What Is To Come

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

WHAT IS TO COME

John 5:28-30

28 "Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out — those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. 30 By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

NIV

There can be no mistake about what Jesus is saying here regarding those who are dead and in the grave. Each person who has ever lived will rise to be judged by Jesus. All of mankind, those who have been dead for thousands of years and they bodies returned to dust will be raised. Although the dead are out of human view, God still sees them and knows them all, and will gather them back to him for Jesus to judge their life choice, evil or good. We know from what God tells us through Paul in Corinthians, the perishable will put on imperishable, that we will be changed, so those in the grave may not rise as the same flesh they once were, but in some heavenly body, yet the same spirit, the same person with their knowledge and memories. We also know from Daniel that all men will be judged by they lives, some will be judged as good and enter into eternal life with Jesus, and some will be condemned to perish, which may be what words Jesus was using, as most Jews were familiar with the words of the prophets like Daniel. But we cannot mistake that the judgment is based on being a good person or a bad person except that the good person here is the one who accepts Jesus and the evil person is the one who rejects Jesus. Again, we have to know that every person is without excuse, as what may be known about God is plain to them. All throughout the ages, from the beginning of mankind, every person who has ever lived has an opportunity to know God, which would include Jesus. That is just a fact, we have been told so, again through Paul in the letter to the Romans. Those wicked people who will experience the wrath of God, the Judgment of Jesus to condemnation, will do so because they suppressed the truth. This certainly tells us they knew the truth, and therefore are without excuse. We need to make sure we continue in the truth never suppressing it in order to live our own pleasures, our own desires, and our own plans for our lives. We must always keep the plan of God for us in the forefront of our thinking, setting our sights on the prize, the finish line. Somehow it seems foolish to think that we can confess we are believers, then go about living as the rest of the world does, making plans for our future, securing our goals, surrounding ourselves with all the same ideas of success and prosperity as those who refuse Jesus. Just as God will change our physical form when we are raised, either while we still are alive or after we have died, we should experience a radical change in our inner self when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We should experience a change in our thought life, our life choices, our goals, ambitions as well as our lifestyle. The judgment of Jesus will be based on what choice we made, him or self, but still we should live accordingly to our choice of him. Jesus tells us he does nothing but to live to please God. He does not live to please self, but to please God. Can we do any less? Should we not live knowing what is to come?