For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
For if believers hold that Jesus died and rose again, God will surely bring those who sleep in Jesus with Him, meaning He will call the believing dead from their graves and raise them to take them with Christ to heaven at His coming. Paul wrote this to correct believers who sorrowed as if those who died in the faith would miss His return and be shut out from the hoped-for event. Christ's own resurrection is the pattern, sample and pledge of their resurrection, for He who had life in Himself broke the tomb and opened a door no man can close. Until then the dead rest unconscious in the grave, knowing nothing, feeling no pain or sorrow, waiting sealed and safe until awakened by the trump of God. Then at the shout, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God the dead in Christ will rise first incorruptible to glorious immortality, and with the living be caught up to meet the Lord in the air for joyful reunion without parting, which is the comfort for bereavement.
Words and Original Setting
The phrase to sleep in Jesus is the verse's own term for the death of believers who belong to Christ, describing faithful servants who have died, with many tried workers in the cause falling asleep in this way. A believer who dies is said to be sleeping in Jesus, a blessed sleep that ends in the hope of waking without grief. Those who have died believing are called sleepers in Jesus, and their dead relatives and friends are not present when forms appear and speak in familiar voices, for those spiritualist manifestations are deceptions produced by Satan. The sleep points to hope joined to belief that Jesus died and rose again, with God bringing the sleepers with Him into the saints' inheritance, as seen when Anna is described as sleeping in Jesus and Annie Smith as resting in Jesus.
To be brought with Him does not mean dead souls come down from heaven with Christ, but that God will call the sleeping saints from their graves and raise them to take them with Christ to heaven at His coming. The dead are asleep in an unconscious state, and just as Jesus died and rose again they will be raised from their graves and taken with Him, so that belief in His death and resurrection guarantees redemption from the grave. The grave is a place of unconsciousness but not the final abode of the saints, who shall know a great and glorious redemption when the Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, when the dead in Christ rise first and those alive are caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and ever be with the Lord, words given for comfort so believers need not sorrow over the sleeping dead as others who have no hope. Christ, who is the resurrection and the life of both soul and body and the Life Giver whose light reaches the grave and gives hope beyond it, has pledged to bring those who sleep in Jesus from the grave to glorious immortality and life that dies no more, a promise that comforts in the closing scenes of life and in the hour that tries the soul, when ministering angels refresh the soul with the water of life, and that comforted Edith as she faced death without fear and gives peace in the face of death. At God's trumpet the dead will awaken to die no more, for the eternal morning has come to them and there will be no night in the city of God.
Paul wrote to correct Thessalonian believers who sorrowed because they thought those who died after accepting the faith would miss Christ's return and be excluded from the hoped-for event, teaching that their deaths did not shut them out and comforting them against that error. The description of the dead as fallen asleep does not teach that the soul is immortal. The sleep of the dead stands together with the destruction of the wicked as truth belonging within the shut door, not an abomination brought in by a Jezebel prophetess, and to call them an abomination and oppose them is error that brings darkness.
Christ's Resurrection Secures Ours
If believers hold that Jesus died and rose again, God will certainly bring those who sleep in Jesus with Him, so that faith in His death and resurrection guarantees redemption from the grave and eternal life for all who receive Him. By His resurrection and triumph over death and the tomb, every believing saint who falls asleep in Jesus shares His victory and will come forth from the prison-house and graves in triumph as the Conqueror did. This bringing means resurrection when the Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, when the dead in Christ rise first and the living are caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and ever be with Him. The grave is a place of unconsciousness but not the final abode of the saints, who shall be redeemed from it with a great and glorious redemption, and these are words of comfort that point the bereaved to Jesus as their only hope and consolation. Those who believed in and loved Jesus are those who sleep in Jesus and share this promise, coming forth on the glorious resurrection morning when Christ comes to be admired by believers, when all who shared His humiliation and sufferings share His glory, proclaiming O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory.
