Have you ever asked yourself what will happen to you a few seconds after your death? Where will you transition to after you close your eyes?
Some people do not pay so much attention because they think it’s a reality that is way far. Some think that they are young. Some think that they are very healthy and have so many years ahead. Some suppress the whole idea of death. It’s a coping mechanism, and yet God has also set eternity in the hearts of men (Ecc 3:11), and no one can shake off the thought.
Some people think that heaven is a fairy tale. There are so many dangers that people fall into when they think or talk about heaven—so many errors that people associate with this glorious doctrine that has been revealed to comfort believers. Most ideas about heaven are not biblical. People often have a notion of floating ghosts in heaven, with an everlasting siesta—floating somewhere.
Many people believe in the doctrine of heaven, yet it has no effect in their lives. It has no practical effect. Paul says in 2 Cor 5:8–9, “we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.”
And sadly, many preach and teach about this doctrine, but it has no impact in their lives. Doctrine that does not transform is demonic—demons understand doctrine very well, but they are not transformed by it. James exhorts us to be doers of the word, not just merely hearers! (James 1:22).
Some Christians altogether neglect the doctrine. We are too preoccupied by this present world. We are surrounded by what we can see, taste, smell, and touch. We are very busy with our job, with our school—name it! To many, this world has enough things, pleasure, and well-being. And sometimes God has to use tragedy to wake us up! Only when there are trials do we truly and genuinely know that this world is not our home.
We have created a sweet by and by for a prosperous now and then. We neglect heaven because of blindness by the devil—trained to focus on the here and now. We are brainwashed into neglecting it. The world wants something for the here and now. We might neglect heaven because the doctrine does not appear good to us. We do not spend time understanding the doctrine so that it affects our passions. Some view heaven as a church service that goes on and on.
Some neglect heaven because they simply think of it as an inevitable natural state of our existence. We believe in heaven—it’s going to come, we will enjoy it—in the meantime why waste time thinking about it?
But why does it matter that we have a proper perspective about heaven? In the first place, because many people take it for granted that they are going to heaven. They assume that they are going to heaven, but they are deceiving themselves. There are no transformed lives. There is no evidence that they are joined to Christ.
In one of the most classic works ever penned by a mortal man outside of the Bible, in my own estimation, Bunyan in his great masterpiece records a very sad reality. In the last post Bunyan awoke from his dream just as Christian and Hopeful were preparing to leave the Delectable Mountains. The mountains were a welcome destination. The pilgrims grew in their understanding of God's Word. Their faith was strengthened; their repentance deepened. But the journey is not yet over.
As Bunyan dreams again, he sees the pilgrims descending from the mountains. Just below the mountains, a little crooked lane comes into the Way. Here Christian and Hopeful meet Ignorance, a false professor who is certain that he is on his way to the Celestial City. Ignorance is an energetic, vivacious lad who comes from the country of Conceit.
As Bunyan nears the end of his story, he turns from one of the most glorious scenes in the book (the final entrance of Christian and Hopeful into the Celestial City) to one of the most fearful. He turns to look back and he sees Ignorance preparing to cross the River.
Ignorance professed himself to be a pilgrim and informed them that he was “going to the Celestial City.” When Ignorance arrives at the Gate, there is no one there to greet him. He knocks, still assuming that he will quickly gain entrance. When he is challenged at the Gate, Ignorance responds by saying: “I have eaten and drunk in the presence of the King, and he has taught in our streets.” His words echo the response of those seeking to enter heaven through their own means:
And He [Jesus] said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’” (Luke 13:24–26).
Then the king said to the servants, “Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13). Ignorance is carried away to Hell and Bunyan concludes: “Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction.”
The moment a believer dies, he or she is ushered into heaven! But we know that this is not the final state of believers! We are awaiting the resurrection when our souls will be joined with our resurrected, glorified bodies. What does heaven look like? What has been revealed in the Bible about this state? What happens when believers die? Death is a blessing only for those who are in Christ. Let us look at four wonderful realities for those who have their faith in Christ Jesus. This is what awaits them.
