When Faith Is Greatly Enlarged

I Thessalonians 4:13-18—“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say 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. 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. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words” (NASB UPDATE). Our subject today is in the form of a question: Is redemption completed? This message is the first phase of a three part series.

Birth introduces depravity, sin, labor, sorrow, disappointment, imperfection, and death. On the other hand, death is the removal of these with perfection, rest, joy, and the endless, unmediating presence of Jesus Christ for the elect. Since Divine justice has been satisfied, the question has been asked, Why does the Christian undergo physical death? Temporal death has no “wrath” in it; but it is appointed unto man, because redemption has not been applied to the body. That takes place at the resurrection which is future and for those in time, but not for those who enter eternity. Although grace is applied to the soul in time, the flesh carries the scar of depravity until its removal in eternity.

Living Christians must not have abnormal grief for the saints who have gone to be with the Lord. Paul said, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope” (I Thess. 4:13 NASB UPDATE). The Greek verb for “grieve” is a present passive subjunctive of lupeo, which means sorrowful, distressed, or grieved. Paul made allowance for natural grief when he said, “…you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope,” because saints are to be neither ignorant nor sorrowful like the rest of mankind. Death is gain for dying saints. Paul said, “…according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:20, 21 NASB UPDATE). Biblical information that remains closed in the Bible cannot help the believer.

Job’s suffering was corrective. The greatest of men are often exercised with the greatest of trials. Grace is given not to destroy natural passions and affections, but to correct and purify them. Christians look beyond second causes to the hand of God. One must remember that Job lived before any part of the Bible was written. Therefore, we could not expect him to have the clear view of God’s character as those persons do who have the completed Scriptures. However, we must not underestimate the vast amount of knowledge the patriarch possessed.

Eliphaz, the senior of Job’s three friends, had a vision of the greatness and holiness of God. The part of his vision for this lesson is Job 4:12-21—“Now a word was brought to me stealthily, And my ear received a whisper of it. Amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, When deep sleep falls on men, Dread came upon me, and trembling, And made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed by my face; The hair of my flesh bristled up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; A form was before my eyes; There was silence, then I heard a voice: Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? He puts no trust even in His servants; And against His angels He charges error. How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before the moth! Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces; Unobserved, they perish forever. Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, yet without wisdom” (NASB UPDATE).

Every crisis in life is designed to glorify God and focus attention on the grace of God. Eliphaz has some information that is not only beautiful and true, but in its application, he reverses the meaning. He argues from Job’s outward condition to his inward state of affairs.

Eliphaz said, “But as for me, I would seek God, And I would place my cause before God; Who does great and unsearchable things, Wonders without number” (Job 5:8, 9 NASB UPDATE). There are several reasons for seeking God. There are some who talk a good fight, but they soon fade out. They faded because they have been influenced by some selfish motive, and they are soon distracted. Others are motivated by some disaster or catastrophe, and they look for a quick solution. There are others who try to bribe God. Thus, they become interested in the Bible for only a time. Finally, there are a few who are truly sincere, and they put their cause in God’s hands. What mother would want to spend the rest of her life burping the same child?

Sanctification is a process which has its beginning in regeneration and its consummation in glory. Regeneration does not all at once make a sinner to be like Christ, in the sense of wiping out all sinfulness from his life and making him perfectly holy. The more a believer is sanctified, the more conscious of sin he becomes. There is no hatred of sin in the natural man (John 3:19, 20). The unregenerate man is the old man. The regenerate man has the old nature to fight even though he possesses a new nature. The old nature remains with the new man. The process of sanctification is needed in order to subdue the old nature in the Christian. Through the window of faith, Paul viewed the victory that was on its way to the battlefield. As his attitude grew in grace, so did his grief over remaining sins. Therefore, Paul described himself as under the direction of flesh that was contending against the Spirit. The subject of Romans 7 is not the natural man as seen by the believer, but the subject is the believer who has learned to see himself. This was the purpose of I Thessalonians 4:1-12.

Paul turns from his instruction respecting the day of sanctification, and informs the believers how they ought to think “…about those who are asleep…” (I Thess 4:13 NASB UPDATE). He went on to say, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus” (I Thess. 4:14 NASB UPDATE). The Greek text reads as follows: “ei gar pisteuomen oti Iesous apethanen kai aneste….” The point that we want to emphasize is the first class condition ei, a particle used several different ways. The context determines its meaning. The condition may be false, true, or uncertain for various reasons. In this case, the condition is true, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the reality of the condition makes it a first class condition particle and should be translated, “For since we are believing that Jesus died and rose again….” The indicative verb affirms the reality of the action.

The last part of I Thessalonians 4:14 has become a debatable portion of Scripture—“…even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus” (NASB UPDATE). The following are some statements that reveal the differing views that have become debatable:

1. “This does not mean that God will bring the dead saints with Him from heaven, but from their graves like Ezekiel’s dry bones” (Ezek. 37:1-14).
2. “This refers only to the departed saints” (Phil. 1:23).
3. “Their resurrection is their being brought.”
4. “The word ‘bring’ is used instead of ‘shall raise up,’ because the term separation was prominent in their minds.”

Each person is forced to make a choice between (1) the intermediate state, (2) a temporary house between death and the resurrection, or (3) the building made without hands, eternal in the heavens. The preponderance of evidence is the only criterion for making a decision. This principle must be followed in the study of any Bible subject. Heresies are built on isolated passages. Someone may say, “You are getting in over your head when you read the Bible and try to explain.” The fact is that Christians always believe the infinite God is over the heads of finite men.

It is a Biblical fact that the application of Christ’s finished work at Calvary is not complete, but only from the standpoint of application. Paul said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it” (Rom. 8:18-25 NASB UPDATE).