Good and Evil
Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in the 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. By myself I can do nothing: I judge only as I hear, and my judgement is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me John 5:28-30
The two great prerogatives of God, to raise the dead and judge humanity, have been given to Jesus.
At a funeral we don’t consign a person to their final resting place. The body might turn to dust slowly or ashes quickly but this a temporary condition. ‘A time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come out.’ Jesus’ hearers who knew their Scriptures would have been immediately reminded of Daniel 12:2 ‘Multitudes who sleep in the dust of earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.’ It may come as a surprise to some but we will live in bodies forever. Everyone will be raised, the good and the evil. We will have another body and we will live in that body forever, either glorifying and serving God or suffering forever.
What determines where we spend eternity? ‘Those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.’ Jesus has a few verses earlier explained what ‘good’ and ‘evil’ look like. ‘I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life’ (5:24); so to do ‘good’ is to hear ‘Jesus’ word’ and believe the Father. Believing the Father is believing the Father’s testimony about His Son (5:32,37), that Jesus is doing ‘the work that the Father has given me to finish’ (5:36), speaking His words (12:49) and doing His works (14:10). This is not salvation by works. ‘Good’ is accepting and believing the Son; ‘evil’ is rejecting the Son and refusing to believe Him.
‘By myself I can do nothing: I judge only as I hear, and my judgement is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.’ Though He claimed to exercise divine actions (raising the dead and judging humanity), Jesus refused to act independently of the Father. His judgement will be in perfect accord with God the Father’s judgement because everything Jesus did was to please His Father.
The right to judge the earth has been given by the Father to the Son, the Lord Jesus. He will judge righteously but graciously.
When Jesus died, our sin was righteously judged, condemned and the full penalty exacted. Jesus’ record of His perfect life on earth has been imputed to us as our record. So we stand before God now, forgiven and justified. The future judgement holds no fear. We have already ‘crossed from death to life’ (5:24).
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