What will God do with those who have died in Christ if we believe Jesus died and rose again?
Scripture teaches that if we believe Jesus died and rose again, God will bring with Him those who have died in Christ. They are described as asleep in Christ, yet they are not excluded. At the Lord’s coming, God brings the saints with Him, and the living will not precede or go ahead of them.
Les explains that this is Paul’s instruction in I Thessalonians 4:14, where believers are not to be ignorant or sorrow like those without hope. Paul writes that those who sleep, who have died in Christ, have been members of the body of Christ since Paul first went to the Gentiles. If we believe Jesus died and rose again, then God will bring them with Him. Les points out that the God coming with the saints is Jesus, and Jesus is the God coming with the saints; the names are used interchangeably. Verse 15 adds that we who are alive and remain until the Lord’s coming for the body of Christ will not precede or go ahead of those who are asleep.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.