Lesson 23: Assurance of Resurrection
“Let us not be in the dark about those who have fallen asleep or to mourn like those who have no hope.” In one of the early Psalms there is expressed the joy of the total security that God’s faithful care provides. “My body will yet rest secure because you will not abandon me to the grave; you have willed life for me hence you have made known to me the way of life which is in your word. Though my heart and my flesh will fail, with the Lord as my fortress, even the grave cannot rob me of life.” As Christians, sleep is a metaphor for death because death’s horror and finality are removed by the assurance of resurrection. For the non-believer death is viewed with horror, as the end of everything. But we believe that Christ died and rose again and that God will bring along with Jesus all who have fallen asleep trusting in Him. When we die our souls go immediately to be with Christ; we will not receive our eternal bodies until Christ’s second coming. The soul of the non-believer goes immediately to Hades, to await the final judgment.
When Christ died, he experienced the full horror of death which is separation from God so that we would not need to. In the Lord’s own words, “Those who are still alive at His second coming will not precede those who have fallen asleep in the grave.” With a loud command and the trumpet blast of God the dead in their graves shall awake to join those who are still alive and meet with Christ in the air. Encourage one another with these words.
For the non-believer Christ’s second coming will be as unexpected as a thief in the night. When he is saying all is well, life is good, destruction, which is eternal separation from God, will come upon him as suddenly as a woman’s labor pains and there will be no escape. But for the Christian, Christ’s second coming shouldn’t be a surprise, and so we should be alert, not living like those who are spiritually asleep or dead. We need to put on the breastplate of patience and endurance, and the helmet of hope in our salvation, for God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive eternal life through Jesus Christ. Christ gave himself for us in order that we might be with him forever, whether physically dead or alive, spiritually alert, or living like those that are spiritually asleep. Once we are Christ’s we have entered into a relationship that nothing can destroy.