Overcoming Death 727
victory over death testified that “to die is gain.... My desire is to
depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Phil. 1.21,23). Not a
wrinkle of fear could be detected there. The victory over death was
actual and complete.
Raptured AliveWe know that at the return of the Lord Jesus many will be
raptured alive. This is the last way of overcoming death. Both 1
Corinthians 15.51-52 and 1 Thessalonians 4.14-17 discuss this way.
We realize there is no set date for the Lord’s coming. He could have
come at any time during the past twenty centuries. Hence believers
always could cherish the hope of being raptured without passing
through the grave. Since the coming of the Lord Jesus is currently
much nearer than before, our hope of being raptured alive is greater
than that of our predecessors. We do not wish to say too much, but
these few words we can safely affirm; namely, should the Lord Jesus
come in our time, would we not want to be living so as to be raptured
alive? If so, then we must overcome death, not letting ourselves die
before our appointed hour so that we may be raptured alive.
According to the prophecy of Scripture, some believers shall be
raptured without going through death. To be thus raptured constitutes
one more kind of victory over death. As long as we remain alive on
earth we cannot deny we may be the ones to be so raptured. Should
we not therefore be prepared to overcome death completely?
Perhaps we will die; nonetheless, we are not necessarily under any
obligation so to do. The words the Lord Jesus variously proclaimed
make this teaching crystal clear. On the one hand our Lord asserted:
“he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will
raise him up at the last day” (John 6.54). On the other hand, yet on
the same occasion, Jesus also affirmed this: “This is the bread which
came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who
eats this bread will live for ever” (v.58). What the Lord is saying is