The Sleep Of The Saved
Submitted by Frank Williams
April 21, 2025
1Th 4:13-14 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
What wonderful and encouraging words to God’s children, especially to those who have saved loved ones who have pillowed their heads in breathless sleep. Our English word “cemetery” comes from a Greek word which means, “a sleeping room or place.”
Indeed, the saved who have passed on are just sleeping until that Resurrection Day. The person (soul) is with Jesus in Heaven while the body lies sleeping in the grave. Soon enough the body shall awake and be reunited to the soul in what Paul calls an incorruptible and immortal body. (1 Cor 15)
What sleep is to waking, death is to the resurrection. Death is a transitory state. It is called sleep in the Bible to show that there is an awakening in mind. The grave is to be viewed as simply a room for the longest night’s sleep.
When the Bible refers to death for the saved, it is with the idea of a sleep, until there is an awakening to life. Jesus spoke along this line concerning Lazarus. Joh 11:11 ...after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
What a glorious awakening lies ahead for the saved! But not so for the unsaved. There is nothing but death referred to in the Bible for them.
Revelation 20:12 refers to the resurrection of all unsaved people. Re 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God… “Stand” means resurrected, but not to life. This resurrection is to another death.
Re 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. “Death” here refers to the resurrection of unsaved dead bodies, and “hell” is the location of the souls that will be rejoined to their bodies. The second death is for all unsaved people when they are cast into the Lake of Fire.
How grateful we are to be saved that we might escape the second death! And what comfort we take when a saved loved one passes! They “sleep in Jesus” in death as much as they “lived in Jesus” while breath was in them.
And now our mourning turns in ministry to the living—to help and aid them during their time of sorrow. By the grace of God, we shall!
Consider – God doesn’t need a backup plan.
