I like to tell the story about the undergrad who fought back tears as she confessed to me that she was afraid she didn’t want to go to heaven. That surprised me, and when I returned to our apologetics department office, I related this to a twenty-something staffer, who said, “I’ve had the same fear.” I’ve since learned that many Christians do actually fear heaven. 1 After all, who wants to be sitting on clouds, sporting flightless wings, strumming harps, and singing non-stop forever and ever? But none of that is true! That’s more like an episode of what I call Satan’s “Extreme Makeover: Metaphysical Edition” where Satan has made heaven look like a place you wouldn’t want to go and hell into a place that might not be so bad. Thus, Mark Twain wrote, “Choose heaven for the climate and hell for the company.” Even though Satan has twisted the doctrines about eternity (literally making many Christians not want to go there), I don’t know of any apologists—and few pastors—that strive to correct this. We need to change that.
Since 1982 I’ve regularly prayed that God would reveal to all the saints the glory that awaits us in heaven forever. So, in this and some posts to follow, I hope to encourage you in what is the greatest hope known to man—that Christians have been granted every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:3ff) that we will enjoy for all eternity!
In this post, I’ll explain what happens to you when your body dies (it’s better than you think)! After all, unless the Lord returns, that’s when your entrance into eternity begins. Some of what follows comes from my book Immortal: How the Fear of Death Drives Us and What We Can Do About It?
So, what happens to you the moment your body dies? Notice that I said the moment your body dies. I say this because the essential you, your soul—your consciousness, will absolutely positively not experience death. Remember, you’re not a body that has a soul, you’re a soul that has a body. Your body enables your soul to interact with the physical world. So even though your body dies, your soul will not be harmed. Jesus said some amazing things about death. In John 8:51 Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” Notice the “truly, truly.” Jesus is telling us to listen up. He’s emphasizing that what he was going to say next are words you can count on. And he said, you “will never see death.” Now, of course, Jesus isn’t talking about the death of your body. Jesus wasn’t in denial. Your body will die. But the most essential you—your consciousness, your soul—will never die.
In Luke 18:16-18 Jesus told his disciples, “You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish.” So here Jesus says that some of his disciples will actually be put to death (that’s happening around the world right now) but then He says something amazing—“not a hair of your head will perish.” Well, wait a minute. Many Christians have been burned to death, others have been beheaded (many in the last few years), and we would typically say that having our head set on fire or removed from our torsos would harm at least some, if not all of our hairs. But Jesus said if they kill you they will not harm even a hair of your head. What Jesus means is that they can kill your body but they cannot touch you—your conscious soul will be unharmed. Therefore, as Jesus said next in v. 19, “By your endurance you will gain your lives.” This is an example of the faith, which results in endurance, by which you will gain your life (Matthew 10:22; 24:13: “the one who endures to the end will be saved”). Continue to honor God in suffering and persecution, Christian, and, metaphorically speaking, no one can hurt a hair on your head. Your soul, your consciousness will live on and one day we will all be reunited with spiritual bodies (more about that shortly).
So what happens to your soul when you die? The answer is that your soul will be immediately transferred into the spiritual realm: “to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant” (Hebrews 12:22-24). As Jesus said to the thief being crucified next to Him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43) and “paradise” is one of the Biblical names for heaven. 2 There will be no delay. In fact, your transition into the unseen realm will be so smooth, so seamless, so natural, that it may take you a while to realize that you’ve died. It won’t be like the reboot of a computer. You will never lose consciousness. If you happen to turn and see your body lying on the floor, or in a mangled car, or on an operating table then you can take that as evidence of your passing. 3
You will have entered what is called the “intermediate state” (the state of your disembodiment but before you possess your glorified, resurrected body). In this state you’ll be, as theology professor Alan Gomes put it, in “direct and glorious communion with Christ and an immediate apprehension of God’s presence—far more so than anything enjoyed in this life.” 4 Thus Paul encourages us in 2 Corinthians 5:1-2: “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.” And boy do we groan in this tent of our body with all the aches, pains, colds, flus, fevers, cancers, and dementias. We long “that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life” (v.4). Recognizing this, says Paul, “we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (v. 8). Notice that when you are away from the body that you are at home with the Lord. As with the thief on the cross, when you die you will be with Jesus in paradise.
Are you of good courage, dear Christian? If not, remember this world’s corruption and coming destruction and then focus on the glory that awaits you for eternity which you can never lose.
In Philippians 1:23 Paul said his desire was to “depart and be with Christ” but he said that at this time he would “remain in the flesh” because in the prior verse he wrote that that “means fruitful labor for me” (v. 22). Paul believed that his death would be a net gain. Above I referenced In Hebrews 12:23 where it says that we have come to “the spirits of the righteous made perfect.” Similarly, in Revelation 6:9 John tells us that he saw “the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.” Notice that John said he sees the “souls” of those who had been slain. John could have just said, “I saw those who had been slain” but he didn’t. He said he saw their souls. Being a disembodied spirit won’t be a problem for us because until the creation of a new heavens and a new earth we won’t need a body to interact with the physical world. Remember, John 4:24 tells us that “God is spirit” and so in that way we will be like Him and with Him and each other. The more I think about this, the more exciting it becomes as my present body increasingly has more aches and pains. I think it would be cool to experience this intermediate, bodiless state as we await our glorified bodies!
Then, at the resurrection at the final Judgment, you will receive your glorified body that will be like Jesus’s post-resurrection body. That will be your final state. I talk a lot about that in my book Immortal and will post on it next. As Paul said (adapted from 1 Cor. 15:53-57):
This perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
In my next post, The Lord Made Orgasms Possible, I’m continuing my series dispelling the belief that heaven will be a dreary drag. That post is on how the devil has distorted what it means to be perfect. Satan has depicted heaven as a place many Christians don’t want to go and I’m continuing to set the record straight.
- I relate this story in my book, Why Does God Allow Evil?: Compelling Answers for Life’s Toughest Questions.[↩]
- For paradise being a designation for heaven see 2 Corinthians 12:2-3, Revelation 2:7. Some argue that Jesus didn’t mean that the repentant thief would be with Him that day because they say the comma (which the original Greek didn’t have) should be “I say to you today, I will be with you in paradise.” That’s not right. BibleGateway.com lists over 60 translations of that passage and not one of them translates the passage such that the meaning would be “truly I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.” Further, there isn’t one other time where Jesus said, “… I say to you today,….” After all, it’s redundant! The thief on the cross and those listening to Jesus speak on the ground knew that Jesus was saying what He was saying on that particular day.[↩]
- I originally heard Dallas Willard say this when I took a Spiritual Formation doctoral course from him.[↩]
- Allan W. Gomes, 40 Questions About Heaven and Hell, ed., Benjamin L. Merkle (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2018), 91.[↩]
