Encore Post: The question that most haunts our lives is the question of life after death. What will it be like? Will our spirits wander the earth, becoming the ghosts of popular imagination? Will they acquire a new body to work off negative karma? Merge with the whole universe or become a spiritual guide for others for awhile? Will they go to a dark underworld forever? Will they go to a place to purge off their remaining sins before being fit for heaven? Or will they cease to exist completely when our bodies die? The Scripture firmly tells us “no” to these things. None of these fates await us or our loved ones.
It may come as a complete surprise, but Scripture tells us very little about what happens to us when death rips our souls apart from our bodies. Most of the passages that speak about the end of things focus on the second coming of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the bodies of all people, the glorious transformation of our bodies into our eternal, spiritual bodies, the last judgement and eternal life for the saints and eternal death for the damned. The few things it does tell us often vague, sometimes speaking of their intermediate state (the theologian’s term for the time between death and the resurrection) and other times of our glorious bodies. There is even some doubt whether these is an intermediate state at all from the perspective of the soul.
No matter which description fits a Christian at the moment of death, for a Christian, eternal life begins before death, when God adopts that person as his own son or daughter. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, even if he dies, yet shall he live. And he who lives and believes in me should never die.” (John 11:25-26; see also John 3:26, 5:24) They commend their souls into the hands of God. (Acts 7:59, Luke 23:46) For those without faith, death brings with it eternal separation from God, a prison for spirits (1 Peter 3:19) until the Last Judgement, after which eternal punishment in Hell with Satan and his angels awaits.
So, what can we conclude about the life our loved ones, departed in Christian faith, enjoy now, while waiting for the resurrection of their bodies? They are with Christ in paradise (Philippians 1:23, Luke 23:43) The angels carry them to be with him and others who died in the faith. (Luke 16:19-31) There God will comfort them and dry every tear from their eyes. (Revelation 7:16-17, 21:4) They are at rest from their labors, as Christ rested in the tomb on Holy Saturday. The deeds they did with faith in Christ will follow them. (Revelation 14:13) They are free once and for all from the Old Adam or Old Eve that plagued them in this life and their sin purged from their souls. (2 Timothy 4:18) They will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father (Matthew 13:43).
What is certain is that, as glorious as life is in the presence of Christ now, the best is yet to come. When their souls return with Christ at the second advent, he will raise their bodies from the grave, reunite them with their souls and transform them fit for eternity.
Rev. Robert E. Smith
Concordia Theological Seminary
Fort Wayne, Indiana
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Love these clear explanations.
In God we trust… our Hope and Salvation.