Christ's resurrection is the pattern, sample, type and pledge of the resurrection of those who sleep in Him, and He is the first-fruits of those who slept. As He rose with the same recognizable identity, with body, deportment, manner and voice familiar to His followers, those who sleep in Jesus will rise with individual identity perfectly preserved and be known by their friends. Even if deformed, diseased or disfigured in mortal life, they will rise in glorified bodies radiant with light shining from the face of Jesus, bearing the lineaments of those loved, and be recognized by those who love them. Their resurrection will be part of the great resurrection day: they will come from their graves at God's trumpet, receive glorious immortality, ascend to God's city, and see the King in His beauty.
Christ fulfilled the wave-sheaf symbol by rising on the very day the first heads of ripened grain were waved before the Lord at Passover, representing the great spiritual harvest of the righteous to be gathered for God's kingdom. The wave-sheaf presented to God represented the harvest, and for more than a thousand years the first heads of ripened grain had been waved as a thank-offering before the Lord before the harvest could be gathered. Christ arose as the antitype of the wave-sheaf on that very day, and He represents the great harvest to be gathered for the kingdom of God.
Unlike dependent created beings from the highest seraph to the humblest who live only by the will and power of God as recipients of His life, Christ is one with God with life in Himself and power to lay down His life and take it again. Having the keys of death and the grave, and of hell and death, He broke the bonds of death, broke the tomb, brightened it, passed through the prison-house of death and opened a door no man can close. Death had seemed horrible and impassable and fallen man was condemned to death, yet because Christ rose man can live again, and because He lives those who sleep in Jesus shall live also. He will soon unlock the prison-house of the just, calling those who sleep in Jesus from their prison-house to glorious victory and immortality, to come forth clothed with immortal beauty to die no more and enjoy everlasting life in the kingdom of God.
When Jesus came from the tomb He raised a multitude of captives from the dead, and that raising gives evidence of the coming final resurrection of the pious dead and settles the long-disputed question of the resurrection forever. Christ was the first-fruits of the dead, and the people He raised and called forth when He came from the tomb confirm that those who sleep in Jesus will also be raised and live again. Those who have died believing in Christ are not held by death permanently but will be rescued from the grave and restored to life, as Christ's own rising and His deliverance of righteous captives demonstrate. This gives believers assurance and light concerning the future life of the faithful dead.
Unconscious Sleep Until Awakened
Those who have died are asleep in an unconscious state in the grave, where thought perishes and the entire being rests. Death is a silence and darkness like sleep, not a final loss of life, and those in it know nothing of what is done under the sun. The resurrection of the body is therefore essential, for the hope of the dead in Christ rests on Jesus' death and resurrection and their future raising to share in the life to come.
The dead do not at death pass into glory, go immediately to heaven, or receive judgment, reward and blessed immortality. They wait asleep until awakened by the trump of God and the Lord's coming at the resurrection. The hope of immortal blessedness at death, as if at death the Lord comes for each person, has led to neglect and almost total obscuring of this resurrection truth and puts blessed immortality in the place of the second coming. They are to be left at rest until then, rather than raised immediately.
For the weary righteous this sleep is blessed, peaceful rest beyond pain, sin, sorrow, care, temptation and trial. Those who sleep in Jesus rest silently hidden from sight, shut away from the cares and temptations of this poor life, sealed and safe, with the certainty of living again and putting on immortality when God brings them. Death frees such a one from temptations and trials under which he might have fallen if he had lived, and from this rest none wake to weep. Whether the time is long or short it is felt as only a moment or a short time, ending when they are awakened by the trump of God to glorious immortality, called forth to resume thought where it ceased at death in triumph over death and the grave. Because Jesus died and rose in triumph and has the keys of death and the grave, He will soon unlock the prison-house of the just, and this hope of the glorious resurrection buoys up spirits that would otherwise sink and comforts hearts nearly bursting over near and dear ones taken from sight.
The faithful dead sleep in the grave as their resting place until the morning of the resurrection when the Lifegiver awakens them. This includes faithful ministers of the gospel who have worn out their lives in earnest labor in word and doctrine to save souls from sin, who when death comes sleep in Him awaiting that awakening. They have finished their work and are to be left to rest, not called back from that rest to a life of toil and pain. Even when loss is felt keenly, this hope gives comfort and willingness to live or to die just as best glorifies God, until they come forth and meet their loved ones again to belong to God's royal family.
