4. The general teaching of St. John ought not to be lost sight of in considering this question. That teaching is that the eternal condition of the righteous is fully secured to them even in this life, and that in their glorified Head they have already passed through all those preparatory stages on their way to everlasting blessedness at the thought of which they might otherwise have trembled. In Him they have lived, and overcome, and died. In Him they have been raised from the dead, and been seated in the heavenly places. All along they have followed the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, and everything that befell Him has in principle befallen them. We cannot say, in the Johannine sense of the word, that Christ has been "judged;" and therefore "judgment" cannot be predicated of the members of His Body. To these last "judgment," we have already seen, "was given" at the time when they entered on their millennial reign; and, with the result of this judgment (for that is the true meaning of the original) in their hands, it is impossible to think of them as judged again. The judgment of these verses is therefore a judgment of the wicked; and, when it is closed, all Christ's enemies have not only been vanquished, but have been banished from the scene where He is to reign "before His ancients gloriously."[560] The first part of the final triumph has been accomplished. FOOTNOTES: [526] Chap. xix. 21. [527] Chap. xx. 9. [528] Ezek. xxxix. 14. [529] Chaps. i. 3, ii. 16, iii. 20, xxii. 20, etc.; 1 Cor. vii. 29; Heb. x. 37. [530] John v. 25. [531] John v. 28. [532] Comp. chap. vi. 9. [533] Chap. v. 10. [534] Comp. the teaching of our Lord in John xi. 25, 26, and v. 24. [535] John xiv. 19 (margin of R.V.). [536] Chap. ii. 11. [537] Chap. vi. 9. [538] Comp. p. 102. [539] Matt. xxv. 31-46; Rom. ii. 5, 7; 1 Thess. iv. 17; 2 Thess. i. 7, 10. [540] John vi. 39, 40, 44. [541] See authorities in Lee (_Speaker's Commentary_) on Rev. xx. 2, and his excursus on that chapter. [542] _Speaker's Commentary_, _u.s._ [543] John xvii. 22. [544] 1 John iii. 9. [545] 1 John v. 18. [546] Chap. xii. 12. [547] Comp. the remarkable parallel in John i. 5: "and the darkness overcame it not." [548] It is not to be denied that difficulties attend the interpretation of the thousand years suggested in the text. The writer would advert in a note to the two which appear to him to be the most formidable.