[Some say] that death ought not to be final, that there ought to be a second chance. I believe that if a million chances were likely to do good, they would be given. But a master [teacher] often knows, when boys and parents do not, that it is really useless to send a boy in for a certain examination again. Finality must come sometime, and it does not require a very robust faith to believe that omniscience [an all-knowing God] knows when.[i]
There was the same ambivalence toward death in Paul’s time. Some viewed death positively as the release of the immortal soul from its mortal bodily tomb, while others looked on death as life’s end—as the popular maxim ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ (1 Cor 15:32) attests. Paul, however, puts forward a different expectation for the Christian in 2 Corinthians 5:1–10. There is the certainty of physical resurrection and transformation (vv. 1–5), the confidence that death begins a journey in the realm of sight (vv. 6–7) and the assurance that death places us in the presence of Christ (v. 8). All this is confirmed by the deposit of the Spirit within us, guaranteeing what is to come (v. 5).[ii]
There is much speculation and controversy between the moment we die and the time when Jesus comes again, in which we will receive our eternal bodies. In writing earlier to the Corinthians, Paul laid out the teaching regarding the resurrection in great detail as found in 1 Corinthians 15. He also describes the difference between our earthly bodies and spiritual ones.
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.[iii]
At first, the early church assumed that Jesus would return soon, but then days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and months into years. Believers were dying, and the question arose, so what happens to those who die before Jesus comes back? Paul answered that question in 1 Thessalonians.
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.[iv]
Yet this triggered another question; what happens to those believers who physically die before Jesus’ return? This was a deep concern in the lives of the first century Christians and has created much confusion that remains to this very day. Theologians call this the intermediate state.
There has always been a fascination about the afterlife that remains to this day. Let me begin by mentioning three false ideas and then move toward our text today and give us the biblical picture of the intermediate state.
FIRST, WE WILL EXAMINE THREE FALSE VIEWS REGARDING THE INTERMEDIATE STATE
The intermediate state is that which occurs to those who have died as believers and have not yet experienced the fulness of a resurrected, spiritual body.
A. One of the ideas that is gaining traction in our western world is reincarnation.
This is the idea that after death, people, depending on the kind of life they have led, will come back again. In Hinduism, it could mean coming back as various living creatures or in a different caste system, which is a different social status, depending on if you lived a moral life or not. However, the bible makes it very clear that this concept is false.
Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.[v]
So, we only have one life which is a preparation for the life to come, either with God or suffering eternal alienation from God, who is the giver of all good things here on earth. Hell will be a place of continued shame and regret.
- Another concept is called purgatory.
In this teaching, though people believe in God, purgatory teaches that not all sin has been cleansed in order to achieve heaven, and the time between death and heaven is a time of purification and cleansing. Purgatory is a concept that both the Roman Catholic church and the Greek orthodox churches teach. As explain in Catholic teaching:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines purgatory as a ‘purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven,’ which is experienced by those ‘who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified’ (CCC 1030). It notes that ‘this final purification of the elect . . . is entirely different from the punishment of the damned’ (CCC 1031). They claim that purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches, nothing unclean will enter the presence of God in heaven (Rev 21:2A.7).[vi]
John A. Hardon, a Jesuit priest, elaborates:
When we speak of the souls of the just in purgatory, we are referring to those that leave the body in the state of sanctifying grace and are therefore destined by right to enter heaven. Their particular judgment was favorable, although conditional: provided they are first cleansed to appear before God. The condition is always fulfilled.
The poor souls in purgatory still have the stains of sin within them. This means two things. First, it means that the souls have not yet paid the temporal penalty due, either for venial sins, or for mortal sins whose guilt was forgiven before death. It may also mean the venial sins themselves, which were not forgiven either as to guilt or punishment before death. It is not certain whether the guilt of venial sins is strictly speaking remitted after death, and if so, how the remission takes place.
We should also distinguish between the expiatory punishments that the poor souls in purgatory pay and the penalties of satisfaction which souls in a state of grace pay before death. Whereas before death a soul can cleanse itself by freely choosing to suffer for its sins, and can gain merit for this suffering, a soul in purgatory can not so choose and gains no merit for the suffering and no increase in glory. Rather, it is cleansed according to the demands of Divine Justice.
We are not certain whether purgatory is a place or a space in which souls are cleansed. The Church has never given a definite answer to this question. The important thing to understand is that it is a state or condition in which souls undergo purification.[vii]
However, there is no biblical support for this doctrine, and the appeal is made based on a text from the Apocrypha, which is not considered an authoritative text by either the Jewish or Protestant communities of faith. The verse that is appealed to is found in 2 Maccabees 12:43-45, where prayers are said for the soldiers who had been killed fighting against people who were trying to destroy Jewish worship and subjugate the people under Seleucid rule.
