CONCERNING THEM THAT SLEEP
CONCERNING THEM THAT SLEEP
... It is of the deepest interest to consider the state and happiness of departed saints. Countless thousands in the course of past centuries have “fallen asleep”, and each day adds to their number. But the subject is not only of general interest as referring to the present state of millions of saints beloved of God, and redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. It appeals to us on very close and personal grounds as we think of those we have known and loved, and with whom we have enjoyed Christian intercourse and fellowship, who are no longer here.
And in times of personal bereavement it is a very real and divine comfort to have distinctly before our hearts the character of the blessedness which our departed loved ones enjoy. The [p. 383] Lord has most perfect consideration and sympathy for us in these times of grief. And one very distinct form which His consideration for us has taken is that He has been pleased to tell us what the blessedness of the departed is, while they await the full and final triumph of divine love and power which will invest them with spiritual and glorious bodies like the body of Him who sits as a risen and glorified Man at God’s right hand.
If the Lord has seen fit to give us such a clear view of the happy state of those who are fallen asleep, we may be well assured that there is that in it which will prove of the greatest comfort to us in our sorrow. But I think we shall find that there is much more than this in it; we shall find it possessed of power to carry our hearts into a region where no sorrow can come. How blessed to be brought in mind and affection to such a region by the grace of the Lord, and by the power of the Spirit! That is, to be brought to taste and know in a deeper and fuller way what the Lord Jesus Christ is; and to know that we, and all His saints, are for ever bound up with Him, to possess and enjoy through Him and in Him and with Him the precious fruit of the love and victory of God!
It is this which departed saints enjoy, without any hindrance from the flesh, or creature weakness or circumstances. Their joy is not in its character different from that which is the present portion of saints; so that the more clearly we see their blessedness the better shall we apprehend our own. And this brings the true blessedness of Christianity home to our hearts in a very simple and effective way, and shows that it lies completely outside this world. To enjoy it we have to be in spirit, as the departed saints are actually, quite apart from this world. And the more our affections entertain the thought of what they enjoy, the more shall we be drawn to the present good of that Person who is their portion and happiness.
There are four passages of Scripture in the New Testament which speak of the state of departed saints. As to number of words they are few, but as to significance what they convey is blessed beyond expression. They are as follows:
“And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”, Luke 23: 43.
“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord”, 2 Corinthians 5: 8.
“[p. 384] Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better”, Philippians 1: 23.
“And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them”, Revelation 14: 13.
How plainly do we see from these scriptures — particularly from the first three — that the blessedness of departed saints lies in the company of a Person! The full title of that Person is the Lord Jesus Christ, and these scriptures show us that each part of that title gives character to the divine felicity of those who are with Him. In the first scripture it is the blessedness of being with Jesus that is emphasised; in the second it is the thought of being with Him as the Lord; while in the third the “very much better” portion is to be with Christ. How great is the happiness thus brought before us! May our hearts burn as we consider it!
“Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” was the word of Jesus to one who had only known and trusted Him for a few minutes — one to whom infinite grace brought blessing in the last solemn hour of a sinful history. In his case, at any rate, there could be no question of human merit. Whatever he got in those last wondrous moments of his life on earth — whatever happiness paradise itself could afford him — was brought to him by the Person near whom he hung upon the cross, and secured to him in divine righteousness by the death of that blessed One.
Think of the One who was there! Think of Jesus, the blessed Vessel of divine grace, as the Holy Spirit presents Him to us in this gospel of Luke! He was God’s salvation for sinful men; the One anointed to preach glad tidings to the poor; the One who said that He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance! He was indeed the Creditor, but here to pronounce a frank forgiveness to all His debtors! The Samaritan freely expending divine wealth and resources in compassion upon the misery of man ruined by sin and Satan! The One who told of the great supper of grace, and of the blessed invitings and compellings of divine love! The Shepherd who would go after the sheep which was lost until He found it! The One who as the Vessel of all the grace of [p. 385] heaven told of the joy of God in receiving a repentant prodigal! The One who by the grace of God tasted death so that the river of that grace might flow forth for world-wide blessing through a channel of divine righteousness!
As we gather all this up in our thoughts — if we can speak of gathering up such infinite things in our feeble, feeble thoughts — does it not fill us with wonder to think of being with the One in whom such matchless grace shone forth, and in whom it all subsists as the risen and glorified One?
We may consider that the penitent thief of Calvary knew but little of the fulness of grace that resided in Jesus. And there are many indications in the gospels that the disciples, and even the apostles, failed to realise that grace in its proper character and glory. But it was all there in Him. No dullness of apprehension on their part, no want of capacity to take it in, could make that grace one whit less than it really was. It was God manifest in flesh, not imputing trespasses, but winning men’s hearts by presenting to them all that He was in grace, and all that His grace delighted to do for them, without looking for one scrap of merit or goodness on their part as the condition of blessing. Would that our hearts understood better what He was, for what He was is what He is and will be eternally!
There are feeble believers today, but the question is, On whom do they believe? Is it Jesus, the blessed Son of God? Then their blessing is measured by what He is, and by the grace which He brought, and which He died to secure in righteousness for them — lost, guilty, and ungodly as they were.
