17. " God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him." (1 Thess. 5:9, 109For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 10Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:9‑10).)
This little word comes in as a very sweet little close to the testimony of the Spirit in this epistle to the subject we are considering. Some might, looking at the last quotation, covet to sleep in Jesus, but, as He goes on to show, even in that context, when Jesus does come the sleeping and the waking shall be all together with Him; though, as it is ever the way with our gracious Lord to show grace first and foremost to that which is in greatest weakness, " the dead in Christ shall rise first," here He proceeds to show how the matter He is anxious about is one- of daily, hourly moment -and He does it by bringing in the gracious yet deep thought of God toward us. He hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus;-this would have been most gracious, but how much more the opening to us of His own deep thoughts about the way in which the blessing came to us-" He died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do." It is not simply the saint is to live to God or as Jesus lived, but" live together with him," which is just this, being a channel for that fullness, which is ours in God the Father and in Christ Jesus the Lord, to flow out by. Yea, even more wonderful still, what our reptile thoughts cannot attain to, to live together with Jesus-that the lives, that is, which we live in the body, should be in the power of His life who is seated at the Father's right hand. And thus in the saints, while in the world, is to be seen in their lives the verity and reality of their portion being in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ, for He died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. I would only add that while assuredly this takes in the question of pitting off the body before, or remaining in the body until Jesus comes, it goes -a great deal farther, even to that morning waking and evening sleeping, the natural extremes in our daily lives of the actings of our bodily service. God grant we may know the power of these things.