For if our faith is that Jesus died and rose again, so, too, those who have fallen asleep in death through Jesus God will bring with him.

They experience a resurrection like his. And of Jesus’ resurrection, the Scriptures tell us that he was “made alive in the spirit.” (1 Pet. 3:18) To be seen by his disciples, Jesus had to materialize a body of flesh. This served to prove to them that he had indeed been made alive. (Acts 1:3) His resurrection, though, was invisible to human eyes. The watchmen at Jesus’ tomb “trembled and became as dead men,” not on account of seeing Jesus resurrected, but on account of the angel that rolled the stone away from the tomb.​—Matt. 28:3, 4.

Likewise, the resurrection of the joint heirs of Jesus Christ is invisible.

Accordingly, Paul’s words to the Thessalonians point out that there is something different about the resurrection of those dying before Christ’s presence in Kingdom power and those completing their earthly course and dying during that presence. This difference may be discerned from Revelation 14:13, where we read: “Happy are the dead who die in union with the Lord from this time onward [that is, since his coming in Kingdom glory]. Yes, says the spirit, let them rest from their labors, for the things they did go right with them.” While Christ’s joint heirs dying before his presence had to sleep in death, those who finish their earthly course during that presence do not have to do so. They are immediately raised to heavenly life. They cease from their earthly labors and enter right into heavenly service.