Chapter 6 | Completing the New Creation for the Dead

As we continue to look back from our blessed position surrounded by the glory of the Lord, we see that for more than three millennia since Yeshua first revealed the kingdom of God to the world he has been making the Father known. And in every case where his words of life have gone out, individuals were saved by the revelation of the gospel of that kingdom and its king, Yeshua. This is the basis for Christ’s righteous judgment which leads any who are willing into the new covenant and into reconciliation with the Father. Whenever someone is confronted with the reality that is the Son of Man and the Son of God, each is faced with a choice. In every case, we all arrive at that intersection, at that choice, having come through disobedience. None can claim themselves righteous before God. All come to Christ out of ignorance by the revelation of the word of God, the Logos.

His Word is His Judgment

Yeshua the Christ is given all authority to judge the living and the dead[1], judging those who oppose God, whether in heaven[2] or on earth.[3] Those who followed Christ lived by his word and thereby entered into his righteous judgment, which led them to eternal life. When the dead from all the ages past and present are resurrected to flesh and blood and stand before Christ seated on the throne, each one will be exposed to his righteous judgment. Included with the resurrected dead will be those who did not know God and those who opposed his Christ. They’ve tasted his wrath and know his power to destroy. Now they will face his righteous judgment and experience the power of his mercy and grace. If they’re willing to hear with their ears the words of life set before them,[4] they too may have their hearts softened to repentance and willingly enter into the covenant of faith.

And Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
(Fourth Gospel 12:44-48)

 

Though Christ did not come to earth initially to judge the world, but to save it, now in these final decades of his earthly kingdom he sits in judgment over all the dead, to lead them, if possible, out of darkness and into the light of truth. He will achieve this through the very same words of life by which we were judged and made righteous; by the gospel of the kingdom handed down to us in the pages of Scripture. The apostle Paul affirms the same when he declares that the gospel of the Lord which he proclaimed is used as a tool of righteous judgment.

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:12-16)

 

Like all who have come to Christ, each is judged daily as they seek, hear, and live his words of life, the gospel of the kingdom of God.[5] It is the receipt of the reconciliation and gift of grace in Christ that leads one to righteousness and eternal life.[6] The resurrected dead will, like all those before them, have the opportunity to seek, hear, and live the reality of the gospel of the kingdom of God, to know Christ personally, and to surrender to his righteous judgment.[7] Now judgment involves the rendering of an authoritative or judicial decision, but as a process it is neutral, neither good or bad. A judgment can be rendered with numerous outcomes. An outcome can be rendered as positive, in the favor of the one being judged. It can also be rendered as neutral, being neither favorable or unfavorable. And lastly, judgment can be rendered that is unfavorable to the person being judged.

 

What then will be the basis for the judgment of the resurrected dead? Is it their past sin?

According to the gospel of Christ, death is the penalty for sin, is it not? These who were dead, have they not already paid the wages of their sin?[8] Now that they’ve been resurrected again to mortal life and living again in the flesh, are they now free from sin? No, because their condition has not changed, in that sin can again rule in their lives.[9] For that condition to change, they, like us, must be born again in Christ.[10] That birth and future life only comes through acceptance of the death, blood, and resurrection of Christ our Lord. Within Christ’s righteous judgment, the basis for their judgment is their future life not their past sin. Their sin has already been atoned for in Christ’s blood. All that remains is for them to know and accept Jesus Christ through whom they will secure their future as participants in the covenant of faith. If they move forward in their walk with Christ, what they’ve done in the past will be judged against the law of the Spirit in Christ just as it was for those called to be firstfruits.

 

Like our calling, the calling of disobedient Israel, and the calling of the nations, this potential rebirth for the resurrected dead begins with the revelation to them of the Son of Man and the Son of God. From that point each is judged in their own conscience by the word of God, that each might choose as you and I chose – whether to trust in God, surrender to the authority in Christ, and abide in the obedience of faith. That is the choice opened to each of us by our first parents, Adam and Eve, when they, by the exercise of free will, ventured out of innocence and into the knowledge of good and evil. Their desire to grow further into the likeness of God by knowing good and evil[11] broadened their awareness of reality, emerging from innocence into maturity and discernment, equipping them with a moral context in which to exercise the free will given to them. This new reality, however, is more complex than the innocent state they occupied earlier, and it brings greater consequences corresponding to the personal responsibility and accountability maturity requires. It is, however, necessary for the development of character into the image and likeness of Christ our Lord.

 

Those dead who are now resurrected to righteous judgment are facing a similar emergence, but out of ignorance, that they too might attain the maturity and understanding necessary to choose; I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life.[12]

Those willing to choose life will have, like all those before them, an opportunity to believe; to live and grow into the obedience of faith, trusting in God and his Christ. Those willing to live for God and abide in Christ’s righteous judgment will ultimately be inheritors of the kingdom of God, and will find their names added to the Book of Life.[13] Those unwilling to surrender to the obedience of faith will be cast into the lake of fire and be consumed. There they will die the second, permanent death, from which there is no hope of resurrection.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:20-23)

 

The contrast Paul and Christ are making is between righteousness leading to eternal life and unrepented sin and death. This is the second death, the death of judgment, the final wages for sin.

Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14-15)

 

The final task for Yeshua to complete before handing the kingdom of the new creation over to the Father is the destruction of death itself. Death and the grave are destroyed because they no longer serve a purpose. Those who have been born as children of God, with their names written into the Book of Life, have been resurrected and glorified with spiritual bodies, have inherited the kingdom of God, and are now immune to death, especially the second death.[14] Those who have rejected the source of life do not receive eternal life, nor is their name written into the Book of Life. Even the mortal life they have is taken from them when they are consumed in the lake of fire, the second death. This too is an expression of God’s mercy and grace in that those unwilling to dwell under the authority of Yeshua, the source of life, will forfeit their lives.