What this teaching expresses is that people need to be purified and must suffer for their sins, but not eternally. What this teaching is doing is negating the total sufficiency of Christ’s sacrificial death for all sin. Human Suffering does not cleanse a person from their sins. Only Jesus’ death as a substitute for us can cleanse us from our sins. Suffering can cause us to reconsider our behavior in this life and stop sinning (1 Peter 4:1-2), but only Jesus can forgive and cleanse us from our sins. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).”
In a sense, they are teaching the insufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ for sin and its application to our lives. The question we need to ask is, what happened to the thief who died on the cross beside Jesus? In his repentant statement found in Luke’s gospel.
But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.’[viii]
Here we see a person declared forgiven and brought into paradise, God’s presence, not purgatory. If anyone would have required purification for sins, it would certainly have been this criminal. However, his repentance and Jesus’ forgiveness and purification allow him to enter God’s presence.
C. The third false view of the afterlife is called soul sleep.
The fact that souls of believers go immediately into God’s presence also means that the doctrine of soul sleep is incorrect. This doctrine teaches that when believers die they go into a state of unconscious existence, and the next thing that they are conscious of will be when Christ returns and raise them to eternal life. …Support for the doctrine of soul sleep has generally been found in fact that Scripture several times speaks of the state of death as “sleep” or “falling asleep” (Matthew 9:24; 27:52; John 11:11; Acts 7:60; 13:36; 1 Cor. 15:6, 18, 20,51; 1 Thess. 4:13; 5:10). …But when Scripture represents death as “sleep” it is simply a metaphorical expression used to indicate that death is only temporary for Christian, just as sleep is temporary.[ix]
Sleep, then, used in these biblical texts are a figure of speech, a euphemism that is speaking of the believers who have died in Christ. This does not mean that they are asleep until Jesus comes again.
SECONDLY, WE WILL EXAMINE WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS WHEN BELIEVERS DIE BEFORE THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS
So, what does happen to believers when they die before the Second Coming of Jesus? It was a question that Paul answers in a number of different letters, but the greatest explanation was given to the Corinthian church. Here in our text, we discover some understanding but are also left with still some questions.
- Our earthly bodies are temporary.
Paul begins by describing our earthly body as temporary, like a tent, in contrast to something that is more permanent, our heavenly body.
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. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling,[x]
Paul does not use here the usual word for tent (skēnē) which is found extensively in the lxx [Septuagint- Greek Old Testament] (366 times) and twenty times in the New Testament. Rather, he uses an unusual word, skēnos, which is found only once in the lxx (Wis 9:15) where it is used figuratively to refer to the human body.[xi]
- Our Heavenly body is eternal, made by 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.[xii]
Our heavenly bodies are created not through natural means, but by God. We have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
- As we age our earthly bodies break down.
Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked.[xiii]
Here we read that we long for and ultimately will groan for our eternal body. Paul goes on and states why we long for this eternal body. We do not want to be naked. What does Paul mean when he says that “we will not be found naked”? Paul is not talking about not having a body but as Linda Belleville writes: “To be found naked, then, would be to experience God’s judgment and not the freedom from bodily existence that many Greeks (and perhaps some Corinthians) expected.”[xiv]
For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.[xv]
Why does Paul repeat himself? Some think that Paul’s recent close encounter with death, related in 1:8–11, forced him to come to terms with the possibility that he would not be alive when Christ returned and in turn raised the question of the state of the believer between death and resurrection.[xvi]
One of the things that happens in our lives to prepare us for eternity is that our earthly bodies start wearing out, and as believers it moves us to long for our eternal home. We can’t do what we once did and eventually we are unable to do much. Also, as we grow spiritually, our desire for God increases.
Paul’s ultimate desire is not for death per se, which is unclothing; rather, his goal is to be “clothed” with the resurrection body (5:2–4; 1 Cor 15:53–54). Paul wants to conclude his mortality not with death but with mortality being transformed into immortality, by the greater power of life (5:4). But it is the certain hope of the resurrection body, which he now “has” (5:1), that gives him courage to face death for the sake of his ministry of life (5:6–8). In 5:5, Paul notes that his present experience of resurrection power (4:10–11, 16) guarantees its future consummation (4:14; 5:1–4); the present experience of the Spirit is a foretaste of its future fullness (1 Cor 2:9–10; 15:44).[xvii]
- Life as we now are living is not our ultimate destination.
