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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWilliam Burkitt Notes and Observations - 1 Thessalonians 4:14 - 4:14
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St. Paul having, in the foregoing verse, dissuaded from immoderate grief and sorrow for the death of relations, comes now to lay down several considerations or consolatory arguments in order to it.
The first word of comfort is this, that our relations over whom we mourn, are but fallen asleep; the grave is a bed, in which the saint is laid to rest, his body rests in a bed of dust, as in a safe and consecrated dormitory, till the morning of the resurrection: and, if the night be long, the morning will be the more joyous.
The second comfort is, they sleep in Jesus, that is, in union with Jesus, as members of his body; in the faith of Jesus, that is, in such a belief of the doctrine of Christ, as is accompanied with a holy obedience to the commands of Christ.
The third consolatory word is this, God will come, that is, to judgment, and when he cometh, will bring his sleeping saints with him, that is, he will bring their souls from heaven, their bodies from the grave. Body and soul united he shall take up to himself into the clouds, and then carry all his saints back with him into heaven.
A fourth, is this, our relations are not alone in death; Jesus died; the Captain of our salvation marched before us through the black regions of death and the grave, and has perfumed the bed of the grave, by his own lying in it.
Note here, the apostle says Jesus died, the saints sleep; a believer's death is called a sleep. I do not find that Christ's death is called a sleep; no, his death was death indeed, death with a curse in it: but the believers' death is turned by Christ into a sweet and silent sleep.
Again, Jesus died and rose again, that is a comforting consideration, he was laid, but not lost in the grave: he rose by his own power, he rose as our Head and representative, and accordingly, all his saints are risen in him, and shall rise after him. Because I live, says Christ, you shall live also.