1 Chronicles 7-9 | John 6:22-44

“[Christ] died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.” 1 Thessalonians 5:10

From the opening verse of this devotion, what did the Apostle Paul mean when he wrote “whether we are awake or asleep”? Paul was not talking about whether we are in bed or out of bed; rather, he was using “asleep” as an euphemism for “death,” because the idea was that death is a temporary “sleep” until the resurrection. How do we know this? Earlier in his letter, Paul wrote, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. For we say this to you by a word from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-15, CSB). In these mentions of “asleep,” Paul was referring to those who were already physically dead.

Returning back to the opening verse of this devotion, what Paul was saying is that Christ died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep—physically alive or dead, in the body or out of it, here on earth or in heaven—the substance of the gospel is that we live together in union with Him. There is a popular misnomer that Christ died for us so that when we die, we get to go to heaven. But this is not the message of the New Testament. If we were to search the Scriptures, there is no mention of going to heaven as the reason or the purpose of becoming a Christian. In Jesus’s earthly ministry, never once did He invite anybody to become a disciple for the purpose of going to heaven when they die.

Why? Because the gospel is not about getting people into heaven when they die; it is about getting God into people while they live—that is the substance of the gospel! Right now, we are on earth, living a physical life. And of course, we think about the wonderful benefits of when we do get to heaven: the old nature that is fallen and the sins that we struggle with so much are going to be taken away. Yet, heaven should never be thought of as the prize we get when we come to faith in Jesus. Heaven is simply a place where we get to spend eternity with our Saviour, our Lord, our God—Jesus Christ. We cannot have heaven without Him.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, heaven ceases to be heaven without You. I pray that You help me to grasp the true substance of the gospel and share it with others. Thank You, Lord.