Life after Death
There are those that would say that in life, this is all that there is, we are born, we live and we die and that is the end. That there are no such places as Heaven or Hell.
However, the Bible teaches something quite different. The Bible teaches that there is a personal God and that one can have a personal relationship with Him. It teaches about a place called Heaven and a place called Hell.
It teaches that man is eternal and he is destined, depending on his relationship with God to one or the other of these places.
John 10: 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.
So, What does happen to a believer when he or she dies?
Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Before we can move on, we need to try and understand exactly what is the soul or a soul. Does man have a soul or is man a living soul.
Well the previous scripture suggests that man is a living soul.
Many contend today that man is just a physical being. However the Bible makes it quite clear that man is not only a physical being but he is an immortal being.
There is also a view today that says that man is made up of body and spirit and that the spirit is synonymous with the soul.
The scripture tells us that man was made in the image of God who is a Triune God, that is, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The Holy Trinity is clearly set forth in the Apostle Paul’s benediction that closed his Second Corinthian Epistle:
2 Corinthians 13:14. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen”
God made man in His image, a triune being.
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
God is a Triune God and man is a triune being.
The Apostle Paul refers to this in his letter to the Thessalonians.
1Th 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So it would be true to say that man is a soul and also has a soul.
The God of heaven and earth did two things in creating man. First, He formed him from the very dust of the ground, and, second, He breathed His own breath into the nostrils of Adam. This distinguished man from all of God’s other creatures.
There are three significant facts about man’s creation.
The first is that God and God alone created man. Man did not evolve from other creatures. (No evolution as in Darwinism) All the cells, DNA, atoms, molecules, hydrogen, protons, neutrons, or electrons did not create man. These are only the substances that make up man’s physical body.
The Lord God formed man. The Lord God created the substances, and then He used those substances to create man.
The word formed is a translation of the Hebrew yatsar, which means “to mold, shape, or form.” As a potter makes a pot. God is the Master Potter who had the image of man within His mind and who possesses the power and the intelligence to bring that image to life.
God in His plans and purposes did exactly what He wanted.
Romans 9:20 But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”
21 Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use?
22What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction?…
Second, God breathed His own breath of life into man. Man is more than “dust” or physical substance. Man has a spirit.
Adam’s body had just been formed by God from the dust of the earth. His body was a lifeless inanimate piece of clay, lying on the ground. Then God “breathed” His own “breath of life” into the man’s nostrils; God is the Source of life, and He directly placed life within man. This breath of life is seen again in John 20:22, as Jesus imparts new life to His disciples.
John 20:22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
Third, Genesis 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
The word soul in Hebrew is nephesh, meaning “an animated, breathing, conscious, and living being.” Man did not become a living soul until God breathed life into him. (Ruach – The breath of God)
As a physical, animate, rational, and spiritual being, man is unique among all living things upon the earth.
The life of God lives on and on; the immaterial part of man was designed to live eternally.
So if man is an eternal being and God has placed eternity in his heart.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
The question is where is our eternal destination?
Man has an eternal soul and when man sheds the body, the soul remains. When the body dies it goes back to the dust from which it was taken and the spirit goes on into eternity.
So where does the spirit of the believer go after physical death?
The simple answer is when you die, you go to one of two places. According to scripture. You go out of the presence of God forever, or you go into the presence of God forever… Depending upon your personal relationship with Jesus Christ, which is according to the Bible the only way to enter heaven.”
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
The Apostle Paul said: 2 Corinthians 5 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
There is an eternal heaven and there is an eternal hell.
(See Blog 33) https://jeffreyunsworth.wixsite.com/teleiosbibleblogs/eternalhell
A Christian on death sheds the body. The body goes to the graveyard, the crematorium, or the sea and eventually goes back to the dust.
The spirit which is eternal goes to be with Christ.
On the other hand, the non Christian sheds the body in the same way but the spirit goes to an awaiting place of judgement in Hades - Greek or Sheol - Hebrew. (Translated into English as hell).
Both await the day of resurrection.
Our bodies will be raised not spiritually or ethereally, but physically and materially. Our souls will be reunited with our transformed physical bodies, brought back to life from the dead. Scripture teaches this in many ways.
