“Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For you will be covered with the morning dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits. Go, my people, enter your rooms and close your doors behind you. Hide for a little while until the wrath has passed. For look, the LORD is coming from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal the blood shed on it and will no longer conceal her slain” (Isaiah 26.19-21).

The Bible teaches that there are two categories of bodily resurrections in the future: 1) The resurrection unto life deemed the first resurrection; 2) The resurrection unto condemnation deemed the second resurrection. Jesus said, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all 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 condemnation” (John 5.28-29). 

When Jesus conquered death through His own resurrection, He came out of that grave with a body no longer subject to death. Thus, He was the firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1.18). “Each one in his own order: Christ the first fruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming” (1 Corinthians 15.23). 

Isaiah 26.19 clearly teaches me that the bodies of God’s children will rise. The bodies of my brothers and sisters who have preceded me in death will be covered with the morning dew. They will not be reconstructed but they will be new bodies like that of the Lord Jesus – a glorified, resurrected body.

However, there is coming a second resurrection as well. The LORD will come from His place sitting on a great white throne. There He will judge and punish the inhabitants of the earth for their sins. John saw “a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them …the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20.11-15). 

If you insist upon being judged in accordance with your works, the LORD will oblige during this second category of resurrection. The trouble is that only one person who ever lived pleased the Father with His finished work, namely the Lord Jesus Christ. Either you trust in His finished work and are part of the resurrection unto life or you trust in your works and are part of the resurrection unto condemnation. 

I deserve God’s wrath and condemnation. All people do. Yet, one day I will hear Him say, “Go, my people, enter your rooms and close your doors behind you. Hide for a little while until the wrath has passed.” Jesus has prepare places in Heaven for those who trust in Him. I will not get what I deserve because of what Jesus suffered for me. However, for those who insist on having what they deserve, they will indeed have it. They will face God’s wrath and find the Lake of Fire as their final place of eternal torment. Come to Christ before it’s too late!