Hello. You don't know me but I have a message for you, because I care about you. One day you are going to die. What do you think will happen once you pass through that dark veil? What do you hope for? What do you fear? My aim here is to help you think about your life and even more about your death and to clarify what God says in the Bible about what will happen to you after you die. It is not to prove or disprove God, we can deal with that idea later. In this article I’m going to assume the existence of God. The big question here is this: What's next? Assuming there is a God who created us, what has He told us about what happens after this life? In the first article, we discussed your purpose, that is, why you exist here and now. But this question deals with what happens after your time is up. Many people have their own crafted ideas about what will happen. But this is simply because there’s been no verified confirmation of people going there and back and telling about it. Even those who have claimed to go to Heaven and back, there’s no way that we can verify it. There’s no witnesses to a person’s account of an afterlife. Everyone who has passed over knows exactly what is there. But how do they pass back over to us and tell us? There’s the problem. They can’t! We see and heart signs and hints of what might be over there and we form convictions, build entire theories and hardcore beliefs about what we believe go be over there. But we only have vague hints and signs. But how are we to interpret our perceptions of those hints? Is there anything in this world that does tell us anything concrete and comprehensive? Is there anyone who can tell us from the other side of death what is over there? And if so, how would they tell us? And how would we hear it? Why should we believe it? Think with me if you will. If there is someone who could tell us, what kind of characteristics should that someone have? What king of trustworthiness should we look for? Good intent? We should look for someone who is honest, cares about us and has all the correct information. We should be able to perfectly trust their heart and their knowledge and that is dependent on them having a pure heart and 100% of the knowledge or it could be 100% wrong. And .001% error could be life or death for a person. Logic would then demand that the best person would have to be perfect in morality and in knowledge. Enter: God. What if the person to tell us what’s on the other side is the one who made us? And what if the one who made us told some of us and they wrote it down? What if those people put those writings together into a book? Enter: The Bible. Of course, this has to be another Bible thumping Christian who thinks he knows everything about the world. Well bear with me for a minute and entertain me. But this is what the Bible is. God spoke to a variety of people and told them to write down His words. He has spoken to us by His prophets and apostles, those through whom He chose to tell us what’s beyond the veil. But here is where we encounter another dilemma: ourselves. Let's look at an example of this in Luke 16:19-31:
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
We don’t want to hear Him because we don’t like what He says. And so we create endless excuses and theories and philosophies and religions to suit what we want to believe. 2 Timothy 4:3 says,
"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."
Our pride hates judgment, unless of course it's for the other guy or the other gal. Or if the judgment is good. Evaluation is only enjoyed when it is beneficial. We don't want to be morally accountable to a perfectly moral being. Why? Because we know that we're not perfect! We don’t want to believe in an eternal hell. Nobody does. Christians don’t like it, at least they shouldn’t! Those Christians who have understood what hell means and who care for people would not wish it on anyone. And yet God says that this is the place that He has created for those who have rebelled against Him. There is a judgement to come. God is your biggest problem. NOT the coronavirus. NOT a threat of war. NOT a threat of going bankrupt or losing your economic standing. He demands a verdict because He made you. He created the angels with a morally free will and a third of them rebelled and were sentenced to hell forever with no chance of forgiveness. None. Jesus didn’t die for angels. He died for people because He created us specially for a deep relationship with Him. And we have rejected Him. We rejected His law and His love. We have provoked his justice. We are all under condemnation because we have all sinned and broken His law and His heart. Can you do good things in this life? Absolutely! Do you do more good things than bad things? Probably! Are you a relatively good person? I'm sure you are a pretty decent, fair and reasonable person. But God doesn't grade on a curve. He grades on a standard of perfection for every moral being. So in this life, we live, we laugh, we love and through it all we sin because we inherited Adam and Eve's sin.
And that sin deserves justice. Our lies, thefts, gossip, murders in our hearts, hatred for people, selfishness, greed...all of it is seen by a holy God. When we die, He says we will be morally naked and these will all be exposed. Not for others to see, but for God to see. Sure it's not "Your fault" that you were born into sin. But let's deal with reality rather than complain about it. The point is that you have been born with a moral disease that will kill your soul if you do not come to the cure. You may say that it's not fair that you were born with this disease. Perhaps. Is it fair that a person was born with a mental disorder? Or with smallpox? Or blind? Or with any other disease people can contract? Should parents of a baby born with cancer not seek a cure because it wasn't fair that he was born with it? That would be slightly foolish! This is why God gave us a way back to Him. This is where His mercy shines most brightly. He was not obligated to do ANYTHING for us. He would have been perfectly just to let us all be born, live, sin, die and be judged. But in His love and mercy He did the work necessary for us to be reunited with Him. He took on sinful flesh to live perfectly and die innocently for sinful people so that when we die we are judged by His works rather than our own.
“And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” - Hebrews 9:27-28
The first part of this deals with God’s judgment. The second part deals with His mercy. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die in our place to pay the price for those sins that you have committed. Your guilt was taken by Him on the cross where He bore the full weight of God’s wrath on Himself and descended into hell to redeem YOU. You will meet Him one day face to face. Scripture says that one day “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Will you meet Him as your Savior or as your Judge? The choice is yours. I exhort you to consider Jesus and come to a firm conclusion about who you believe Him to be. Your eternity depends upon it. You can deny the afterlife, you can deny the existence of God, you can go your own way. But He has put the knowledge of Himself into your heart. You know He is there and you can’t escape the haunting feeling that He is watching you. One day you will meet Him either in judgment or in love. It will be a moment of perfect bliss or a moment of dreadful agony for you and for Him as He must cast you out of Heaven forever. I beg of you for the sake of your soul, come to Jesus as you are, guilt and all. He will take your guilt and give you His perfection and His love. You will find no joy or pleasure or treasure on earth that compares with knowing Christ and being known by Him. Consider Jesus.
