THIS PASSAGE IS intriguing: “And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16–17). “The dead in Christ.” In many ways this phrase is a contradiction in terms—there are no dead in Christ. Everything in Christ is alive and alive forevermore.
Paul tried to use a more accurate phrase: “those who are asleep” (v. 13); “those who have fallen asleep” (v. 14); “those who have fallen asleep” (v. 15). Then he drops the “asleep” metaphor and adopts the “dead in Christ” metaphor. Both of them are metaphors and therefore cannot fully express the reality. The reality is in these verses: “My desire is to depart and to be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23); “We would rather be away from the body and at home with Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8); “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25–26).
These verses tell us that to be in Christ is to be in life whether it be this side or the other side of the thing we call death. In Him is the death of death. We must revise many of our viewpoints in regard to death. We can easily adopt the pagan viewpoint and vocabulary, neither of which fits the Christian facts. In Christ there is no death—there is only entrance to a larger life. The authentic view of death by one in Christ was seen in a very intelligent and saintly woman’s so-called death. It was an amazing experience as I saw her clapping her hands in joy at the approach of death, her face the face of an angel. “They tell me this is death—it is life. They tell me that to be tickled to death is a hyperbole, but I’m being literally tickled to death. O death, throw open the gates.” As I knelt beside her bed she put her hands on my head, ordaining me to preach this gospel of life!
O Jesus, my Lord, when I am in Thee, death seems impossible and absurd. It is swallowed up in life. Thy life possesses my life, and therefore I am deathless too. Help me to clap my hands in the face of death. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: When I toss aside an outworn body on the way to life, I shall be more alive after it is gone.
