John 5:29, commentary and pictures

All who lie in their graves will hear the voice of Christ and rise in two separate resurrections, the righteous to everlasting life and the wicked to judgment and final death. The righteous dead sleep as whole persons until Christ returns, when after their records have been judged worthy they are raised in immortal vigor never to die again, while the wicked rise after the thousand years in the same fallen bodies that bear the marks of the curse. Christ has this life-giving power in himself as the Son to whom all judgment is given, and his own triumph over the tomb guarantees that all who believe in him will be raised. The dividing line is what each has done, with doing good meaning obedient faith that restores God's image and doing evil meaning law-breaking unbelief, so reward is by character and deeds rather than profession. This promise calls the living to ready themselves now, for character is fixed at death with no further probation, and it comforts the bereaved and the suffering with certain reunion, recognition, and entrance into the city of God.

Setting and Controversy

These words belong to the instruction given at the second Passover after the cure of the paralytic at Bethesda. They were spoken amid uproar in the court of the temple in sharp controversy over the true claims of the Sabbath law. Jesus had purposely chosen the Sabbath for the miracle to rid the day of the burdens heaped upon it. When accused, He answered by declaring that His Father works hitherto and He works, claiming equal rights with God in doing a work equally sacred and of the same character as the Father's work. The Pharisees were incensed because He had broken the law according to their understanding and declared Himself equal with God, so that only interference of the people kept the authorities from slaying Him on the spot.

In that defense He declared He could do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do, His relationship with God forbidding independent work against the Father's will. This teaches that man is inseparably bound to his heavenly Parent and responsible to God who holds all destinies. Man is endowed with faculties for God's work and warranted in claiming blessing while faithful. But he is accountable for unauthorized acts when exalted in self-wisdom and separated from God.

The verse answers denial of bodily resurrection by declaring that raising the dead is one of the Father's greatest works and that the Son has power in Himself to raise the dead. It promises greater works than healing the sick, the lame, and the blind. It teaches that all the dead will hear Christ's voice and come out of their graves, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation, presenting two distinct outcomes by divine power.

The words were spoken to Caiaphas the Sadducee, whose cherished theory denied the resurrection, and they cut him with a panoramic vision of his own coming judgment. These words were to be repeated again and again and communicated to others. The resurrection of the dead and future eternal life are eternal truth and foundation principles contained in the Old Testament Scriptures, which priests were appointed to proclaim. God established this truth to keep the unseen world in view, including that angelic agencies minister to earth's inhabitants and cooperate with those who choose truth. To disbelieve and undermine the resurrection is unbelief in the Scriptures and blasphemy against the Son of God.

Christ's Power to Raise

The verse shows Jesus standing in his true character as one who does whatever the Father does with like power and like results. Raising the dead is one of the Father's greatest works, and the Son has power in himself as the Father does to raise the dead and give eternal life. It promises greater works than healing the sick, the lame, and the blind, and it answers denial of bodily resurrection by declaring this divine power belongs also to the Son. He is the author of the resurrection, and the raising of Lazarus represents the general resurrection of the righteous, showing that his soon-coming death on the cross would not prevent him from conquering the grave. The same life-giving power now brings a soul dead in sin to life, breaks evil's dominion, and keeps a person from sin through faith, so that those who receive his Spirit share already in the power that will raise the body from the grave. His own resurrection establishes the certainty that everyone who believes in him will be raised. All who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation, displaying his authority as the Son of God.

Judgment over all people has been given to the Son, and he has authority to raise the dead and execute judgment. Having experienced human affliction and temptation, he is able to judge with wisdom, justice, and grace. The two outcomes are connected with what people have done, with all who are in their graves coming forth in two distinct resurrections, those who have done good to the resurrection of life and those who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation.

