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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Eternal Life, #10
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. (Revelation 20:4,5)
"They lived and reigned with Christ." "This is the first resurrection." "Lived not again until the thousand years were finished."
A careful consideration of the preceding two verses reveals that the expressions "they lived" and "lived not again" refer to reviving the physical body.
Conversely, notice that the wicked are punished in their bodies:
. . . These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with sulfur. (Revelation 19:20)
". . . were cast alive."
"These both were cast alive" does not mean that the Beast and the False Prophet were spiritually alive in the Presence of God. It indicates they were cast into the Lake of Fire while in their physical bodies.
Here is a mystery. How can one be cast physically into a spiritual fire?
The Lord Jesus ascended into Heaven in a physical body—a body of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39).
We see, then, that the spiritual and material realms coexist. They are not mutually exclusive. They coexisted in the garden of Eden, for we find that spiritual trees grew from material soil. When Adam and Eve sinned the spirit realm withdrew, leaving the material realm dead. "The body without the spirit is dead."
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2:26)
The material realm remains spiritually dead to this day along with our physical bodies. But the Lord Jesus has purchased the creation with His own blood and one day He will redeem it. He will regenerate the creation by restoring spiritual life to it. We saints will be the firstfruits of this redemption when our bodies are made alive by the entrance of glorious eternal life into them.
Christ will redeem the purchased possession. The thousand-year Kingdom Age is the fulfillment of the Year of Jubilee and also of the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 25:9). Then will the material creation be released from death by the exercise of the power that resides in the Body of the almighty Christ (Philippians 3:21).
Each individual who has ever lived will be restored to his body and then assigned to eternal life or else to eternal punishment.
Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which 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 damnation. (John 5:28,29)
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: (Matthew 25:34)
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: (Matthew 25:41)
It is not the spirits of people that are "in the graves," it is their bodies that sleep in the ground. It is the dead bodies that will hear the voice of Christ and come forth.
To be continued.