Hello Friends, Brothers and Sisters / 10-2-23B
Last week I mistakenly sent out our weekly devotional scheduled for 10-2-23 and our weekly devotional scheduled for 9-25-25. So this week I will not be sending out a devotional. Instead I am forwarding a dialogue I had with a Christian sister a few years ago. Please note……
Hello Lupita
Your inquiry / When resurrection day comes what will happen to the non-believers and sinners?
I begin answering your question by stating that we all sin, but this doesn’t mean that we are all habitual sinners, that we continue to live in sin as does the unbeliever. Many have deceived themselves into believing that because they said a prayer, walked an aisle, signed a card, or joined a church that they are believers (Christians) but please understand, if a person has truly become a Christian, he or she will not live-in continuous sin. If there has been a change, there will be a change. In truth, the Christian will loath (despise) his or her sin. It cannot be otherwise because God the Holy Spirit indwells them and will not allow them to be comfortable in their sin. When resurrected they will spend eternity in the presence of God and their Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
As to Unbelievers – those who have rejected God (whether of the Old Testament times, or the New Testament times) when resurrected they are consigned to an eternal separation from God in a place called the Lake of Fire. Of that place consider Luke 13:22-28…… 22 And He (Jesus) went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. In context this passage has it’s setting in the millennial (1,000 year) reign of Jesus but the sentence of those God rejectors will be the sentence of all who have rejected God’s authority over their lives, no matter the era.
The apostle Matthew also recorded this episode, consider: “21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:21-23).
After His ascension back into heaven Jesus caused the apostle John to write these words: “11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:11-15).
Finally consider what the apostle Paul was inspired to write to the Galatians: “19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, out bursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21).
In this passage Paul described the heart of the unbeliever. In contrast, consider what he was inspired to write concerning the believer: Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.) And the result of there being no condemnation is found later in this same chapter. “28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Which resurrection would you want to be part of Lupita, the resurrection of the blessed or the resurrection of the condemned?
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