The blessedness of dying in Jesus

“And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” (Rev. 14:13).

Often has the question come to my mind, Is this speaking of literal death or death to sin? Now I have some scripture than speak of death to sin and the rest in salvation. We’ll begin with Psalm 116.

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” (Psa. 116:15).

This verse is sometimes expressed at a Protestant funeral or memorial service, referring to the dead loved one. But, look at its context. At the introduction, which sets the course of the whole psalm, it speaks, rather, of a spiritual battle going on in the psalmist.

“I love the LORD, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. 

Because He hath inclined His ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live. 

The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. 

Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul.” (Psa. 116:1-4).

The cause of his crying out to God was for deliverance from the trouble and sorrow in his soul. The psalmist is not praising God from the grave because there is no communication with the dead. This is because in a dead brain there is no spirit or mind. Hence there is no thought process and no conscience. We are made in the image of the Father and Son through a special process of Their creating a brain that can house a reception center for the Spirit of the Father through the Spirit of His Son. That center, in the human frontal lobe, is called our spirit. There the Father’s Spirit, through His Son’s Spirit can mate with ours, and our spirit can mate with the Father’s through His Son’s, the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead. “If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, [then] He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” “I in them, and Thou in Me.” (Rom. 8:11; John 17:23).

The death that the psalmist experienced felt like literal dying and death as he went about his daily duties, but pangs of death were only a simile used to best describe the destitution and depression brought upon his soul by separation from the living God.

“I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength: 

Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom Thou rememberest no more: and they are cut off from Thy hand.” (Psa. 88:4,5).

This psalm did not intend to be literal, as the simile “like” (Vs. 5), gives away. The Hebrews knew that the dead know not anything. See Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6. There is no life, no soul, no spirit, when the body physically expires. The rhetorical answers to the following two texts was an obvious, No.

“Wilt Thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise Thee? Selah. 

Shall Thy lovingkindness be declared in the grave? or Thy faithfulness in destruction? 

Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark? and Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?” (Psa. 88:9-12).

“The waters wear the stones: washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and Thou destroyest the hope of man. 

Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. 

His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them. 

But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.” (Job 14:19-22)

So, the psalmist expresses his joy to the Deliverer from his sorrows and depression and spiritual darkness. He is thankful for the compassion of his God upon his unworthy soul for hastily concluding that because some had lied to him, then the whole world was liars.

“I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: 

I said in my haste, All men are liars.” (Psa. 116:10,11).

“Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. 

The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and He helped me. 

Return unto Thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with Thee. 

For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. 

I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.” (Psa. 116:5-9).

Jesus was merciful and gave power to redirect his thoughts to godliness when He saw the repentance in the psalmist. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord!”

“What shall I render unto the LORD for all His benefits toward me? 

I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the LORD. 

I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all His people. 

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.” (Psa. 116:12-15).

The death was his new dead disposition toward sinning, which is salvation. Now the bliss of heaven fills him. Freed from the grip of unwanted animosity, and living in the Spirit of righteousness, the psalmist had only the deepest gratitude to his Deliverer from sin and there remained a fervent determination to be faithful to His character in the face of all future temptations.

“O LORD, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid: Thou hast loosed my bonds. 

I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD. 

I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all His people, 

In the courts of the LORD’s house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD.” (Psa. 116:16-19).

So, from the opening Revelation 14:13 verse, it is evident that the 144,000 will have such a victory over the beast, that God deems the beast to be the source of all abominations that blanket the earth in the end. None cause is imputed to the remnant. As he had done to the imperious whore of the Old Covenant, “that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar” (Matt. 23:35), in the end likewise He says to Babylon, the great whore of the New Covenant:

“And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” “And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” (Rev. 17:5; 18:24).

No doubt, in both cases, He is speaking directly to Satan, the vicious, supra-vindictive, scarlet colored dragon.

The 144,000 obtain the victory over the beast, as representatives of all the redeemed from the captive race of Adam. They have laid down their lives for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of an unsaved world. But they could only have done so by Jesus’ help. His invitation continually wafted upon their hearts, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” (Matt. 11:28,29). Now they give themselves to Him, such as the psalmist did, “O LORD, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid: Thou hast loosed my bonds.” (Psa. 116:16). And they follow the Lamb everywhere He leads in the Latter Rain.