The dead in Christ do not return to communicate with the living. Appearances of dead relatives and friends speaking in familiar voices are Satan's deceptions through spiritualism, so God's people must know the Bible teaching of the sleep of the dead. Those who sleep in Jesus rest in His love with sins forgiven, precious to Him, their life hidden with Christ in God.
Raised Glorious at Coming
God will bring those who sleep in Jesus when the Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, when the graves are opened at God's trumpet and Christ comes escorted by ten thousand times ten thousand angels. The dead will awaken to life at the sounding of the archangel's trumpet to enter endless joy, with the eternal morning come to them. Their resurrection will be part of the great resurrection day, when Christ calls the righteous dead from the grave and they rise to eternal life. Believers of every age will then share happy fellowship in a joyful reunion of loved ones with no more parting, and in heaven they will not grow older.
The order is fixed that the dead in Christ rise first, then those who are alive are caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and ever be with the Lord. The dead in Christ will rise before living believers are gathered to meet the Lord.
Those who sleep in Jesus will come forth from their prison-house and graves in triumph as the Conqueror did, breaking free from the tomb to die no more. By Christ's triumph over death and the tomb all who sleep in the tomb share His victory, for death will not hold them. At the last trumpet they will live again in immortal life with God, raised incorruptible to glorious immortality. Very soon they will come forth at the voice of God clothed with immortal beauty to enjoy everlasting life in the kingdom of God, because Jesus has the keys of death and the grave and will unlock the prison-house of the just.
Though deformed, diseased or disfigured in mortal life, they will rise in perfect health and symmetry, restored in glorified bodies. Their individual identity will be perfectly preserved in the resurrected and glorified body, just as the risen Saviour had body, deportment, manner and voice familiar to His followers. Loved ones will recognize them by features radiant with light shining from the face of Jesus, bearing the lineaments of those loved. Those who died in hope await the Lifegiver to awaken them from the tomb; they will meet their Lord and be reunited with loved ones, receiving immortal life, with the broken family number complete again.
All who shared with Christ in His humiliation and sufferings will share with Him in His glory on the glorious resurrection morning when Christ comes to be admired by believers. Then they will proclaim O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory. They will ascend to God's city and kingdom and see the King in His beauty, hearing the welcome to inherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. There will be no night in the city of God, and they will receive lives that run parallel with the life of Jehovah.
Comfort and Faithful Living
Paul's words are given to comfort Christians in bereavement, teaching them to grieve with hope rather than as those who have no hope. Because Jesus died and rose again, God will raise the sleeping saints from their graves and take them with Christ to heaven when the Lord Himself descends with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, the dead in Christ rising first and the living caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. The grave is not their final abode but a place of unconscious waiting until the trumpet and the coming, for the dead have not already passed into glory to receive judgment and blessedness at death, and putting blessed immortality at death in place of the second coming has obscured this resurrection truth. Jesus is pointed to as the only hope and consolation, so that there is joy of heart even while weeping with those who weep, and death for those trusting in Him is sleep with the promise to rise free from death when the last trumpet sounds.
Those who sleep in Jesus are those who believed in and loved Him, dying accepted by the pitying Redeemer after penitence, repentance, confession and seeking the Lord with the whole heart, with sins pardoned and forgiven, resting in His love, precious to Him, with the peace of Christ in the heart and life hidden with Christ in God. Affliction in death should lead the living to sanctify God in their hearts so that, sanctified by virtue of Christ's blood, they will meet departed loved ones again by virtue of His resurrection, and present comfort is at hand in Christ as the bush made Marah's bitter waters sweet. They are only laid down awhile to rest, taken by God to save them, and as Jesus died and rose again life will spring from the dust as seed hidden in the tomb rises in deathless bloom, with the broken family number soon complete again in sweet union.
Not everyone who is sick will be restored to health, and some faithful people will die before the time of trouble, yet such a death is no proof the person lacked faith, for believers who die are still in Jesus and sleep in Him whom God will bring with Christ. The bereaved should therefore not mourn hopelessly, wish them back to earthly exposure where they would be exposed to fall, spend time in gloom at the grave, or pause the work to mourn buried standard-bearers. Weeping belongs for the living who still face trial and need prayer, not for the dead who sleep in Jesus held in God's love, who have finished their work and are to be left at rest rather than called back to toil and pain, and even when loss is felt keenly there is willingness to live or to die as best glorifies God. Since the first angel's message many tried workers have fallen asleep while fresh workers take their place, yet a faithful worker's death does not end the work, for Jesus passed into the prison-house of death and came forth in resurrection with heaven's gate ajar and light on the pathway, so the living can go forward with hope and carry on the work the dead would have done without complaint.
