Because God has promised to restore dead humans to life, the Bible refers to those who have died as being “asleep.” This important truth of the Bible is highlighted by Jesus in his reference to the death of Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary. He said to his disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth.” The disciples thought Jesus referred to natural sleep, so he said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead.”—John 11:11-14

Thus Jesus set forth one of the basic teachings of the Word of God. Lazarus was dead, yet he was also “asleep.” When God said to Adam that disobedience would result in death—“Thou shalt surely die”—he referred to extinction of life. This extinction of life would have been permanent but for the fact that God still loved his human creatures and provided redemption for them through the gift of his beloved Son to be the Redeemer and Savior from death.—John 3:16; I Tim. 2:3-6

Jesus gave his “flesh,” his humanity, for the life of the world. (John 6:51) Thus provision was made for setting aside the sentence of death that was entered against Adam and his race. And, although all have continued to die, because of the redemption provided through Christ Jesus, there is to be an awakening of the dead. Because the dead are to be awakened, the Bible uses the term “sleep” to describe their temporary absence of life.

Those who are asleep are unconscious, and so are those who are dead. They see nothing, hear nothing, know nothing. The Bible says, “The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing.” (Eccles. 9:5) Those who are asleep can be awakened; so those who are “asleep” in death can, and will, be awakened. As Jesus said of Lazarus, “I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” (John 11:11) So all who are “asleep” in death are, by divine power, to be awakened in the morning of earth’s new day. That is why we read, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”—Ps. 30:5