WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE DIE? What actually does happen when we die? The apostle Paul wrote of this in 2 Corinthians 5, when he was expecting that the persecuting authorities could kill him any day. Paul, skilled in the trade of tent making, compares our fragile, temporary bodies to tents. The tent will collapse some day, but the life goes on until it is joined to a resurrection body, A “heavenly dwelling,” a home in heaven: For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down-when we die and leave these bodies-we will have a home in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long for the day when we will put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing. For we will not be spirits without bodies, but we will put on new heavenly bodies. Our dying bodies make us groan and sigh, but it’s not that we want to die and have no bodies at all. We want to slip into our new bodies so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by everlasting life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit. So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. That is why we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So our aim is to please him always, whether we are here in this body or away from this body. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in our bodies (2 Cor. 5:1-10; New Living Translation). There are several important points here: 1) Our present life is lived in a physical body, which is a creation of God, but just a dwelling place, a tent. 2) Life after death includes some kind of resurrection body, which implies ongoing personal conscious existence. As our earthly bodies are appropriate for life on earth, our heavenly bodies are suited for heaven. 3) To leave the bodies we have now makes it possible to be at home with the Lord (remember Jesus’ words to the thief on the cross: “Today you will be with me in paradise”). 4) Going through death is not a bad thing because it means coming into the wonderful presence of God, a state beyond imagining. 5) It appears as though there is a kind of “intermediate state” between life in this body and in the resurrection body, but it includes the conscious knowledge of being in the presence and realm of God. So even after death, after the body begins to fall apart in decay, God continues his ongoing constructive work, putting the pieces together. A PRAYER: Lord, please help me not to fear that valley that I know I will have to approach, as does everyone else. Help me to know that the knowledge of your presence can grow stronger with each step we take toward you. Help me to trust you, and to be able to say with confidence, “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6).
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:20:21 +0000
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