All who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth when the trumpet sounds, with the call resounding throughout the earth. The Lifegiver will come in the clouds with power and glory to call the dead by his voice to immortal life, an event not yet occurred and accompanied by a worldwide earthquake and the trumpet of God sounding across the earth. He descends on the cloud wrapped in flames of fire with a silver trumpet, gazes on the graves of the sleeping saints, and cries for those sleeping in the dust to awake and arise. Then there is a mighty earthquake, the graves open, and the dead come up clothed with immortality and recognized by their friends, while in the same moment the living are changed and caught up together with the risen dead to meet the Lord in the air. The Son's calling voice that raises the dead in Christ is distinct from the voice of God out of Zion and Jerusalem that shakes heaven and earth. The shaking voice comes out of the temple of heaven from the throne before Jesus leaves heaven, while the Son's voice is uttered only after he has descended with holy angels and trumpet and his angels gather the elect to meet him in the air, not in Jerusalem or in the heavenly temple. The trumpet's sound thus marks the hoped-for resurrection when the faithful dead are raised to immortal life at his coming.

Two Resurrections in Order

All who are in the graves or tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth in two distinct resurrections, those who have done good unto the resurrection of life and those who have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation or judgment. This promised future life was the hope Israel had long awaited at the Messiah's coming, bringing light into the darkness of the grave, and Christ's death and resurrection will ultimately bring all the dead out. The resurrection of life belongs to those who have secured pardon through repentance and faith, while the wicked receive the penalty for sin according to works and finally the second death, distinguishing the two classes raised and showing the end of the wicked in death rather than eternal torment. The coming hour is a solemn, sacred warning calling for readiness to meet the issue, with the resurrection of life belonging to everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him and imitates Him, whom Christ will raise at the last day to live and never die and to receive unto Himself at His coming to the place He prepares.

The righteous rise in the first resurrection at Christ's second coming and the wicked in the second resurrection after the thousand years. The dead rest in the grave until then, and death does not take them immediately to heaven. Those who share in the first resurrection come forth immortal in triumph and victory with no more death, sin, sorrow or pain, and are beyond the power of the second death. By contrast the wicked are raised after the thousand years with the same feeble, sickly bodies they had when they went into the grave, bearing visible marks of the curse, unlike those raised in immortal bloom.

There was a partial resurrection after Christ's resurrection when those raised with Him were led captive through the city gates to the throne as trophies of His victory over death and the grave, a pledge and sample of the resurrection of all the righteous dead. They appeared to many and testified that Jesus had risen. At Christ's coming there is also a special raising of those who pierced, scourged and crucified Him, with priests and rulers, to behold Him coming in clouds with the angelic host. They will see the judgment-hall scene as if written in letters of fire, receive the answer to His blood be on us and on our children, know what they have fought against, and cry in agony and horror for mountains and rocks to hide them from the face of Him on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. The general judgment takes place at the end of the thousand years, when those who disowned Christ and betrayed Him through their treatment of His saints will see the result of their deeds.

The righteous dead are raised only after the judgment has examined their records and found them worthy of the resurrection of life, so they are not present in person when their cases are decided. People come forth just as they were when they died with character unchanged. When Christ comes in the clouds of heaven in the glory of His Father with the holy angels there is no further probation, no added time to obtain moral fitness for the kingdom, no atoning blood pleading to wash away sin, and no work of purification then to be performed. The grave offers no further choice between good and evil, and God does not remake someone who refused re-creation while alive, so the character formed in life determines whether a person can find happiness among the righteous.

The resurrection of life includes all the faithful dead from Abel onward to the last saint who dies, raised from every place where they have died with none overlooked. This includes martyrs buried in caverns, dungeons and hidden pits and Waldensian martyrs, and those engulfed in ocean waters. The precious dead will live again, and God will be their God and they His people in a close and tender relationship. Perishing by disaster gives no cause to cast reflection on God.

Nature of Resurrection Life

The dead rest as whole persons sleeping in the grave until they are brought forth, and their reward or punishment waits until that future resurrection and judgment rather than being completed at death. The entire being slumbers, not a conscious soul apart from the body, so the moldering body must be raised and the whole person rise to receive life or punishment. If reward or misery began at once at death, the resurrection and final judgment would have no purpose and would be redundant, and this is why Scripture dwells so much on the resurrection of the body.

Those who rise to life break free from the tomb in immortal vigor and triumph over death, called from every place where they died with none overlooked. They are clothed with glorious immortality to live and never die, with no more death, sin, sorrow, pain or parting, and the second death has no power over them. The Life-giver breaks the tomb's hold, mortality is swallowed up by life, and Satan's triumph over them ends in Christ's triumph. God regards that future resurrection as already accomplished, the dead being living to him.

