1 Thessalonians 4:14

‘For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so those also who are fallen asleep through Jesus will God bring with Him.'

Paul's solution is simple. Jesus died and rose again. He defeated death (1 Corinthians 15:52). He has therefore the power to give life to the dead (John 5:25). Thus the dead in Christ will rise prior to His royal visit and will come with Him (see 1 Thessalonians 3:13).

The ‘if' does not express doubt about their faith, it distinguishes between them and the unbelievers among whom they live. It is the equivalent of ‘because' while also stirring up their faith within them.

Note that Jesus did not ‘sleep', He ‘died'. It is because Jesus died that the saints only sleep. It was through His death that resurrection was made possible. Jesus' death when spoken of directly is always described as death.

‘Those who are fallen asleep through Jesus will God bring with Him.' Or more literally, ‘even so God the fallen asleep ones through Jesus will bring with Him'. To fall asleep in Christ is to be ‘safe in the arms of Jesus'. Because they are in Him they will rise again. And when He comes again God will bring them with Him. The use of the name Jesus without the accompanying Lord makes it possible to see ‘God' as signifying the Godhead. All the Godhead were involved in the first coming of Jesus, and will be involved with this coming of the resurrected saints (people of God).

‘Through Jesus.' This may be attached to ‘those who are fallen asleep' or to ‘God'. In the first case it may be confirming the fact that it is through Jesus' work on the cross that their death is only sleep. In the second it is signifying that the resurrected people of God can accompany Jesus at His coming because God was able to bring it about through what Jesus had done on the cross and by His resurrection. The former seems more probable because of the construction of the sentence, and because it is necessary to distinguish which sleeping ones are meant, but both are true.