God’s Valuable Insight
Dearly beloved of God, the Word of God reveals all we can know about realities that are beyond the reach of the five senses. People who speak of these things can speak either from the information God reveals to us in His Word, or from information they obtain from inferior sources such as tradition, experience, philosophy, and religion.
God is Spirit. He exists in the spiritual realm. You cannot know about this realm except through the information God reveals to us in His Word; all else is conjecture.
For example, if we are to understand death, and what lies beyond it, the only reliable source of information we can trust is the Word of God. The same thing is true of the release from death, resurrection, the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and eternal life.
God is the only One Who can speak of these realities with certainty. He is only One that can inform us as to the truth concerning them. He is the only One we can trust when it comes to understanding realities that lie beyond the limits of our five senses.
The Word of God informs us that death is an enemy. Death is the last enemy that shall be destroyed. Death is a continuing state until the time that God will bring deliverance from it for those in Christ.
When a person breathes his/her last breath they die; they enter the state of death. The body corrupts. Soul-life ceases. If the person is born again of the spirit from God, the spirit returns to God Who gave it.
If the person is born again of the spirit from God they have the future hope of salvation, and eternal life, and of having glorious new bodies fashioned like Christ’s glorious body [See I Thessalonians 5:8-10 and Philippians 3:20 and 21]. This hope of salvation will be fulfilled when the Lord Jesus Christ returns for the Church.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 New American Standard Bible
15 For we say this to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who remain, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
This is the Word of the Lord. He is able and willing to perform His Word. Whose word is more trustworthy than His?
1 Corinthians 15:20-23 New American Standard Bible
20 But the fact is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. 21 For since by a man death came, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,
Who was the first to rise from the dead? Christ. When will the dead in Christ be raised from the state of death? At his coming.
God gave His Son the authority to raise the dead in Christ at his coming. Can anyone else raise the dead unto eternal life? No. Can anyone else transform our mortal corruptible bodies so that they have the same form as the Lord Jesus Christ’s glorious body that dies no more? No. Then why would anyone trust someone else’s word instead of God’s Word since they cannot bring their word to pass?
1 Corinthians 15:51-54 King James Version
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 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. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 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.
God wants us to know what is the hope of His calling, and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. He has given us insight into what none of us could have known had He not revealed this information to us. Thank God for His insight, and sharing it with us.
Rejoice, and thank God for His wonderful love and grace to us in Christ Jesus, and the salvation He made available to us in him. Believe Romans 10:9 and you will share in it.