Coming to Receive Us

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:3)

“If I go…” is not to be interpreted as though He might not go, but rather, “seeing that I am going …” There was no question that He would be going away to prepare a place for His own. And, since that was true, He would come again and receive us.

I once knew a man who believed that the second coming of Jesus was the same as death for a child of God. For him, death and the second coming were one and the same. At death He does indeed come for us. But, that is not at all to be equated with the doctrine of the Second Coming of Jesus. At the Second Coming all the bodies of all the Christians who have died will be raised in resurrection. Immediately afterward the Christians who are alive will be taken up, snatched away, at what we call the rapture, (I Thessalonians 4:15-17)

In either case, when He comes for us at death or when He comes for us at His second coming we will be with Him. He longs for us to be with Him. I believe that is one of the reasons the Psalmist wrote, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” (Psalm 116:15)  He will enjoy our presence while we enjoy His presence.