What Happens After You Die? A Biblical Look at Eternity
What happens after death, and how should that shape your life now? This blog explores the hope of a resurrected body, the reality of eternity, and why living to please Christ today carries eternal significance.
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Our Heavenly Dwelling
1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on[a] we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.[b]
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Tents and Houses: The Hope of Your Resurrected Body
This text takes us more deeply into the implications for our one and only life. This is a passage that propels both hope and reverence: hope in Christ and what is coming for us in Christ, but also a sense of reverence.
Paul wrote: “For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling… So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight… So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:1-10).
Your Body Is Like a Tent
You may have noticed that three distinct times in this text, the Apostle Paul references our earthly body as a tent, and then he contrasts the resurrection body that is coming for us one day, if we are in Christ, as a building or a house. He says the bodies we have now are like a tent.
Think for a moment. Tents have their place. Tents are great for camping, not so great during storms.
I remember, many may know, I spent about a decade in student ministry early in my ministry years, and we took a group of students camping on the Nantahala River for a couple of days of rafting. I will never forget about 2:30 in the morning, when a terrible storm came. It was one of those storms where the rain came down like heavy sheets. If you can picture about 70 teenagers and adults, all in tents, at 2:30 in the morning, thunder crashing and rolling, and rain coming down like sheets, you suddenly have chaos. Water was not simply coming through the tent. Water was rising underneath the tent. So at 2:30 in the morning, we packed up the entire camp as rain poured, loaded the buses, and headed home in the middle of the night.
The point is that tents are not what is best for weathering storms. I remember as a kid, I had a pup tent in my backyard, and it was exposed to the elements for about a month. I remember how easily it ripped.
The point the Apostle Paul makes is that our bodies are pretty good tents for a while. You put 60, 70, 80 plus years on them, and they begin to break down. Sometimes they break down earlier than that, and that is the point Paul is making.
But our resurrected bodies are stable and secure houses. Resurrected bodies that are coming for us if our lives are in Christ are everlasting. Nothing will be able to destroy our resurrected body when we receive it on that day.
Earthly Bodies vs. Resurrected Bodies
Paul makes these contrasts between our earthly body, our temporary earth suit, and our eternal, everlasting, resurrected body that is coming for us.
He says in verse 1, our temporary body is earthly. Verse 4, it is mortal. He does that because our temporary body, our earth suit, so to speak, is a body that is dying. It is a tent that is wearing out.
But there is a future body that is heavenly and eternal. It is our resurrected body, and it will not be corruptible. Verse 4 says that the body that is coming for us will be swallowed up by life, and that is the very life of God. It will never die. It will never get sick. It will never get old.
Notice that our physical body, as we know it, is temporary, but the body that is coming for us is a physical body. Our resurrected body is literally physical.
An Important Theological Truth
Could I share a theological truth? The Bible teaches that when we die, if we are in Christ, we go to be with Jesus. But our presence with Jesus is not embodied. We are entering a disembodied state. Our spirit has been made alive as we came to know Jesus (Ephesians 2). We will be fully present with the Lord, but we will not receive our resurrected bodies until the day of resurrection.
This is why verse 8 says: “When we are absent from the body, we are present with the Lord.” Philippians 1:23 tells us that when we depart this life, we go immediately to be with Jesus. When we go to be with Jesus, we enter what we call an intermediate state.
We are with the Lord in our spirits, but it is not ultimately what God intends for us. God is going to recreate the heavens and recreate the earth, and in our resurrected bodies, we will live here on a recreated earth in the fullness of the presence of Jesus Christ.
Presently, our bodies are slowly decaying. Our bodies cannot match the aspirations of what God, in His love for us, has designed for our spirits. Our physical bodies are weakened by disease, allergies, injuries, old age, and finally by death.
Let me illustrate. When I was in my late teens and early 20s, I could dunk a basketball. (I do need to say I never did that in a game, and I had to let some air out of the basketball so I could grip it because my hands just are not large enough to palm a basketball.) But I could do that in my late teens. In my 30s, I could no longer dunk. I could still touch the rim. Then my late 40s came, and I could no longer touch the rim. A mortal body cannot do what it used to do.
