| Christian Life and Doctrine | August 1975 |
Jesus Returns for His Church
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” —John 14:1-3
THE Scriptures reveal a number of reasons for Jesus’ return at his second advent, and one of these is clearly set forth in the Scripture lesson quoted above. Here Jesus says, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” These words were spoken by the Master while he was in the upper room, the night before he was crucified, partaking of the passover supper with his disciples for the last time. The happenings of the last few days, and particularly what was taking place in that upper room, had caused the disciples to be very apprehensive of coming events. Jesus had made remarks on previous occasions indicating clearly that he expected soon to die. This meant, of course, that he would be leaving his disciples by way of death, but it was not clear to them that night in the upper room that this is what he meant when he said, “If I go, I will come again.”
The statement that in his Father’s house there were many mansions seems to be a reference to the various planes of beings which the Scriptures indicate already existed, such as the angelic plane, etc. But when he said, “I go to prepare a place for you,” he meant that as his faithful followers their position in God’s great universe would be something other than that which already existed. The Scriptures show that this is indeed God’s plan for the faithful followers of Jesus. They are promised that in the resurrection they will be exalted to glory, honor, and immortality. (Rom. 2:7) It was Jesus who brought both life and immortality to light through the Gospel. (II Tim. 1:10) In our Scripture lesson, his promise to prepare a place for his disciples meant that when he returned he would exalt them to be with him where he was, that is, on the divine plane of existence.
This was a precious promise indeed. Although the disciples did not comprehend its full significance they were no doubt comforted by the assurance that regardless of what happened that night, and later, Jesus had no intention of leaving them permanently. And while, as he said, he was going away, he would come again and they would forever be with him.
His later statement—that where he was going they could not at that time come—did not clear up the matter for them, nor was it his intention that they should understand prior to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost all the various aspects of the divine plan, either for themselves or for the world of mankind in general.
When He Comes
The Apostle Paul was one of God’s servants who was enlightened by the Holy Spirit and able to forecast things to come and how they would take place, and he does this for us in his prophecy of the return of Christ as recorded in I Thessalonians 4:15-18. Verses 13 and 14 of this chapter read, “But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” And then verse 15, “For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep.” (RSV) Here, then, Paul is beginning to outline for us the manner in which the returned Lord takes his faithful people unto himself. Those who have been sleeping in death throughout the age are raised from the dead first. They are not preceded by those who are living at that time.
Paul leaves no doubt that he is discussing the return of Christ when in the 16th verse he says, “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” (A.V.) And then verse 17, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Verse 18 reads, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
It is important to note here that the dead in Christ shall arise first and that those who are alive remain. They are not caught up to meet the Lord in the air with those who have been sleeping, but they remain, and later in God’s due time are also exalted to be with Jesus and with all members of his body in the air, that is, in a spiritual realm. And it is in this spiritual realm that they are all together with the Lord. Here is a summing up of Jesus’ promise, “If I go … I will come again and receive you unto myself.”
Some insist that the word “together” in verse 17 means “at the same time”; that those who are alive at the time of Jesus’ return are caught up, or exalted, at the same time as those who have been sleeping in death. But this is an error. The same Greek word is used in chapter 5, verse 10, where, speaking of Jesus, Paul says, “Who died for us, that, whether we wake of sleep, we should live together with him.” It does not mean being caught up together, but rather, living together, and that is the thought in the preceding chapter.
Evidently all the faithful saints of God who have followed Jesus into sacrificial death will be exalted to his presence and to his divine nature, and they shall forever be together with him. We are reminded of this in John 17. Jesus prayed for this in verse 24, saying, “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”
A Mystery
I Corinthians 15:50-52 reads, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
When Paul writes that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, he is setting forth a basic truth of the divine plan. Those who are to live and reign with Christ in the kingdom of God cannot do so as humans. They must all be changed from human to spiritual. This, then, was implied by Jesus’ promise that when he came he would receive his faithful followers unto himself. He did not mean that he would receive them to be with him as human beings, but that in order to be with him it would be necessary for them to be changed.