What a prospect opened up before that young convert on the cross! “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise!” With the One in whom all the grace of God was! The guilty past left behind, cleansed from every sin by the precious blood, no trace of evil remaining, with Jesus! What happiness!
And this is the portion of every departed believer in Jesus. Dear bereaved one — whatever the link of affection that death has torn — if you would know what is the present joy of your loved one who died in Christ, consider Jesus. How great He is — the Son of God, the Son of the Highest! How low He stooped in grace — even to the death of Calvary! What a great salvation began to be spoken by Him — how deep and [p. 386] dire the need which it meets, how glorious the favour of God into which it brings! And every believer who has fallen asleep is with Him! The scene of temptation and trial, of sorrow and suffering, is left behind for ever. The spirit has passed altogether away from the flesh, the world, and Satan’s power. Now with Jesus the blessed Mediator who brought God in grace so near to men, and did that glorious redemption work which enables Him to bring men in perfect justification and acceptance so near to God. If we think of Jesus, how perfect the grace that shone in Him that told itself out in His words and His deeds, that wrought redemption, and that is now radiant with glory in His face at God’s right hand!
Departed saints are with Him. It is enough. We bless God for their happiness; and we pray that we may know better as a present living reality the Person with whom they are.
“We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord”, 2 Corinthians 5: 8. The dissolving of “the earthly house of this tabernacle” is a deeply solemn event, for there is nothing in which the utter weakness of man is so apparent. While in the tabernacle we groan, being burdened, and this is weakness; but the putting off the tabernacle is the extreme point of creature weakness. In prospect of such an event, what is the language of faith? “We are confident ... and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord”. How blessed to think that the saint dies “unto the Lord”, Romans 14: 8. That is, he dies in view of that glorious Person who “both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living”, Romans 14: 9. The Christian, whether living or dying, has the Lord before him. We have learned Him as supreme in the administration of grace. We know that every heavenly, earthly and infernal power will yet have to bow before Him. His power is not yet asserted publicly; it is hidden in the heavens; but one of the greatest realities in the universe is that Jesus is the Lord.
There are tremendous powers of evil in the world which may well be feared, but Jesus is the Lord and protects those who confess Him. The mightiest power of all is death, but in the dread domain of death Jesus is Lord. At the right hand [p. 387] of God, supreme in power and glory, sits Jesus the Lord. There is no might so great as His; the world powers will all ere long have to give place to Him. He is, and soon will be manifestly, King of kings and Lord of lords.
In the domain of death He is the great Conqueror; He has entered the dark stronghold and borne away in triumph its gates and bars. He now in resurrection holds the keys of death and hades, and the hand of faith can be put forth to lay hold of death itself as part of the spoil of His victory. “Death ... yours”, 1 Corinthians 3: 22. What far-reaching authority, exercised in the beneficent activity of divine goodness and love, lies in that title — the Lord! What comfort and peace and joy are found in the recognition that Jesus is Lord!
But how sweet to remember that to the saint His lordship implies not only authority exercised against all evil and to secure all blessing, but it implies His personal ownership. “Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s”, Romans 14: 8. We belong to Him: He has rights over us which He will not surrender. He claims us in life — may we own the claim more fully and gladly! — and He claims us in death. The believer is claimed in that solemn, yet blessed, moment by the Lord. We are apt to think of our loved ones as possessions of ours, but the moment comes when we have to surrender them. But the Lord holds them when our poor hearts have to let them go. He holds them even in death in the power of redemption, in the power of the love in which He gave Himself for them. And on their part, in the peaceful and happy recognition of His claim and ownership, they “die unto the Lord”.
Then as absent from the body, they are present with the Lord. He receives their spirits. They are immediately in the region of power, for they are with Him who is supreme in authority and might. Henceforth no other power but His will ever touch them, and that power is the servant of a well-known love. With what blessed confidence does this fill the soul!
“Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better”, Philippians 1: 23.
We can understand Paul’s desire to be with Christ, for we know what a sense he had of the love of Christ, and of the [p. 388] unsearchable riches of Christ. It is he who has told us that saints are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ, that all God’s promises are Yea and Amen in Christ, and that He is made wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption to those who are in Him. With what keen zest, and with what intelligent joy could he anticipate being with Christ, for he had known here “the fulness of the blessing of Christ”, Romans 15: 29. And his great longing here was to have Christ for his gain. Hence when he spoke of being “with Christ” there was no vagueness or uncertainty in his mind as to what those words conveyed.
He had long before learned that in himself good did not dwell, but that every divine thought of good and blessing had been brought in and established in another Man. The Christ is God’s anointed Man in whom all His thoughts for men are fully made good. He has taken up all that we were, and glorified God about it in bearing its judgment, and now we are entitled through infinite grace to see Him as the divinely appointed Head, and that a world of holy blessing centres in Him.