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.[xviii]
Our ultimate purpose is to be with God forever. We were created to experience eternal life with a heavenly body made by God. The holy Spirit is the one guaranteeing to us that what we crave will become reality one day.
- So, where are we after we die before Jesus’ return?
Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.[xix]
When a believer dies, that is the moment that they enter into God’s presence. Though our earthly body dies, our soul, immediately enters God’s presence. Though now we live by faith, the day is coming when we will be living by sight, because we will be experiencing all that God promised to us. That is what Paul is saying here, and again we hear that same thought expressed in Philippians.
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.[xx]
- Our purpose for living as believers is to please God.
So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.[xxi]
As we mature in our relationship with God, we move away from a life to please ourselves, to a life desiring to please and glorify God. This becomes our greatest joy.
- Our accountability before God’s judgment.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.[xxii]
The judgment of the believer stated here is regarding our actions in life, whether they were good or bad. The Greek word here can be translated ‘evil’, but it could also be translated, ‘worthless.’ Knowing that Jesus has addressed the sin issues, maybe this is an evaluation of how we spent our lives. Paul gives us further insight into this purpose and activity in our earthly life in his first letter to the Corinthians.
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.[xxiii]
Paul uses the analogy of building our lives using precious metals and stones versus that which is less durable, such as wood, hay and stubble. Our lives are described as “the quality of each person’s work,” which is another way of describing the quality of our lives in relationship to our service for God. Even though we will be saved, God rewards our lives based on how we lived. What kind of value do we bring to God as we serve Him?
Knowing that we have an eternal home awaiting us, how should that affect our lives now? How did it affect Paul’s life?
What Paul does dwell on in these verses is how what we believe about the future should affect our lives today. It most certainly affected Paul. The knowledge that he possessed an eternal house in heaven allowed him to have a positive attitude toward life’s adversities.[xxiv]
It also was, and is, a great motivator to live a life pleasing to Christ. One of those elements that are critical is to bring the gospel to as many people as possible.
So, the question we began with was, what actually happens?
The Scriptures are not clear.
One final question needs to be raised, especially since this is one of the few places that Paul touches on what happens to the believer at death: does the believer face an embodied or a disembodied existence in the interim between death and the parousia? The difficulty is that Paul does not explicitly address this issue. We must read between the lines, and as with any venture of this sort, there is a wide margin for error. This explains the current disparity of interpretations. Some argue on the basis of these verses that there is no period of disembodiment (for example, F. F. Bruce, Murray J. Harris). Others maintain that Paul is indeed acknowledging a time of disembodiment between death and resurrection. But perhaps even to phrase the question in this way misses the central truth of these verses. The question of life beyond the grave is primarily not a metaphysical one (that is, what happens to the body at death and when a new body is given) but a Christian one (that is, what happens to the believer at death; … Embodiment or disembodiment is, at best, peripheral.) What matters the most to Paul is that to be absent from this present world is to be at home with the Lord (v. 8).[xxv]
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[i] C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, Kindle eBook, 80-81.
[ii] Linda Belleville, 2 Corinthians, TheIVP New Testament Commentary Series, Vol. 8, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 2 Corinthians 5:1-5.
[iii] 1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 50-54.
[iv] 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.
[v] Hebrews 9:27.
[vi] What Is Purgatory? | Catholic Answers Guide to the Afterlife | Catholic Answers Tract.
[vii] John A. Hardon, https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4677
[viii] Luke 23:40-43.
[ix] Wayne Gruden, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, (Grand Rapids, Mi: Zondervan, 1994), 819-20.
[x] 2 Corinthians 5:1-2.
[xi] Colin Kruse, 2 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, Vol. 8, (Grand Rapids, Mi: William B. Eerdmans, 1989), 112.
[xii] 2 Corinthians 5:1.
[xiii] 2 Corinthians 5:2-3.
[xiv] Linda Belleville, 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5:1-5.
[xv] 2 Corinthians 5:4.
[xvi] Linda Belleville, 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5:1-5.
[xvii] Craig Keener, 1-2 Corinthians, The New Cambridge Bible Commentary, Ed. B. Witherington III, (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 181.
[xviii] 2 Corinthians 5:5.
[xix] 2 Corinthians 5:6-8.
[xx] Philippians 1:21-24.
[xxi] 2 Corinthians 5:9.
[xxii] 2 Corinthians 5:10.
[xxiii] 1 Corinthians 3:11-15.
[xxiv] Linda Belleville, 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10.
[xxv] Ibid.
