Life After Death

(Message by Philip Joseph on 6th December, 2009.)

God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that we who believe on Him may not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16). We come to Christ with the assurance of the life to come. This is one of the foundational teachings which includes the resurrection of the dead & eternal judgement. (Hebrews 6:2)

A. Contrast between the present life & the life to come
The Bible says that there is a present life & a life to come. (I Timothy 4:8). This present life passes away, but the life to come endures forever. (1 John 2:17). This present life is temporary whereas the life to come is eternal. This present life is visible whereas the life to come is at present invisible (2 Corinthians 4:18).

B. The certainty of the life to come
Jesus said that everyone who believes in Him will live even if he dies (John 11:25,26). In Jesus’ days too, some sects like the Sadducees did not believe in the life to come. To counter them, Jesus said that God is the God of Abraham,Issac & Jacob…The God not of the dead but of the living. (Matthew 22:32). We find in the incident of the rich man & Lazarus, the rich man was seeing & talking to Abraham after both of them died. (Luke 16:25ff). God has given as a taste of the life to come. (Hebrews 6:5). Just like someone cooking food has a taste of it much before the meal, so also we the believers have a taste of eternal life even before we get there!

C. Sequence of the events after we die
As soon as we die, we are carried by the angels to Paradise. (Luke 16:22; 23:43). Here we meet the Lord Jesus. (Phillipians 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:8).
At Christ’s second coming, there is a resurrection of the body. (1 Corinthians 15:20; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
This is followed by the judgement of believers at the Judgement Seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10), where we will be rewarded for what we have done on earth. (Revelation 11:18) (1 Corinthians 3:14).
From then on we will experience eternal bliss (Revelation 22:3).

D. Our response
We should do our best to maintain a blameless conscience. (Acts 24:15,16) , lead holy lives (I Peter 1:17) & have a godly conduct (2 Peter 3:11).
We should work for things that will last for eternity & not merely for the temporal (John 6:27; 1 Corinthians 15:58).
We must endure in every trial like Jesus did, in view of the eternal joy & bliss (Hebrews 12:2) awaiting us. Like Moses we must endure as seeing Him who is unseen! (Hebrews 11:26,27)
We must not have even the slightest fear of death (Hebrews 2:15). No one can take our life, since the keys of death are in the hands of Jesus! (Revelation 1:18)