“Jesus died and rose again” (1 Thess. 4:14, NKJV)
Imagine trying to start a car. You insert the key in the ignition, turn it, and… nothing. Not even the weak cranking of a dying battery. You decide to pop the hood and check things out, not entirely sure what you’ll be looking for or even looking at. You slide the release, lift the hood, and look stunned at the empty space where the engine should be.
That is what it’s like to have hope-so hope. There is no engine to make things run. No power to make things go.
What is the engine of the Christian’s hope? Paul expresses it in two ways as he explains the return of Jesus. Later in chapter five he will declare: “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9). This statement is like a summation of Romans 9-11, where the apostle takes us behind the scenes of the salvation offered in the gospel.
But here in chapter four Paul is offering the comfort of the gospel that comes through faith. He says, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:14).
As Christians we do not grieve as those who have no hope because we have faith. We believe what God has said and we believe in what Christ has done. When the apostle references Jesus’s death and resurrection, he is describing to us the power that drives our lives. It is a resurrection power, the power of new life, the power of the One who atoned for sins and who overcame the power of sin, death, and the grave.
Paul puts it this way to the church at Rome: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11).
If the Spirit has united us to Christ through faith, it changes everything. Much of the New Testament is an operations manual leading us to discover and appreciate all of the blessings that are ours in Jesus Christ.
Here to the Thessalonians, Paul is extending comfort and encouragement by explaining the mechanics of the believer’s hope. We have a hope because Christ lives as the One who died in satisfaction of divine justice and was raised in newness of life.
We grieve but not as those who have no hope, those without God and without hope in this world. We live by faith, what the writer of Hebrews explains to be “the assurance of things hoped for” (Heb. 11:1). That assurance is tied in to the saving purpose of God and accomplished work of Christ.
That’s why Paul can say without reservation and with great confidence that “God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:14).
Those united to Christ by grace through faith are not lost or forgotten. They are not abandoned to the grave. Paul says they “sleep.” Their immortal souls live in the life of Christ. Those who are alive in Christ and those who are dead in Christ share the common position and certain hope of an eternity with Christ.
Paul will go on to map out the return of Jesus for those who are His, but for now let us savor our hope because to savor our hope is to savor our Savior, who lives and reigns for us on high.
How do faith and hope relate to each other?
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