The world’s idolatry behind them through the infinite patience of God, they continue to surrender their whole heart to the interceding Son. They are dead to sin; they have given their will to God for Him to do with them as He pleases. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” And in their determination and new willpower from Jesus, their sins are blotted out and they enjoy the unique experience of being sealed from sin and temptation. They have passed through their own Gethsemane. They can say with Paul,

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 

God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? 

Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: 

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 

For he that is dead is freed from sin.” (Rom. 6:1-7).

This victory over sin is unlike any other victory since Adam left the garden. But their victory’s precedent was set in the apostolic church as the first bookend of the new dispensation, from which we can take a likeness of the future great tribulation and the time of Jacob’s trouble. Many people today have no faith that their character can naturally be without flaw in God’s sight. But this is what He promises. Through Christ’s justifying and sanctifying work in them they hear the blessed words from their Father, This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.

“And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God…. Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus”; here are they “which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev. 14:5,12; 12:17).

Contrary to popular fantasy, the 144,000 will not be superhuman Christians who never did anything wrong. That’s not why they will be without blame before God. They will be enabled to stand before God and endure the great tribulation at the end only because of the mercies and patience of God toward their past unfaithfulness. They will arrive at perfect obedience only because of the failures they see in their past. As seen in the Revelation 11 two witnesses who the beast’s voracious locusts made spiritual warfare against during the fifth trumpet and who the beast killed spiritually in the sixth trumpet, their last end is still full of hope because of their forefathers’ and their prophet’s sakes.

“And when they shall have finished their [1,260 year] testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit [in 1849] shall make war against them [until 1915], and shall overcome them [by 1999], and kill them. 

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 

And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. 

And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.” (Rev. 11:7-10).

“And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.” (Rev. 11:11,12).

The 144,000 ascension to heaven in a cloud is not the second advent of Christ, but their resurrection to new life after being forgiven of their many failures to uphold the standards of Christ’s kingdom. But through all the humiliation from His discipline upon them during the previous first time of trouble, when the atheistic, rebellious world have the upper hand on them because they departed from the God of their pioneer forefathers, they are purified and their allegiance to Jesus is solidified. Like it was in David’s time of external difficulties, their dependence on Jesus, and His law and prophets, churned out a generation that could be worthy of God’s blessings upon them, instead of His curses.

“Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in His holy place? 

He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 

He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 

This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek Thy face, O Jacob. Selah.” (Psa. 24:3-6).

The same generation occurred again in the days of the apostles, and because of the same condemnation of God’s Law that resulted in the same loyalty to the Law and prophets.

“Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator….  

But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 

But before faith came, we were kept under the Law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 

Wherefore the Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:19,22-24).

The final revival won’t be by the birth of a super race of Adventist Christians. But, the revival will come by the same means that we have seen happen all through the ages after gross departures from the word of God and from the straight testimonies from Jesus—a firm but merciful, disciplining, but divinely permitted, subjugation, a deep humiliation and repentance from God’s remnant, their immediate restoration to divine favor realized by the witness of God’s Spirit, their new love of the Law and the prophets (including the prophet of these last days, Ellen G. White) and their determined sanctification by the combined human-divine union of spirit-Spirit. A remnant previously lacking faith and transgressing the Law, resurrected into a holy priesthood and peculiar generation, and dwelling, as it were, in heaven, is what we saw in our precedent, the apostolic church.

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, 

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:4-6).

“Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in [glory]: 

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son: 

In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” (Col. 1:12-14).

Forgiveness of their former, ugly unfaithfulness and sitting in heavenly places with their Saviour is why we see the 144,000 standing in the heavenly sanctuary with the Lamb of God.

“And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads. 

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: 

And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.” (Rev. 14:1-3).

That first scene of the 144,000 comes before the great tribulation, and the next chapter shows them after that tribulation, singing an even newer song that no man can sing. Their first song was in preparation for the great time of trouble, such as never was, and their last song will be after that great tribulation.

“And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. 

And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. 

Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest.” (Rev. 15:2-4).

In a magnificent picture of the most perfected new birth born out of the greatest pangs ever experienced by humankind, we see nothing more than the pangs of death known by the psalmist.

“I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted: 

I said in my haste, All men are liars.” (Psa. 116:10,11).

“And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Eph. 2:1-3).

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, 

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) ” (Eph. 2:4,5).

“Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful. 

The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and He helped me. 

Return unto Thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with Thee. 

For Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. 

I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.” (Psa. 116:5-9).