Spiritual Strength For Each Day
“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).
What a wonderful promise for God’s children! The believer lives forever, because he has eternal life abiding in him. Even when he takes his last breath on earth, he will not see death, according to the express promise of the Lord Jesus. Only Jesus has the power to ignore death as though it does not exist. Of Jairus’ daughter He said, “She is not dead, but sleepeth” (Luke 8:52). And of His dead friend Lazarus He said, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth” (John 11:11).
Of the born again Christians who are waiting for the Rapture, but are no longer here on earth at the time of the Rapture, Paul says that they are asleep. This means that as far as their earthly existence is concerned, they are asleep, but they are alive before the throne of God. Jesus Christ guaranteed us this through His resurrection. “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). Jesus Christ is truly risen again, so that we may say of a child of God who dies, he or she is not dead. They are alive in Paradise in unspeakable bliss!
