Heaven and Earth

 

“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ESV

 

It’s interesting to hear the views that many express when it comes to the afterlife. It’s even more interesting when these people are professing Christians. And it quickly becomes clear that we’re missing something.

 

So many of us, today, tend to think of our eternal existence as something that is purely spiritual in nature. We believe that, when we die, our spirit goes to heaven to be with Christ. And that’s the end of it.

 

When it comes right down to it, we’re unsure of what eternal life will look like. Some view it as an endless church service. Others imagine that we’ll be forever sitting on a cloud, strumming our harp. But, whatever the case, we imagine ourselves to be spirits. We don’t envision any physical aspect of this existence whatsoever.

 

Although it’s true that, when we die in faith, our spirit goes to be with Christ, this is not how it will be forever. Our existence in eternity will not be purely spiritual. We will exist as the physical and the spiritual beings that God created us to be.

 

We see, in the above passage, that those who have passed on in faith are indeed with Christ. They are with Christ, away from the body. And, when Jesus returns, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

 

At that time, Paul tells us, they will rise from the grave. In other words, their spirit will rejoin their now perfected body. And those of us who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the air. We will join them with our body as well.

 

We learn from this, as well as from other passages of Scripture, that our eternal existence will take place in the body. It will take place in the body, which has been delivered from sin. And we’ll live forever in a physical world.

 

The difference between the world in which we live now and the one in which we will live is that, as there will be no more sin, the consequences of sin will be no more. Suffering and death will be a thing of the past. And we will always be with the Lord.