Death

“So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:6-8 NLT)

*Today’s article is unique in the sense I asked a dear friend to guide me in understanding a few things which will become apparent as you read. Joel Cosio is the Connection Director at Hope Church and is preparing for his Ordination as a Pastor in the near future. His insights have been invaluable, and the italicized areas are from his research. I’m so grateful for his friendship and insights. Blessings, Ed 😊

What happens when we die? Perhaps that’s the age-old question, but even among Jesus followers there are differences of opinion, all, presumably, based on the authority of Scripture. In the verses above Paul is clearly instructing that, as believers in Jesus, to be absent from our earthly bodies is to be present with the Lord, not asleep in “limbo” somewhere waiting for His second coming.

The clear implication to me is as long as we are in these bodies of clay, we will be away from our eternal bodies in which we will live for all eternity with the Father. That in no way nullifies that the Holy Spirit, God’s eternal presence, is with us as believers from the moment we yield our life and allegiance to Jesus. My sense is, the clear instruction of Scripture, as believers in Jesus, there is not a second that we are not with the Lord in this life or the next from the moment of our new birth.

My thoughts turn to Luke 23:43 where the Lord Jesus, dying on the Cross, assured the repentant thief who sought Jesus’ remembrance of Him, who was a brand new believer, certainty that he would be with Him that very day in paradise, which is a clear reference to heaven. Also, in Luke 16:19-31 Jesus tells the story of the rich man and Lazarus. It’s interesting here that Jesus didn’t use the term “paradise,” but “the bosom of Abraham.” Why did He do that?

Because in Luke 16 He hadn’t been resurrected, but in Luke 23, though Jesus’ body would be in the grave, His Spirit would be in Paradise with the Father, because, as the Lord revealed to Paul, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Father. Joel adds: “A Clarifying point: The bosom of Abraham was the place where the Old Testament saints (the righteous) were gathered together awaiting the victory of Christ through the resurrection when they would be taken up with Jesus to be with the Father. While the bosom of Abraham (OT) is in opposition of the New Testament understanding of Hades, the bosom of Abraham was within Sheol (Hebrew word for the place of the dead, both righteous and wicked) which is translated as Hades (Greek word for the place of the dead) in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament known as the Septuagint (LXX).” Note that those in the Bosom of Abraham, Hades, and Sheol had awareness of their surroundings, realizing they were with or away from the presence of God, they were not asleep (unaware).

Additionally, 1 Peter 3:19 gives us insight as to what Jesus was doing while His body was in the tomb when he writes: “So He went and preached to the spirits in prison – those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat.” Obviously, Jesus wasn’t asleep, nor were those whom He visited. Joel gives us insight again when he writes: “Sheol as it was understood in the OT no longer exists since only the wicked are awaiting judgment in what is referred to in the NT as hades. While there are many interpretations of 1 Peter 3:19, I would say that what Jesus ‘preached to the spirits’ was His victory over death, hell, the devil, and the grave. Those to whom Jesus preached were already judged and in the wicked portion of sheol, not Abraham’s bosom, and were not offered a second chance but assured of their judgment. Please review the ESV Study Bible explanation at the end of this article.“

“Yeh, but what about those who are alive today who have never heard the name of Jesus?” According to Romans 1:20 people are without excuse for not knowing God; however, my sense is those who are chosen by Him will be given opportunity to know who Jesus is, even if it’s in a dream or a vision. The bottom line is, as Paul writes, we are without excuse as human beings for not opening our heart to Jesus.

Death is the passage from this life to the next, so, the only time we have to prepare for what lies ahead is right now, in this moment. If you haven’t settled your eternal account with God, do it now. Tap this link and let Ron Huchcraft walk you through a simple, straightforward explanation of how you can give your life to the Lord and know with certainty that when you close your eyes in death you will open them in the presence of your risen Savior.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed and Joel 😊

*Additional Resources

IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, sheol is considered the grave or place where the dead remained including the wicked as well as the righteous in Abraham’s bosom.

IN THE NEW TESTAMENT: hades carries a very similar definition as sheol only that it only has the wicked as its inhabitants since believers in Jesus are immediately in the presence of the LORD upon death.

Sheol. In the OT, sheol refers to the grave (Gen. 37:35; 42:38; Num. 16:30, 33; 1 Sam. 2:6), the depths (Ps. 139:8; Amos 9:2; Job 11:8; Is. 7:11), death (Deut. 32:22; Job 26:6), or the place where the dead are (Ps. 9:17; 31:17; Ezek. 31:15; 32:21, 27; Isa. 57:9). While all went to sheol (both the righteous and unrighteous), the righteous were not to stay in sheol but were to be rescued by the Messiah (Ps. 16:10; 49:15).

Hades. The Gk. hádēs (Lit. means dark, obscure or invisible) is where the disembodied spirits of the lost currently remain in the immediate state (Lk. 16:23) until the eternal state is ushered in when they will be judged and tossed into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14). Though Hades is the New Testament reference of the Old Testament Sheol (the place of the dead or grave; where both the disembodied righteous and unrighteous awaited the eternal state), the death and resurrection of Christ has transformed hades into a place where the unrighteous alone await their judgment (Matt. 11:23; 16:18; Luke 10:15; 1 Cor. 15:55; Rev. 1:18; 6:8; 20:13, 14) since now the righteous await the eternal state with Jesus (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor 5:8; 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7; see Acts 2:27, 31’s usage of Ps 16:10).

Gehenna. The underlying Greek word was Gehenna (γέεννα) which is translated as Hell (meaning the place of eternal torment for the lost and condemned; (Matt. 5:22, 29, 30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15, 33; Mk. 9:43, 45, 47; Lk. 12:5; Jas. 3:6) is derived from the Heb. gā-Hinnom, Valley of Hinnom (Josh. 15:8; Neh. 11:30; also the “valley of the son of Hinnom” 2 Kgs. 23:10; 2 Chr. 28:3; 33:6; Josh. 18:16; Jer. 7:31, 32; 19:2, 6). Though the usage of Gehenna is mostly found in the Synoptic Gospels (11 out of 12) with Jesus making reference to it every time, Gehenna is described throughout the NT. Gehenna is referred to as a place of punishment (Matt. 25:46) and destruction (Phil. 3:19; 2 Thess. 1:9) “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.” (Mk. 9:48), a “furnace of fire” (Matt. 13:42), a place of darkness (2 Pet. 2:17; Jude 1:13), of “outer darkness” (Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30), and a “lake of fire” (Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14, 15; 21:8). In the OT, the place that would be called Gehenna became known for its evil, idolatrous, religious practices such as the offering up of children to “pass through the fire” for the worship of Molech (1 Kgs. 16:3; 2 Kgs. 21:6; 2 Chr. 28:3; 33:6). Gehenna, later known as “the valley” (Jer. 2:23; 31:40) would be filled with human bones by King Josiah who tried to end the pagan worship and would remain a place of abomination (2 Kgs. 23:10, 13, 14). Gehenna is what we would refer to as “hell,” the place of eternal torment for the lost, condemned, and wicked.

ESV STUDY BIBLE NOTES ON 1 PETER 3:19:

3:19 spirits in prison. There is much debate about the identity of these spirits. The Greek term pneuma (“spirit”), in either singular or plural, can mean either human spirits or angels, depending on the context (cf. Num. 16:22; 27:16; Acts 7:59; Heb. 12:23; etc.). Among the three most common interpretations, the first two fit best with the rest of Scripture and with historic orthodox Christian doctrine. These are:

(1) The first interpretation understands “spirits” (Gk. pneumasin, plural) as referring to the unsaved (human spirits) of Noah’s day. Christ, “in the spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18), proclaimed the gospel “in the days of Noah” (v. 20) through Noah. The unbelievers who heard Christ’s preaching “did not obey . . . in the days of Noah” (v. 20) and are now suffering judgment (they are “spirits in prison,” v. 19). Several reasons support this view: (a) Peter calls Noah a “herald of righteousness” (2 Pet. 2:5), where “herald” represents Greek kēryx, “preacher,” which corresponds to the noun kēryssō, “proclaim,” in 1 Pet. 3:19. (b) Peter says the “Spirit of Christ” was speaking through the OT prophets (1:11); thus Christ could have been speaking through Noah as an OT prophet. (c) The context indicates that Christ was preaching through Noah, who was in a persecuted minority, and God saved Noah, which is similar to the situation in Peter’s time: Christ is now preaching the gospel through Peter and his readers (v. 15) to a persecuted minority, and God will save them.

(2) In the second interpretation, the spirits are the fallen angels who were cast into hell to await the final judgment. Reasons supporting this view include: (a) Some interpreters say that the “sons of God” in Gen. 6:2–4 are angels (see note on Gen. 6:1–2) who sinned by cohabiting with human women “when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah” (1 Pet. 3:20). (b) Almost without exception in the NT, “spirits” (plural) refers to supernatural beings rather than people (e.g., Matt. 8:16; 10:1; Mark 1:27; 5:13; 6:7; Luke 4:36; 6:18; 7:21; 8:2; 10:20; 11:26; Acts 5:16; 8:7; 19:12, 13; 1 Tim. 4:1; 1 John 4:1; Rev. 16:13–14; cf. Heb. 1:7). (c) The word “prison” is not used elsewhere in Scripture as a place of punishment after death for human beings, while it is used for Satan (Rev. 20:7) and other fallen angels (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). In this case the message that Christ proclaimed is almost certainly one of triumph, after having been “put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18).

(3) In a third view, some have advocated the idea that Christ offered a second chance of salvation to those in hell. This interpretation, however, is in direct contradiction with other Scripture (cf. Luke 16:26; Heb. 9:27) and with the rest of 1 Peter and therefore must be rejected on biblical and theological grounds, leaving either of the first two views as the most likely interpretation.