“According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.”
1 Thessalonians 4:15 (NIV)
Paul wants us to be sure that this next bit of information is true - not coming from his logic or imagination- and so he declares that this encouraging information comes from the Lord Himself.
You will not find this detail recorded in the gospels, therefore it must have come through direct revelation from Christ to Paul.
We may wonder why it matters who comes first - the Christian life is not a race is it?
It seems to me that Paul is sharing this information to stress once again the unity we have in Christ.
We are all spiritually united in Christ, whether we sleep or are still of earthly use to our Lord.
Yet those who sleep are actually ahead of us who are still breathing oxygen, aren’t they?
Free from their sinful bodies, free from pain, free to worship Christ in ways we can only dream about.
Hey if it is a race they beat us to Christ’s side, and Paul is telling us that they will stay ahead.
There is something very encouraging about thinking about this truth that those who have gone before will get their new bodies before we will.
Good for them- we miss them and when we see them again they will be in their new bodies.
How different they will look from how they looked when we said goodbye.
How cool will that be?
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