What Happens When Believers Die?

"we are confident and satisfied to be out of the body and at home with the Lord." -1 Corinthians 5:8

"I am pressured by both. I have the desire to depart and be with Christ—which is far better—" -Phil. 1:23

I recently received this question from a church member on what happens to believers when we die? Do we go to be with Jesus or does our soul sleep? The Bible makes multipule references to "sleep" or "falling asleep" such as (Matt. 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). And if some passages were all we had on the topic, one would believe the dead do not have a conscious existence (see. Ps. 6:5; 115:17-18; Eccl. 9:10; Isaiah 38:19). But when the scriptures represent death as "sleep" it is simply a metaphorical expression used to indicate that death is only temporary for Christians, just as sleep in temporary. It may also be an expression to help explain what the transition is like from life to death back to life, which feels instantaneous to us. In John 11:11, Jesus say, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep". Jesus does not says "the soul of Lazarus is sleeping" nor does any passage in Scriptures say that the soul of a person is sleeping or unconscious. The passages that seem to indicate that the dead do not praise God, or that there is a ceasing of conscious activity when people die, these authors are writing from what the world observes. There are other examples in Psalms, where the author is working through what appears to be reality from our perspective instead of what is reality from God's perspective (see Psalm 73).

I believe the Bible teaches believers go immediately into God's presence rejoicing. In the above passage from 1 Corinthians 5, Paul believes that he will be removed from the body and immediately at home with God. He goes on and shares the same thought in Philippians 1:23, he desires to depart and be with the Lord, seeing the departing dovetailing with being with Christ! Paul does not say, "my desire is to depart and be unconscious for a long period of time."

In addition to these verses, Jesus says to the thief on the cross dying next to him, "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:24) Jesus' statement indicates that after they both die on the cross, they would be immediately ushered into paradise, not fall asleep. We also see the author of Hebrews instruct us that when Christians come together to worship, we come not only into the presence of God in heaven, but also into the presence of " the spirits of righteous people made perfect (Hebrews 12:23)." Be encouraged beloved of the Lord, the dead in Christ are with Him and praising his name right now!