3. The Dead in Christ

When we think of the coming of the Lord for His church, we are more concerned, probably, with His coming in relation to our beloved dead than in relation to ourselves if we should be alive at His appearing. We are bound at times to be moved to earnest reflection about our loved ones who have passed on. Sometimes we fear for them, often we are uncertain about them. Faith does not lose its hold but the emphatic character of death as we know it overawes the mind and heart. It is a paradox but usually as we think of them in contrast to ourselves we feel that we are in a more substantial and certain sphere. Yet why should we think so? Why should we suppose that they are in the shadows and we in the noon day sun? Shall we not be more accurate if we believe that “we feebly struggle, they in glory shine”? In any event, this is most certainly true for the believer. The Scriptures bid us entertain confident hope and assurance concerning “the dead in Christ” and their condition and prospects we may be certain are such that we need never fear for them nor for ourselves if the time of our departure should arrive. It is with believers who are “dead in Christ” that we are here concerned. It may appear to some as a distinction of little importance, yet from the moment that the eternal world dawns on us the distinction between being “in Christ” 1 and outside of Him is all important and conclusive. Those who are to be brought with Jesus at His appearing are those who sleep in Him. There are some who do not “sleep in Jesus.” 2

There are many questions concerning our beloved dead which we would like to ask. The subject itself is all absorbing. We shall, however, look in a limited way at two that naturally arise in our hearts. Where are our dead? What is the nature of the body of the resurrection? As to the place of our dead in Christ it is clear that the resurrection of our Lord from the dead has made a marked difference in the unseen world. The Scriptures disclose one or two simple facts concerning Hades the abode of the dead. In the parable of Dives and Lazarus the rich man and the beggar are both found there. A narrow gulf divides them. One is in torment, the other in Abraham’s bosom. They can see each other, at least Dives can see the beggar “afar off.” 3 The gulf between them, although bridged by the eye, cannot be bridged otherwise. To pass from the place of torment into Abraham’s bosom is impossible. Our Lord, on the cross, gave a promise to the thief who was approaching death with him: “Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” 4 It is a remarkable assurance given by the spotless Lamb of God to one who was in truth a malefactor. They were bound for the same destiny, because of his faith in the One Who was dying with him and for him. What a privilege for that thief in the final moments of life on this earth! But where was Paradise? It was we must conclude, part of the sphere of Hades to which our Lord departed. Paul tells the Colossians that Jesus went into Hades, 5 the powers of darkness there sought to hold Him a prisoner but He stripped them off Him, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in the Cross. 6 His atoning work on Calvary was the ground of His conquest which was of the utmost importance, for He broke the gates of Hades and emerged in resurrection life. Paul also had a unique experience. He was caught up into the third heaven. He also calls it Paradise. If this be so then Paradise, which to our Lord was down in Hades, was for Paul the third heaven, and to reach it he was “caught up.” 7 Since that marvellous resurrection of our Lord then it would appear that Paradise is no longer part of Hades but part of heaven. It is one of the many differences the death, but much more the resurrection of Christ has made. It would also seem that the gulf between those in Christ and those outside of Him is now considerably widened. It was impassable before and there is no evidence that it is now to be negotiated. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that our Great High Priest has passed “through the heavens” (chapter 4. 14). That was necessary if He was to reach the throne of the Father where He now is. We are not told anything about the first heaven, but we may assume that that is the aerial region in the possession at present of the powers of the air. The denizens of the second heaven are not disclosed, but the third heaven is paradise and that may be the abode of those who are now “with Christ.” They may not be with Him in the sense that they will be when He appears, but they are with Him in the sense that they enjoy His care and love and are for ever beyond the reach of Satan and the powers ready to do his bidding.

What have the Scriptures to say concerning the body of the believer? We must take care not to build too much upon the body of our Lord. His was a sinless body. How far His identification in death with our sin relates His body to ours we cannot tell. It was a body that never saw corruption. The saints who through the centuries have died, their bodies have now mingled with the dust. Others have been burned at the stake. Nobody would doubt the power of God to raise these bodies again. It may indeed be His purpose to do so, but there are considerations that should weigh with us before we speak of the resurrection of the body as being merely the bringing back into vitality the body of this flesh. Paul declares there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. 8 There is a body for the soul and a body for the spirit. This body of ours is for the soul of man, but the man whose spirit has been quickened knows how unresponsive this body is for the life of the spirit. The promise is of a body for the spirit, a body adapted to its environment. Paul shews in his marvellous passage in the epistle to the Corinthians that the bird and the fish 9 have a body supplied to them in relation to their environment. Even so we, redeemed in Christ, are destined for a new environment, the heavenly place, in the presence of Jesus, and for that we are promised a body corresponding thereto. It would appear that concerning the believer’s condition in Christ we may use three adjectives: good, better and best.

