Living Deeds

Thurs­day. [Acts 4:23–31; John 5:24–30] And they shall come forth; they that have done good, un­to the res­ur­rec­tion of life; and they that have done evil, un­to the res­ur­rec­tion of dam­na­tion (John 5:29). This is how ev­ery­thing ends! As each riv­er flows in­to its own sea, so the flow of each of our lives comes, at last, to a place ac­cord­ing to its na­ture. Those who will be res­ur­rect­ed un­to life will al­so be at the judg­ment; but the judg­ment will on­ly seal their jus­ti­fi­ca­tion, and de­ter­mine their life, while the oth­ers will be res­ur­rect­ed on­ly to hear the con­dem­na­tion of eter­nal death. Their life and death are char­ac­ter­ized even now — be­cause some do liv­ing deeds, while oth­ers do dead and dead­en­ing deeds. Living deeds are those which are done ac­cord­ing to the com­mand­ments, with joy of the spir­it, un­to the glo­ry of God; dead deeds are those which are done in op­po­si­tion to the com­mand­ments with for­get­ful­ness of God, to please one­self and one’s pas­sions. Dead deeds are all which al­though in form may not op­pose the com­mand­ments, are done with­out any thought a­bout God and eter­nal sal­va­tion, ac­cord­ing to some as­pect of self-love. God is life; on­ly what con­tains part of Him is a­live. And so who­ev­er has on­ly dead and dead­en­ing deeds is bound di­rect­ly for death, and on the last day will come out in­to the con­dem­na­tion of death; but who­ev­er has all liv­ing deeds is bound for eter­nal life, and on the last day will come and re­ceive it.