‘Who Die In The Lord’

‘Who Die In The Lord’

And I hear a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, 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.

Revelation 14:13

We have before us a text from the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  Within this book are many things which are hard to interpret for even the most diligent of Biblical scholars.  There are also many statements here which delight and uplift us for the comfort and encouragement they offer.  We have such a text before us.  Here we find, ‘And I hear a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, 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.’  Taken within the strict context, this text refers to those who will die in Christ towards the end of the age.  Taken in the broadest context, we see statements which gladden the hearts of the people of God in any age.  For the moment, let us consider, ‘Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.’  How is this so?  We see death as that which brings what we know and enjoy to an end.  We see the termination of all our earthly expectations.  We will produce no more and no more enjoy the fruit of our labor in this scene of time.   Yet to die ‘in the Lord’ is a blessed thing.  We die according to His appointed time for us.  We have evidently accomplished what He intended for us to do.  We die in Christ with our sins forgiven for His Sake.  We die secure, because His deeds are as good as His word.  We die with pain and suffering bodies behind us, and glorified bodies awaiting us.  We die so as to be absent from  the body and present with the Lord.  We are blessed indeed.

Our Great and Merciful God,
we praise You that You have placed us in Christ by free and sovereign grace.
We rejoice that in Christ we are blessed indeed
for time and for eternity.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning