John 5:25-30: What Happens When You Die? (or The Resurrection of Judgment and the Resurrection of Life)

Scripture Reading

Let this be the aim of our life.

Phil 3:7-11 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Intro

What happens after we die?

Where will you go?

What will that look like?

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel or is there something else?

What happens to us when we close our eyes in death, and what do we open them to?

Death is the common denominator for all humanity…for everyone that’s ever lived.

Its the King of Terrors and the one thing we all share.

That’s why people are always asking what happens when we die?

The answer is that depends.

And it all depends on Jesus Christ.

Your eternal destiny…your life after death all rises and falls on Christ.

Eternity is unavoidable.

God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed (Acts 17:31).

The only question is will you be prepared?

And what will be your hope...or terrible expectation for when that day comes?

As we continue our study of John 5:25-30, Christ gives us a peek into eternity…The Resurrection of Life and the Resurrection of Judgment and tells us how we can be saved from one and enjoy the blessings of the other.

This might be the most important message you will ever hear, because today could determine your eternity.

We are going to get to talk about a lot of fun, interesting things.

Eternity, the Intermediate State, Resurrection Bodies…all things we don’t get to look at in depth very often.

Questions everyone asks but can only be known through the revelation of God’s Word.

But The Big Idea…the one thing I want you to hear and wrestle with today is this:

Your eternal destiny rises and falls on Jesus Christ.

The Resurrection of Life the Resurrection of Judgment all depends on how you respond to Him.

We are going to have 3 points today.

Let’s start with point Number 1...

I. Jesus Alone Has the Power to Save from Sin and Death

John 5:25 Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

What Jesus is talking about is spiritual life from spiritual death.

In verse 24, the immediate context before this, Jesus said John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

The Bible says that we are all dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1).

Sinful to the core. Utterly lost in darkness.

Filled with all manner of unrighteousness (Rom. 1:29), with the same sinful hearts the Lord saw before He flooded the earth.

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6:5).

That was all of us.

That is the sorry, miserable state for every person outside of Christ.

Paul vividly describes it in Ephesians 2:2-3 as following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— [living] in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, [being] by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

And in our sin we invited God’s wrath.

We were separated from God and justly condemned under His wrath and judgment.

The wages of our sin is death (Rom. 6:23).

And absolute death…death in every sense of the word.

Three Deaths

Phyiscal

The Bible talks about Physical Death. That’s when we die physically.

The breath leaves our lungs and we return to the dust of the ground.

Spiritual

There’s Spiritual Death.

Spiritual death is the state of being alienated from God and hostile to Him.

Separated from Him by and infinite gulf created by our sin, cut off from the fountain of living waters.

Spiritual Death is our primary death.

Physical death and eternal death both flow down stream.

They are the ultimate consequence of our Spiritual Death.

So when God said on the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Gen 2:17), Adam and Eve really died.

Instead of having love, fellowship, and communion with God, they hid from Him.

And physical death and eternal death became the result.

Spiritual death is the root of all the death that sin brings.

So when we think For the wages of sin is death, the primary death we should have in mind, is not physical death…its spiritual death.

Our greatest need is not that we die…its not physical. Its spiritual...its that we’ve been separated from God.

What we need most is to be forgiven and reconciled to Him. That’s life! Not just living forever.

Eternal

And then last is Eternal Death

When you die physically spiritually dead in your all trespasses sins, eternal death is the result.

Its the ultimate punishment our sin deserves.

Its eternal separation and alienation from God…banishment from all of God’s love and blessing to suffer the eternal wrath of God for all your sin.

Its called Hell…the Lake of Fire...

And its why the Bible says those outside of Christ are subject to lifelong slavery through their fear of death (Heb. 2:15).

We all know we are guilty. We all know we deserve eternal punishment for all our sins.

And maybe that’s you.

Maybe when you sit and you think about the finality of your life the fear of death feels you with terror.

You look at death and see nothing but fear and dread.

Now I’m not saying we love death. Death is an enemy (1 Cor 15:26).

But my hope for you today is to give you hope even in the face of death through faith in Jesus Christ.

Cause that’s what this verse is all about.

The death Jesus is talking about here is Spiritual Death.

The spiritual death that if we die in our sins will lead us to eternal death under God’s wrath.

An hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

Gospel

What Jesus is talking about is the gospel.

That the eternal Son of God became a man.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

And He lived a perfect and sinless life on our behalf.

He offered to God the perfect righteousness His Law demands.

Galatians 4 God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Gal. 4:4-5).

He went to the cross and paid for our sins.

He laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).

He drank the cup of God’s wrath and bore the punishment our sin deserves so that everyone who believes in Him could be forgiven.

And He rose again three days later and ascended into heaven to make intercession for us as our Great High Priest so that we who were dead in our trespasses and sins could be made alive through faith in Jesus Christ and given eternal life.

The dead who hear His voice will live!

If you come to Christ today, if you believe in Him, trust in Him…repent of all your sin and follow Him with all your life you will be saved.

Cleansed…forgiven…washed in the blood of the Lamb.

Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29).

That is the good news of the gospel.

If you believe in Him you will be born again.

Spiritually resurrected, raised with Christ…freed from sin and fear of death because all of your condemnation will be laid on Him.

Whoever believes...is not condemned (John 3:18).

He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life (John 5:24).

Jesus saves us from all our sin.

He died, went into the grave, and came out the other side to destroy the power of death and save everyone who believes in Him.

And now He lives to say...Because I live, you will live also (John 14:29).

That is the promise of eternal life. To everyone who hears His voice.

Not just hear in the audible sense…but hear in the spiritual sense where you repent and believe.

Jesus has the power to save us from sin and death and forgive all our sin.

And then verse 26 gives us the reason...why Christ has this saving, resurrection power…because verse 26 says For...

John 5:26-27 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

What you can’t really see in your English translation is that granted and given are the same Greek word, meaning these are parallel ideas.

Here’s what that means.

Jesus is not saying that the Father granted the Son also to have life in Himself in the sense that the Father gave the Son something He did not already have making Him a creature and something less than the Father.

Jesus is eternal God…One with and equal to God the Father, and He is not a created being.

As God He had life in Himself from all eternity.

As John said in chapter 1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [And] In him was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:1,4).

What this is saying is that the Father has given the Son, in His office as a Mediator…the Eternal Son of God incarnate in human flesh…two things:

The Authority to Forgive.

And the Authority to Judge.

As the Son of God Christ has life in Himself and He gives life to whom He will (John 5:21).

When Jesus says that the Father has granted Him also to have life in Himself, the idea is that the Father has granted the Son to be the fountain of living waters for all who believe in Him.

In other words, the Father has granted the Son to be the only source of eternal life.

He is the Savior of the World, and there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

And the Father has also granted Him the authority to Judge.

He has given him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man.

Jesus shared our flesh and blood and was tempted in every respect as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 2:14, 4:15), and so as the Son of Man, He is uniquely qualified to judge all the earth.

As the Son of Man He obeyed the Father and resisted temptation even to the point of shedding His own blood, so that when He rose again He rose victorious over sin, Satan, and Death to become the source of eternal life for all who would believe in Him...

Leaving sinful man with no excuse.

It is fitting that the One who was victorious over sin and opened the way to salvation should be appointed by God to be the One to Judge it.

As the Son of God He gives life to whom He wills and as the Son of Man He judges all those who refuse to believe in HIm.

He is the GodMan, the Mediator between God and Man who has the power to save us from all our sin and give us eternal life through the blood of His cross.

And that eternal life that we now have in Christ will find its to ultimate fulfillment in the Resurrection of Life we will enjoy when Christ returns.

And that takes us to point number 2…

II. All who Believe in Christ will Enjoy Eternal Life in the Resurrection of Life

John 5:28-29 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Here Jesus looks ahead to the Last Day…the Day of Judgment.

The Day Christ returns and all in the tombs, believer and unbeliever, will hear His voice and come out some to the Resurrection of Life and others to the Resurrection of Judgment.

What are the ultimate destinies of those who trust in Christ and have eternal life and the spiritually dead who reject Christ and die in their trespasses and sins?

But before we get to that Last Day, I want to talk about what’s in between.

What theologians call the Intermediate State.

In eternity we will either enjoy the resurrection of life or suffer eternal condemnation in the resurrection of judgment, but what about immediately after you die?

What happens between your death and that last day?

This is not a part of our passage, but this is a good opportunity to talk about it.

Intermediate State

One thing needs to be made clear. Death is not the end.

There is life after death…we do not simply cease to exist.

In Genesis 35:18 death is described as the soul departing from the body.

When He died, Jesus said Into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46).

When we die, our soul leaves the body but continues to exist.

And the Intermediate State is the life or experience of the soul in between the time of someone’s death and their resurrection on the last day which our passage says is something both believers and unbelievers will share.

But the difference in that life and that resurrection is dependent on how someone responds to Christ and His gospel in this life.