The faithful sleeping dead remain precious with lives hidden with Christ in God, so speaking lightly of them or allowing them to be maligned is an offense against Christ, and care and respect are to be shown them. Their past mistakes should not needlessly be brought back before the world except under God's special direction, for to expose them dishonors the dead and gives opponents material to use against the truth they upheld, though they endured toil, suffering, privation, practiced self-denial and made faithful confession under the third angel's message.
The promise has comforted many named faithful dead as sleeping in Jesus, including Edith facing death without fear because Jesus as Lifegiver and the resurrection and life of soul and body reaches with light even to the grave, and Robert dying in hope of sharing in the first resurrection and reunion without parting. It covers a loved child held in God's love for whom parents need shed no tears, a husband and father separated from family yet true as a standard-bearer with earthly hope of laboring together quenched until God brings him, Radley's husband resting with works following, Anna and Annie Smith resting in Jesus, Clarissa M. Bonfoey, Sr. Hutchins, Eld. Andrews, and faithful ministers worn in labor. It covers Brother Tucker prepared by faithful life, early workers and pioneers since the first angel's message, Sister Howlett, Anna helpless before a hard death, Brother and Sister Howland and Brother and Sister Foy faithful to Sabbath truth, Elder Matteson the Scandinavian pioneer, Sister Davis whose work was finished, Brother Wilson resting from labors, Brother Morrison and Brother Diggins, messengers of the first light, little Mabel Kelsey, and Flora Merriam whose probation ended, as well as institution converts and a 19-year-old Sabbath-school boy who found pardon in last sickness, all sustained by the hope that faithful believers may die before Christ is revealed in glory yet rejoice because redemption is near and they will share in His coming.
For if believers hold that Jesus died and rose again, God will surely bring those who sleep in Jesus with Him, meaning He will call the believing dead from their graves and raise them to take them with Christ to heaven at His coming. Paul wrote this to correct believers who sorrowed as if those who died in the faith would miss His return and be shut out from the hoped-for event. Christ's own resurrection is the pattern, sample and pledge of their resurrection, for He who had life in Himself broke the tomb and opened a door no man can close. Until then the dead rest unconscious in the grave, knowing nothing, feeling no pain or sorrow, waiting sealed and safe until awakened by the trump of God. Then at the shout, the voice of the archangel and the trump of God the dead in Christ will rise first incorruptible to glorious immortality, and with the living be caught up to meet the Lord in the air for joyful reunion without parting, which is the comfort for bereavement.
Words and Original Setting
The phrase to sleep in Jesus is the verse's own term for the death of believers who belong to Christ, describing faithful servants who have died, with many tried workers in the cause falling asleep in this way. A believer who dies is said to be sleeping in Jesus, a blessed sleep that ends in the hope of waking without grief. Those who have died believing are called sleepers in Jesus, and their dead relatives and friends are not present when forms appear and speak in familiar voices, for those spiritualist manifestations are deceptions produced by Satan. The sleep points to hope joined to belief that Jesus died and rose again, with God bringing the sleepers with Him into the saints' inheritance, as seen when Anna is described as sleeping in Jesus and Annie Smith as resting in Jesus.
To be brought with Him does not mean dead souls come down from heaven with Christ, but that God will call the sleeping saints from their graves and raise them to take them with Christ to heaven at His coming. The dead are asleep in an unconscious state, and just as Jesus died and rose again they will be raised from their graves and taken with Him, so that belief in His death and resurrection guarantees redemption from the grave. The grave is a place of unconsciousness but not the final abode of the saints, who shall know a great and glorious redemption when the Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, when the dead in Christ rise first and those alive are caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and ever be with the Lord, words given for comfort so believers need not sorrow over the sleeping dead as others who have no hope. Christ, who is the resurrection and the life of both soul and body and the Life Giver whose light reaches the grave and gives hope beyond it, has pledged to bring those who sleep in Jesus from the grave to glorious immortality and life that dies no more, a promise that comforts in the closing scenes of life and in the hour that tries the soul, when ministering angels refresh the soul with the water of life, and that comforted Edith as she faced death without fear and gives peace in the face of death. At God's trumpet the dead will awaken to die no more, for the eternal morning has come to them and there will be no night in the city of God.