To this information Paul adds, “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” The fact that Paul describes this as a mystery suggests strongly that here is a great truth which does not have a general application; that it is a truth which applies at the sounding of the trump. This takes us back to Paul’s lesson to the church at Thessalonica where he says, “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”
Here, and in I Corinthians 15, Paul associates the trump of God, or the last trump, with the awakening of the sleeping saints. It is in this connection that he explains that he is revealing to us a mystery—a mystery with respect to the changing of the body members of Christ from fleshly to spiritual conditions. The mystery undoubtedly is the fact that in the case of some of these they sleep in death, in the case of others they do not. The dead in Christ who are asleep will be raised and, as Paul says, we shall be changed. “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
It would be difficult to read this in conjunction with what Paul says in I Thessalonians 4 without reaching the conclusion that at this end of the age, after the Lord descends from heaven with a shout, those who die in the Lord would not need to remain asleep in death, but they would be changed “in the twinkling of an eye.”
Confirmation
In Revelation 14:13 we have confirmation of this mystery of those who do not sleep in death. This chapter tells about the fall of symbolic Babylon and the harvest work at the end of the Gospel Age. It is in this context that we read, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” Here we have an explanation of what the mystery is that Paul spoke of concerning those who die in the Lord from a certain point onward, “henceforth.” Here is something that is true of the saints who die at the end of the age which was not true before. No matter what sort of interpretation we put on the words used we cannot get away from this fact. Any interpretation which would not make the death of the saints now any different from what it was in apostolic days would not be the true interpretation.
And what does this wonderful text say? It says, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.” As has been the case with all the Lord’s true followers from Pentecost down, these, too, at the end of the age, are symbolically dead. They are dead in Christ. But this death applies only to their will, to the desire of their hearts. They have been planted together in the likeness of Christ’s death; buried with him by baptism into death. They have accepted Jesus as their Head and are, therefore, dead to self.
But in order to live and reign with Christ a thousand years, as the promise is, these must also die according to the flesh. They must indeed be faithful even unto death. Beginning with Pentecost those who were faithful remained asleep in death until the return of the Lord. The Apostle Paul wrote concerning his expectation, “I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”—II Tim. 4:7,8
Paul did not expect to be changed in a moment, “in the twinkling of an eye,” as he wrote in Corinthians. Speaking there of the experiences of the entire church, he separated those who were to be alive when the Lord returned as being of a class which he called “we.” He did not imply by this that he would live to the end of the age, but that there would be some in the church, that is, those who lived at the end of the age, who would then die, and that these would not remain asleep as did those who died previous to this time in the plan of God.
The Revelator said, “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth.” How blessed indeed is their experience! Those who have been truly faithful in the service of the Lord, doing with their might what their hands find to do, have become weary. Indeed, they have worn out their lives serving the Lord either directly or indirectly. They have served directly in the promulgation of the kingdom message and in the sacrificial service on behalf of one another. They have served indirectly when they took care of the duties which naturally devolved upon them as husbands, fathers, wives, or in other situations of the natural life. In any case, they have laid down their life sacrificially, with which there was attached much weariness, much suffering. So how sweet the assurance, “They shall rest from their labors.”
But as the Revelator explains, they will not cease their works. They will continue to serve the Lord in whatever he has planned for them to do, but without weariness. What a blessed experience indeed it will be to serve the Lord, even day and night, and not become weary! Their works shall follow them, they will not leave behind their service of the Lord. The Diaglott word-for-word translation says, “They will take their work with them.” This, then, is one of the precious promises of God’s Word to the saints at the end of the age, for it is these who will not sleep in death but will be changed in a moment, in the “twinkling of an eye.” What a glorious mystery this is and how glad we are that the Lord in his kindness has revealed it to us!
Then
Concluding his lesson on the subject of the resurrection the Apostle Paul emphasizes the importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus and of what is involved in the resurrection of the church, namely, a change from earthly to heavenly glory. And after explaining the mystery of those who die and are resurrected at the end of the age, he continues, in I Corinthians 15, “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” And then the conclusion in verse 54, “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” Paul is not here saying that the change from corruptible to incorruption, from mortality to immortality, will be the swallowing up of death in victory. That would mean that only a very small portion of the human race had been restored to life. What he is saying is that when this takes place it will be the time in the plan of God for those general promises concerning the restitution of all things to be fulfilled. It will be then that death will be swallowed up in victory—not by exalting all mankind to immortality, but by awakening all from the sleep of death and restoring them to perfect human life here on earth. It will be then, quoting the next verse, that it will become true, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
We are happy that we are living in the end of the age. We are happy for the assurance of our Lord’s return and of the awakening of the sleeping saints. We are happy for the daily fulfilling of that mystery concerning those who die in the Lord henceforth. We are happy for the assurance that these developments in the plan of God assure us that the time is near when the sting of death will be removed from the earth and when it can be said, “O death, where is thy victory?”