And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of condemnation.
All Commentaries on John 5:29 Go To John 5
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
They that have done good, &c. . . . shall proceed, Greek ε̉κποζεÏσονταί, i.e, shall go forth, out of their tombs and their graves, towards the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where the universal judgment shall take place.
Christ here sets before the unbelieving Jews His authority to Judges , that through fear of it He may make them fear, may make them contrite, and convert them. He did the same at the end of His life, when, being adjured by Caiaphas, the High Priest, to say if He was the Son of God, He answered that He was, and added (Matt. xxvi64), "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."
There is nothing more terrible, and at the same time more effectual for rousing the minds of men to repentance and leading a holy life than a lively representation of the last judgment. So Christ, when He ascended into heaven, commanded His apostles by the angels to preach his return to judgment ( Acts 1:11). S. Paul pressed the same thing upon the Areopagites ( Acts 17:31). For in that judgment shall the destiny of each be finally decided for everlasting happiness or everlasting woe. "In all thy works," therefore, "remember thy last end, and thou wilt never sin" ( Sirach 7:40). In very deed that fateful day will be the last of this world, and the horizon of eternity, which shall separate the just from the unjust and set them far apart, heaping upon the just utmost felicity, and weighing down the unjust with calamity, and that for ever and ever. Think constantly of this wonderful difference, be zealous for holiness, live for eternity.
