What happens when we die? In this season of Easter, this is the question which I want to address in this week’s blog, and I shall do so on the basis of Paul’s teaching in 2 Corinthians 5.1-10.
Firstly, death leads to security. As Paul wrote: “We know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5.1). “We know”, wrote Paul; not we think or hope or are fairly certain that…”. Paul had no doubts about the future. He was sure that death would not be the end. He believed that at death a permanent home awaits those who have put their trust in Jesus. I love the imagery Paul uses here. In the world to come we will have a proper “house” – we won’t be living in a “tent” as we do now. Tents are not permanent structures – they don’t last.
Paul said that our new house will be “eternal” – it will last for ever. Needless to say, we are dealing with a metaphor, for God is not going to provide us with a house made of bricks and mortar. However, through the imagery Paul is seeking to convey truth. The truth is that God will rebuild our lives in a totally secure and permanent fashion. In making such a statement, Paul was not saying anything new. Jesus himself said to his disciples: “Do not be worried and upset. Believe in God and believes also in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s house, and I am going to prepare a place for you” (John 14.1 GNB). So, wrote Paul, “we are always confident” (2 Corinthians 5.6). We can look death in the face, for we know that God has something much better for us. Death leads to security.
Secondly, death leads to wholeness. One of the things people dread about death is that it seems to diminish them and makes them less than they are. Even the process that leads to death is often one of shrinkage: we become bent over, our skins seems to shrivel, our hair begins to drop out and so too do our teeth. Virtually every bodily function slackens off in its efficiency. It’s a struggle to cling to full selfhood: our egos wane to the point where they scarcely cast a shadow. We are no longer what we were.
So does death put the final ‘ki-bosh’ on us? No! Paul taught that death leads not to dissolution, but to wholeness. Listen to what Paul wrote: “While we live in this earthly tent, we groan with a feeling of oppression:… we want to have the heavenly one [body] put on over us, so that what is mortal will be transformed by life” (2 Corinthians 5.4 GNB). Paul here used another picture to describe what happens at death. The imagery of housing is replaced by that of clothing. The new body that God has in store for us can be likened to a splendid new set of clothes. As our human “tent” begins to fray and unravel and finally splits at the seams, we feel that our personhood is seeping out and running away. But there is no need to be fearful. Death will lead to wholeness. Christians do not believe that at death we become disembodied spirits, rather we become ‘re-embodied’. The body which God will give us will be more real and more glorious than ever before. Again, we are speaking in picture terms. Paul made it clear in 1 Corinthians 15.42-44, this body will not be a body of flesh and blood. That’s a great thought!
But it will be the same you and the same me. As Roy Clements wrote, “Just as a linguist can translate from one language to another yet retain the meaning; just a musician can transpose a sequence of notes from one key to another, yet retain the melody; just as a chemist can transform a substance from one phase to another, yet retain its composition”, we believe that God can transform our bodies, and yet retain our identity.
Thirdly, death leads to ‘home’. From housing and clothing Paul introduced a third image, the image of being “at home with the Lord”. He wrote: “We know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord’s home… we would much prefer to leave our home in the body and be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5.6-8). We look forward to one day being “at home with the Lord”. There is something special about the term ‘home’. In the words of a song by the American librettist, J.H. Payne:
Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home…
Home, home, sweet, sweet home,
There’s no place like home!
Home is not just a place, it’s a place made special by people. Home is where we can be ourselves, and where we can be loved and accepted for what we are. What is true of human homes and families, is even more true of when we go home to the Lord. There we will be loved and accepted. To die is not to go into the great unknown, rather it is to return home to God. No wonder that Paul repeated himself and said “We are full of courage… We do indeed have confidence” (2 Corinthians 5.8). As Eugene Peterson put it in his paraphrase, “That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming” (The Message).