Death Part 3

X. This section addresses the afterlife experienced between the death of the body and its resurrection. A. In PHIL 1:20-26 Paul expounds what life and death were for him. 1. For Paul, to live was Christ. a. Paul's life was given and sustained by Christ (GAL 2:20), was directed by Christ (1CO 9:21), was an instrument of Christ (ROM 15:18-19), and aimed at Christ in all things. PHIL 3:8. b. Christ was the sum of his life. c. What is your life? Wherein does your life consist? LUK 12:15. 2. For Paul to die was gain. If Christ is our life here, then death will be gain for us. Death 2-2-25 Page 4  3. If Paul lived in the flesh, the fruit or effect of his labor was to magnify Christ in his body. PSA 71:14-18. 4. Paul was in a great strait between departing the flesh to be with Christ and abiding in the flesh to serve the church of God. a. strait: A narrow confined place or space or way generally. fig. A narrow or tight place, a time of sore need or of awkward or straitened circumstances, a difficulty or fix. b. Paul was being pressed by these two alternatives and had difficulty deciding between them. He wot not (did not know) which to choose. c. Paul desired to depart and to be with Christ, but it was more needful to abide here for the church. d. Paul was thus torn between what he wanted and what was needful. Sound familiar? e. This was a blessed strait because it was a strait between two good things: remaining here for the glory of Christ or departing and being with Christ. (1) Would that all straits in Christian experience were straits between two good things! c/w 2SAM 24:13-14. (2) That both choices were desirable for Paul was only owing to his certain faith in Christ's life, His residence, and His promises. Thus, his physical death was not an unsavory option. 5. This departure and being with Christ is Paul's description of bodily death. a. Paul's words concur with LUK 16:19-31 in countering the doctrine of soul sleep. b. Advocates of the doctrine of soul sleep apply the expression “to be with Christ” to the coming resurrection of the body. c. Paul's desire (singular) had as its object departing and being with Christ. Would Paul desire to depart, if it did not mean being immediately in the presence of Christ? d. Departing and being with Christ are placed in contrast to abiding in the flesh. e. Paul would not be in a strait between the future resurrection and abiding here to help the church. At the future resurrection his help would not be needed since all the elect will be caught up to be with the Lord in resurrection perfection. 1CO 15:51-52. f. Therefore, this language cannot be referring to entering the presence of Christ bodily at the resurrection. B. Paul desired death because it meant to depart and to be with Christ. 1. Paul did not desire death as merely a means to escape suffering in this world. 2. Many wicked men desire death to escape suffering. JER 8:3; REV 9:6. a. This is the whole rationale for assisted suicide, a risky and slippery slope which, once accepted in society, would likely morph into “death panels” determining when someone is worth saving. b. There is nothing Christian about desiring death merely to escape suffering, especially if there are other options to mitigate suffering (palliative care, medication, counselling, self-improvement, etc.). c. The righteous Job desired death to escape his misery and later realized he had misspoken. JOB 3; 42:1-6. d. Remember the patience of Job as a model, not his errors. JAM 5:11. e. “God teaches us, in the midst of life’s greatest comforts, to be willing to die, Death 2-2-25 Page 5  and, in the midst of its greatest crosses, to be willing to live.” (Matthew Henry) 3. Being at peace with dying or bravely facing death of itself is no evidence of God’s saving grace. a. Atheists and devil-possessed heathen have been at peace with death. b. Soldiers who fornicate, get drunk, and blaspheme have died bravely for their country and yet upon dying went down into hell. EZE 32:27. c. Atheistic Communists have died bravely for love of their cause and country. d. Wicked people who have no fear of God may also not fear the judgment of God. They just block it out of their thinking. ROM 1:32. e. The devil can deceive men at the time of death just as he can during the course of their life on earth. 4. Asaph gave this description of the wicked, who prosper in this world: “For there are no bands in their death” (PSA 73:4). a. They are not shackled like God’s people are. b. “Many of the godly have sore conflicts at their death. Their enemy then thrusts sore at them that they may fall; or that their confidence in their God may be shaken. But of this the ungodly know nothing. Satan will not molest them; he is sure of his prey; they are entangled, and cannot now break their nets; their consciences are seared, they have no sense of guilt. If they think at all of another world, they presume on that mercy which they never sought, and of which they have no distinct notion. Perhaps, 'they die without a sigh or a groan; and thus go off as quiet as a lamb' - to the slaughter.” (Adam Clarke Commentary) 5. One dies wholly at ease and quiet while another dies in the bitterness of his soul. JOB 21:23-26. 