Paul wrote to correct Thessalonian believers who sorrowed because they thought those who died after accepting the faith would miss Christ's return and be excluded from the hoped-for event, teaching that their deaths did not shut them out and comforting them against that error. The description of the dead as fallen asleep does not teach that the soul is immortal. The sleep of the dead stands together with the destruction of the wicked as truth belonging within the shut door, not an abomination brought in by a Jezebel prophetess, and to call them an abomination and oppose them is error that brings darkness.
Christ's Resurrection Secures Ours
If believers hold that Jesus died and rose again, God will certainly bring those who sleep in Jesus with Him, so that faith in His death and resurrection guarantees redemption from the grave and eternal life for all who receive Him. By His resurrection and triumph over death and the tomb, every believing saint who falls asleep in Jesus shares His victory and will come forth from the prison-house and graves in triumph as the Conqueror did. This bringing means resurrection when the Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, when the dead in Christ rise first and the living are caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and ever be with Him. The grave is a place of unconsciousness but not the final abode of the saints, who shall be redeemed from it with a great and glorious redemption, and these are words of comfort that point the bereaved to Jesus as their only hope and consolation. Those who believed in and loved Jesus are those who sleep in Jesus and share this promise, coming forth on the glorious resurrection morning when Christ comes to be admired by believers, when all who shared His humiliation and sufferings share His glory, proclaiming O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory.
Christ's resurrection is the pattern, sample, type and pledge of the resurrection of those who sleep in Him, and He is the first-fruits of those who slept. As He rose with the same recognizable identity, with body, deportment, manner and voice familiar to His followers, those who sleep in Jesus will rise with individual identity perfectly preserved and be known by their friends. Even if deformed, diseased or disfigured in mortal life, they will rise in glorified bodies radiant with light shining from the face of Jesus, bearing the lineaments of those loved, and be recognized by those who love them. Their resurrection will be part of the great resurrection day: they will come from their graves at God's trumpet, receive glorious immortality, ascend to God's city, and see the King in His beauty.
Christ fulfilled the wave-sheaf symbol by rising on the very day the first heads of ripened grain were waved before the Lord at Passover, representing the great spiritual harvest of the righteous to be gathered for God's kingdom. The wave-sheaf presented to God represented the harvest, and for more than a thousand years the first heads of ripened grain had been waved as a thank-offering before the Lord before the harvest could be gathered. Christ arose as the antitype of the wave-sheaf on that very day, and He represents the great harvest to be gathered for the kingdom of God.
Unlike dependent created beings from the highest seraph to the humblest who live only by the will and power of God as recipients of His life, Christ is one with God with life in Himself and power to lay down His life and take it again. Having the keys of death and the grave, and of hell and death, He broke the bonds of death, broke the tomb, brightened it, passed through the prison-house of death and opened a door no man can close. Death had seemed horrible and impassable and fallen man was condemned to death, yet because Christ rose man can live again, and because He lives those who sleep in Jesus shall live also. He will soon unlock the prison-house of the just, calling those who sleep in Jesus from their prison-house to glorious victory and immortality, to come forth clothed with immortal beauty to die no more and enjoy everlasting life in the kingdom of God.
When Jesus came from the tomb He raised a multitude of captives from the dead, and that raising gives evidence of the coming final resurrection of the pious dead and settles the long-disputed question of the resurrection forever. Christ was the first-fruits of the dead, and the people He raised and called forth when He came from the tomb confirm that those who sleep in Jesus will also be raised and live again. Those who have died believing in Christ are not held by death permanently but will be rescued from the grave and restored to life, as Christ's own rising and His deliverance of righteous captives demonstrate. This gives believers assurance and light concerning the future life of the faithful dead.
Unconscious Sleep Until Awakened
Those who have died are asleep in an unconscious state in the grave, where thought perishes and the entire being rests. Death is a silence and darkness like sleep, not a final loss of life, and those in it know nothing of what is done under the sun. The resurrection of the body is therefore essential, for the hope of the dead in Christ rests on Jesus' death and resurrection and their future raising to share in the life to come.
The dead do not at death pass into glory, go immediately to heaven, or receive judgment, reward and blessed immortality. They wait asleep until awakened by the trump of God and the Lord's coming at the resurrection. The hope of immortal blessedness at death, as if at death the Lord comes for each person, has led to neglect and almost total obscuring of this resurrection truth and puts blessed immortality in the place of the second coming. They are to be left at rest until then, rather than raised immediately.
For the weary righteous this sleep is blessed, peaceful rest beyond pain, sin, sorrow, care, temptation and trial. Those who sleep in Jesus rest silently hidden from sight, shut away from the cares and temptations of this poor life, sealed and safe, with the certainty of living again and putting on immortality when God brings them. Death frees such a one from temptations and trials under which he might have fallen if he had lived, and from this rest none wake to weep. Whether the time is long or short it is felt as only a moment or a short time, ending when they are awakened by the trump of God to glorious immortality, called forth to resume thought where it ceased at death in triumph over death and the grave. Because Jesus died and rose in triumph and has the keys of death and the grave, He will soon unlock the prison-house of the just, and this hope of the glorious resurrection buoys up spirits that would otherwise sink and comforts hearts nearly bursting over near and dear ones taken from sight.
The faithful dead sleep in the grave as their resting place until the morning of the resurrection when the Lifegiver awakens them. This includes faithful ministers of the gospel who have worn out their lives in earnest labor in word and doctrine to save souls from sin, who when death comes sleep in Him awaiting that awakening. They have finished their work and are to be left to rest, not called back from that rest to a life of toil and pain. Even when loss is felt keenly, this hope gives comfort and willingness to live or to die just as best glorifies God, until they come forth and meet their loved ones again to belong to God's royal family.
The dead in Christ do not return to communicate with the living. Appearances of dead relatives and friends speaking in familiar voices are Satan's deceptions through spiritualism, so God's people must know the Bible teaching of the sleep of the dead. Those who sleep in Jesus rest in His love with sins forgiven, precious to Him, their life hidden with Christ in God.
Raised Glorious at Coming
God will bring those who sleep in Jesus when the Lord Himself descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, when the graves are opened at God's trumpet and Christ comes escorted by ten thousand times ten thousand angels. The dead will awaken to life at the sounding of the archangel's trumpet to enter endless joy, with the eternal morning come to them. Their resurrection will be part of the great resurrection day, when Christ calls the righteous dead from the grave and they rise to eternal life. Believers of every age will then share happy fellowship in a joyful reunion of loved ones with no more parting, and in heaven they will not grow older.
The order is fixed that the dead in Christ rise first, then those who are alive are caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and ever be with the Lord. The dead in Christ will rise before living believers are gathered to meet the Lord.
Those who sleep in Jesus will come forth from their prison-house and graves in triumph as the Conqueror did, breaking free from the tomb to die no more. By Christ's triumph over death and the tomb all who sleep in the tomb share His victory, for death will not hold them. At the last trumpet they will live again in immortal life with God, raised incorruptible to glorious immortality. Very soon they will come forth at the voice of God clothed with immortal beauty to enjoy everlasting life in the kingdom of God, because Jesus has the keys of death and the grave and will unlock the prison-house of the just.
Though deformed, diseased or disfigured in mortal life, they will rise in perfect health and symmetry, restored in glorified bodies. Their individual identity will be perfectly preserved in the resurrected and glorified body, just as the risen Saviour had body, deportment, manner and voice familiar to His followers. Loved ones will recognize them by features radiant with light shining from the face of Jesus, bearing the lineaments of those loved. Those who died in hope await the Lifegiver to awaken them from the tomb; they will meet their Lord and be reunited with loved ones, receiving immortal life, with the broken family number complete again.
All who shared with Christ in His humiliation and sufferings will share with Him in His glory on the glorious resurrection morning when Christ comes to be admired by believers. Then they will proclaim O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory. They will ascend to God's city and kingdom and see the King in His beauty, hearing the welcome to inherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. There will be no night in the city of God, and they will receive lives that run parallel with the life of Jehovah.
