The Christian hope is to live eternally with God! As our years in the body advance, this hope becomes nearer. Jesus said in Jn.10:10, “I came that they might have life, and more abundantly”. Life after death may be better than we thought! Here we’ll look at scriptures about life and death for the saints.
As we age, most will experience aches & pains in the body. Yet the future for saved Christians is wonderful! Ex.23:25-26 the Lord will fulfill the number of one’s days. We can receive healing in the body until that last illness or the day we take our final breath. (see the topic “Healing Our Bodies”.) Pr.9:11 “Years of life will be added to you.” Ps.48:14 “This is our God forever; He will guide us unto death.” Is.46:4 “Even to your old age and grey hairs, I will deliver you.” God sustains us and will give us the abundant life! Physical death is a time of transition to the afterlife; it isn’t the end of our existence.
Ps.91:16 “With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.” (The Hebrew term for salvation is yeshúah, Strongs h3444.) God saves His people. The Lord gets us out of trouble, in general! He ‘saves’ us from danger, catastrophe, enemies, sickness, etc…and saves us in the spiritual sense. God saves us from death. And the Bible indicates there are (at least) two kinds of death.
One kind of death occurs when we take our last breath. Our physical body is buried; it decomposes or disintegrates. God formed the first human from the elements of the earth, breathed life into him, and he became a living soul (Ge.2:7). The Lord told the first man Adam in Ge.3:19, “You return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. You will return to dust.” Adam died physically at a very advanced age (Ge.5:5). David said of God in Ps.103:14, “He is mindful that we are but dust”. And Ec.12:7 (the reverse of Ge.2:7), “The dust returns to the earth, and the spirit returns to God who gave it”. (The term for spirit is Hebrew rúach h7307, Greek Septúagint/LXX & New Testament pneúma g4151.) We breathe our last, our spirit returns to God, our physical body returns to dust or decomposes…this is physical death.
God has given each of us a human spirit, the “breath of life”. Jb.32:8 “There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.” The human spirit is a non-physical component which imparts self-awareness & intellect to our brain. At physical death, our spirit is to return to God. Ja.2:26 “The body without the spirit is dead.” Without our human spirit, our body is just a corpse. ref Lk.8:53-55 the girl who’d died was a corpse (until Jesus brought back her spirit, which returns to God after death, to her body). When Adam finally died physically, the human spirit God had initially breathed into him went back to God. We humans undergo this physical death. Ps.104:29 “You take away their spirit, they die and return to dust.” When the Lord takes away our spirit…we expire. Man’s spirit returns to God for His renascence, re-embodiment, placement or disposition, as He sees fit.
Now let’s look at another kind of death. When Adam & Eve ate from the wrong tree, they died in another sense. Mankind is made in the image & likeness of God (Ge.1:26-27). God said in Ge.2:16-17, “The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the day you eat from it you shall surely die”. The serpent deceived Eve (Ge.3:4-7). When Adam & Eve ate from it and disobeyed God or sinned, they became separated from God spiritually. That day their spiritual death occurred. (Their physical death wasn’t until centuries later.) Ge.3:8 so they hid themselves from God. Ge.3:24 although they’re made in God’s image…to further separate them from Himself, the Lord banned them from the garden of Eden. (see the topic “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.)
Death is a form of separation. Adam & Eve were separated from God’s Presence and the Tree of Life. Even if they’d previously eaten some from the Tree of Life while obedient (Ge.2:9, 16), outside the garden they couldn’t continue to eat its fruit…and Adam finally expired at age 930 (Ge.5:5). Gill Exposition Ge.2:9 “Before Adam sinned there was no prohibition of his eating of it.” (Perhaps the effect of the Tree of Life was passed down through very long-lived descendants for generations?)
At physical death, one’s human spirit is separated from the physical body. Spiritual death is separation from God, who is eternal Life. Is.59:2 “Your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you.” Sin kills us spiritually, in this sense.
