What does the Bible say when you die?

Now what is hades for the believer? Scripture tells us that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, and when the believer is absent from the body he is at home with the Lord. The thief went the day he died into companionship with Jesus. There is no such thing as soul-sleep, but death is gain, and introduces the believer to the “far better” portion. The moment the breath leaves the body of the believer his spirit, conscious and happy, goes to be with His Saviour, there to await the resurrection day, which will end for his soul the condition of hades, as it will end the condition of death for his body.

In Revelation 6:9-11; 13:15; 14:13 and 15:2-4, we see the spirits and souls of the two halves of the Tribulation in heaven, but not as yet resurrected. However, as seen from Revelation 6:10, they (their spirits and souls) are fully conscious and free to ask questions of their Lord. There is no such thing as soul-sleep. For the believers of all times, to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). For the unbeliever, it is to be in torment (Luke 16:23) in God's prison, awaiting final judgment (1 Peter 3:19) and then hell, the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:11-15).

The unbelieving and unsaved sinner passes at death from his present condition of spiritual death (Eph. 2:1), and alienation from God because of sin (Eph. 4:18), to Hades, there to consciously suffer torment while the body is in the grave, and surviving brothers living in sin on earth, where the Bible is known (Luke 16:23-31), reserved under punishment to the day of judgment (2 Pet. 2:9, R.V.), when “death shall deliver up their bodies, and “Hades” their souls, to be re-united, and the man re-constituted for judgment (Rev. 20:13), followed by the final doom, the second death, the damnation of the entire person in Gehenna (Mark 9:43-49; Rev. 20:15; 21:8).

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?

Nor is it true that between death and the resurrection the soul sleeps. The Lord, in the Gospel of Luke, has made the truth no less certain for both the wicked and the righteous. In Luke 16 He shows us the beggar dying and carried away by the angels into Abraham's bosom. This was certainly not the body but the soul; for the soul is the seat of personality. Whilst alive, soul and body are together. When death comes, the soul is the person till the resurrection, when they are together again for evermore; and therefore it is that only man rises from the grave; for he alone possesses a God-inbreathed soul — an immortal principle from God. As death is but an intermediate and incomplete state, resurrection (whether for just or unjust) will restore the full being, and in a condition for eternity. But, meanwhile, the beggar was, according to parabolic language, with the blessed beyond death. He was blessed with faithful Abraham, and not asleep. The rich man also died, and was buried. There was laid his body in the grave with whatever pomp. But in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torments. His soul, thus, was not asleep; he was in torments. It is perfectly certain that this is a picture, not of resurrection, but of the intermediate state; for he is represented as entreating for his five brethren, that some startling testimony might reach them, "lest they also come into this place of torment." When resurrection dawns, there will be no question of testimony to save. Besides, the Lord stands for the divine authority of Scripture. They had the inspired witnesses, and if these were not heard, neither would they be persuaded if one rose from the dead.

"It is appointed unto men once to die" — that is only half the solemn truth. Equally appointed, equally certain: "After death, the judgment." Death, instead of being the end of all, is rather the beginning. This present time is but the ante-chamber of eternity. No one can deny the certainty of death for the human race; and after that comes the judgment. No one can deny that, either. The very God who declares the one and who witnesses to it in countless deaths, witnesses and declares the certainty of that judgment which is also coming, solemn realities for every one to face!

But I want to call your attention to one word which sheds the light of grace over the whole statement: "As." What then? "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." In the very scene where death witnesses of sin and where judgment hangs in the future, darkly threatening and certain to come, Christ was offered, to bear the very judgment and death which we deserved for our sins. Man gets death first, and after death the judgment. Christ, our blessed Lord, bore the judgment first, going to the cross, bearing wrath. Look at that scene upon Calvary; think of, ponder upon those cries which came from the cross. Hear that cry of forsaken anguish when all was darkness about Him, for you will never fully understand the reality of the cross until you have entered into the meaning of those words: "My God, My God, why Nast Thou forsaken Me?" That is the very thing that the ungodly will realize in the judgment. The word will be to them: "Depart from Me ye cursed, into everlasting fire." We read that Christ was made a curse for us, the very thing the sinner deserves. The sinner will be cast away from God; so Christ was in that outer darkness. He bore the judgment of God inflicted upon Him as the full penalty upon the whole world of His creatures.