The resurrection brings reunion and recognition, when Christ calls the righteous dead from the land of the enemy and from death's prison to eternal life and immortality. Children, youth, adults and the aged enjoy happy fellowship without further parting, meet loved ones and heavenly angels, and are gathered to meet the Lord in the air and carried upward to the holy city. They know one another with the same recognizable figure made beautiful and renewed, for Christlikeness transforms their image into Christ's glorious image without destroying it, so saints who were family here will know one another there. The resurrection is a literal return to life in close relationship with God, who will be their God and they his people.

At the second resurrection after the thousand years the wicked come forth in the same feeble, sickly bodies they had when they went into the grave, bearing visible marks of the curse, unlike those raised in immortal bloom at the first resurrection. They see Jesus in kingly majesty and glory and recognize him as the one they despised, mocked and crucified. Overwhelmed by his presence they flee and lament, and those given great light who refused God's word and law see his goodness, mercy, love and sacrifice, recognize their guilt and condemnation, and face the sentence to depart from Christ.

Christ came from the tomb in triumph over death, showing his power to raise the dead. His resurrection gives a picture, preview and first-fruits of the general resurrection of the just at his second coming, when the righteous dead from Abel to the last saint who dies will rise to glorious, immortal life. Those raised with Jesus were a pledge and sample of the resurrection of all the righteous dead, and the risen captives presented to the Father were samples of those redeemed by his blood from every nation who will receive immortal crowns. His voluntary death as humanity's substitute defeated Satan's attempt to destroy the race and brought life and immortality to light to open heaven's kingdom to believers, and as risen Advocate and head he will justify and glorify his followers and lift them to sit with him.

The same life-giving power that will raise the physically dead works now on people dead in trespasses and sins, who hear the Son of God, are restored and made new by Christ, and come forth into a changed life. The conversions of Bunyan and Newton illustrate this present work of the divine Physician, and those who receive Christ's Spirit share in the same power that will raise the body from the grave to break evil's dominion and keep from sin through faith. Lazarus represents suffering poor people who believe in Christ, whose patient endurance tested and witnessed for Christ and whose faith was real rather than theory, and at the resurrection of life the faithful of such faith will receive their reward, carried by angels as into Abraham's bosom.

Judgment and Final Fates

The verse draws the line that separates the two classes at the judgment and at the second coming, when the whole world is represented by the righteous and the unrighteous. Works are the criterion by which all are tested and placed, and separation and reward rest on character and deeds and the use of entrusted talents, not on profession. Doing good means obeying God's law and cooperating by faith with Jesus to restore God's moral image, as the fruit of justification by faith, while doing evil means transgressing the law and denying the Saviour by an ungodly life. God Himself is the infallible Judge whose judgment is without mistake or compulsion, the law tests character, and Christ separates the obedient from the disobedient with each person's actions determining reward or punishment.

Those raised to life are the blessed and holy, who have secured pardon through repentance and faith and are rescued through Christ's sacrifice, given life and taken to everlasting life beyond the power of the second death. The wicked are separated from the Lord, raised to condemnation and judgment, and face the penalty for sin according to their deeds, ending in the second death and loss of existence. That second death is the opposite of everlasting life and is distinct from the death all suffer because of Adam's sin, so the verse supports the end of the wicked in death after suffering for guilt rather than living forever in torment. At the second coming the righteous dead are raised to life from every place where they have died, while the wicked are separated and consumed by fire, which is everlasting life for those who obey God and destruction for those who rebel against His authority.

At the final judgment all stand at the bar of God to be awarded and sentenced according to works, the graves give up their dead, and dark deeds and secrets hoped to be hidden forever are revealed before the eternal Judge whose eye sees all things and reads the soul. The last general judgment reveals each character, completes Christ and His church's triumph, and brings the destruction of Satan and his followers after the earth is cleansed by fire, with the righteous caught up to meet the Lord. These words were addressed to Caiaphas the Sadducee, whose cherished theory denied the resurrection, cutting him to the quick with a panoramic vision of his own coming judgment, and they were to be repeated again and again and communicated to others.