That brings us to when Paul wrote about this in Romans 8:23: “We who have the firstfruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
Notice in this inheritance, it includes the redemption of our physical body. God has promised that our longing for a new body will be fulfilled. The gift of the Holy Spirit already operating in our lives as believers is the firstfruits, the deposit God has placed in our lives so that we know this is coming. We can be confident that a resurrected body is coming for us if our lives are in Christ.
We Were Designed for Another World
Life is full of mountains and valleys. We rejoice in the good things that God has done and is doing, but we also pray for persons navigating post-surgery, going into surgery, or facing cancer, and we pray for the brokenness in the world. Now, why validate those things? Here is why. Because there is a longing in all of us for perfection.
There is a longing in all of us for justice. There is a longing and an ache in our lives that we want to see things made right. There is a part of us that feels unsatisfied and unfulfilled because we sense there is more to life.
Those desires are not a bad thing. What those desires do is remind us all that we were designed for another world. This is why C.S. Lewis made this famous statement: “If we find in ourselves desires that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
This reminds us that, as believers, this world ultimately is not our home. This reminds us that God has wired us with a longing, and His revelation affirms the reality that we look forward to a resurrection. We look forward to the day when things are made right.
Paul exhorts us in this word to be confident about the future. Look at verses 6 through 8. Paul writes that we are to be of good courage. He says, “We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
He is encouraging us to be confident and full of good courage. But he reminds us that, while we are home with the body, we are not yet fully with the Lord. Which means that we are not really fully home.
A Foretaste of Glory
Remember Fanny Crosby when she wrote these words? “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine.” What she was writing about is that Romans 8 describes how God’s Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God (Romans 8:16). This is called assurance. And it is a foretaste of heaven. It is a foretaste of God’s glory. It is a foretaste of what we are going to experience unencumbered one day when we have a resurrected body, and we are fully in the presence of the Lord.
I remember being in Asia a number of years ago and seeing God move in such a profound way. His presence was very real during those days. I remember looking at two young people riding in the Jeep with me, Amber Tolbert and Matt Scott, a church planter in North America. I just had this thought. I felt in God’s presence. I just felt so at home, even though I was in another culture with different food. Some people say going there is like going to Mars.
And yet, I asked this question: “Do you feel at home right now?” I remember these two young people in the Jeep saying, “I’ve never felt more at home than I do right now.”
That is what Paul is saying we have a foretaste of. We are not totally home yet, but a day is coming.
Walking by Faith, Not by Sight
This is why we, as believers, sometimes long for heaven on earth. We long for things to be totally right on earth. But the Bible teaches that is not going to happen this side of heaven.
We can long for lots of things. We can long for a perfect job, a perfect spouse, a perfect family, or a perfect church. Those longings are not wrong in themselves, but we can also respond to those longings in the wrong way. We can long for things to be perfect in a way that actually causes us to stumble into sin. We can live in a way where we become very critical or negative about life. It can set us up that way because we are longing for heaven on earth.
That is why Paul tells us: while we are on earth, walk by faith, not by sight. Because if we walk only by sight, we will get frustrated.
I remember my middle son’s baseball coach, who was a member of the church we pastored. He had 10 axioms for high school ballplayers. The first axiom that he taught these young men was this: life is not fair.
The sooner we wrap our head and our heart around that as believers and then grow in the image of Jesus with the understanding that life is made up of about 10 percent of what happens to us and 90 percent of how we react or respond in terms of how Christlike character is being developed in our lives, we begin to understand the depth of what God is doing in this life to prepare us for the next life, and to transform our lives for the glory of Jesus Christ.
Living to Please the Lord
The Apostle Paul encourages us to please the Lord in everything, since our future home with our resurrected bodies is the ultimate reality, and he reminds us that we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. This is why this is a passage of both hope and reverence.
“So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” 2 Corinthians 5:9-10
We recognize Paul is teaching us: live in a way that pleases the Lord. This is why the Word of God teaches us in 1 Corinthians 10:31: “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” This is why the Christ Church mission statement begins with the phrase: “We exist to glorify God.”
Paul writes in Colossians 3:17: “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
There is no greater cause than giving ourselves totally in surrender to the living God.
