A. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up to glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.

Resurrection

In Revelation 20, this is distinguished from the First Resurrection. But the question is: In what way? In Premillennialism, one actually has to posit two general resurrections. The first resurrection must happen at “the rapture,” where the righteous who are in the graves and those who are alive (cf. 1 Thess. 4:16-17) go to meet the Lord in the air; but then this separates the raising of the wicked until after the thousand years which follow. Now, no one disputes that the Second Resurrection follows the millennium, since Revelation 20:5 plainly says so. The question then hinges on the meaning of the thousand years. We have already shown that the First Resurrection, which all agree is for believers (Rev. 20:4-6)—that there are other verses that show how all believers are raised with Christ within the power of his First Resurrection (Jn. 5:24-25; Eph. 2:5-6; Col. 3:1, 1 Pet. 1:3-4). As to whether this means at the moment of being born again or at the moment of one’s death and transference to the Intermediate State, I personally favor the first because of the way all of these verses speak to the present tense reign of believers alive on earth. So we can add Philippians 3:20 and Revelation 1:7, among others, to see that.1 

As a sidenote, it is often said that Premillennialism was the doctrine of the earliest church. There are two fairly massive problems with repeating that over and over as we hear all the time. The first is that in none of the places that this is evidenced is it in any extended, coherent treatment of Last Things. The first extended such treatment comes at the end of the City of God, where Augustine reads the thousand years as figurative. Secondly, the Apostles Creed, which we must date earlier than any such writings, and which was confessed universally by Christians, says that Christ “sits at the right hand of God; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” As Shedd commented on this line, “The doctrinal statement of the Apostle’s Creed, consequently, precludes a premillennial advent of Christ.”2

But there is a general resurrection on the Last Day, as the Jews had always been taught even in the Old Testament: “Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!” (Isa. 26:19); and “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2). 

About that Last Day, if someone asks what the difference is between this and the rapture, I would just ask to do a study of all of the New Testament verses that speak of the hour or the day of the Lord’s return. Do we find any common threads in these passages? I think we do. Six in particular stand out: 1. At a time unknown and unexpected. 2. Visibly and bodily, in such a way that every eye shall see Him. 3. At the loud sounds of a trumpet and angelic call. 4. Christ Himself descending and being ultimately He who calls. 5. To all of those dead in the graves—righteous and wicked—to rise. 6. Christ defeats all of his enemies who inhabit the earth at that time. Now it is true that some of these verses do not contain every one of these elements. But this does not give us warrant to separate these into two or more events. Let us consider a few of these:

“Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (Jn. 5:28-29).

“We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51-52).

“Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17).

“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen” (Rev. 1:7).

There is much mystery about the resurrection, but the fact that it is a bodily resurrection—just as Christ’s was—is beyond dispute. Paul says, “It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:43-44).

So while there is much we do not know, there is much to believed that we fall short of, and why? Jesus said to the Sadducees: “because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Mat. 22:29). This is what so many of our unbelieving thoughts come down to, as Paul knew when he preached the gospel to the Gentiles: “Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8) Boston commented on our falling short of faith in God’s resurrection power:

“An inferior nature has but a very imperfect conception of the power of a superior. Brutes do not conceive of the actings of reason in men; and men have but imperfect notions of the power of angels: how low and inadequate a conception, then, must a finite nature have of the power of that which is infinite!”3

He then moves through the analogies of an apothecary knowing which medicines are in his shop and where they came from, an expert gardener distinguishing between his seeds, and the watchmaker taking up several pieces of his watch from a confused heap before him, putting each back together in its proper place—how much more, then, can God, who once created all from nothing, distinguish between something and something, no matter how minute and scattered!4

Glorification

In transition from the Intermediate State to the Eternal State, we read: 

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform four lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even ito subject all things to himself” (Phi. 3:20-21).

Spiritually, the saints reside in the heavenly city. Again, they are with Christ and yet await for Christ. How can this be? It is what we hinted at last week: we are awaiting for the whole of our redemptions—soul and body—so that Paul speaks of a transformation to that glorious body. 

The doctrine of glorification teaches this very thing: that the saints will be RAISED UP TO GLORY. This is that final element of salvation, in which the saints behold Christ as he is, and thus are finally conformed to his image (Rom. 8:29; 2 Cor. 3:18). This happens either at death or on the day the Lord returns for those who are alive.

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

Glory perfects virtue and banishes vice. This is part of the gospel, that sin will now be morally and experientially done away with. It’s already been done away with in God’s courtroom. Now, we will have a fuller answer to that Psalm that might seem so troubling now: “Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” (Ps. 15:1).

Objection 1. Doesn’t he tell us, “My glory I will not give to another” (Isaiah 48:11).

Reply Obj.1. In that place, the “giving” of his glory specifically only means the splitting of credit or greatness, or ascribing what is true only of God to any mere creature. It does not mean to forbid benefiting from that same glory, or a glory appropriate to humans who are made in his image. So, for example, see Romans 8:20-28 and 2 Corinthians 2:7 which speak of the glorification of the Christian, or Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 speaking of star differing from star in glory.

Vindication

Our answer continues. We SHALL BE two things on the day of judgment: OPENLY ACKNOWLEDGED AND ACQUITTED. First, God Himself will acknowledge us. Jesus said, “So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32).

But then also we will be acquitted at that final bench of justice. Then there will be no confusion about the role of good works in the Christian life. Without any merit on our part in justification, there is nonetheless the reward of that which glorified God (cf. Mat. 5:16). 

“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:23).

Heavenly vindication means that the cause of Christ through you in this life will be proven to have been the only thing worth living for and more: “He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday” (Ps. 37:6). This has specific application to all of the occasions in life where we are maligned for being believers. Think of where Peter says, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Pet. 2:12).

Beatific Vision 

The “Beatific Vision” refers to that perfected experience, or sight, of God that the saints will have in glory. The main texts that relate to the Beatific Vision, aside from the 1 John 3:2 we have already looked at, are:

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Mat. 5:8).

“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (Jn. 17:24).

“And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:23).

But how can this be, since the Scriptures say of God that He “dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see” (1 Tim. 6:16)?

We must confess the deepest of mysteries here. It must remain true that no creature can behold the essence of God at least in the sense of his infinite fullness of being. That is, by definition, impossible. Even the greatest theologians were not settled on every detail here. As to the question whether this sight could be of the Father, or of the Son only; and if the latter, the idea would be that our sight can only ever be mediated, according to the human nature. Owen argued that it can only be “in the face of Jesus Christ,” from 2 Corinthians 4:6. As to the extent, Turretin acknowledges “debate about whether the blessed will see God’s essence immediately or see some effulgence of God.”5

Becoming like Christ at glorification in one’s whole being implies the same for one’s knowledge—as one’s knowledge is an aspect of one’s being. So we often speak of “seeing things as God sees them,” on that day. Of course that too means in a way fitting for a creature. But Paul says, 

“For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12).

__________________

1. Shedd takes this same view with clear exegesis and setting in parallel relationship, John 5:24-29 and Revelation 20:4-6; cf. Dogmatic Theology, 864-65.

2. Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 863.

3. Boston, Human Nature in its Fourfold State, 375-76.

4. Boston, Human Nature in its Fourfold State, 376-77

5. Turretin quoted in Steven J. Duby, God in Himself (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2019), 42.