Morning By Morning #181

God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

1 Thessalonians 4:14

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

This verse should not lead us to believe that their souls sleep in some unconscious state after death, for the whisper of Christ to every dying saint is: “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Yes, they “have fallen asleep in him,” but their souls “are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple” (Rev. 7:15) and are singing hallelujahs to Him who washed them from their sins in His blood.

The body sleeps in its lonely bed of earth beneath its blanket of grass, but what does the word sleep mean here? In this context the Spirit of God conveys the idea of rest. Sleep makes every night a Sabbath, or time of rest, for the previous day. And sleep tightly shuts the door of the soul, causing all intruders to tarry for a while so that the life within may enter its summer garden of rest. The work-weary believer quietly sleeps like a tired baby resting on his mother’s breast.

How happy and blessed are those who die in the Lord! They rest from their labors and their good works follow them, yet their quiet rest will not be broken until God raises them up and gives them their full reward. Guarded by angels and shrouded by eternal mysteries, they—the heirs of glory—sleep on until the fullness of time ultimately brings them the fullness of redemption. And what an awakening will be theirs!

Their bodies were laid to rest weary and worn, but that is not how they will rise. They went to their earthly beds of rest with furrowed brows, pale and spent, but they will wake up in beauty and glory. The withered seed, with lack of form and attractiveness, will rise from the dust of the earth a beautiful flower. The cold winter grave will give way to the spring of redemption and the summer of glory.

Blessed is physical death, therefore, since through it God’s divine power removes our everyday work garments and clothes us with the wedding garments of incorruption. Blessed are “those who have fallen asleep in [Jesus]”!

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

Many people fear death, but it is something believers should never fear. Paul makes it seem as natural and easy as falling asleep, and the Old Testament tells us: “There is a time for everything…a time to be born and a time to die” (Eccl.3:1 – 2).

Others may say, “It’s not being dead I’m afraid of—it’s getting dead!” Yet not only is the timing of our death in God’s hands but also how we will die. And whether it is a painful home-going or not, the Lord promises, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). He is “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles” (2 Cor. 1:3 – 4).

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Philippians 1:20 – 21

May even our death bring glory to God, for Jesus once shared with Peter—“the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God” (John 21:19).