John 5:29

“When the dead hear his voice they will come out of their graves—those having lived their lives for good will rise into life, while those having lived their lives for evil will rise into final condemnation.” John 5:29 EFP

I must admit this text troubled me enough to cause me to go back to my Greek training to try to quell my fears.  After all it literally states that those “good having practiced” or “evil having done” will face the just deserts at the resurrection.  So whether you did one thing bad or lived a life of abject evil you face an adverse judgment.  It does not look good…for any of us, certainly not me.

But there is good news.  If I understand the Gospel, then the one good choice to cast my past at the foot of the Savior cancels the debt. Confession. The gift of God is that my life is reckoned as a life lived for good.  Even the thief on the cross who lived his whole life in pursuits that led him to inescapable condemnation and public scorn, is assured he will be counted among those who are raised up into life because he “has done good.”  What good did he do?  The only one thing that can save. He trusted Jesus with his blighted past and his even bleaker future.  In a moment he is assured paradise.  It’s a choice, pure and simple.  Choose life!