How solemn, yet how blessed, the day when we shall be delivered from the coming wrath. We who know the Lord are waiting for the Son of God, Jesus, from heaven. 1 Thess. 1:10.
"When left this scene of faith and strife,
The flesh and sense deceive no more,
When we shall see the Prince of life,
And all His works of grace explore:
What heights and depths of love divine
Will there through endless ages shine!
"And God has fixed the happy day
When the last tear shall dim our eyes;
When He will wipe these tears away,
And fill our hearts with glad surprise;
To hear His voice, and see His face,
And know the fullness of His grace."
#202 L.F.
Then we shall be changed into His likeness, our bodies "like unto his glorious body." Phil. 3:21. We shall see His face and hear His voice of victory, Jesus, Who loves us and gave Himself for us.
"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." 1 Thess. 4:14. "Even so" tells us that what took place in His resurrection will in the same way take place in the resurrection of the sleeping saints. In all things we are to be like Him.
"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death." Phil. 3:10. To be like Him, beloved, should be our daily desire. It is just like our Savior to have the dead in Christ rise before the living are changed, then all will rise together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and to forever be with the Lord. 1 Thess. 4:17. II Cor. 15. "Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thess. 4:18.
Then the deep desires of every newborn soul shall begin to be satisfied forever, and even now our hearts are filled with anticipation because we have a sure hope which should always be before us. Once we are saved we should never doubt, because God has said, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life." 1 John 5:13.
The Lord's coming for His saints, the rapture, will be about seven years before the millennium, and it must be very near at hand. What rapture, what joy, when the saints will all be gathered together, never to part again. There has never been a time of gladness like this, as we shall see our brethren from every distant shore, then eternity-with Jesus-in the skies!
"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruptibility." 1 Cor. 15:42, N.T. "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body." 1 Cor. 15:44. 2 Cor. 5:1-4. "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." 1 Cor. 15:49. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 15:50), but flesh and bone shall. Luke 24:39.
"Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." 1 Cor. 15:51,52.