There is no such thing in Scripture as a common resurrection. The prevailing opinion is, that at a certain day all men, whether good or bad, shall stand before God, and then receive their final doom; but Scripture does not speak of it in this way. It constantly distinguishes between the resurrections of the just and of the unjust. One passage indeed might, to a careless reader, seem to give a color to such an opinion. In John 6 the Lord speaks of raising up some at the last day; but He speaks solely of those whom “the Father had given Him,” those who “believed on Him,” those who “came to Him” drawn by the Father, and who “ate His flesh and drank His blood,” terms for believers. He is speaking here of a “last day” alone to the righteous: there is no allusion to the wicked. The Lord impresses the truth that, whatever blessing comes, it must be in connection with resurrection. The last day must here have reference to something familiar to Jewish thoughts, as when the disciples (who were Jews by birth) asked Him, “What shall be the sign of Thy coming and of the end of the world (age)?” (Matt. 24:3.)
In every other passage the Scriptures plainly distinguish the two resurrections. In Luke 14:14 it is said, “Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.” Again, Luke 20:35, “They which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world [age], and the resurrection from the dead.” Here is a remarkable distinction, worthiness is attributed to those who obtain this resurrection. It is a distinct class. Again, 1 Cor. 15:23, “Every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming.” Nothing can be plainer than this. Again, 1 Thess. 4, “the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds." Again, Phil. 3:11, “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of [from] the dead.” Paul could not be anxious to attain to what the wicked had in common with him: indeed the phrase means rather “from among the dead” (see 1 Peter 1:3).
A passage in John 5:25-29 is often quoted as settling the question against a first resurrection. “The hour is coming when all that are in their graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (lit., judgment). But just before, ver. 25, the Lord said, “The hour is coming and now is, when the dead (those dead in trespasses and sins, Eph. 2:1) shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.” This hour has lasted through Christ's life, and eighteen hundred years since. It is the hour or time of quickening of souls. There is a period during which souls are quickened, and a period when bodies are raised. The hour of ver. 27, 29 will be the time, at the beginning of which there will be to the righteous a resurrection of life; and at the end (be the length what it may) to the wicked a resurrection of judgment. Christ will have no need to judge the children, to cause them to give Him honor, for having given us life, ver. 25, we honor Him now; but “as the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son,” as “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow,” Phil. 2:10, so the wicked will be forced to honor Him in spite of themselves, and to them accordingly there will be a resurrection of judgment, a summons to judgment because they have no part in Him, whilst to the righteous their resurrection will be but the accomplishment, as to their bodies, of a life previously given. Nor will the period of the one be at the same time with that of the other. The raising of the church, or the resurrection of the righteous, will take place when Christ comes, but the raising of the wicked dead not until after, or at the close of Christ's reign; “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished” (Rev. 20:5).
The hope, then, of the church is the coming of Christ. You cannot read the Epistles of Paul without seeing that this was a grand truth to be kept as a present thing before the soul. This event has often been confounded with death. We are sometimes told that the coming of Christ is that which happens to every man at his death. But it is something quite different: you cannot apply the passages which speak of it to death; and for this reason, that it will be an event which shall find the living in ease and luxury. “Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:30).
In the mind of the apostle, this doctrine, and not death, was linked with every motive to duty, and to a holy walk, and with comfort in every kind of affliction. For instance, as a motive to holiness, 1 John 3:2, 3, “We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; and every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself even as He is pure.” Again, with comfort in sorrow—the apostolic consolation, when saints were mourning over the loss of their brethren who had died, was, not that they were to go to the place where those who had departed were, but that God would bring those who had departed back again. See 1 Thess. 4:13-18. It is the motive to patience, James 5:7, 8. “Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” “Be ye also patient, stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” Again, what comfort in persecution, 2 Thess. 1.! “To you who are troubled rest with us; when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed.” The coming of One Who was gone, Who was the object of their affections and hopes, though now they saw Him not, was that which the Holy Ghost presented to animate their courage and comfort their hearts. This hope was to act on their consciences in a sanctifying way, by taking their affections out of the world, and giving them patience in the trials they were in, through faith. And lastly, I may ask what is the inducement to a zealous preaching of the gospel by Paul, and to a careful tending of the flock, a picture of which is presented to us in 1 Thess. 2. It was this, “What is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming” (1 Thess. 2:19)?
The putting off this blessed event brought in all kinds of evil. Yea, we may say the loss of it was the ruin of the church, considered in its earthly relations here below. For what is the sign of the evil servant? He saith, “my Lord delayeth His coming” (Matt. 24:48). It was this that brought him “to smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken,” ver. 49. The church has been unfaithful to her calling, but of this the word of God warns. In Matt. 25 we have the parable of the ten virgins, who are introduced to us as taking their lamps, and going forth to meet the bridegroom. The bridegroom is not the Holy Ghost. We are converted “to wait for His Son from heaven,” 1 Thess. 1:9, and not for the Holy Ghost, Whom (with reverence be it spoken) we possess already: John 14:26; 16:13.
“While the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept (ver. 5). We know that the Lord has tarried for eighteen hundred years, and the whole church has been slumbering and sleeping.
What is it that arouses them? What is it that puts them in their proper position of waiting? Why, the midnight cry, ver. 6. “At midnight there was a cry raised, Behold, the Bridegroom [cometh].” This, I trust, has in some little measure gone forth of late years, bringing the church back again to its real hope. All had forgotten it, and all awoke when the midnight cry was made. The real difference between the wise and foolish virgins was this: that one class had oil in their lamps, oil being a type of the grace of the Holy Spirit, the hidden grace; and the others had not. It is not here individual watchfulness, denoting a saint, which is set forth; for all together slept, and all together awoke: but it is the forgetfulness of the church, as a body, of its hope, and its consequent slothfulness.
With regard to the character or manner of the coming, we learn it from Acts 1:10, 11. “And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Now this is quite another thing from Christ's judging at the end of all things; for then, Rev. 20:11, will be the judgment of the great white throne, the heaven and the earth having fled away from before His face, and no place being found for them; whereas Christ is to come back as He went away. Further, His coming, as we learn from Acts 3:19, 22, is a time, not of the earth and heaven fleeing away, but of restitution of all things, viz., so that seasons of refreshing “may come from the presence of the Lord, and He may send Jesus Christ, Who before was appointed unto you, Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” The prophets do not speak of things in heaven, but of the happiness and blessing that is to be on the earth. They speak of “the earth being filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14), and of the face of the covering being taken off all peoples, and of the day when death shall be swallowed up in victory (compare Isa. 25:7, 8, and 1 Cor. 15:54); but for these things God shall send Jesus. Acts 3:20.
(To be continued.)
John 14:2. It is a blessed thought that Christ will Himself introduce us into the Father's house—into heaven. What an entrance will that be when He leads us in, the fruit of the travail of His soul, His own, and glorified according to His worth, with all His heavenly company there! And we await that day.