubled rest in the Father.
And, "If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?" (I Peter 4:1 8—NIV)
The above verse makes no sense at all in terms of current evangelical teaching. We are claiming all we must do to be saved is to accept the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing else is necessary. What could be easier? Jesus did it all and now we are on our way to Heaven. In what manner is this difficult?
But in terms of what we have written about the relationship of suffering to salvation, the verse makes perfect sense. Do you agree with this?
To be continued.