Then 2 Corinthians 5:10 gives us one reason we should aim to please God. Paul says we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. All of us are accountable to God. That judgment will be thorough, and it will be fair.
A Sobering Question
Imagine having an appointment 30 days from now. I am not trying to be morbid. I am trying to be helpful. But would we live differently if we knew the imminent nature of that judgment?
Because the Scripture teaches we will be judged by what we have done in our present bodies, whether good or bad.
Now, that raises a question. Actually, it raises lots of questions, but let me deal with two. Is Paul talking about Jesus judging us based upon the rewards we will receive, or is he talking about Jesus judging us on the basis of works that are necessary for eternal life?
The answer to that question is yes.
Many are rightfully reasoning: are we not saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and not by works? Yes, that is true. We want to make much of that. But the Bible teaches that when we come to know Jesus Christ, there should be fruit because our coming to Jesus Christ is real. James was inspired to write an entire book on this topic.
But the Bible does emphasize that fruitfulness and our works, whether good or bad, matter greatly. In fact, the Bible affirms this repeatedly:
Galatians 5:21: “Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
1 Corinthians 6:9: The unrighteous who practice unrighteousness will not inherit the kingdom of God
Colossians 3:24: Those who do good will receive an inheritance from God
Galatians 6:8: “The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”
On the basis of those texts, we recognize that good works do matter in relation to our salvation, but they should operate as fruit of our salvation: saved by grace through faith in the person of Jesus Christ.
We cannot just profess to believe in Jesus Christ and not show any fruit and expect to be with Christ forever.
By contrast, in Matthew 7, there are some who stand before Jesus at the end of time, and Jesus says that even though they prophesied in His name, did miracles in His name, and cast out demons in His name, they do not belong to Him (Matthew 7:21-23).
What does that illustrate? That clearly illustrates that we are not saved by works, but only by faith, by grace, in the person of Jesus Christ. But we recognize in light of what Paul is teaching us in this passage that we as a people live with hope, and we live with great reverence.
The Conductor Has Spoken
There is a story about a lady who leaves town and boards a train to St. Louis. As she journeys toward St. Louis by train, she is elderly and a little confused, unsure whether she has boarded the right train. So she takes a moment, and she leans over to the lady behind her and says, “Am I on the right train? Is this the train to St. Louis?” The woman assures her she is on the right train.
But as she sits and thoughts run through her mind, she begins to reason: maybe I am not on the right train because maybe this lady is just as confused as I am. So she taps a gentleman in front of her and says, “Sir, is this train going to St. Louis?” The gentleman assures her, “Yes, ma’am, this train is going to St. Louis.”
She sits back, and she feels a little more secure now. But again, her thoughts begin to ramble. The more she thinks, she thinks: what if these people got on this train and just misread the sign, and maybe they are confused?
Suddenly, the conductor walks down the main aisle and asks, “Sir, does this train go to St. Louis?” And the conductor says, “Why yes, ma’am, it does. I am the conductor. In fact, I will be back up at the engine here in a few minutes. We are headed to St. Louis.”
As we live, there will be times when the enemy comes at us through our self-talk and causes us to doubt the reality of our faith in the person of Jesus Christ. There are going to be times when there are influences around us that are going to speak things into us or represent things that may be true, but may not register in the depths of our souls.
The Conductor has spoken. God so loved us that as we believe in the Son, we will not perish, but we will have everlasting life (John 3:16). The Conductor has spoken. If our faith is in the person of Jesus Christ, if we have turned to Him in repentance and faith and surrendered and put our trust in Him as Lord and Savior, the Conductor has spoken. We are sons or daughters of the living God.
If we have surrendered to Him, the Conductor has spoken. We are on the right train.
Live with the hope that we will have a resurrected body and that one day we will be fully at home. But live with reverence because we will give an account of our one and only life for the glory of God.
TL;DR
Our current bodies are temporary, but God has prepared an eternal, resurrected body for those in Christ.
While we live here, we experience longing because we were made for something more than this world.
Believers live with both confidence in eternity and reverence, knowing we will stand before Christ.
Because eternity is real, our aim now is clear: live to please Christ with the one life we’ve been given.
