THURSDAY September 12th
Revelation 20:6
‘Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.’
What a joy for me to be able to come to one of my favourite doctrinal truths again today, that of the resurrection! Here the statement is ‘Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection!’
In 1 Corinthians 15 we read ‘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’ (verses 22-23).
Those who have been found to be ‘in Christ’ will share in his resurrection, and in our verse today it is called the first resurrection, to define it from the second. And it is only those who are involved in the first resurrection who will be blessed and holy.
The word ‘first’ before the word resurrection infers that there will be another resurrection and the sad news is for those involved in this other resurrection is that they will not be blessed nor holy, but rather unholy and doomed for eternity.
For just as those who have died with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will be raised, so also will be those who have died without having placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and sadly, they will be raised to face the judgement of the Great White Throne which we read of in the same chapter of Revelation, 20:11-15, with the final verdict or action being that they will be thrown into the lake of fire, along with the devil, the beast and the false prophet as we also see in Revelation 20 and verses 7-10.
The consequences of rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ and the hope that is available to all and preached through the good news of the gospel, is devastating. In Romans 6:23 we read, ‘For the wages of sin is death’, there is no way of getting around this outside of Christ, the verdict of death has been pronounced on all mankind, but God put an incredible plan into operation by sending his Son into this world, so that if we come to believe in him we will have everlasting life, and so the verse in Romans continues, ‘But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’.
So, reader or listener to this devotion, where do you stand as far as a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is concerned. Have you come to accept him by faith or are you still rejecting him and the incredible hope that he offers to you for both this life and for eternity.
And to anyone who may stumble across this devotion online, if you are of another ‘faith’ or ‘religion’, I need you to know, I want you to know that there is NO HOPE, NO SALVATION through any other prophet, god, etc. It can only be obtained through the One who God sent into this world to make the way or the entrance into heaven open and to make heaven available to all and his name is Jesus. I cannot and never will apologise for saying this. This is what the holy and inspired word of God, the Holy Bible says.
John 14:6 ‘Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Acts 4:12 ‘And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’
And seeing as the subject has been about the first resurrection, John 11:25-27 ‘Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”’
Going back to what I have said about the resurrections, those raised in the first resurrection will be raised to eternal life, never to die again, but those who have failed to believe and who will be raised in the other resurrection, will be raised to die again, spiritually, eternally cut off from the eternal presence of God, it is called in Revelation 20:14 the second death.