In Him we are justified from all things, and have redemption; He is the door of liberty by which we escape from all that we were involved in as fallen and guilty children of Adam. But then we see also everything that is positively good and blessed, and according to God’s delight, in Him. Man in everlasting righteousness before God, in the most blessed favour and acceptance, having every quality and characteristic that can yield pleasure to God! How blessed to open the eyes upon a Man like that! And to know that He was once made sin for us upon the cross, and tasted death, meeting all the power of Satan and glorifying God, so that there might be nothing left to hinder us from having the full blessing of God in Him! And now we see Him in the condition of a risen and glorified Man, eternally before God for His pleasure. God’s delight in Man — in Christ — is perfect, and changeless now to all eternity.
We know the qualities of Adam, the fallen man. They are a grief and trial to us; how much more so to God! But, thank God, He is relieved of that man by the death of Christ, and He has the Man of His good pleasure now ever before His face. Let us think of the qualities and characteristics of the accepted Man! They are not much in public admiration [p. 389] now, but they very soon will be. The world of lawlessness and lust and hatred and man’s glory is all soon passing away. Everything that is not according to Christ will have to pass out, and the whole of God’s reconciled universe will be filled by the qualities and characteristics of Christ the glorious Man — the Head.
How blessed the portion of the believer today! He is still in the scene where he once exhibited the qualities and characteristics of Adam, the rejected man, but he is now a believer in Christ, the accepted Man, and he has received the Spirit of that glorious Man that he may delight in, and be formed in, the features and characteristics of Christ. Is it not a profound joy when we get favoured moments in which no other but Christ is present in our thoughts and affections? And, on the practical side, is it not a joy when a little that has been found to be carnal or worldly or merely natural is allowed to drop, and a little more of Christ brought in by His Spirit! Could you think of greater happiness than to be removed from the presence of every trace of the Adam — man or his influence, and to be introduced to a region where there is nothing to distract from Christ, and from all the qualities and characteristics of Christ which are to be the delight of God, and the delight and life of saints eternally? That is the very “far better” portion of those who are with Christ. They enjoy what they truly enjoyed on earth, but they enjoy it now with Him in a state where there are no distractions.
We may well turn to God with joy and praise as we think of our loved ones with Jesus, with the Lord, and with Christ. We do not think of praying for them, but the contemplation of the Person with whom they are may well lead us to pray earnestly for ourselves that we may know Him better. We want to know the One we are going to be with, do we not? Every bit of evidence we have that the preciousness of that blessed One was cherished in the minds and affections of our dear departed ones is very sweet to us. The more He was known to them here, the greater their link with what is there. We need to strengthen our links with what is outside the death scene, and outside all the confusion here. Let us not be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. And as He becomes the treasure and glory of our hearts we shall know even here the character of joy that is the portion of those who are with Him.
[p. 390] One more word remains for our consideration in connection with this blessed subject:
“And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them”, Revelation 14: 13.
We do not fail to note that this scripture has direct application to saints of a future period, who will die in the Lord during the terrible time of tribulation after the rapture of the church, and before the appearing of Christ to judge and to reign. But what the Spirit says of them is true of those who die in the Lord today. There may be a special sense in which they will “die in the Lord”, as martyred because of their faithfulness to Him, in the confession of His Name amidst surrounding apostasy. But it is our privilege to be in the line of the same witness today — to own the lordship of Jesus as those who are truly His bondmen, and who, gladly recognise what is due to Him, and who are set to maintain His interests in the scene from which He has been rejected!
How blessed to be “in the Lord”! To be in the consciousness of His supremacy, and of His support in a life here dedicated to His service! No labour is vain that is “in the Lord”. Nothing that is done by a loyal heart in subjection to Him, and only seeking His pleasure and glory, could possibly be in vain. No human eye may have seen it, but His eye has marked the quality of its conception and execution with deepest pleasure. Those served may not have known how to appreciate the service rendered, but the Lord took full account of its value. How blessed to recall the features of a life here that has been in any measure in a true and real way “in the Lord”! No part of such a life has been in vain. Whether long or short, it has been freighted with that which has divine and eternal worth, and their “works do follow them”.
We may be sure that those who live in the Lord die in the Lord, and they go into His presence attended by all the works which have been the fruit of their having come under His lordship here. What a comfort and joy to recall, as to those we have loved, that they lived and laboured “in the Lord”, and to know that they have gone to Him attended by such a train and retinue!
We cannot dwell on what has passed before us without being reminded that the state of the departed saints, blessed [p. 391] as it is, is not the consummation of their joy. For this they, and ourselves, await the coming moment when the Lord will utter His assembling shout, and gather all His own to Himself in the air. Then will the Son of God receive us to Himself, and set us with Him in His own place in His Father’s house, conformed to His image in bodily condition that He may be the Firstborn among many brethren, all set eternally in the glory and affections and condition of sonship for the satisfaction of the Father’s love.
This crowning glory also we contemplate in the same blessed Person — God’s glorious Son. So that to learn Him is the key to everything. That we may do so is often the reason why we are called to tread the valley of the shadow of death. It was only in going that way that the sisters of Bethany could learn Him who is “the resurrection and the life”. Their sorrow passed, as ours will, but the gain of learning such a Person abides as an eternal wealth of joy in the soul.