Question 41:
What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
Answer: At
death the souls of believers are made perfect in holiness, and immediately pass
into glory. Their bodies rest in their graves till the resurrection.
Day 1: Overview
and Just Men Made Perfect
Isaiah
57:2, Hebrews 12:23
There
is a lot of confusion in the church today about what happens to us when we
die. We see that this is not new. As we pointed out a couple of weeks ago, the
Thessalonians were uncertain of what happened to those who “sleep in
Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17) We will seek to answer such questions as what
happens to the body, do our souls sleep, is there such a place as purgatory,
when will we see Jesus?
Isaiah
57:2 gives us a good overview of what happens to a believer when he dies. Isaiah was a prophet who served the Southern
Kingdom of Judah in a period of great decline among the Jewish people. Isaiah’s mission was to preach repentance and
judgement to a people whom he knew would not turn (6:9-10). But even in the midst of this rebuke, he
found a remnant of true believers that he sought to encourage (37:31-31 among
others). He also encourage his
generation and many to come, even our own, with wonderful prophecies of Messiah
some fulfilled and some yet to come (9:1-7 among others)
In
the latter part of Chapter 56, Isaiah is rebuking the shepherds (leaders) of
the people for their greed and debauchery.
He says in 57:1, that it is almost as if the righteous live and die
without anyone noticing in this culture of sin.
However, death is the greatest of blessings to the righteous for they
are delivered from the face of evil that the truly righteous one detests. They enter into peace. Peace is the Hebrew shalom meaning peace, quiet, tranquillity, and contentment. God will welcome the righteous into His
Kingdom to partake of the blessed peace of His glory. Though the believer’s life is filled with
trials, temptations, and tribulations, death means peace, even peace from
merciless leaders. (Revelation
14:13) But we can all face death with
joy and contentment knowing that God is at the end of death to welcome us and
to forever (yes forever!) be separated from sin and always (yes always!) be in
the glorious light of the Lord.
The
body will rest in a grave. We will speak
more to this on the third day, but the imagery here of the “bed” is used in 2
Chronicles 16:13-14 of King Asa “buried him in his tomb…laid him in the bed.” As we look on we see that though the body
lies down, the soul continues to walk (Hebrew = halak). It is the soul that
continues and enters into peace with God.
The righteous will and must walk in perfect uprightness before God. The word in the Hebrew used for uprightness
is nakoach meaning straight, right,
straightness, and be in front of. The
only way that we can exist in the face of Holy God is to be in right standing
before Him. Upon death our
sanctification will be completed in the presence of God.
Hebrews
12:23 shows us that we are made perfect in the presence of God. In Hebrews 12:14 we are challenged to pursue
holiness in verse 23 we see that it will be achieved. The assembly here refers to those who are
believers who have died and are in heaven.
The spirits (pneuma = souls of
men) of just men (dikaios = the righteous, i.e. only those who were made righteous
through Christ’s redemption) will be made perfect. Perfect is teleiooo in the Greek meaning to make perfect, complete, to carry
through completely, to accomplish, finish, and bring to an end (goal). "Therefore
you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” Matthew 5:48.
Discuss the following with your family:
1.
You may want to
expound on this passage in Hebrews more fully.
In verse 22, we see that angels are separate creatures than we. Our children often get this image that they
will become angels themselves in heaven.
2.
Ask your children
their thoughts about what happens to them at death. This is an integral part of the Gospel
(Hebrews 9:27-28). Explore their
misconceptions and fears, but make sure that they see hope and joy in your own
voice when speaking of death.
Day 2:
Immediately Pass Into Glory
2
Corinthians 5:8, Philippians 1:23, Luke 23:43
Today’s
lesson deals with death as the separation of our souls from our corrupt earthly
bodies. As believers, our souls are
wonderfully transported into the presence of God to a place called
Paul
going back to chapter 4 (of 2 Corinthians) is making a comparison of the
eternal and the temporal. He makes at
least three key distinctions. First, is
that our bodies are just a temporary covering of our eternal souls (verse 7
sees our bodies as earthen vessels, bodies that are perishing in verse 16, and
that are temporary in verse 18). The
conclusion Paul teaches is that the body is just a contemporary instrument in
which to display the sufferings and life of Christ (verses 7-12). Secondly, our souls are eternal. The value of our being is the treasure not
the clay pot (verse 1). Our bodies are
just tents waiting to be further clothed in the glory of God (5:1-4). The conclusion Paul teaches is that our focus
should be upon the things eternal (not seen in 4:18), that are of faith (4:13),
and the habitation to come in heaven (5:2).
Thirdly, Paul distinguishes that absence from the body is to be in the
presence of God (5:6). Paul concludes
though it is a matter of faith (5:7), we are confident of this third
distinction by the indwelling Holy Spirit who has been given to us as our
guarantee (Greek is arrhabon = down
payment) of the glory to come (5:5).
This
leads us to Paul’s final conclusion that death to the believer is faced with
confidence and pleasure. Confidence is tharrheo in the Greek meaning to be of
good courage, to be of good cheer, to be bold.