6 But then the scripture is most clear and positive, that there is wrath and punishment and judgment and torment after death for all who are not saved. And this they cannot deny, without denying the whole testimony of God. But if there is, then men do live after death; and death does not mean ceasing to exist, but ceasing to exist soul and body together in this world. And that is what is as plain as possible from scripture. "It is appointed unto men once to die, and AFTER THIS the judgment." Why here, the judgment, which is to bring on men the whole extent of the consequences of sin from the wrath of God, is after death. Though sin makes always miserable; yet the coming of wrath, in the true full sense of the word, does not begin till after death, and by judgment, instead of death being the end of the man. And mark, this is not anything peculiar to those that have heard of Christ, though they doubtless are far more guilty and will be beaten with many stripes. It is appointed unto men. It is their common natural portion as sinners — death and judgment.

Resurrection is life for the dead body. The spirit of the departed believer is with Christ, which, as the apostle says, is a "far better" state than the present. This state is reached immediately upon falling asleep. Hence the Lord said to the robber, "Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise." There was, in consequence, for his spiritual nature, an instantaneous transfer to the highest heaven, while the mangled body waits in the dust of the earth for the awakening word of life in the coming hour. Then in the first resurrection the Lord's redemptive work will be completed for spirit, soul and body — for him and for all who had like faith.

Now one word upon the double exhortation that we get in verse 11: "Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another." Well, beloved, as I said to you, many of the saints have passed away, and if we are tempted to mourn over them, the apostle gives us these words at the direction of the Lord for our comfort, as he says in the last verse of the fourth chapter, "Wherefore comfort one another with these words." Are they lost because they have died? God forbid. No; as I have explained to you, their spirits are with Christ, their bodies are crumbling in the grave, but we know that when the Lord comes He will call them out of their graves, and will give them bodies like His own; and that will be the complete and final triumph of Christ in redemption. In the meantime it is "comfort one another"; and we are to edify one another, that is, I apprehend, build up one another in the truth the apostle has brought before us. What a hope it is to have this wonderful prospect, and yet I am afraid that it has faded away somewhat from our hearts and minds. I know, alas! in my own heart how easy it is to lose it, to be satisfied with things here; but God has some better thing in store for us — we must not forget it — and we shall be introduced into it when the moment comes.

There is another point on which the faith and hopes of Christians generally are undoubtedly according to God's word. I mean the expectation of being happy with Christ in heaven after death, in case that event should occur. Scripture certainly and explicitly teaches, that while for a Christian to live is Christ, "to die is gain." (Phil. 1:21.) So confident of this was the apostle, that he speaks of "having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better." See the whole of the passage just quoted. Paul elsewhere affirms, that "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." (2 Cor. 5:8.) These passages, with our Lord's assurance to the dying thief, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise," (Luke 23:43,) place beyond question the fact of our conscious and happy existence, in the presence of the Lord, between death and the resurrection. Blessed be God, for passages so clear and so decisive. But I suppose the very putting the case, as above, conditionally — the saying of death "in case that event should occur," must have startled some readers, and awakened in their minds the inquiry, "And are there any to whom this event will NOT occur — is it not certain that we shall all die?" No, dear reader, it is not certain. Scripture says, "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye." (1 Cor. 15:51-52.) And while it is most true, and, in its place, most important, that departed saints are happy with Christ in heaven, it is not this disembodied state, this state of happy, departed souls, which is set before us in Scripture as our hope. The passages I have quoted are, with two exceptions,* all that can be found in the New Testament on the subject: and sweet and precious as are those passages, they themselves do not affirm that this disembodied state is the full or final object of our hope. Nay, one of them distinctly affirms the contrary. I refer to 2 Cor. 5, where the apostle, having said, "For we know, that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," adds, "For in this (that is, in this tabernacle) we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." What is this house which is "from heaven?" Surely it cannot be our disembodied state while in heaven awaiting the resurrection of the body! No, it is the resurrection-body itself which the apostle says we earnestly desire: "if so be," he proceeds, "that being clothed we shall not be found naked." Nay, he goes on to say, "For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, (or disembodied,) but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." It is not death, and a state of happiness between death and the resurrection, for which the apostle waits, and longs, and groans. It is the resurrection- state, the being clothed upon with the house which is from heaven, the swallowing up of mortality in life. Afterwards he does intimate, that even to be disembodied is better than to be in these mortal tabernacles. "Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord … We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." Such was the state of the apostle's mind on this important subject. While in this body, or tabernacle, he could not but groan. Why so? Because, while at home in the body, he was absent from the Lord. On this account he was willing, and in Philippians he says he had a desire, to be "absent from the body, and present with the Lord." But though preferring the disembodied state to the present one, it was not for the disembodied state that he groaned and waited, as the definite, final object of his hopes. "Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon." It was for the resurrection-body, the resurrection-state, the resurrection-glory, that he longed. And resurrection, not death, is the believer's hope.