What Happens to Us When We Die

Hopeful and Helpful News from Scripture

This essay is excerpted with permission from P&R Publishers from my new book, Preparing for Glory: Biblical Answers to 40 Questions about Living and Dying in Hope of Heaven*

If you’d prefer to listen, click below.

Dear Friends, most of us know we will one day die, but many of us have questions about what that process is like. It is one of the few areas of life in which no one can mentor us. However, the Bible does offer help and hope as we face the inevitable. Here is some hopeful news.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (John 14:3)

As Keisha’s father neared death from lung cancer, hospice nurses alerted her to signs she might notice in his final days and hours. They told her to look for changes in breathing, activity level, and appetite and thirst. Sadly, the hospice nurses offered no answers to Keisha’s deeper question—what would happen to her father spiritually when he died? She knew he was a Christian. She wondered if he would go immediately to heaven, and what would heaven be like.

The Bible has comfort to offer Keisha. Her father would be ushered into the presence of the

Lord the moment he died. Jesus tells the converted thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). According to Jesus, angels escort people to heaven: “The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side” (Luke 16:22). As Philip Ryken points out, God knows our fear of death and in compassion sends his angels to comfort us in this most dreaded moment.¹

We gain comfort from knowing our souls will be with the Lord when we die. And yet, this will not be our final state, because one day Christ will come to establish the new heavens and the new earth, and in that day, our bodies will also be raised. Since the state we enter immediately after our death is temporary, theologians call this time and space “the intermediate state” or the “interim state.”

While we wonder about the location and the nature of this intermediate state of heaven, Scripture provides only a few clues. As we mentioned, Jesus calls it “Paradise” (Luke 23:43). The word paradise is used in the New Testament to refer to “a place of blessedness where God dwells.”²  In the Old Testament, paradise refers to the garden of Eden. Thus, heaven is a lovely place where the presence of God is fully known.

Jesus also gives a few clues about what heaven is like, telling the disciples he is going to prepare “a place” for them in his “Father’s house” (John 14:2). Think of it! Just as I prepare my home for guests by making the beds and dusting the furniture and putting out little treats, Christ, our host, prepares our welcome in heaven. While we may not know precisely what heaven will be like, we can be sure that it will feel more like home than any home we have ever known.

According to Scripture, the greatest joy of the intermediate state of heaven is being in the presence of the Lord: “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). As the apostle Paul anticipated his own death, he proclaimed, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Phil. 1:23).

Our desire for heaven grows as we imagine meeting the triune God there. What welcome we will receive! Just imagine burying your face in Jesus’s shoulder and telling him how hard chemo was. Just imagine hearing your Father say, “Come, child! I’m glad you’re home!” Oh, what a day that will be!

Prayer

Heavenly Father,

Stir our longings to be with you in heaven. Help us to imagine the perfect peace and indescribable joy we will know when we depart this fallen world and go home to be with you. In Jesus’s holy name. Amen.

Further Encouragement

• Read Philippians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Revelation 4:1–11.

• Read “Death and the Intermediate State” at Ligonier.org.

  Your Thoughts:

What joys of being in the permanent presence of the Lord are you most excited about?

Know someone who needs this hope? Please share!

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Elizabeth Reynolds Turnage is a gospel life and legacy coach, author, and speaker. She helps people live, prepare, and share their legacy to bring hope to future generations. Elizabeth co-founded the Numbering Your Days Network to share gospel encouragement for aging, caregiving, legacy, grief, and end-of-life and wrote Preparing for Glory: Biblical Answers to 40 Questions about Living and Dying in the Hope of Heaven. Elizabeth and her husband, Kip Turnage, enjoy feasting and sharing good stories with their large family of four adult children, three children-in-law, and four young grandchildren. Learn more at www.elizabethturnage.com.