It is given as a present, active, indicative meaning it is to be the
state of the redeemed now in the flesh.
Of course, this cheerful courage comes to us by the indwelling Holy Spirit
just a portion of what is to come. Verse
6 says that we are to be always confident.
Always is given as pantote in
the Greek meaning at all times, always, ever.
Thus we should always look to suffering and death confidently knowing
that the end is to be present with Christ.
(Reference Philippians 1:19-21, “to live is Christ, to die is gain.”)
We
should also be well pleased with our impending death. The Greek for “well pleased” is eudokeo given also as a present, active,
indicative. The word gives the meaning
of something to look forward to with great pleasure and anticipation, a willing
choice. Thus the believer should never
be in fear of death or suffering for we are either in fellowship with Christ in
the body in our suffering or we are in His presence in death. Jesus waits to receive us at our death. Paul was so entrenched with this idea that he
debated in Philippians 1:22-23 which was better: to suffer or die. He concluded in Philippians 1:24-26, as all
believers will, that it is “ more needful” to live than to die. The Greek (anagkaios) speaks to the necessity
of what one can not do without, indispensable.
Our duty to God in the flesh and our love for the brethren compel us to
continue in the body until God Himself takes us home.
The
rest of 2 Corinthians 5:8 gives us this formula: absence from the body equals
present with the Lord. The Greek for
absence is ekdemeo, which is a very
interesting choice of words. The word
is used of emigration. Someone moves
from one place to another. This is the
essence of death for the believer. We
cease to live in the body, but continue to live in the presence of Christ. The word for presence is given in the Greek
as endemeo, which has the same root
of ekdemeo, which means to dwell
among one’s people, to be at home. In
essence we leave the body which houses us on our earthly pilgrimage to be at
home with the Lord.
Luke
23:43 shows us that there is not any place of transition from death to
heaven. We all know the story of the
thief on the cross where God in His divine longsuffering bore His enduring
mercies upon this sinner when only a few breaths of life were left in his
bosom. Jesus assured the thief that it
would be the same day that they would be together in
We
cannot leave this day without some brief study of
Discuss
the following with your family:
1.
Have a discussion
about dyeing. Speak to the fears of
death for most people, but for the believer we should never fear death only
look forward to it.
2.
This discussion
may raise questions of taking one’s own life to be with Christ. Paul addresses this impulse, as I described
in Philippians 1:22-26. I realize some
sensitivity to this issue, but we must deal with the question of what happens
to those who profess Christ, yet still take their own lives in the dungeons of
“
Day 3: Rest in
1
Thessalonians 4:14, Job 19:26
We
see the consequence of God's command (Genesis 2:17) pronounced upon Adam in
Genesis 3:19: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to
the ground, For out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you
shall return." The writer of
Hebrews reminds us of this great condemnation upon our flesh: “And as it is
appointed to men to die once, but after this the judgement.” Our bodies go to the grave where corruption
becomes complete. But as Paul says for
the believer, this sin riddled body must be shed, so that our incorruptible one
can be put on.
Paul
wrote his first letter to the believers at Thessalonica to encourage them in
the Lord for their faithful endurance of “much affliction” (1 Thessalonians
1:6). Part of this encouragement had to
do with the return of Christ. Now these
believers are to be commended in that they took the word of the Lord seriously
when He said that He would return (John 14:1-4). However, they were ignorant of the timing of
His return (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
Though Paul does not specifically deal with it here, they evidently did
not realize that some things must take place before His return and that our
souls do not sleep, but are ushered immediately into the presence of Christ.
In
1 Thessalonians 4:14, Paul gives the assurance of our resurrection to that of
Christ’s. If God could raise His own Son
from the grave, then certainly He has the power to bring us from the
grave. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 gives a
more lengthy discussion. In verse 20
(1Corn. 15), he says that Christ is the firstfruits of those who have fallen
asleep. All who are in Him will one Day
follow suite and be resurrected whole in new bodies. Paul gives some of the characteristics of
this body in verses 42-45 (1 Corn. 15): incorrupt, glorified, powerful,
spiritual, and heavenly. (We will look
at these verses in next week’s catechism.)
Back
to 1 Thessalonians. Thus, those who are
dead in Christ await the resurrection of the dead. We have seen on previous days that our
waiting is not in the grave, but in
Consequently,
I do not see that the nature of our burial bears upon our resurrection. We can be buried in a vault, in the ground,
at sea, cremated to ashes, or mummified in formaldehyde. Burial is inconsequential to death and
resurrection. This bears most favorably
upon the martyrs who were buried disembodied, decapitated, and severely
broken. They made their graves among
borrowed tombs, among burning faggots, and in the bellies of hungry lions. The more pressing question is not how we are
buried, but that we glorify God in our death and walk worthy of His calling in
our life while there is yet still time to server Him.
Discuss
the following with your family:
1. Review
the nature of the death of the martyrs.
Did they glorify God in their death and life?
2. Do
you possess the same character and hope as these martyrs?
Scripture:
Hebrews 12:23; Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Luke 23:43;
1
Thessalonians 4:14; Isaiah 57:2; Job 19:26.