When Christ's voice reaches the dead and calls them forth, the rejecters of grace recognize it as the one that repeatedly called them to repentance, and their memories of refused warnings, invitations and privileges make it a source of condemnation. They that have done good are those who obeyed His voice when it invited rest, forgave sin, and called to deny self, take up the cross and follow, recognizing the raising voice as the One touched with their infirmities, and to them it means rest, peace and everlasting life as they hear Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. They that have done evil remember and dread meeting Him whose grace they rejected. Among them are those who pierced, scourged and crucified the Saviour, the priests and rulers, raised then to behold Him whom they mocked coming in the clouds of heaven with the angelic host, to see the judgment-hall scene as if written in letters of fire, to receive the answer to His blood be on us and on our children, and to cry in agony and horror for mountains and rocks to hide them from the face of Him on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

Hope and Readiness for Life

The coming hour when all in graves hear the Son of God and come forth to two resurrections is a solemn, sacred warning calling for readiness to meet the issue. When the trumpet sounds all will rise, and those who have served the Lord will rise to live with Him in His kingdom, whether living or dying, for all who belong to the Lord will live with Him. This promise gives faith and courage in sickness and in facing death. The faithful will attain the resurrection of life, to see Jesus and be made like Him at His return, and present toil and suffering are worth enduring for it. The sinner has no cheering hope of sharing in the resurrection of the blessed and faces death in fearful uncertainty.

The Christian's hope is that after brief rest in the grave the Life-giver will raise the faithful immortal, never again to suffer pain, sorrow, or death. The Son of God calls the dead from their graves, and that call brings the sleeping saints out of death as part of the church's final deliverance. Those safe in Christ will come forth to immortality and lasting joy and live forever with Him. The righteous dead will rise to receive life, eternal life, and for those who live very near the Lord, even if earthly life is lost, that life is preserved unto eternal life. Those who have secured God's favor and are called to sleep in death may share in the resurrection to life and in an inheritance where sickness and death are no more.

The resurrection of life belongs to everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him and imitates Him, whom Christ will raise up at the last day to live and never die and to receive unto Himself at His coming again to the place He prepares. Possessing light alone will not save unless it is valued and passed on to others by following Christ's example. The righteous dead will be called from their graves by the Life-giver and receive a bright reward, and their faithful words and deeds continue to testify to God's truth even after death. The dead await the Life-giver's summons to glorious immortality.

The present hours are solemn and precious and must be devoted to preparation of heart to meet the Saviour on the resurrection morning, for wanting diversion and amusement and remaining blind to personal need leaves a person unready. The resurrection opens victory over death and the grave, entrance into heaven, and eternal reward for those who follow Christ and overcome. It leads to entry into the holy city for those who have served God, kept His commandments, been tried, and loved Him supremely, welcomed by Christ, while those not prepared for heaven have no place there because rebellion will never arise again.

For the bereaved, wife and children will rise from their graves clothed with immortal splendor, giving comfort amid grief. Christ calls the righteous dead from their graves at His appearing, raised and joined with the living saints who are changed, and together taken by angels to meet the Lord in the air. They rise in triumph clothed with glorious immortality and join the living saints who are changed and caught up with them, and this promise brings deliverance to the pious slave while the wicked master cannot understand God's voice. When Christ calls the dead from their graves some rise to everlasting life and others to final destruction, and Christ will raise all His saints, give them immortal bodies, and open to them the gates of the city of God.

The just come forth from their graves at Christ's second coming to the resurrection of life, rescued from death through Christ's own sacrifice among the redeemed from every nation, language, and people. The just will rise to everlasting life, clothed with immortality, and die no more. When Jesus comes on the great white cloud with the Sign of the Son of Man, after God speaks the day and hour and delivers the everlasting covenant, the voice of the Son of God calls the sleeping saints forth to glorious immortality, the living are changed in a moment and caught up together with them in the cloudy chariot to the Holy City, and this belongs to those who honored God in keeping His Sabbath holy and kept the commandments. Jesus opens the gates of the golden city and leads them in because they kept the commandments of God and have right to the tree of life.