What Happens After Death?

With thoughts of the resurrection of Christ filling our minds this week and with the future hope of our bodily resurrection, I wanted to take a moment to discuss something that has caused a significant amount of confusion... what happens to us after death?

Some groups, like Jehovah’s Witnesses, believe that when we die, the soul enters in to a state of unconsciousness until the resurrection and final judgment. Others believe that when people die, they are instantly judged and sent to their final destinations. Yet others believe that there is an “intermediate” or “temporary” state of heaven and hell that people go to before the final resurrection, judgment, and eternal state.

There are many ideas floating around about what happens after death…but what does the Bible teach?

In Philippians 1:21, the apostle Paul says that “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Paul made this statement while he was imprisoned in Rome and was awaiting a possible death sentence. What we can say for certain from this verse is that whatever happens to a believer at death, Paul considers it to be “gain.”

In 2 Corinthians 5:6-8, the apostle says, “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,  for we walk by faith, not by sight.  Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Here, Paul teaches that when we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. However, on the day that we are away from the body, we will be home with the Lord. In these verses, Paul indicates that the soul separates from the body at death and departs to be at home with the Lord. Paul also emphasizes, like he did in Philippians 1:21, that that we would “rather” be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

These verses seem easy enough to demonstrate that when we die, believers will be present with the Lord. However, Scripture also indicates that this is not our final resting place. There are other passages in Scripture that indicate another series of events that will occur after death. The Bible teaches that there will be a resurrection of the dead and also that believers will receive a glorified body before the enter into the eternal state.

1 Thess. 4:13-17 speaks of the resurrection when it says:

 “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.  For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”

Here, Paul addresses a concern about men who have fallen asleep (those who have died). Those who have died before the return of the Lord will be risen from the grave when Christ returns. Those who remain (who have not died prior to the Lord’s return) will also be caught up together with them in the air to meet the Lord.

Not only will there be a resurrection, but 1 Cor. 15:53 teaches us that at this time our “mortal body” will put on “immortality.” We will be “changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Cor. 15:52). John tells us that when Christ returns, “we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). That is, we will receive a glorified body. Christ is the first fruits of what is yet to come for us in the resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20).

With that being said, that puts us in a bit of a conundrum. How do we reconcile the fact that believers go to be with Christ after death, and yet there seems to be a future resurrection in which believers will receive glorified bodies?

If we put the above verses together, it would seem that after death our souls separate from our body. The body goes into the grave while the soul goes on to be with the Lord. This is an intermediate state of existence because it is not the final state that the Bible speaks of. When Christ returns, the physical body is resurrected from the grave, glorified, and reunited with the soul. This glorified body will be the final state of existence for believers for all eternity in the new heavens and new earth. Death, the final enemy, will have been conquered as Christ promised.