“WIST ye not that I must be about my Father’s business,” are the first words we have on record spoken by the Lord Jesus, when twelve years of age. Luke 2:49. “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work,” was His answer to His disciples when pressing Him to eat of the meat they had brought, when He had found a poor, thirsty sinner at the well of Sychar, and had ministered to her the water of life. John 4:34.
“It is finished,” are the memorable words uttered by Him on the cross, just before He bowed His head in death, recorded by him who also wrote, “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that, believing, ye might have life through His name.” John 19:30; 20:31. Of such an one, coming to Him, believing on Him, hearing His words, receiving Him, He says, I will in no wise cast him out. I will give unto him eternal life. I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:37-40. While of the one who believes not on Him, rejects Him, and receives not His words, He says, “The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” John 12:48. Of the two classes we read in John 5:28, 29, “All that are in the 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 judgment.” The first of these two classes, “sleep by Jesus,” and are “raised in glory.” 1 Thess. 4:14; 1 Cor. 15:43; the last of the two “classes” die in their sins, and therefore are raised for judgment. John 8:21; 5:29.
At first sight John 5:29 might lead us to suppose that the Lord spake of a general judgment, that the saved and the unsaved would be raised together, but this is not so. We learn from Rev. 20:4-6 that a thousand years intervene between the two resurrections spoken of in John 5:29. Those in Rev. 20:4 we read of in 1 Thess. 4:16, and those called “the rest of the dead,” Rev. 20:5, we find again in 20:12-15.
The words at the head of this paper were uttered by a little girl just before she died, to her elder sister. She had been to the Sunday school, and the resurrection of the Lord was the subject she was expected to study for the following Sunday. I believe the Scripture pointed out to her was 1 Cor. 15:20-22, and by her parting word to her sister she surely had her thoughts on verse 23, “They that are Christ’s, at His coming.” When “the dead in Christ shall rise first,” and when “we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.” What a meeting will that be of dear departed ones, who are Christ’s and those who have known and loved them on earth, who are “waiting for God’s Son from heaven,” and above all to meet Him too, who died for them and rose again.
Will the one whose eyes now scans these pages be in that happy company with those who “are Christ’s”? Can you answer thankfully to this question, “Yes, for He loved me, and gave Himself for me?” Gal. 2:20.
In conclusion, may I press on you the words of the dear little one gone to be with Jesus, “Meet meat the resurrection.” W. R. H.