²⁰ But we are citizens of heaven, exiles on earth waiting eagerly for a Liberator, our Lord Jesus the Anointed, to come and

¹⁰ and how you now await the return from heaven of His Son, whom He raised from the dead—namely, Jesus—our rescuer from the wrath to come.

¹⁴ Here’s what we believe: since Jesus died and rose again, in the same way, God will bring with Jesus all who have died through Him. ¹⁵ For we can say all this to you confidently because it is the word of the Lord: we who are still alive and left behind when the Lord comes will not precede those who have fallen asleep in death. ¹⁶ On that day, with a command that thunders into the world, with a voice of a chief heavenly messenger, and with a blast of God’s trumpet, the Lord Himself will descend from heaven; and all those who died in the Anointed One, our Liberating King, will rise from the dead first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive and left behind will be snatched up together with them into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. This is how we, the resurrected and the living, will be with Him forever.

¹³ Watch for His return; expect the blessed hope we all will share when our great God and Savior, Jesus the Anointed, appears again.

²⁸ so the Anointed One, our Liberating King, was offered once in death to bear the sins of many and will appear a second time, not to deal again with sin, but to rescue those who eagerly await His return.

Yes, may all this be done according to His plan. Amen.