First the position that is good. Paul speaks of the earnest of the Spirit. The Spirit, he tells us, is the earnest of the inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. 10 The Holy Spirit is the earnest. The believer is to understand very clearly that the Indwelling Spirit is not only a present power but an earnest of the future. It is a glorious truth to proclaim to sinners that when they accept the Lord Jesus as Saviour, He seals their acceptance by communicating to them the Holy Spirit to live within them. Their bodies do actually become the shrine of the Holy Spirit. Henceforth they understand the assurance of John: “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” 11 But this gift of the Holy Spirit has eternal significance. His presence in the heart is the assurance that we are to receive the body of the glory. When this body has perished in the dust there shall be a body of heavenly nature and characteristics. The one and only seal to the believer of this glorious body to be is the Indwelling Spirit. Now if a person pays a deposit on the purchase of a house, he declares, in effect, that he will complete the purchase by producing more money of like good quality. The vendor accepts it as such, the deeds of sale are prepared on the assumption by both sides that the deposit has committed the purchaser to produce the balance of the purchase price and the vendor accordingly to accept it. By the engagement on both sides sealed with the earnest money the vendor and purchaser are respectively bound. Pauls declares this to be our position. If as a believer I have received in faith the Indwelling Holy Spirit then my interests lie in the body that is to be and God is definitely committed to me to provide that body in due course. The more the Holy Spirit lives and rules in me, the more I shall be conscious of His “groaning” 12 leading me into prayer and into holy fellowship. The more too shall I know of the lusting of the flesh against the Spirit and of the Spirit against the flesh. It will be a continual conflict. I may feel at times brought to despair, but the very fact of that conflict declares the presence of the Spirit by which alone the conflict could be and that glorious and miraculous presence in my body is God’s seal to me that there is a better body yet to be. How good indeed it is to have this assurance in my heart and to realise continually what the very fact of this lusting of flesh and Spirit really means in terms of the glory yet to be experienced! So that even now, in this body of weakness and of sin, there is joyful anticipation, based on sure confidence that cannot be broken. The Holy Spirit is the earnest of the inheritance. It is surely good!

But if there is a good there is a better. Paul tells us he has a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is “far better” 13. Paul was anticipating the moment when, if the Lord tarried, he should close his eyes on this world. He knew that to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord. You will notice that he does not say that if we are absent from this present body we have a new body. He may mean that and perhaps he intends it when he says, “We know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” 14 I suppose all of us find the temptation to be dogmatic and certain a strong one, but there are undoubtedly realms of truth in which God gives us no justification for being so. There is much in His wisdom He withholds from us. I confess that in this particular matter I am by no means certain and sure. We cannot tell just what it means to be “with Christ.” Our beloved dead are described as sleeping in Jesus. They have been put to sleep by Jesus. That sleep may be unconsciousness towards God but it may be no more than unresponsiveness towards us. When king Saul visited the witch of En-dor for the purpose of seeking a communication with Samuel the woman was greatly disturbed and afraid because Samuel himself appeared. She expected her usual “control,” but on this occasion God permitted a miracle and Samuel turned to Saul exclaiming: “Why hast thou disquieted me?” 15 Evidently whether asleep or conscious, Saul’s intervention was resented. On the mount of transfiguration Moses and Elijah appeared with our Lord in glory. It does not appear that they had been aroused from a sleep but rather they had been and were eye witnesses of His life and labour and were keenly entering into the purpose of the cross which loomed large before Him. There are however some things that are clear beyond the shadow of doubt. First, we know that the gates of hades cannot prevail against the church. Our Lord has taken a victory for us in that respect, He has tasted death 16 for every man. No power of Satan can touch the child of God when once he has left this mortal body. The hold Satan has over the believer is through this present body so that whatever may be, in our estimation the loss in departing this life, there is this far greater gain that all the power of Satan is broken. What a boon that is it is beyond our power to imagine. It is priceless. Secondly, thus released from the power of Satan in every way, we are brought into some closer contact with our Beloved Lord. If death should be our portion we shall be with Christ. That is to say we shall be in the sphere where Christ already rules and reigns. It may be a condition incapable of definition, but the apostle bids us apprehend that it is far better. Therefore we may be sure that if we know something of joy, peace and victory through the Indwelling Spirit now, we shall know more when in death we find ourselves with Christ. If it is good now, it is better then, far better.

