This next week, I will be finishing out my three month study of the Book of Revelation. Today I'm looking at one verse of chapter twenty-two: He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. (Revelation 22: 11)
Because the resurrection is an unconditional gift, I fear that some people believe that they will lay down a sinful and unrepentant body and take up a body of glory. This verse seems to belie that. If you die unjust, you will be resurrected unjust; if you die filthy, you will be filthy still; but if you die righteous, penitent, and holy, that is what you will be in the resurrection.
The Book of Mormon Prophet, Alma, spoke of this subject to his wayward son, Corianton:
And it is requisite with the justice of God that men should be judged according to their works; and if their works were good in this life, and the desires of their hearts were good, that they should also, at the last day, be restored unto that which is good. And if their works are evil they shall be restored unto them for evil. Therefore, all things shall be restored to their proper order, every thing to its natural frame—mortality raised to immortality, corruption to incorruption—raised to endless happiness to inherit the kingdom of God, or to endless misery to inherit the kingdom of the devil, the one on one hand, the other on the other— The one raised to happiness according to his desires of happiness, or good according to his desires of good; and the other to evil according to his desires of evil; for as he has desired to do evil all the day long even so shall he have his reward of evil when the night cometh.
. . .
Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness. And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal state, are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity; they are without God in the world, and they have gonefcontrary to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness. And now behold, is the meaning of the word restoration to take a thing of a natural state and place it in an unnatural state, or to place it in a state opposite to its nature? O, my son, this is not the case; but the meaning of the word restoration is to bring back again evil for evil, or carnal for carnal, or devilish for devilish—good for that which is good; righteous for that which is righteous; just for that which is just; merciful for that which is merciful. (Alma 42: 3-5, 10-13)
Wickedness never was happiness; not in this life nor in the next. Alma didn't want his son to procrastinate the day of his repentance. I don't want those I love to do that either. If your life is not in harmony with the Word of God, don't stop reading the Word; start changing your life.
Text copyright Gebara Education April 2013
Picture from www.mikyunlim.wordpress.com
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