![[Photo of a Scripture verse]](https://www.deankwilson.com/Blog_images/1_Thessalonians_4_14.jpg)
| “
We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with esus those who have fallen asleep in him.” |
| —1 Thessalonians 4:14 |
Death is one of the mysteries of life that we will all experience. Yes, it’s possible that the Lord Jesus Christ might return before some of us die. But, like many believers, it just seems as if I am so relatively close to death that I will likely die before Jesus returns.
Death is also one of the events of life that will remain a great mystery to us until we close our eyes and our life on this earth ends. We don’t know for certain, absolute certain, what happens next. Jesus told the repentant thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” In various Pauline letters we get the idea that we will sleep in death until Christ returns and then will be gathered to meet Him in the air.
These are not so much contradictory accounts of what happens at the time of our death as they are different expressions of a process that remains a great mystery until one is actually passing through it. I am one who happens to choose to believe that, as Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:8, “Absent from the body is present with the Lord.”
I sincerely believe that when a follower of Jesus dies, that one passes from this life to the next. Jesus waits to welcome that one to his or her eternal home. Thus, the first face one will see upon death is the face of our blessed Savior.
Speaking of Christ’s second coming—His return to earth at the time of judgment—the Apostle Paul pens these words that, I believe, support the idea that once we die, we go immediately to be with our Lord. Notice what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 4:14:
We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
No matter what you may believe about death, there is no way for you to know until that moment takes hold in your own life. But, we can have confidence that the very God, who loves us enough to send His one and only Son to die in our place, will not leave us unaccompanied. At the beginning of a new day that is very good news, indeed.