Unbelievers

When they die, the soul of the Unbeliever immediately goes to a place of torment and pain.

I agree with John MacArthur who says the wicked dead go to a place the Bible calls Hades, which in Greek thought was just the place of the dead (MacArthur, Biblical Doctrine, 839-840).

And while in the realm of the dead, the soul of the unbeliever suffers torment and anguish for all their sins waiting for the Resurrection of the Dead and the Final Judgment when Christ returns at which point, Revelation 20:13, Death and Hades will give up the dead who are in them, and they will be thrown both body and soul into the lake of fire in Hell.

So the wicked dead are currently in Hell, its just a Hell of the soul.

The lake of fire, the final Hell after the Final Judgment is a Hell of both body and soul together.

Just as believers go to heaven but wait for a New Heaven and New Earth unbelievers wait for the eternal lake of fire.

As Jesus said, do not fear those who kill the body…Fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matthew 10:28).

And in one of His Parables, Jesus tells us what this intermediate hell of the soul that will be fully consummated in the Lake of Fire at the Final Judgment actually looks like.

There was a rich man who died and was buried, but His soul, in Luke 16:23, went to Hades where he suffered anguish and torment.

In the Parable, he begs for even just one drop of water to cool his tongue saying I am in anguish in this flame (Luke 16:24).

But there is no chance or opportunity for him to escape because there is a great chasm fixed which no one is able to cross (Luke 16:26).

What this tells us is that physical death seals your eternal fate.

There are no second chances or opportunities to repent after death.

Hebrews 9:27 It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.

The opportunity to repent is now, there will be no opportunity later.

Call to Repent

What that says is…Repent! Come to Christ!

No one is guaranteed tomorrow.

Our lives are a vapor, but Today is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2, Hebrews 3-4).

Today, one way or the other, could seal your fate for all eternity.

If you died apart from Christ, there would be no opportunity to repent. No do-overs. No trying again.

Your fate would be sealed and all l that would be waiting on you would be an eternity of suffering and death.

But if you believe in Jesus Christ, if you come to Him today, you will be saved.

Instead of being sealed for judgment you would be sealed for eternal life.

Guaranteed in Christ to never face the wrath and judgment of God because He faced it on your behalf, but only if you believe.

Do not waste the opportunity. Today if you hear His voice, come to Christ (Heb. 3:7).

Believers

Well what about Believers? Where do we go when we die?

Believers go to be immediately with the Lord.

Jesus told the thief on the cross Today you will be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43).

2 Corinthians 5:8 to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord.

At death, our souls are immediately glorified.

They are made perfect in holiness, fit for the presence and glory of God, and we go to be with Him.

And that place, what Jesus calls Paradise, is far better than anything this broken and fallen world.

That’s what Paul says: we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8).

Philippians 1 To live is Christ, and to die is gain...which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better (Philippians 1:21-23 ).

Because Jesus has conquered death, we no longer have to fear.

Death does not lead to judgment.

Christ has so conquered Death that He has made Death the sails that carry us home.

Owen

And in that moment, at death, the soul is immediately freed from all weaknesses, doubts, and fears.

John Owen is great on this.

At death the soul is freed from all the presence and limitations of sin so that our souls may for the first time worship and enjoy God for all He’s worth.

All the graces God has given us like faith, love, joy, and delight are unchained from the limitations of the flesh and without hinderance we are able to exert all our strength, love, and joy to the glory of God (Owen, The Glory of Christ, 129-130).

Its far better to depart and be with Christ because in that moment, for the very first time we will close our eyes in death and open them free to worship God and enjoy Him just as He created us to.

For the very first souls will be free to truly know the promise of Psalm 16:11 In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

But that is not the end. The Intermediate State is not our ultimate hope.

In a great paradox, the intermediate state for the believer lacks nothing and yet...is incomplete.

God did not create us to be disembodied spirits.

He created us to glorify Him in both body and soul together.

That’s why in 2 Corinthians 5:3 Paul who said departing to be with Christ is far better, compares the Intermediate State to being naked.

We long to be clothed our glorified, resurrected body like Christ’s own resurrected body to worship God in both body and soul just as He created us to in the fully consummated New Heavens and New Earth...

A completely renewed creation where God will exalt His glory not only as Creator, but as Redeemer who is absolutely sovereign over Sin, Satan, and Death and makes all things new.

The Resurrection

And that takes us back to our passage.

Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Now is the time of salvation For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

But a day is coming when the Son will return and execute judgment on all the earth.

Paul tells us when this will happen.

