| E-MAIL SERVICE | Sign me up to receive the daily Word of Righteousness free via my E-mail address! ( ONLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ) | |
| ARCHIVES | I want to check out the daily Words of Righteousness for any of the last fourteen days or from previous weeks. ( ENGLISH ONLY ) | |
| FEEDBACK | I have a question or comment about today's Word of Righteousness. ( ENGLISH AND SPANISH ONLY ) | |
| BOOK LIST | I would like to see the complete book list of the Words of Righteousness author Robert B. Thompson. (SOME SPANISH TITLES AVAILABLE ) |
The Daily Word of Righteousness
Cause and Effect, #7
Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. (John 5:28,29—NIV)
We know the consequence of having a body filled with Divine Life will be that we will ascend to meet the Lord in the air and be with Him for eternity.
But what will be the consequence of having our body raised from the dead and not filled with the joyous Life of God? This is the question.
Unless we are prepared to believe all Christians who have failed to overcome the world, the passions of their flesh, and their self-will, shall be cast into the Lake of Fire, we are faced with the fact that they will be somewhere else in their spiritually naked state. Perhaps this is why the outer darkness is mentioned. Notice what Daniel says about this.
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2—NIV)
We would expect the verse to say that some will go to Heaven when they are raised and some will go to Hell. But again the division is not this. Some will be raised to life and some to shame.
If a believer continued to live in the flesh until the Life of God was gone from his personality (probably many of us have seen this happen to someone who at one time had been a radiant Christian), and then was raised to discover there was no Life of God in his spirit, soul, or body, would he be ashamed when he saw the saints dwelling in Divine light? Perhaps so. Maybe he or she would run to the darkness to escape the observation of those who suddenly realized that the person they thought was living for God was actually a hypocrite having no love for God or the saints in him.
Can you see what we mean by cause and effect relationships? You could think of shame and everlasting contempt as punishment, but in a very real sense they are just the end product of life lived apart from the Spirit of God.
And on the other side of the coin:
Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. (Daniel 12:3—NIV)
Those who are wise and lead many to righteousness shine now—today. It is not that at the coming of the Lord the fleshly Christians who are counting on imputed righteousness to get them into Heaven will suddenly "shine like the brightness of the heavens." This is ridiculous as well as totally unscriptural.
What we are, we are. Death or the coming of the Lord will not change what we are. Rather, what we are will be revealed at the coming of the Lord. The unchangeable law of sowing and reaping will operate. We will be placed where we are fit to be placed.
To be continued.