‘But The Righteous Into Life Eternal’

‘But The Righteous Into Life Eternal’

“And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.”

Matthew 25:46

As we continue to contemplate the logical conclusion of the Last Judgment, we come to consider the end of the righteous. Christ declares at the end of His discourse on the Last Judgment, ‘And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.’ For our purpose today, we will consider just these words, ‘but the righteous into life eternal.’ The Scripture gives us a very clear description of how this looks. Christ, the King declares to His ‘sheep,’ ‘Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world….’ Revelation Chapters 21 and 22 give us quite a detailed description of what to expect. John speaks clearly regarding who shall be there. He says, ‘And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light….’ This brings us to the most important of issues. Who are these people who are ‘the nations of those who are saved,’ and how did they come to be so? How is it that Christ Himself, in our text for today, can describe them as ‘righteous?’  Paul wrote it in Romans 1:17, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ The saints of God have believed it and proclaimed it for generations. Christ is at the heart of it, ‘and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the laws of Moses.’ All of the ‘righteous’ acts of all these ‘righteous’ folk only have value because God has justified them by imputing Christ’s righteousness to them. Our hope of eternal life is bound up in Christ. He is why the Righteous enter into ‘life eternal.’

O, Christ, Our Righteousness,
we rejoice in Your Redemption, accomplished and applied.
We praise You, that ‘all the ransomed church of God shall be saved,
to sin no more.’

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning