30 Days - an Overview of the Bible in Just Thirty Daysنموونە

What happens when you Die?

What happens when we die? Does anything happen? Do we just stop existing? Does our consciousness disappear the moment our heart stops or is there something more? Do we go somewhere? Do we stay behind in some form? Do we become aware of death as it’s happening? Is there a moment of realisation? Do we see our lives flash before us? Do we feel peace, fear, or nothing at all? Is it like sleep, but without dreams, or is it the most vivid moment we’ve ever known? Do we meet with God? Is there a heaven? Do we see the people we’ve lost; do they see us? Can they hear us now? Do our regrets matter? Do our actions follow us? Does love last? Or do we simply become part of the earth again, atoms returned to the cycle? Do we come back in another life, another form, another world? Do the questions even make sense once we’ve gone?

What happens when you die?

1 Thessalonians 4:13 - 5:11

The great Christian leader Canon David Watson, who died of cancer at the age of fifty-one said, ‘No one can live well until they can die well’. The apostle Paul wrote this letter to Christian people who were worried about death. They were worried about their relatives and friends who had died and also presumably about themselves. What happens to them and to you and me when we die?

So many people would say that no one knows the answers to these questions, but Paul writes, ‘We do not want you to be ignorant’. You can find out the answers. Our hope lies in the return of Jesus Christ. There are over 300 references to the second coming in the New Testament. This is not ‘pie in the sky when you die’ but rather the centre of our Christian hope, and it is fundamental to our thinking. It involves:

1. Unique hope

You have a unique hope. Paul writes, ‘We do not want you… to grieve like the rest, who have no hope’. It is not wrong to grieve. Grief is important, and we should not suppress it, but the grief of the Christian is (totally) unlike that experienced by those who have no hope. It has been said, ‘Other people see only a hopeless end, but the Christian rejoices in an endless hope.’

2. A certain future

Hope in the Christian sense is no mere human wishful thinking. It is not a pious hope, theoretical or speculative. It is not based on emotion, nor is it a crutch. It is built on historical events. Jesus removed the sting of death on the cross as he bore the full horror of death on our behalf. You don’t have to face what he has already faced for you. Paul speaks of death as falling asleep and falling asleep (if you’re anything like me) is something to look forward to. You need not dread death because the next thing you will experience is waking up, and waking up in the presence of God with all who have died in faith. Jesus rose again and demonstrated conclusively that death is conquered. The resurrection is the guarantee of your hope. This total certainty is not arrogant because it is based not on anything we’ve done or will do, but on what Jesus did and said.

3. Glorious eternity

You will be ‘with the Lord forever’, which is the Christian’s idea of bliss. There will be no illness, no crying or pain but only pure joy. This gives a new perspective to this life with all its trials, temptations and disappointments. You will never again be parted from the Lord or from those you love. You will be caught up ‘together with them’. There will be a great reunion in heaven. Paul writes, ‘Therefore, encourage each other with these words’.

4. Sudden judgment

Various groups have tried to predict the timing of the Lord’s return. But Jesus, Peter, John and Paul all tell us that he will come back ‘like a thief in the night’. We don’t know when this will be. But we do know that he will return. The point is that you must always be ready.

There is a warning in this passage for those who reject Jesus. There is a dark side of our hope. Paul speaks of ‘destruction’, no escape and ‘wrath’. These are solemn and serious words. But he writes to assure the Thessalonians that they have nothing to fear: He writes: ‘You are not in darkness’ and he assures them that they will not ‘suffer wrath’ but will ‘receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ’.

5. A transformed life

Not only do you have a unique hope, a certain future and a glorious eternity but you are enjoying a foretaste of it now. We are ‘children of the light and children of the day’ because God has already broken into history. There is life before death as well as after death: Jesus ‘died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him’.

You are already enjoying the relationship with God which is eternal life. Yet you cannot simply sit back and enjoy it. If you are aware that others are missing out now and will miss out even more in the future, you must do all you can now to give others hope. Jesus wants disciples who not only have hope but also give hope.

Prayer

Lord, thank you today for the future hope you give us. Thank you that you died for me and rose from the dead that I may live together with you. Thank you for rescuing me from the coming judgment. Help me to live a new life, ‘alert and self-controlled’, ‘putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet’.

References

© Nicky Gumbel, 2024

This reading plan is adapted from the book 30 Days by Nicky Gumbel. It is published by Hodder and Stoughton in the UK, and by HarperCollins Christian Publishing in the USA.