Revelation 20:4-6 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them… My conviction is clear that the resurrection here spoken of is the resurrection of the saints from their graves, in the sense of the Nicene Creed, where it is confessed: "I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come." The placing of it as the first in a category of two resurrections, the second of which is specifically stated to be the literal rising again of such as were not raised in the first, fixes the sense to be a literal resurrection. 1. It is a resurrection of saints only. They that have part in it are "blessed and holy." It is true that "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). But it is immediately added, "every man in his own order." It is not a summary thing, all at once, and the same in all cases. The resurrection of the wicked is in no respect identical with that of the saints, except that it will be a recall to some sort of corporeal life. There is a "resurrection of life," and there is a "resurrection of damnation" (John 5:29); and it is impossible that these should be one and the same. There is a "resurrection of the just" — "a better resurrection" — a resurrection out from among the dead, for which great zeal and devotion are requisite (Luke 14:14; Hebrews 11:35; Philippians 3:10, 11) — which is everywhere emphasised and distinguished from another, more general, and less desirable. As it is "the resurrection of the just," the unjust have no share in it. As it is a resurrection from among the dead ones, it is necessarily eclectic, raising some and leaving others, and so interposing a difference as to time, which distinguishes the resurrection of some as in advance of the resurrection of the rest. 2. It is a resurrection which takes place in different stages, and not all at one and the same time. Paul tells us expressly that there is an "order" in it, which brings up some at one time, and others at other times. It starts with "Christ the first-fruits"; afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming; then (still later) the end, "completion, or last" (1 Corinthians 15:23, 24). Christ's resurrection was also attended with the resurrection of others (Matthew 27:52, 53). 3. It is a resurrection which as a whole is nowhere pictorially described. The reason is, that the subject is not capable of it. 4. The completion of this resurrection introduces a wonderful change in the earth's history. It is the breaking through of an immortal power; — a power which sweeps away, as chaff before the wind, the whole economy of mortal and dragon rule, and thrusts to death and Hades every one found rising up or stiffening himself against it; — a power which gives to the nations new, just, and righteous laws, in the administration of immortal rulers, whose good and holy commands men must obey or die. I think of the coming in of that power — of the havoc it must needs make in the whole order of things — of the confusion it will cause in the depraved cabinets and courts and legislatures of the world — of the revolution it must work in business customs, in corporation managements — of the changes it must bring into churches, into pulpits, into pews, into worship, into schools, into the newspapers, into book-making and book-reading, into thinking and philosophy, and into all the schemes, enterprises, judgments, pursuits, and doings of men. And a good thing it will be for the nations when that day comes. There can be nothing better than God's law. There can be nothing more just, more reasonable, more thoroughly or wisely adapted to all the well-being of man and the highest wholesomeness of human society. All the blessedness in the universe is built upon it. All that is needed for the establishment of a holy and happy order is for men to obey that law, for it to be put in living force, for it to be incarnated in the feelings, actions, and lives of men. And this is what is to be effected when "the children of the resurrection" get their crowns, and go into power, with Christ the All-Ruler at their head. 5. The completion of this resurrection promotes the subjects of it to a transcendent glory. (J. A. Seiss, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. |
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