Death – What Can We Expect?

  In the year two thousand and thirty three God’s creation of spiritual mankind will be six thousand years old,  man He created in His own image, a triune being with a body, soul, and spirit. There were humans and other creatures roaming the earth at this time, but none possessed the spirit of God. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. 2 Corinthians 5:1 NIV Our earthly tent is our physical body, and our eternal house is the spirit/soul being that resides within us. Man was formed from the dust, but we became a living soul when God breathed into us the breath of life.  Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling…  so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.  Now the One who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 5:2,4-5 NIV

Death is a mystery to man, and frightening to most. But for the child of God , it need not be. We have confidence in the Lord that He will see us through to paradise. Death is the curse we received through Adam’s disobedience.  Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. Romans 5:12 NIV  Thanks be to Jesus Christ that through faith in His finished work all of us can be made alive. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Romans 5:15 NIV  Man is the author of death, and God is the author of life.  Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: For we walk by faith, not by sight: We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 NIV We know from this scripture that the spirit of the believer goes to be with the Lord the moment the body dies.

We know that to have eternal life is to live in Christ, and to die would be more beneficial for us, but while our spirit lives in the flesh it is more beneficial for others so we may share our testimony and produce fruit.  And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:21-23 NIV  We are torn between the two. We desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far,  but it is more important for others that we remain in the body.  Convinced of this, We know that we will remain, and we will continue to focus on other’s progress and joy in the faith,  so that through us other Christians will abound in Christ Jesus.

We will live in this body until we die, and when we die our body will return to the earth and our soul/spirit will go to be with God. In spiritual form we were with God prior to our birth. He knew us, and I believe we knew Him before the foundations of the earth were laid. We are going back from where we came to the open  arms of our heavenly Father. There is no reason to be afraid, because it is our confidence is Christ, our faith, that will deliver us to paradise. We are all here for one reason, and that is to believe that Jesus Christ was crucified, buried, and resurrected from the dead, knowing that he is the Son of God. Through faith we are transformed from death unto eternal life. We will rest in paradise fully aware of our surroundings until the rapture of the church. Then we will receive our glorified bodies. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:1-3 NIV

 

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