Saturday, September 18, 2004

Q-and-A: What Happens Between Death and Heaven for Believers in Christ?

[This is the first installment of a new series of articles dealing with questions people ask of me. Some of these articles are also appearing as part of my columns for the Community Press newspapers in the Cincinnati area and in our congregation's monthly newsletter. I hope that you find them helpful.]

I was recently asked, “I know that because I believe in Jesus, when I die, I’ll go to live with Him forever in heaven. But I wonder, will I have to go through something in between the moment I die and the time when I see Jesus?”

This was a good question and one which I suppose, lots of people wonder about. My answer, of course, doesn’t come from first-hand experience. But the Bible, God’s authoritative truth source, does have some things to teach us about this question.

First of all, followers of Jesus who die will live with Him forever. That will happen not because of any intrinsic goodness they possess. It’ll have everything to do with Jesus’ goodness.

The Bible says that Jesus is God and He came to this world to live as a human being. The New Testament book of Philippians says that even though Jesus was God, He didn’t see His equality with God the Father “as something to be exploited.” Instead, He became a slave for us all, dying on a cross so that He could take the punishment for sin which every one of us deserves. Then, Jesus rose from the dead, a sign that He can give new life to anyone.

Jesus’ most famous words contain a powerful promise: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

These words may require a little explanation. “Son” is one of Jesus’ titles; it says that He is the very embodiment of God. When people saw Jesus walking in their towns and villages two-thousand years ago, they were looking at God.

To believe, as the Bible sees it, is more than intellectual assent. It means to trust completely.

The follower of Jesus who trusts their past, present, and future to Jesus then, is forgiven for their sins and has life forever.

So, what will happen to followers of Jesus after they die?

One of the New Testament writers, Paul, speaks of believers in Jesus who had already died. He says that they are “asleep,” as though there were some transition phase between death and heaven.

But, I think that an incident that happened as Jesus was on the cross clears things up considerably. Next to Jesus, being executed at the same time, were two criminals. One of them joined the crowd in deriding Jesus. The other though, confessed that while Jesus was innocent of any wrongdoing, the government had every right to punish him. Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.” Jesus said to him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

Now, we know that after Jesus died, He went down into hell. The New Testament, in First Peter 3:19, tells us that. This was something Jesus had to do in order to experience fully the condemnation that comes from sin. Yet, Jesus told this criminal that on that very day, he would be with Jesus.

I believe that no matter what “transition time,” if any, between the time of a Jesus-Follower’s death and the moment they enter heaven, they won’t experience the passing of one microsecond. This time-bound world may see them as being asleep. But in heaven, they’ll be alive and kicking.

The great Christian writer C.S. Lewis helps us to understand the Greek New Testament word that we translate as “eternity.” To Jesus and the Biblical authors, eternity doesn’t mean endless time. Eternity is really the absence of time. Lewis says that in heaven, life is lived in “the eternal now.”

So, I believe the Bible teaches that at the moment believers in Jesus die, they are with Him in a never-ending present-tense place of life, peace, and well-being. It will be fantastic!

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