What will happen to me when I die? (Part 1)

The first time I was asked this question it was a relative who had lost their spouse in a tragic accident. I regret I didn’t have what I think was a good answer, in part, because this is a complex question. From a Christian perspective it is really three questions: “What happens after this life is over and I die,” “Who goes to Heaven (and who goes to Hell),” and “How can I be sure there is something after death and that I’m going to go to Heaven.” I’ve recently heard this question raised on several occasions in our congregation, and here is what I believe is a better set of answers.

Question 1: What happens after this life is over and I die?

Background
We understand from Jesus, the Prophets, the Apostles, the Saints, the Church, and from Holy Scripture that there is one enormous problem in our existence: we are largely, although not totally, alienated and separated from God. The whole book of Genesis tells us of humanity’s decision to choose our own selfish  desires over God’s perfect and good desires for us; the repercussions of choosing our way over God’s way, which seriously screwed up our lives and even God’s whole creation; and that God’s response was to immediately start repairing the gap in our relationship. In fact, that is the story of the whole Older Testament: our attempts to get closer to God or push God away, the consequences, and God’s consistent action to bring us back to complete wholeness. 

Ultimately it is Jesus who, by his birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, bridges that divide between humanity and God (see the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). But – and this is a big caveat – God still leaves us a choice: we can choose to head our own way, away from the Source of Life, or we can choose God’s way uniquely revealed in Jesus, and be reunited with the Source of Life who is God. If we choose our own way, whatever that may be, we choose not-life, not-perfection, not-wholeness, not-health, and not-goodness. Another way of saying this is that we choose death, corruption, suffering, pain, and evil. This is not God’s punishment against us, but the result, the consequence, the earnings, the “wages” of following our own desires. It is of our own making, not God’s. (see Rom. 6:20-23 and John 3:17-18).

The Way Out
The Good News, the Gospel, is that there is another way, a way out of our predicament in this life and the next. God has made this way out in Jesus Christ. From several Bible texts (Acts 16:30-34, Romans 10:8-13, and I Peter 3:21) we know that the way out in Jesus Christ is belief in Jesus, confession, resentence, and baptism .
                Belief. “Belief in Jesus” means an active trust in Jesus, that we must hold Jesus’ teaching and example as true and right and act upon them.
                Confession is the act of speaking the truth, that we must tell the truth about Jesus, who he is and what he did, and tell the truth about our own need for Jesus, recognizing our own efforts to reunite with God are insufficient.
                Repentance is the resolution to let God change our lives by choosing to act upon God’s directions and instructions. We submit to God’s judgments, forgiveness, and restoration so that our lives become more and more holy and less and less evil.
     Baptism is the spiritual mystery given to us in a physical form that seals us to God and God to us in an everlasting covenant (unbreakable contract) of grace. It is a conversion of life – mind, heart, soul, and strength – into the identity, being and purpose God gives us.

If we choose the way of Jesus – belief, confession, repentance, and Baptism  (Acts 2:37-42)– we will not earn what we deserve, but rather be given the unending and perfect life we were first intended, but with an extra bonus: we will be considered no longer the mere Creation of God, but God’s very own adopted daughters and sons. This means we will be God’s family, not merely God’s creation. And it leads us to the other part of the Good News: eternal life with God and God’s family doesn’t have to start after we die, it can begin right now and here.

When we die…
When we die our path continues. How do I know? I don’t know. I trust.
1)      I trust Jesus died and came back from being dead and said he was going making a place for his disciples.  (John 14) Or do we think Jesus and/or the author of John were liars? (see 2 Peter 1:16-21)
2)      It isn’t that easy to destroy the substance of a thing. You can pour water out of a glass, crush the glass and dry up the puddle, but the water remains and so does the glass. They are changed, not ended.  (cf Albert Einstein and E = mc^2 )
3)      God made us with hunger and satiety. I am hungry, there is food. I am thirsty, there is water. I am lonely; there are varieties of companionship. I long for life after death; well, what do you think comes next?  (Thanks to C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity for this point!) This makes even more sense of Jesus’ teaching, “seek and you shall find, ask and it shall be given you.” (Matt. 7:7-8)

Now what we have done in this life affects what our life looks like after we die, just as our youth affects our elder years. As a general rule, if we are following Christ, God “who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:6) What God has not completed in us in this life will first be completed after we die. This we can call ‘Judgement’, where God sifts through us and separates from us all those things that are wrong, evil, or unworthy of those who are the Children of Heaven. Why? For the simple reason that Heaven cannot be perfect if those who live there are imperfect.

This process of sifting and judgment has been referred to in Scripture as a “refiner’s fire,” (Zech 13:9, Mk 9:49-50) alluding to how a refiner will use fire to burn away impurities and bring out from the fire only something pure and more splendidly beautiful than what was put in. Of note in this metaphor is that the process would seem initially unpleasant, quite possibly painful, but the final product is better off than it was before. A more modern metaphor could be life-saving surgery – an unpleasant procedure, but much, much better than the alternative!

Two Parables of Judgment
Let me sum this up with two parables, neither of which are from the Bible. Both of which illustrate well my point.

The final Judgment is like two women who had terminal illness. Both went to a surgeon who promised to remove the infected parts. The first woman accepted the surgeon’s help, and trusting the surgeon, passed through the pain of surgery, recovered her health, and went on live a full and joyous life. The second person, seeing how much of her body would be removed told the surgeon that she was unwilling to part with so much of herself. She distrusted the surgeon she refused surgery. She lived in agony until one day her illness finally consumed her entire body, leaving nothing of who she once was.

Two men reached the Judgment Seat of God. Both lived lives that were neither perfectly good nor horridly evil. As they reached the dais, Jesus rose and pointed to a doorway of fire, the flames making a complete barrier to what lay beyond. The first, seeing the flames raised his fist in anger against Jesus, and swore saying, “I have done nothing to deserve Hell. You are no Just Judge. You are the Accuser, the Satan and the Father of Lies!” And he fled as far from the flames as he could, into the outer darkness. Now the second man, knowing his own imperfection and sinfulness, and trusting that Jesus was steadfast in loving-kindness, accepted what Jesus seemed to say. Though trembling with fear, he stepped through the doorway passing through the flame and came to the other side. There he discovered his imperfections had been burned away and he was left changed and whole. At his right he found Jesus who had also had passed through the flames beside him. And Jesus embraced him saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant… ” (cf Matthew 25)

Conclusion

So what happens when we die? Well, that which was begun in our earthly life is brought to its full consequence, either life with God or the attempt to live a life disconnected from the Source of Life. The latter is bound to fail, like a battery wishing remain charged without ever connecting to its charger. God desires only to take from us only what cannot be allowed into Heaven. We choose whether we are willing to part with those things God requires from us. Are we willing to give up our pride, selfishness, obsessions, addictions, arrogance, greed, grudges, anger, hatred, ego, vengefulness, self-righteousness, and shame?  God promises to help us do so, but we must willingly accept that help. And we must trust God. That trust comes easier if we have spent our lives knowing, listening, and living with God. But if we haven’t, it is still possible since all things are possible with God and God does not want to withhold eternal life from anyone (II Peter 3:9), but it may be extremely difficult. (Matthew 19:16-30).           

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