Since Adam & Eve, humans are born spiritually ‘dead’. David referred to his unborn self, Ps.51:5 “I was shaped in iniquity, in sin my mother conceived me”. Natural man from birth is spiritually unaware, our eyes ‘blinded’ to spiritual eternal Life (e.g. 2Co.4:4). Ro.5:12 “Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all, because all sinned.” Mankind has a proclivity to sin. Ja.1:15 “When sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” Separation from God. Gill Exposition Ja.1:15 “As the first sin of man brought death into the world, brought a spiritual death.” Orthodox Bible Ge.2:17 “The words ‘you shall die’ indicate a spiritual death through separation from God.” Spiritual death happened to Adam at the wrong tree; it becomes the common state of humanity.
We were all dead spiritually. Paul wrote to the saints in Ep.2:5, “We were dead in our transgressions”. Of course Paul and those he was writing to weren’t dead physically! Rather, they’d been spiritually dead earlier, while physically alive! Continuing in Ep.4:18, “Being alienated from the Life of God”. As Adam & Eve had become alienated from God; separated from the Lord and His Presence.
Jesus said in Mt.8:21-22, “Let the dead bury their dead”. Jesus expressed two kinds of death here…in other words, let those who are spiritually dead bury their relatives who had died physically. And in Jesus’ parable of Lk.15:24, 32, the prodigal son had been spiritually dead, while physically alive. In 1Ti.5:6, Paul wrote of the profligate widow who “is dead even while she lives”. Spiritually dead, physically alive. Paul also wrote in Col.2:13, “You were dead in your transgressions”. The Colossians were physically alive, yet earlier had been spiritually dead by reason of sin. But not dead forever!
Continuing in Col.2:13 “…He has made you alive together with Him”. Those Christians were no longer spiritually dead! 1Co.15:22 “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” Since Adam, humanity was spiritually dead or separated from God, and also died physically. But through Jesus and the Holy Spirit (HS), we’re made alive spiritually; there’s no separation from God (though we still die physically).
Peter said in Ac.2:38, “Repent and be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. The HS is Life eternal (He.9:14). 1Co.6:17 “The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” It’s a spiritual union. We become spiritually alive! Ga.6:8 “The one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Wikipedia “For Paul (as in Ga.6:8), future eternal life arrives as a result of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit during the present life.” The seed of eternal Life is now within us.
The New Testament (NT) doesn’t describe eternal life in detail. But it does provide assurance that the saints will receive it. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible “The nature of eternal life is only sketched in its essential elements in the New Testament.” The saved Christian becomes spiritually alive, no longer are we spiritually dead!
John wrote in 1Jn.3:14, “We know that we have passed out of death into life”. ‘Saved’ Christians are spiritually alive. 1Jn.5:11-12 “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who doesn’t have the Son doesn’t have life.” The eternal Life made possible by Jesus indwells us.
Jesus said in Jn.8:51, “If anyone keeps My word, he shall never see death”. Jesus was referring to spiritual death, not physical death. Of course we all die physically. Jesus also spoke of Himself as the living bread. Jn.6:50-51 “One may eat of it and not die. I AM the living bread that came down from heaven.” Not die spiritually, that is; having the kernel of eternal Life. Jn.11:26 “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” Shall never die spiritually; won’t be separated from God.
Many believe that even Jesus Himself experienced separation from God for a short time on the cross…for our sake! Mk.15:33-34 “Darkness fell over the whole Land. Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (cf. Ps.22:1) Jesus knew He’d be resurrected (Mt.20:18-19). But as Jesus became sin in our stead (2Co.5:21), He was separated from His Father for the only time. Ga.3:13 “Christ became a curse for us.” Father God is so holy; He won’t dwell with sin.
God is the Father of spirits (He.12:9). The Lord gives breath & spirit to His creatures on earth (Is.42:5). For physical death to occur, man’s spirit departs his body, and returns to God who gave it (Ec.12:7).