1 Corinthians 15:22-26 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end...

The end of what? The end of human history.

As Christ says He will raise all who believe in Him on the last day (John 6:39, 40, 44, 54).

when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

So after putting every enemy under His feet through the preaching of the Gospel, Christ will return to destroy the last enemy which is death.

And this happens on the last day of human history ushering in eternity.

In Acts 24:15 Paul says there will be a resurrection of the just and the unjust.

Here in our passage Jesus says an hour is coming when all in the tombs will hear his voice and come out.

And the purpose of Christ’s return is for the Final Judgment and to usher in the Eternal State.

What you could think of as Forever Heaven and Forever Hell.

So our eternal destinies beyond the intermediate state.

And what a lot of Christians don’t understand is that both believers and unbelievers will be raised.

Those who have done good to the Resurrection of Life and those who have done evil to the Resurrection of Judgment.

Now this is not teaching a works based salvation.

John has been clear throughout His gospel it is whoever believes will have eternal life.

What Jesus is talking about here is works as the evidence of faith (James 2:14, 17).

A tree is known by its fruit (Luke 6:43-45).

Those who are saved and follow Christ will live a life of godliness while those who are still dead in their sins will walk in the path of their parents from Noah’s day doing only evil continually.

But the bodies believers and unbelievers will be raised with are different.

Believers will receive a glorified body fit for the glories of Eternal Life...

And Unbelievers will receive a body that is not glorified, but fit for the Lake of Fire and Hell.

Resurrection of Life

Let’s talk about the Resurrection of Life.

What do we have to look forward to?

If you want to know about the Resurrection and the Resurrection Body look no further than 1 Corinthians 15.

In that chapter Paul says 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep [talking about death because it is temporary…you wake up], but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

And in that moment, in that twinkling of an eye when Christ returns we will be raised in glorified, new Resurrected Bodies.

Ones fully fit for Eternal Life and Heaven.

Well what are those resurrected bodies like?

Paul compares them to a seed.

If you take a grain of wheat, you’ll get wheat, but something more glorious than the seed itself (1 Cor 15:37).

So it is with the Resurrection body.

1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 49 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable.It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body…Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Our body will be like Christ’s own glorious body (Phil 3:20-21).

People always ask how old will we be in heaven.

Probably the age of Christ when He rose again. Mature manhood.

And in this passage Paul tells us four things about the Resurrection Body and how it differs from the fallen natural bodies we have now.

Imperishable

First it is imperishable.

It will not get sick, old, or die.

It will never see corruption.

It will be an eternal body fit to worship God in Heaven forever.

Glory

Second it will be a glorious body.

What is sown in dishonor will be raised in glory.

Our physical bodies are not inherently dishonorable.

When God made us He said that it was good.

We have made our bodies dishonorable because of sin.

We have used our bodies to commit sinful and wicked acts against God.

Taken what God has given and corrupted it.

But in our Glorification, our bodies will be pure and honorable.

They will be raised in glory and perfectly suited to honor, praise, and glorify God.

Power

Third, our body will be sown in weakness but raised in power.

We feel our weakness every day.

And not just our physical weakness, but spiritual weakness.

Like Paul says in Romans 7 I want to honor God but I don’t have the power to do it.

But in the resurrection we will have the power.

We will have all the strength we need to perfectly obey God and His will.

We will no longer fall, fail, or stumble because of our own weakness.

In the resurrection of life we will be raised in power necessary to obey God and glorify Him for all He’s worth.

Spiritual

Finally, what is sown is natural and what is raised is spiritual.

Now this isn’t talking spiritual as in disembodied spirits.

Christ rose again bodily and so will we.

To understand what Paul is saying here you need to go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 where Paul talks about the natural man and the spiritual man.

The natural man does not accept the things of God nor is even able to understand them.

The spiritual man, on the other hand, is someone who is entirely submitted to God and in perfect harmony with the Holy Spirit.

So when Paul says what is sown is natural what is raised is spiritual that’s what we should have in mind to say that the spiritual body in the Resurrection is one that is perfectly submitted to the will of God.

There will no longer be any temptation or anything in us that resists God.

In the Resurrection everything in us both body will be perfectly submitted to God want to obey Him.

The internal battle we now have in our natural bodies between righteousness and sin will be gone and we will have a physical body that is able to carry out every holy desire we have and worship God with all our being.

That is our hope.

That is what Paul says we are longing to put on.

The Resurrection of Life.

And on the Day of Judgment we will stand before Christ justified in Him.

The wicked will be thrown in the Lake of Fire and Christ will purify the earth.