6. A child of God who battles with sin and who knows the holiness and wrath of God, and the sinfulness of his sin has cause at times to be uneasy about dying. 7. It is not so much how one dies that reveals grace in the heart. It is rather how one lives. 8. If while living one desires death as a pathway to be with Christ, that shows God’s grace in the heart even if at the time of death they are in bitter pain of body and mind. C. Death to the believer is a departure from the body into the presence of Christ. 2CO 5:6-8; ACT 7:56-60. 1. The believer leaves his body and goes to be in the presence of the glorified man Christ Jesus, Who is at the right hand of God in heaven. MAR 16:19. 2. Something about a believer does not die when the body dies. JOH 11:26; 2CO 4:16. D. On the day of the death of his body, the believer goes to be with Christ in paradise. LUK 23:43. 1. The word paradise means a park or a garden. 2. Sinful man was cast out of the garden of Eden, where the Lord walked. GEN 3:8, 23-24. 3. Saved man at death goes to be in a garden with the Lord. What a blessed reversal! E. REV 6:9-11 teaches that saints are consciously in the presence of Christ between the death and resurrection of their bodies. 1. John was an eyewitness beholding events that take place in heaven. REV 4:1. a. Jesus Christ also bore witness of this place. JOH 3:12-13. Death 2-2-25 Page 6  b. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel saw it. EXO 24:10. c. Isaiah and Ezekiel saw it. EZE 1; ISA 6:1-5. 2. John saw under the altar the souls of martyrs. a. Under Moses’ law, the blood of the sin offering was poured at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering. LEV 4:25. b. The death of a martyr is described as an offering to God. PHIL 2:17; 2TI 4:6. c. Hence, the souls of the martyrs appear under the altar. 3. The martyrs had been slain for the word of God and the testimony which they held. a. These souls died rather than abandon their faith. b. Like Paul, they magnified Christ in their body by life and by death. 4. John beheld the souls of them who were slain for their faith. a. Their bodies were obviously dead at this point. b. Man consists of spirit, soul, and body. 1TH 5:23. c. The soul and spirit are within the body. JOB 14:22; 1CO 2:11. d. At death, the soul and spirit depart the body which is the tabernacle of the soul and spirit. GEN 35:18; ECC 12:7; LUK 8:55; 2PE 1:13-15. e. A man can be caught up to paradise while he is out of the body. 2CO 12:1-4; LUK 23:43. 5. These souls are told to rest for a season. 6. These souls are told that others must yet be killed. a. If others must be killed, then the general resurrection of the bodily dead had not yet taken place. c/w 2TI 2:16-18. b. After the resurrection, no more saints will be killed. 1CO 15:51-54. c. This counters the notion that there will be tribulation martyrs after Christ raptures the church out of this world. 7. These souls are in God's presence; they are conscious; they speak; they hear; and they are consoled. They are such as Paul described in glory, “...the spirits of just men made perfect...” (HEB 12:23). F. The departed saints are presently desiring the better country. HEB 11:13-16. 1. The passage is dealing with Old Testaments saint who died in faith. 2. Yet these dead saints “...desire (present tense) a better country...” (HEB 11:16). 3. They will not inherit that country without us. HEB 11:35-40. 4. It will be after the resurrection and the judgment that all of God’s elect will inherit the new heavens and the new earth, that better country. a. They shall do so in sin-free, incorruptible, immortal bodies. 1CO 15:52-54. b. This is a state superior to Adam’s before the fall in that he was an immortal who lost that to Satan who will not be in that better country. REV 20:10. G. The departed saints are in a state of peace, comfort, and rest. ISA 57:1-2; LUK 16:22-25; REV 14:13. H. By contrast, death for the wicked is the beginning of endless torment. LUK 16:22-23; JUDE 1:6-7. I. Considering what this departure involves for the believer, no wonder Paul said this was far better than staying here. 1. In life, Paul was consciously in fellowship with Christ through the Holy Spirit. 2. How would a state of unconsciousness be far better than that and why would Paul desire it? 3. Understanding what death would mean for him, Paul desired it! Death 2-2-25 Page 7