This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
No matter how people consider death, we can’t escape the truth that one day we breathe our last. But what then? Everyone who’s thought seriously about this question has an answer – or at least an opinion.
Those who embrace a naturalistic worldview say death is the end of our existence. We may live on in the memories of loved ones. Meanwhile, our contributions to mankind – or our crimes against humanity – may outlive us, but our consciousness ends permanently and irreversibly once we stop breathing.
Tibetan Buddhists believe the spirits of the departed embark on a journey lasting 49 days and divided into three stages. At the conclusion of the third stage, a person either enters nirvana – a place of liberation from the cravings that cause suffering – or returns to earth for rebirth.
Jehovah’s Witnesses believe most of the departed (except for the 144,000 of the anointed class) go into a state of soul sleep until a future date with destiny. At that time, many of the dead are resurrected and given an opportunity to prove themselves worthy to enter an eternal paradise on earth.
But Scripture paints a different picture. At physical death, the immaterial part of human beings – that is, our souls and spirits – enter an intermediate state, either with Jesus in heaven or in torment in hades. Meanwhile, our lifeless bodies await future resurrection, at which time our souls and spirits reunite with our resurrected bodies so we may stand before Jesus in final judgment.
The whole person – body, soul, and spirit – has a date on the docket with the highest court in the universe. As the writer of Hebrews notes, “it is appointed for people to die once — and after this, judgment” (Heb 9:27).
Jesus states this in John 5:28-29: “… a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his [the Son of Man’s] voice and come out — those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of condemnation.”
Jesus doesn’t mean living a good life merits heaven and living a wicked life automatically results in hell. Quite the contrary. Just a few verses earlier, Jesus lays out the requirements for eternal life: “Truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life” (John 5:24). Our Lord, and the New Testament writers, make it clear that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone (Rom 10:9-10; Eph 2:8-9; Tit. 3:5).
Even so, every person who has ever lived is going to be physically resurrected and stand in judgment before Christ, to whom all judgment has been given (John 5:22). When does this final judgment take place? At the return of Christ.
Why resurrection is necessary
If physical death is not the end of our existence, what happens to our bodies? Why does the Bible speak of future resurrection? And if the immaterial part of us – our souls and spirits – separates from our bodies at death and resides either in a state of blessedness with the Lord (2 Cor 5:8; Phil 1:23) or apart from him in torment (Luke 16:19-31), what need is there for resurrection?
First, it’s important to note that God created Adam and Eve to live forever in their bodies. That’s his intent for us as well. But sin ruins everything. It affects our ability to relate to a holy God. It corrupts our minds, emotions, and wills. It brings a curse on the material universe. And it results in spiritual and physical death.
As a consequence of Adam’s sin, all people suffer, age, and die. Nature itself is in the throes of a struggle with entropy. So, if Jesus paid our sin debt in full, it means he not only restores believers to a right relationship with him; he also reverses the effects of the Fall, including physical death and a cursed environment.
A Christian’s salvation is completed in glorification, the resurrection and perfection of his or her body, which is made like the body of the risen Jesus. This final chapter in redemption is so certain that Paul refers to it in the past tense, along with God’s foreknowledge, predestination, calling, and justification (Rom 8:29-30). Followers of Jesus ultimately see him as he is – in unveiled, radiant glory – and become like him.
But what about those who reject Christ? What purpose does their future resurrection serve? It enables them to experience what they want – everlasting existence on their own terms, apart from God. They love darkness, as Jesus says, and ultimately get what they crave (John 3:19). As Adam and Eve are banished from the presence of God in the Garden of Eden, so unbelievers are expelled from the new heavens and earth into what Jesus calls “outer darkness” (Matt 22:13; 25:30).
Next: the believer’s resurrection