Jesus also experienced physical death when He expired on the cross. At the transfiguration of Lk.9:31, Jesus spoke of His soon departure (g1841) which would take place at Jerusalem. Later, Jesus said as He died on the cross in Lk.23:46, “Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit’. He breathed His last.” Jesus’ spirit departed and returned to Father God. Jn.19:30 “Jesus yielded up His spirit.”
2Pe.1:13-15 elderly Peter said he would soon die physically. The time was near for his spirit’s earthly tent (his physical body) to be laid aside. “After my departure (g1841) you may remember these things.” Peter’s spirit would soon depart his body. (Ja.2:26 “The body without the spirit is dead.”)
In the last chapter of 2Timothy, Paul’s time to die physically was imminent. 2Ti.4:6 “The time of my departure has come.” Paul’s spirit would soon depart his physical body, when he expired. As Peter’s.
Ac.7:54-60 righteous Stephen was stoned to death. As he died physically, Stephen said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (v.59). Stephen’s spirit departed when his body “fell asleep”, then decomposed.
At their physical death, the spirit of Peter, of Paul, of Stephen…departed their body and returned to God. They went to be with Jesus. Their fleshly body became dust after their spirit separated from it. But those three, as well as the saints Paul wrote to at Ephesus, Colossae, etc., are made alive in spirit!
Paul wrote in Php.1:21-24, “To live is Christ and to die is gain. To depart and be with Christ is far better.” Paul’s earthly life became dedicated to Christ’s purposes. Yet Paul believed Life for him would be better after he died physically, when his spirit consciousness went to be with God and Jesus.
Here’s the final verse of the song, God Knew Your Name, by Jim Likens. “As you gracefully grew old, you know you had been told, God knew your name. And one day when you died, your friends and family cried, God knew your name. And My angels carried your soul [or spirit] to Me, And I said, ‘Welcome home’. You were one of Mine, I loved you for all time, I knew your name.”
Our spirit, returned to God who gave it, is at His disposal as He sees fit. In Jesus’ parable of Lk.16:19-31, the poor man’s spirit…“was transported by angels to Abraham’s bosom [or Paradise]”. The rich man’s spirit was placed in Hades, the realm of the dead (v.22-23). Evidently some of what Jesus spoke in this parable was commonly believed by Jews in the Land, so they were able to understand His point.
Before Jesus left His disciples on earth, He said in Jn.14:2-3, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; I go to prepare a place for you”. Father God’s house is in heaven, not on earth. After Jesus died and was resurrected, He was received up into heaven, at His Father’s right hand (Mk.16:19).
Stephen asked of Jesus, “Receive my spirit” (Ac.7:59). Stephen, Peter, Paul and other saints went to the heavenly dwelling places Jesus prepared for them. Their spirits returned to God, and would never die!
The writer to the Hebrews wrote in He.12:1, “We have a great cloud of witnesses”. A most unusual way to identify a group of witnesses! There’s a “cloud” of saints in the heavens who have gone before us. Untold numbers of saints had been “caught up in the clouds” prior to the departure of Paul’s spirit consciousness to be “together with them” (1Th.4:17). Continuing with He.12:22-24, “You have come to…the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the assembly and church of the Firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus”. Glory to God! The spirits of the righteous saints in their heavenly dwelling are an innumerable cloud of witnesses! (cf. Re.7:9-12)
Paul wrote of our body in 1Co.15:44-49, “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. As is the earthy so are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so are those who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” All humans have a natural physical body on earth. The spirits of the righteous, who departed and were received by Jesus, have a spiritual body in the heavens. The spirits of Stephen, Peter, Paul…are among those witnesses in the “cloud” with spiritual bodies. (compare the topic, “Rebirth to Physical Life”.)
Paul wrote more of eternal life with God in 2Co.5:1-4. “We know that if our earthly tent is dissolved, we have a house from God, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. We long to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. So that we won’t be naked. While in this tent we groan, not wanting to be unclothed.” Our earthly body is made by our mother & father, so to speak. When it dies and dissolves into dust, our spirit returns to God/Jesus. Our spirit is there “clothed” with our heavenly imperishable spiritual body (1Co.15:42); not mortal physical bodies in heaven. We don’t live forever as disembodied spirits. Spiritual bodies are portrayed as being pure and clothed in white (ref Re.3:5, 4:4, 7:9).
