Is there life after death?

The soul of man being immortal, he still exists after death, and it is revealed in scripture that his body will be raised, and he will either be in eternity away from God in punishment for the sins he has committed; or, by the grace of God, be in an eternity of happiness with the Lord Jesus through His atoning work on the cross.

Luke now adds a few words which are of universal importance, and deeply concern all men: "For all live to Him." Dead to us here, they live to God. Death, then, does not terminate any man's existence. They live to God. This refers of course to all the dead, and concerns therefore all the living. The Sadducees had raised a question of a resurrection of the body. The Lord in reply showed that He rejected all their distinctive tenets, as stated in Acts 23:8. The resurrection is a Scripture truth. Angels there are, and the saints when raised will be equal to them. Spirits, too, exist, for all the unclothed live to God. Into the far-reaching results of resurrection the Lord did not here enter. Resurrection from the dead was still a future event. When that, however, had been established by the Lord's resurrection, the Spirit of God opened up the subject further (1 Cor. 15).

Does Scripture speak of the life after death? Most distinctly and plainly. We have no need to go to spiritism to find out whether the dead survive. That has been the faith of God's saints from the very beginning. It is recorded in Matthew 22. that the Sadducees came to Jesus hoping to trip Him up, and they told that "cock-and-bull" story about a woman who had seven husbands. I have no doubt it was an absolute fiction; but they concocted this story in the hope of trapping the Lord, and they said, "In the day of resurrection whose wife shall she be?" And the Lord Jesus replied, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God," and then He went on to say, "Have ye not read that which was spoken to you by God, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." When did God say that? Centuries after those patriarchs had been laid in their graves, and He said it to them through Moses, whom the spiritists would laugh out of court. He did not say, "I was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." That disposes of the false notion that the dead have no consciousness, or cease to exist until the resurrection of the body. God is not the God of the dead but the living. If they for the time being had been extinct, He would have said, "I was their God." If He looked forward to the resurrection He would have said, "I shall be," but He said neither; He said, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." God is not the God of the dead but of the living. All live to Him. With that agrees most beautifully Romans 14:7-9, where we read, "For none of us lives to himself, and no man dies to himself. For whether we live, we live to the Lord; and whether we die, we die to the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living." A wonderful passage, full of the deepest possible comfort to the heart. I shall never forget how in a time of deepest distress and darkness, that one passage sang its comfort into my soul "Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's." I speak now to those who have trusted in Jesus, those who have come to His feet as poor sinners, and cast their souls upon Him, and can say, "He is my Saviour." "Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's." Yes, those loved ones who have passed out of our sight trusting in our one and only Saviour, have gone beyond our ken, but they have not passed out of the Lordship of Christ. Whether we live or die we are His, He is Lord both of the dead and the living. John 10:27-28, will fit in here, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." Have you been confining that to the living saints? Don't confine it to them any longer; it includes those fallen asleep in Jesus, they are in His mighty hand even as we are. And none can pluck us from that hand, and none can pluck them from that hand. They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of His hand. The hand that broke the power of death holds in absolute and everlasting safety all those who have put their trust in Him. Safe, eternally safe, and in His hand! So near to Him they are in His keeping, and we are also. Thank God, they could not be in a better place, could they? They could not be in safer keeping, for none, either in this life or the next, shall take His blood-bought sheep from Him.

That God was to judge the world, every Jew acknowledged. This could give no peace to the guilty. There must be resurrection of the dead, both of just and unjust. After judgment the lake of fire awaited the lost. The second death is not ceasing to exist. Indeed death itself is but a severance of soul from body. For the believer it is "to depart and be with Christ." Even when a wicked man dies, he is in no way annihilated: his soul is severed from the body, and this is death. "All live to God," if not to men. But when the second death comes, the wicked exist for ever, not only in soul, but in body. Resurrection is not temporal being, like living in the world that now is; it ushers in what is final and unchanging.

Who shall draw back the curtain, and show us what lies beyond this life? Certainly no mere man! Can anyone be better qualified to enlighten us, than the One who came down from heaven to earth in order to die an atoning death on the cross of Calvary, so that the offer of forgiveness of sins might be made to all mankind through faith in Him, and by the efficacy of His most precious blood. Our Lord spoke of a rich man and a beggar. Here are His own words, “It came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments” (Luke 16:22-23). Our Lord used symbolic language to emphasize and make vivid the truth He wished to convey to the minds of His hearers, and in no wise to lessen its solemn meaning. His words most clearly teach the survival of the soul after the death of the body, and that in two conditions. The beggar went to heaven and was comforted; in contrast the rich man went to hell, and was tormented. Scripture throws great light on the truth of the survival of the soul after the death of the body. There lies ahead for everyone of us the resurrection of the body, which cremation of the dead, so popular in these days, does not and cannot set aside.

In the few incidents and passages referred to we have both the believer and non-believer referred to as conscious after death as to their souls.

In the few incidents and passages referred to we have both the believer and non-believer referred to as conscious after death as to their souls.

Here is a very vivid description of the recently dead joining those of earlier date, and the stir that his entrance among them made. This is not a picture of souls ceasing to exist, but of continued existence.

While spirit, soul, and body continue in the harmonious relations to each which constitute the man; he is in LIFE, as that word is ordinarily used. When the triunity breaks up—when the soul and spirit leave the body—the condition is reached which is called DEATH. Neither of the three component parts becomes extinct, but their disruption breaks up the man—the man dies. The body returns to dust; the spirit to God who gave it. The former we know by sight; the latter comes to us as a revelation from God (Eccl. 12:7). Death is separation: never extinction. Even Annihilationists are compelled to admit that something survives, in which the identity of the man is preserved till resurrection and judgment (John 5:28 -29; Rev. 20:12). This “something,” Scripture informs us, is the disembodied spirit, which, liberated from its tenements continues to exist. The question remains—Where?

Second, We learn that there is consciousness in the life beyond.

Some tell us that men lie passive until the resurrection, and press the word "sleep" in support of their notion. But "sleep" is only predicated of the body in Scripture; never of the soul. Lazarus was "comforted." This was conscious blessedness. For him, beggary, sores, and hunger were left behind for ever. The rich man, too, was conscious. He was in pain; and as he saw the bliss of Lazarus he experienced a sense of loss ; memory was lively with him; and he was filled with fear for his five brethren still alive upon the earth. Someone will perhaps object that the Bible says, "The dead know not anything" (Ecc. 9:5). True, but in what connection is the passage found? Texts divorced from their context can be made to prove any heresy you please. The writer in Ecclesiastes is occupied with things "under the sun," and it is of these things be speaks when he says, "the dead know not anything." A man who may have been the vigilant head of a large business on earth knows nothing more of it, as to its prosperity or otherwise, when he leaves the present world behind him. And so with all departed ones as far as human affairs are concerned.