Comfort and Faithful Living
Paul's words are given to comfort Christians in bereavement, teaching them to grieve with hope rather than as those who have no hope. Because Jesus died and rose again, God will raise the sleeping saints from their graves and take them with Christ to heaven when the Lord Himself descends with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, the dead in Christ rising first and the living caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. The grave is not their final abode but a place of unconscious waiting until the trumpet and the coming, for the dead have not already passed into glory to receive judgment and blessedness at death, and putting blessed immortality at death in place of the second coming has obscured this resurrection truth. Jesus is pointed to as the only hope and consolation, so that there is joy of heart even while weeping with those who weep, and death for those trusting in Him is sleep with the promise to rise free from death when the last trumpet sounds.
Those who sleep in Jesus are those who believed in and loved Him, dying accepted by the pitying Redeemer after penitence, repentance, confession and seeking the Lord with the whole heart, with sins pardoned and forgiven, resting in His love, precious to Him, with the peace of Christ in the heart and life hidden with Christ in God. Affliction in death should lead the living to sanctify God in their hearts so that, sanctified by virtue of Christ's blood, they will meet departed loved ones again by virtue of His resurrection, and present comfort is at hand in Christ as the bush made Marah's bitter waters sweet. They are only laid down awhile to rest, taken by God to save them, and as Jesus died and rose again life will spring from the dust as seed hidden in the tomb rises in deathless bloom, with the broken family number soon complete again in sweet union.
Not everyone who is sick will be restored to health, and some faithful people will die before the time of trouble, yet such a death is no proof the person lacked faith, for believers who die are still in Jesus and sleep in Him whom God will bring with Christ. The bereaved should therefore not mourn hopelessly, wish them back to earthly exposure where they would be exposed to fall, spend time in gloom at the grave, or pause the work to mourn buried standard-bearers. Weeping belongs for the living who still face trial and need prayer, not for the dead who sleep in Jesus held in God's love, who have finished their work and are to be left at rest rather than called back to toil and pain, and even when loss is felt keenly there is willingness to live or to die as best glorifies God. Since the first angel's message many tried workers have fallen asleep while fresh workers take their place, yet a faithful worker's death does not end the work, for Jesus passed into the prison-house of death and came forth in resurrection with heaven's gate ajar and light on the pathway, so the living can go forward with hope and carry on the work the dead would have done without complaint.
The faithful sleeping dead remain precious with lives hidden with Christ in God, so speaking lightly of them or allowing them to be maligned is an offense against Christ, and care and respect are to be shown them. Their past mistakes should not needlessly be brought back before the world except under God's special direction, for to expose them dishonors the dead and gives opponents material to use against the truth they upheld, though they endured toil, suffering, privation, practiced self-denial and made faithful confession under the third angel's message.
The promise has comforted many named faithful dead as sleeping in Jesus, including Edith facing death without fear because Jesus as Lifegiver and the resurrection and life of soul and body reaches with light even to the grave, and Robert dying in hope of sharing in the first resurrection and reunion without parting. It covers a loved child held in God's love for whom parents need shed no tears, a husband and father separated from family yet true as a standard-bearer with earthly hope of laboring together quenched until God brings him, Radley's husband resting with works following, Anna and Annie Smith resting in Jesus, Clarissa M. Bonfoey, Sr. Hutchins, Eld. Andrews, and faithful ministers worn in labor. It covers Brother Tucker prepared by faithful life, early workers and pioneers since the first angel's message, Sister Howlett, Anna helpless before a hard death, Brother and Sister Howland and Brother and Sister Foy faithful to Sabbath truth, Elder Matteson the Scandinavian pioneer, Sister Davis whose work was finished, Brother Wilson resting from labors, Brother Morrison and Brother Diggins, messengers of the first light, little Mabel Kelsey, and Flora Merriam whose probation ended, as well as institution converts and a 19-year-old Sabbath-school boy who found pardon in last sickness, all sustained by the hope that faithful believers may die before Christ is revealed in glory yet rejoice because redemption is near and they will share in His coming.