Firstly, in heaven believers are made perfect. All saints in heaven are in full consciousness, having been immediately made perfect in moral likeness to Christ. No soul in heaven is imperfect. Immediately at death, when believers die, they are ushered into heaven, they are made perfect.
Rom 8:29 — Because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom He predestined, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified; and those whom He justified, He also glorified.
They are conformed and made to resemble His Son. They are made to be like the form and the image of His Son. The end in this process of our being conformed to the Son's image is the exaltation of Christ—that He might be the Firstborn. Immediately a believer dies, they are fully conformed to the image of Christ. That which God started comes into completion.
If you are not being conformed into the image of God's Son, showing a greater and greater likeness to Jesus, you need to do a sober, honest look at your salvation. (Colossians 3:5–10) As Paul exhorts in 2 Cor 13:5 — “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” The moment they breathe their last, they are glorified and made perfect into conformity to the image of Christ. (1 Cor 15:49).
Another text to consider is Hebrews 12:18–23. The former, the Sinaitic revelation, is the revelation of the sheer majesty of God, the absolute inapproachability of God, the sheer terror of the presence of the Lord God apart from the blood of sprinkling of the Cross of Calvary. That’s so important for us to remember because it’s a marvelous picture of our sin and our judgment, and the fact that apart from Jesus Christ we should experience the lost-ness of eternal life, of eternal judgment.
But, here he says “you have come” and to “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,” we have come to Mount Zion. We are as if we have come to Mount Zion. We are as if we have come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, because it’s so certain that we will experience these things. The future is already present for us in the sense that in today and the blessings that we have in Jesus Christ, we possess the things that will be ours in the future. “you have come,” is in a tense (perfect tense) that ordinarily refers to something in the past, the results of which continue, at least, to the present. So, in other words, it’s not “you came,” but “you have come,” and you now stand in this position of being possessed in reality of Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the church of the firstborn and all of the other blessings that are set forth here. The author emphasizes that this heavenly possession is their possession forever.
To myriads of angels—very many, innumerable—an indefinitely great number, or simply a number that cannot be counted. To the festal gathering—used only here in the NT to describe a solemn assembly convened for purposes of a happy, joyous festivity. These are invisible companions, and to God, the Judge of all, and spirits of just men made perfect! To be perfect means to be complete, mature, fully developed, full grown, brought to its end, finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness or in good working order. The moment the spirit leaves their bodies, the saints are made perfect—utterly devoid of anything in need of repentance.
When Isaiah saw the beatific vision of Christ, sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, with the train of His robe filling the temple—seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to the other, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called out, while the house of God was filling with smoke.
What was Isaiah’s reaction? “Woe is me, for I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of hosts.”But when saints are ushered before the throne of God in heaven, they are perfected. Sinners cannot bear the sight of a holy God. They will wish they could leave His terrifying presence within a second before Him. They will cry out to be hid from His presence. But for the saints: it is a fountain of unbounded joy, at home in every way—an ocean of God’s love to swim in. And the desire of every saint—to be freed from sin, to forever please God—is fulfilled.
But saints are not only made perfect. They are immediately brought into the presence of Christ. All saints in heaven are in the presence of Christ. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Matt 5:8). To be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord (2 Cor 5:1–6). It is the great future privilege which the apostle hoped for: that of being present with Christ. The words properly signify dwelling with Christ, as in the same country or city, or making a home with Christ. He says the same thing in Philipians 1:23: But I am hard-pressed between the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better.
