IT is of course of the dead in Christ that the Holy Spirit so speaks. They are blessed because they are with Him who has redeemed them to Himself. They are absent from the body and present with the Lord. Having departed this life they are now with Christ which is far better than any possible earthly experience. Once they toiled and suffered here below. Now they rest from their labors, as they await the day when all believers shall be manifested at the judgment-seat of Christ and they shall be rewarded for everything they have done for Christ “Their works do follow them.”
To die in the Lord is to enter into eternal blessedness. On the contrary to die out of Christ means endless judgment. Jesus said, “Except ye believe that I am He, ye shall die in your sins”; and of such He added, “Whither I go, ye cannot come.” Note the vivid contrast: die in the Lord; die in your sins! It is not true as some fondly hope that there is something so purifying about death that all who pass through it will be fitted for heaven. Only those who die in Christ have this blessedness.
“How blest the righteous when he dies!
When sinks a weary soul to rest!
How mildly beam the closing eyes!
How gently heaves the expiring breast!
Life’s labor done, as sinks the clay,
Light from its load the spirit flies,
While heaven and earth combine to say.
‘How blest the righteous when he dies’!”
—Barbauld.