Read and pray: "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come out: those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have practiced evil to the resurrection of judgment" (Jn 5:28-29)
Receiving Life in the Kingdom
When we preach the gospel, we tell people that we receive eternal life by believing in Jesus Christ. If a person believes in Him, he will have eternal life. Everyone who understands the Word of God knows that in the church age today, as soon as a person believes, he has eternal life. This is our message.
But the question now is: When is this eternal life manifested, revealed, and enjoyed? Today, our mind and spirit are constantly being persecuted by death. Satan is still very strong. Therefore, when will eternal life be fully manifested? Will it be in the new heaven and new earth? Or will it occur in the kingdom?
Let us read John 5:24-29: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and will come out: those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment."
Here, verse 24 says that as long as a person believes, he has eternal life and does not come into judgment. He who hears the Lord’s word and believes in the Father who sent Him has eternal life.
However, verse 29 says that those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life, while those who have done evil will come out to the resurrection of judgment. The word life (zoe in Greek) in verse 29 is the same word used in verse 24.
Those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of zoe, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. Verse 24 clearly says that we already have eternal life. But verse 29 says that some will not have eternal life until after the resurrection.
Do you see the difference here? Verse 25 takes place in the church age. It says that the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. We all are those dead ones. We heard the voice of the Son of God, and as a result, we live. Verse 28 says: "Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and will come out."
Verse 25 says the hour is coming and now is. Verse 28, however, omits the phrase "and now is," saying only that the hour is coming. Therefore, it refers to the future, not the present. Furthermore, here the Lord Jesus says that in the future all who are in the tombs will come out. In verse 25, He speaks of "the dead." Here He speaks of the dead who are in the tombs. Verse 25 speaks of the dead, referring to those dead in trespasses and sins. When the Lord speaks in verse 28 of the dead in the tombs, He is not referring to the death of the soul in sin; rather, He is referring to those dead in the body.
All those who are dead in their bodies, that is, those in the tombs, will hear the voice of the Son of God for the second time. Those who have done good will come out to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. This second time is the moment when all those in the tombs will be raised.
Let us read Mark 10:30: "Who will not receive a hundred times as much now in this present time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life." Here the Lord Jesus again mentions eternal life.
We must realize what kind of eternal life this is. The eternal life in Mark 10:30 is not the eternal life of the church age referred to in the Gospel of John, nor eternal life in the new heaven and new earth. Please realize that this eternal life will be in the coming age. The phrase "in the age to come" in the original language means the next age or the subsequent age.
Today we are in the age of grace. The next age will be the age of the kingdom, that is, the age of the millennium. Here, the Lord says that a person may receive eternal life in the coming age. This does not refer to the eternal life we receive when we believe in the Lord. Before the Lord spoke this word, a man came to Jesus asking what he should do to inherit eternal life. That question was related to works. Therefore, the Lord Jesus spoke to him about eternal life that is obtained through works. He told the young man that before he could inherit this eternal life, he had to keep the law and sell all that he had.
In the Gospel of John, the Lord Jesus clearly shows us that eternal life comes from grace and not from works. Then why does He say here that we must keep the law and sell all that we have before we can inherit eternal life? It is because the eternal life described here in Mark 10 is different from that described in John.
The eternal life in Mark 10 is received through works. The eternal life in John is received by faith. After the young man went away, the Lord Jesus looked around and said to His disciples: "How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!" (v. 23). By saying this, the Lord put eternal life and the kingdom together.
After the Lord Jesus said this, the disciples wanted to know the meaning of His word. The Lord said: "Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." The disciples were astonished and asked who then could be saved. The Lord said that "with men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God."
Peter then asked Him what he would gain for having left everything to follow Him, and the Lord spoke about the things that were to come. "Jesus said, Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life."
They will receive eternal life in the kingdom. Therefore, the eternal life spoken of here is eternal life in the kingdom. The eternal life in the kingdom is obtained through works. It is obtained through consecration, suffering, and bearing reproach for the Lord. For the Christian, the matter of eternal life in this age is settled. The matter of eternal life in eternity is also settled.
However, whether or not he will have eternal life in the kingdom depends on: whether he loves the Lord; whether he leaves everything for the sake of the gospel; whether he denies himself in all things and rejects the world. It depends on whether he is living for money, for material gain, for his family, or for the people of the world.
If he loves the Lord and leaves everything for the sake of the gospel, the Lord promised that he will not lose these things even in this age, but rather will gain hundreds of times more. If anyone gives up even a little for the Lord, he will reap a hundredfold return in the heavenly bank. Who can obtain such high interest? A deposit of one dollar will yield a hundred dollars. You cannot find any bank like this in the world.
In addition to this, there is eternal life in the coming age. In many portions of Matthew, the phrase "eternal life" is used as a synonym for the word "kingdom." In these passages, the living are those who enter the kingdom.
For example, Matthew 7:14 says that the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Today, many preach the gospel using this passage, exhorting people to enter by the narrow gate and to take the narrow way. However, if someone were saved by entering the narrow gate and by taking the narrow way, salvation would not be by grace but by works, and it would become a reward for entering the narrow gate and for taking the narrow way.
The eternal life, as revealed in the book of Matthew, does not refer to eternal life today, but rather to life in the millennial kingdom. To reign with Christ in the kingdom, a person must enter through the narrow gate and take the narrow way. If someone does not obey God’s commandments and His will, he will lose eternal life.
However, this does not mean that he will perish, but he will lose eternal life in the kingdom. If this issue is settled, then the matter of the ages in the Bible will be clearly solved. In the church age, all things are by grace. At the end of the church age, God will establish His kingdom through His Son. In the kingdom, only the faithful servants will reign with Christ by being resurrected from among the dead. The Bible shows us this very clearly.
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