Paul continued in 2Co.5:8, “I would rather be absent from the body and be present with the Lord.” Paul’s preference was to depart his mortal tent here on earth, and go to be at home in his heavenly spiritual body, with the Lord. (It’s been said that Paul was absent-minded in that regard!)
Greek Bible scholar Spiros Zódiates’ note on 2Co.5:1-10, “Our real self is the spirit within us and not the body. The mortal body is presented as a tent. When death happens we don’t become extinct. We continue to live on. God is building a completely new house for our spirit. It will be identifiable, but not the same. Paul was evidently speaking of his resurrection body.” It’s a heavenly body for our spirit.
Php.3:20-21 “Our citizenship is in heaven. Jesus Christ will transform our lowly body to conform to the body of His glory.” We shall be like Jesus (to a lesser degree), in our spiritual bodies. Cambridge Bible “The saints’ body of glory.” 1Jn.3:2 “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him just as He is.” Vincent Word Studies “The manifestation of that glorified state, the revealing of what we shall be.” Now our physical eyes cannot behold Jesus’ glorified brightness or the appearance of our spiritual body.
{Sidelight: Various eschatological views, the timing of resurrections, other spirits, the underworld…are somewhat related to this topic, but aren’t discussed here. Also, the interchangeable expressions, “Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of Heaven” (Mt.19:23-24). see the topic “Kingdom of God”.}
Cardiologists have revived people who died physically for a brief period of time. Pronounced dead! While dead, their spirit left their body, and ‘saw’ the future life. While dead, they heard conversation of nurses, or viewed streets exterior to the hospital! As they were revived physically by the cardiologist or medical team, their spirit reentered their body (cf. Lk.8:55). There are thousands of people who have had near-death experiences (NDE)! Numerous documented cases are on medical record.
There’s a saying…“A man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with just an argument”.
Raymond Edman They Found the Secret, p.33, gives Salvation Army Commissioner Samuel Brengle’s account of his final days at age 76. Though nearly blind, Brengle ‘saw’ some of the great cloud of witnesses, saints who’d gone on before. “I had sweet fellowship at times in my own room. Saints of all ages congregate there. Moses is present, and gives his testimony, and declares that the eternal God is his refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. Joshua arises, and declares, ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord’. Samuel and David, my dear friends Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel, Paul and John and James, and deeply humbled and beloved Peter, each testifying to the abounding grace of God. Luther and Wesley and the Founder [General William Booth] and Finney, and Spurgeon and Moody, and unnumbered multitudes all testify…Fanny Crosby cries out, ‘Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine’! So you see, I am not alone. Halleluyah forever, and glory to God!”
The 2000 edition of evangelist F.F. Bosworth’s Christ the Healer, contains a concluding chapter written by his son Bob Bosworth, about his father’s passing in 1958 (p.246-7). “About 3 weeks after he took to his bed, we were around the bed talking, laughing and singing. Suddenly Dad looked up; he never saw us again. He saw what was invisible to us. He began to greet people and to hug people; he was enraptured. Every once in a while he would break off and look around saying, ‘Oh, it is so beautiful’. He did this for several hours. Finally, with a smile on his face, he put his head back and slept. We took turns sitting with him. My wife Stella suddenly realized that he’d stopped breathing. There had been no struggle, no sound. The psalmist had described it correctly; God had simply removed his breath and he was home! ‘O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’ [Ho.13:14 LXX, 1Co.15:55] This is the testimony and ultimate triumph of F.F. Bosworth.”
Death and the grave are defeated! 1Co.15:54 “When this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.” (cf. Is.25:8) For saints who’ve received and been led by the Holy Spirit, Life with a heavenly body will be abundantly satisfying and pain-free for all eternity! To God be the glory!
Bible Topic Exposition 