The Bible is very clear about this resurrection of the body.
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
1 Thessalonians 4:14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Romans 8:11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
1 Thessalonians 4:16 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.
Daniel 12:2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
1 Corinthians 15:12-32 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. ...
Job 19:25-26 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
A Christian has an eternal destination and that is Heaven. Indeed we already have eternal life now, if we are true believers.
1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
John 17:3 this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Jesus said, eternal life is knowing Him. So I don’t have to wait until I die to experience eternal life?
1Jn 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
Our eternal life began the day we are born again of the Spirit of God.
One day the body will die but eternal part of us will go to be with Christ.
1Thess 4:14: “Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.”
That is a reference to Christians who have died. Why does he say it that way?
1 Cor 15:17,18, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.”
So there’s another reference to falling asleep as a picture of dying.
2 Cor 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
The bodies of Christians who have fallen asleep (Died) await the resurrection of the body.
At the second coming of Jesus Christ, those that have died believing in Jesus Christ as Saviour will be raised from the dead (Greek – Anastasia) and those that are alive at His coming shall be caught up together with them (Greek – Harpazo) to meet the Lord in the air. (Greek – Episunagarge)(The Gathering) This is known as the Rapture of the church.
Each one shall be changed and given a new glorified body fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.
1Th 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (Those who have died)
1Th 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. (Those that have died in Christ will return with Him)
1Th 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
(Those that are alive at His coming will not be taken before those who have died)
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (Anastasia)
1Th 4:17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (The Harpazo/Rapture and Episunagarge – The Gathering)
1Th 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
(That is why this is a great comfort)
What will this new body be like? The Resurrection Body?
1Co 15:35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
When Jesus appeared after His resurrection, He showed Himself in the flesh to His disciples. He was flesh and bone, He could eat and be touched.
Luke 24:36-43 36 While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be to you.”
37 But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit.
38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
39 “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
40 And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.
41 While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
42 They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish;
43 and He took it and ate it before them.
We shall have a body like Jesus.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
1 John 3:2 “When he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is”
Whether we die in the Lord or whether we remain till His coming, we shall be changed, we shall be glorified in the way He was glorified. We will go to be with Him in the place that He has prepared for us.
John14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Philippians 3:20-21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
If we are born again of the Spirit of God, we are citizens of Heaven, mere transient visitors awaiting the redemption of our bodies.
Roman 8:22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.
23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
24 For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see?…
A Christian has no need to fear death.
There is no need for a genuine Christian to fear death. They may be scared of the way they will die, no one wants to suffer pain.
However if we believe that Christ died for our sins and that He rose again from the dead, there is no need to fear what comes after death.
The Apostle Paul said this in Philippians 1:2 For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.
He goes on to say that he recognises that if he died he knew that it would be preferable than life.
He was simply saying that if I should die today, I wouldn't lose much, instead I'll stand to gain a better body, a better home and rest from earthly labour.
Php 1:22 But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.
23 For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better:
24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
In Revelation 14:13, he said blessed are the dead who die in the Lord for they gain rest from their labour.
Paul also taught and believed in the resurrection of the body. The redemption of the body.
1Corinthians 15:51-58 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
At the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, we shall be given a new body that is not subjected to sickness, pain, sorrows or death anymore, for these things are passed away.
As believers, our citizenship is in Heaven. This world is no longer our home, we are just a transient guest.
John 14:1-3, Jesus said to his disciples, let not your heart be troubled for in my Father's house there are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you, but I will go to prepare a place for you so where you are I will be also.
As Christians and children of God, we have an inheritance in Heaven. We gain on death, a person who dies in Christ stands to gain in a better inheritance in death.
Matthew 6:19-21, says 'lay not up for yourselves treasures in earth where moth and rust destroy, but lay your treasures up in heaven for where your treasure is, that is where your heart is also'.
It is far better to serve the Lord and be with Him when He comes than to live a life in this world and when He comes we are lost to eternal damnation.
There is hope in our circumstances and Jesus is that only hope. A life with Jesus is a life worth living."