What Happens When We Die?

Summary

Summary prepared by Acts 2:38 Life from the transcript below — the preacher’s words follow in full.

The frame: three texts, one question

• The frame lays the three texts side by side: in luke chapter 16, jesus tells of the rich man and a beggar called lazarus — lazarus in a place of peace and rest, the rich man in torment. In the epistles — second corinthians chapter five, specifically — paul states he would prefer to be absent from the body and to be present with the lord. But then in 1st thessalonians chapter 4, he indicates that dead believers are in a state of sleep and will be resurrected when jesus returns. The question posed: what exactly happens to us when we die? He takes it in two parts, the story of the rich man and lazarus first.

Scriptures: Luke 16; 2 Corinthians 5; 1 Thessalonians 4

Part one: the story, and the place of the dead under the old covenant

• Some debate whether it is a parable or an actual story, because unlike other parables lazarus is named — but to him that's not a crucial point: a parable is a true-to-life story, meant to represent the reality we're talking about, so let's take the story as it is. Lazarus dies as a saved person, a jew under the old covenant, and goes to a place of rest and peace called abraham's bosom. The rich man dies as a sinner, unsaved, and goes to a place of torment. But it is pictured as two compartments of one place: the old testament calls it, in the hebrew, sheol (heard 'shield'); the new testament, in greek, calls it hades. The king james version often translates that word 'hell' — a little misleading in english, because 'hell' is also the translation for the greek gehenna, which is the lake of fire: two different places. We might translate it as the place of the dead. Both the rich man and lazarus are in the same place of the dead: lazarus in a compartment of rest and peace with the saints, the rich man in a place of torment or unrest; he can see where lazarus is, and at least thinks lazarus might be able to visit him — he asks for that — and of course the answer is no: lazarus cannot come to help you.
• If that's a depiction of what it was like in the old testament — or at the time of christ, which is before the new covenant was instituted — it accords with the data we have from the old testament: people go to the place of the dead, and they await the future. The situation is a little different now, because that story is still under the old covenant: even though it's in the gospels, it's before the death, burial, and resurrection of jesus — before the new covenant.

Why the old testament saints waited

• Think about this: we believe the saved people of all the ages are saved by jesus christ — no one could be saved by their works; no one could be saved by animal sacrifices. The book of hebrews says animal sacrifices were inadequate; they just pointed the way toward the true sacrifice. The true sacrifice is jesus christ: his sacrifice covers the sins of all the ages, of everybody who had faith in god and obeyed god's word for their day — they're saved through the atoning sacrifice of jesus christ. Since that's true, we understand that not all the benefits could be realized until jesus actually died, was buried, rose again, paid the price, and won the victory. So it appears the old testament saints were in a place of waiting: they were not being punished; they were in a place of rest and peace; but they could not enter into their ultimate eternal destiny, because they had to wait until jesus paid the price.

Scriptures: Hebrews (book-only)

His view, offered as opinion: the body sleeps; the inner person is conscious

• Now some interesting indications — and he cannot establish this as absolute dogma: there's more we don't know than what we do know, so in this explanation he is giving his opinion; he thinks there's scriptural support, but many different people may have different ways of looking at it. He believes that during the time of christ the old testament saints were in this place of conscious rest. When the bible talks about sleep: their body is asleep. Every human being has the inner component and the outward — the spirit and the flesh. Some would further divide the inner component into soul and spirit, but be that as it may, they're closely aligned: we could say the soul is the human consciousness, the spirit is the god consciousness — but we look at that as a whole: the inner person, the soul/spirit — that's the true person. The body is in the grave, decaying, and so it's sleeping; but the inner person is still conscious, and awaiting. In old testament times and the time of christ, they were awaiting the resurrection — awaiting deliverance.

What Jesus did in the place of the dead

• In ephesians 4 we have this interesting statement: when jesus christ was incarnate, he came down to this world, and it even says he went to the lower parts of the earth, and he led captivity captive. Then first peter chapter 3 talks about christ preaching unto the souls who are dead — it is not the greek word for evangelism, or preaching the gospel to the lost, but the greek word (heard 'caruso') meaning proclamation. And you also have acts chapter 2, which quotes from psalm 16: when jesus died, his soul was not left in hell — sheol, hades — in other words, his soul did not descend to the dead and remain there; he was resurrected; his body did not decay; his soul did not stay in the place of the dead; he was resurrected and ascended to heaven.
• Putting all those together: jesus was a true human, like us in every way except for sin, so whatever our experience of death is, he experienced that: not only did his body go to the grave, but his inner person, his soul/spirit, went to the place of the dead, wherever that is. But what seems to be different: when jesus went to that place, he took the old testament saints — which would include abraham, and lazarus, and the thief on the cross (he said: you'll see me today in paradise — paradise being another term for abraham's bosom, the compartment within hades where the righteous souls were). It appears that when jesus died, his soul went into the place of the dead, but he gathered all the righteous souls — abraham, lazarus, the thief who had just died and believed in him — and took them from abraham's bosom or paradise, the compartment of hades or sheol where the righteous were, and brought them into the presence of god. That was one of the benefits of the atonement.

Scriptures: Ephesians 4; 1 Peter 3; Acts 2; Psalm 16

The new-covenant conclusion: present with the Lord, awaiting the resurrection

• So now paul doesn't talk about 'i'm going to abraham's bosom when i die', or paradise, or the place of the dead, to wait and be asleep: he says, to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord. And to the philippians he said: i'm torn — i want to be with you and help you, but i'd rather be with christ, which is far better. Paul, after the resurrection of jesus, under the new covenant, doesn't seem to be just thinking of a nice place of rest; he's looking at being in god's presence.
• So there has been a difference after the resurrection of jesus: now, when christians die, their body still goes to the grave — in that sense we can speak of sleep — but their soul/spirit, their inner person, their consciousness, goes into the presence of the lord. We typically use the word heaven — and again, like the word hell, it can mean different things: 'heaven' in its most fundamental sense means wherever god is. He does believe there is going to be a place of heaven, but right now the best he can say: our bodies go to the grave — which could still be called hades in a sense, maybe — and our spirit/soul, inner consciousness, goes into the presence of god to await the resurrection: conscious, but waiting, because our salvation is not complete. Then, when jesus christ comes back for his church, the dead will be raised — the dead in christ will be resurrected with a glorified body; the souls will be united with their bodies in a glorified, immortal body; and we will live in the presence of god forever, in a real place called heaven; we'll be where jesus is, in his glorified human body, with him for eternity. We're still awaiting the resurrection — but as the dead in christ await it, he believes they're in a conscious place of rest, in the presence of the lord.

Scripture index: Luke 16; 2 Corinthians 5; 1 Thessalonians 4; Hebrews (book-only); Ephesians 4; 1 Peter 3; Acts 2; Psalm 16.