The best, however, is truly yet to be. Our citizenship is in the heavens, from whence also we look for a Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Who shall transform the body of our humiliation that it may be like unto the body of His glory. 17 So writes Paul to the Philippians. John later writes in complete accord with the assertion. “We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is.” 18 Our ultimate destiny is therefore to be like Jesus. His body now in heaven is the type of the new creation of His redeemed. God has accepted Him as such and waits for the day when He shall bring His many sons to the glory. The Holy Spirit in us is the germ of the new body which is from heaven, and every time we respond to His mind and will He increases within us the power of the life that Jesus now enjoys in heaven. How much we need to know of what it means not only to be saved by His death but much more by His life! Just as in our sinful state we have the body fashioned like unto Adam, so in the state of the glory we shall, by grace, have the body fashioned like unto the One Who has given us life from above. It is a glorious prospect. This body, assailed by weakness, sickness and sin, may be crumbling to our consciousness. The outward man may be perishing but the inward man is being renewed day by day. The body of the glory is in relation to that inward man. That is the body the dead in Christ are to have. “As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall bear the image of the heavenly.” 19 The question that remains to be asked and answered is when shall the glorious moment be when the dead in Christ shall rise in all the glory of resurrection to embrace the body of the glory in the image of His body He now possesses in heaven? The answer is clear in the Scripture beyond question. That day of translation is the day of His appearing. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” 20 the transition shall be made. There shall be a trumpet call that the dead in Christ shall hear and recognise, and out from their present sphere in Christ they shall rise to meet Him and be like Him. In God’s eternal diary concerning the fulfilment of His purpose, these things are already clearly decided. This body of the glory shall be. God has given the Holy Spirit to the believer as the solemn and eternal pledge of what He will do and the day is settled, a day known only to God, but certain and sure notwithstanding. It shall be the day of His appearing.

It is an awesome thought that our beloved dead are waiting for that call. If they know what we are doing they must be staggered and amazed at our lack of interest in that great day. They must marvel that we are so absorbed in the comparatively trifling issues that consume the passions of carnal man, while so many in the churches are quite indifferent, if not hostile, to the truth that He is to rend the heavens and to come down to the air in all His glory and majesty for His believing people. It will be a glorious moment when the trumpet sounds. Little will it matter then to the Lord’s redeemed how Mussolini and Hitler and the great men of the earth are achieving their ends and purposes. In that great moment there will be a movement not amongst all the dead but amongst the dead in Christ, and then every believer “with Christ” and on earth will know that the only thing that really matters is that the blood of Christ has been accepted for our sin and that the all important consideration is the receiving of the Holy Spirit as the seal of our inheritance. That is the moment for which our Saviour yearns, it is the moment for which the Father longs, it is the moment for which the Holy Spirit bends all His energies through His people, it is the moment which Satan fears, for demons believe and tremble. Yet strangely enough it is the moment about which scores of Christians are not remotely interested. They have a vague sort of idea that after death which unfortunately is inevitable, we shall be wafted away to distant realms of ethereal bliss, a kind of eternal convalescent home where we shall be with God while others succeed us here on the earth in the place which is alone worthwhile. And that is to go on generation after generation ad infinitum until all the world is Christian, beyond which point there is no interest. But in God’s purpose He longs for the completing of the church, its transformation into the likeness of the image of His Beloved Son, not to waft us away into eternal retirement on an eternal pension, but that He may begin the purpose of all eternity through the instrument He needs, even the sons of glory, the church the Body of the Redeemed. For the believer the task of life begins at His appearing, for the present is not achievement but for discipline and preparation.

What a gathering it will be! We shall see our beloved ones again in Christ. If we each one are known to Him and He is known to us we shall be known to each other. If the disciples recognised Moses and Elijah, we shall recognise our loved ones who have gone before. Some think it is all illusion and are sorry for us. But illusions can no more support the heart of men than water can be the foundation for a sky scraper. No man outside of the company of the redeemed can possibly imagine what comfort and consolation these truths are to the bereaved people of God. They are not to be told, they must be experienced. These truths not to be displayed to the carnal eye but to be known deep in the heart that truly believes them. In the years of my ministry I have paid many visits to the graveside. It is my last privilege as a pastor to commit the remains of our beloved dead in Christ to the earth. I have tried to understand and to sympathise with the widow and the widower, and this I can say without question, that where these truths have been received into the heart and the promises of God in Christ are meat and drink then not even death with its darkness has shaken the soul. I have seen brave women turn from the grave with nothing left for them that was substantial save the assurance of His appearing, and I have watched them face up to life with its challenge strong in faith and in hope. I do not need these things to confirm my faith in the Scriptures, but when I see them as I so frequently do I see the power of the Indwelling Spirit to fortify the heart and to make the truth of that day real even to a bruised and broken spirit in the hour of sorrow. After all we need not be surprised. The apostle does not say we think, we conjecture, we opine, we hope, we speculate but he says “We know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him.” There are two things then we know for certain. We know that death is not the end for the believer and we know too that He shall most certainly appear. Even so Lord Jesus come!

1

I Corinthians 15:22

2

I Corinthians 15:18

3

Luke 16:23

4

Luke 23:43

5

Acts 2:31

6

Colossians 2:15

7

2 Corinthians 12:2

8

I Corinthians 15:44

9

I Corinthians 15:39

10

Ephesians 1:13-14

11

I John 4:4

12

John 11:32-33

13

Philippians 1:21-23

14

2 Corinthians 5:1

15

I Samuel 28:15a

16

Hebrews 2:9

17

Philippians 3:20-21

18

I John 3:2

19

I Corinthians 15:49

20

I Corinthians 15:51-52