A Christian is not in his own proper home while he sojourns in the body. Our birth and parentage is from heaven. Everything tends to the place of its origin; men love their native soil. Here is not enough to satisfy the desire and expectation of the renewed heart—perfect enjoyment of God, and perfect conformity to God. There lies our treasure and inheritance—1 Peter 1:4: to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you. There are all our kindred. There is our home and country, where our Father is, and our Lord Jesus, and all the holy ones of God. Apostle Pauls says in 1 Cor 3:22 — The world or life or death or things present or things to come; all things belong to you. All things work out for good for those who love God—including death! Life and death, things present and things to come—all shall tend to advance their happiness and promote their salvation. Christians have nothing to fear in death. Death is theirs and shall be a blessing to them. Its sting is taken away, and it shall introduce them to heaven. What have they to fear? Why should they be alarmed? Why afraid to die? Why unwilling to depart and to be with Christ? Threatening a Christian with death is threatening them with heaven! Death is gain to believers! Lavish communion with the Triune God, lavish communion with other saints—and this happens immediately when a believer dies. This is the consummation of Christian blessedness.
Jesus prayed and said, “Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24) “I desire” has a strange ring of authority. He does not merely wish it. Here He asserts a legal will. Jesus asks with the right of a claim, and demands with confidence, as the Son, not a servant. Jesus is more joyful to see those He died for than they are to see Him.Psalm 116:15 — Precious in the sight of Yahweh is the death of His holy ones.
Thirdly, when believers die, they are brought immediately to experience the promised rest of Christ.
Matt 11:28–30 — “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
There are few texts more striking than this in all the Bible—few that contain so wide and sweeping an invitation—few that hold out so full and comfortable a promise. Come! This is the greatest invitation that ever issued from a man's lips. Come!Not “do this” or “don’t do that,” but simply “Come.” Note also that Jesus does not say, “Come to the church, to a creed, to a clergyman, to a denomination,” or to anything but to Jesus Himself—to a vital, dynamic, radical relationship with the living Lord. All—with no exceptions—and yet in the present context the “all” is in a sense restricted…restricted by Jesus’ statement to those humble souls who acknowledge their weariness of struggling with sin. “I will give you rest”—note that we are not invited to come to a doctrine which is systematic (as good and necessary as that might be), but to a Savior who is divine, to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself is our rest! And the culmination of this rest is when believers die.
Rev 14:13 — And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”
And the word for labor used in this context is the word which means “labor unto pain” or “toil unto weariness.” Immediately upon death, all those of the faith obtain rest.
Isa. 57:1 — The righteous man perishes, and no man puts it upon his heart; and men of lovingkindness are gathered away, while no one understands. For the righteous man is gathered away from evil.
Dan. 12:13 — But as for you, go your way to the end; then you will enter into rest and stand again for your allotted portion at the end of the days.
And when saints die, their works follow them. God is intimately familiar with their works. (Heb. 6:10, 2 Tim 4:7–8) There they are gathered with their rewards.
Someone tried to capture this rest:
“But rest, too. Maybe rest above all. Here, responsibilities, pain and temptation. Here, harassment by the demonic, persecution by the world, disappointment in friends. Here, relentless, remorseless pressure, requiring us to live at the limit of our resources and at the very edge of endurance. But there, rest: ‘the battle's o'er, the victory won’. The toil is behind us and the danger past. No more the burden of unfinished work or the frustration of in-built limitations. No sin to mortify. No self to crucify. No pain to face. No enemy to fear.”
But it’s not all negative. It’s more than rest from. It means sharing in the blessedness of God so that in the very depth of our being there is contentment and joy and fulfilment. There is total shalom: a sense of sheer wellbeing. Every need is met. Every longing is fulfilled. Every goal is achieved. Every sense is satisfied.
We see Him. We are with Him. He holds us and hugs us and whispers, “This is forever.”
Why do we mourn departing friends
Or shake at death’s alarms?
’Tis but the voice that Jesus sends
To call them to His arms.
Why should we tremble to convey
Their bodies to the tomb?
There the dear flesh of Jesus lay
And scattered all the gloom.
The graves of all His saints He blest
And softened ev'ry bed.
Where should the dying members rest
But with the dying Head?