Our eternal home will be here in a fully renewed New Heavens and New Earth.

A New Creation where every trace and stain of sin is washed away and the entire world will be a paradise restored.

A completely renewed Eden.

And God will dwell with us and we will be His people just like in the first Eden.

And He will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things [will] have passed away (Rev 21:4).

The Resurrection of life for all who believe in Christ will be a life of everlasting blessing and rest.

An eternal Sabbath to the glory of God.

But what about for those who do not believe who die dead in their trespasses and sins sealed for eternal death?

That’s point number 3...

III. All Who Reject Christ will Suffer Eternal Death in the Resurrection of Judgment

John 5:28-29 An hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Just as believers will be raised again in a body fit for eternal life, unbelievers will be raised again in a body fit for eternal death.

One that will suffer an eternity of everlasting shame and contempt (Daniel 12:2).

This of course is the Lake of Fire and Hell.

Eternal banishment and alienation from God under His holy and righteous wrath.

Jesus called it a fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 13:42).

The place where the fire is not quenched and the worm does not die (Mark 9:48).

Worms in this context are animals that feed on death.

So what Jesus is saying is that there is enough death to feed the worms forever.

The Resurrection of Judgment is a body that is fit to endure this eternal punishment for sin.

Always burning but never burned.

Always eaten but never consumed.

One suited for eternal wrath in the Lake of Fire, and that is the fate that awaits everyone who does not trust in Christ because verse 30...

John 5:30 I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Notice what Jesus says.

My judgment is just because I seek not my own will but the will of Him who sent me.

What this tells us is that Christ’s judgment will be perfectly just and in perfect alignment with God’s will.

He will judge the world in perfect righteousness according to God’s own perfect and righteous standard: His Law.

All of your life will be laid bare. Every thought, word, action, and deed.

And Christ will not relax or bend God’s Law one inch.

The soul who sins shall die (Ezek. 18:20).

Even one sin will send you to Hell because it was a sin committed against an infinitely holy and righteous God.

Who can stand under that kind of scrutiny? No one.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But that’s the good news of the gospel because what’s the rest of that verse?

Romans 3:23-24 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

How can a holy and righteous God forgive sinners?

How can you stand before Christ and be declared righteous on the Day of Judgment?

Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Christ says His judgment is just.

If you believe in Him all of your sin will be laid on Him.

You will be forgiven because all of the wrath of God will be poured out on Him on your behalf.

There will be no sin left of your own to die for, and Christ will give you eternal life.

The wicked dead will rise to resurrection of judgment.

They will stand before Christ naked and ashamed for all their sin.

But those who believe will stand before Christ justified.

Clothed in dazzling white robes washed in the blood of the lamb covered in Christ’s own perfect righteousness.

With the promise they will be saved.

Conclusion

As we close I want to make a few applications of all that we just talked about.

Number 1…don’t miss Christ. Never miss Christ.

Jesus died and rose again to save us from sin and the curse of death our sin deserves.

He saves us from death and all of death. Spiritual. Physical. And Eternal.

Death and sin are conquered and overcome in Him.

As much as we might enjoy and look forward to Heaven and salvation never look past the One who opened the well of that salvation with His own blood.

All of this: The gospel…the Intermediate State…the Resurrection of Life...

All of it points to the Savior.

The reason we will rise again to everlasting life is because He who had life in Himself died on our behalf.

He died the death our sin deserved and rose again three to forgive our sin and give us eternal life.

To save us the curse of death and eternal separation and alienation so that far from being cast out we are adopted as God’s own beloved sons and daughters.

Unbeliever

So, for the unbeliever…believe in Christ. Repent of your sin. Trust in Him.

Do not face that day unprepared.

Today is the day of salvation. The hour of salvation is now!

You may have never prayed an honest prayer in your life.

But if you come to the Lord today and say, Lord I am a sinner. I am guilty and dead in all my sin.

Will you please give me eternal life...

You will be saved.

And you will not have to fear death because you can die today with Jesus Christ and have eternal life.

Believer

And for the Believer...

There are two specific applications Scripture gives us because of our hope in the Resurrection.

Perseverance and Holiness.

After talking about the Resurrection, Paul ends 1 Corinthians 15 with an application Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain (1 Cor 15:58)..

Persevere in the Lord.

Live for Him remembering that He rewards those who seek Him.

And 1 John 3:2-3 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Perseverance and a holy life..

That is what God calls us to…

That is to be the aim of our life in everything in it as we wait for the Lord and the hope of His Resurrection.

Let’s Pray