Dropping Dead

It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)

By Rev.William Cwirla

What happens when we die? And what is this judgment that comes after death? The end of life is as mysterious as our life’s beginning.We believe that life begins at conception, but we don’t know much, if anything, about how that comes to be, and we know even less about life’s end.The doctors may pronounce us legally dead at some point in time, but what does this actually mean spiritually?

In the Bible, to be alive is to have body and breath. God breathed life into Adam’s lifeless body, and he became a living being (Genesis 2:7). We often speak in terms of body and soul. Breath is not simply air, but an invisible so-called life force that animates the body. By definition, a body without breath is dead (James 2:26). The Book of Ecclesiastes indicates that at death the body returns to the dust and the breath goes back to God (Ecclesiastes 12:7).

Here’s an analogy from the computer world. A computer’s hardware is to its software as the body is to its soul. Hardware without software is dead, a bunch of lifeless circuits. Software can be stored apart from hardware and even installed into new hardware, just as the soul can exist apart from the body in the Lord, awaiting the resurrection. You might say that in death, the hardware returns to the earth and the software returns to God for safekeeping until the day of resurrection.

Now don’t push that analogy too far! This is not reincarnation. Reincarnation would try to install the old software into a completely different piece of hardware. Resurrection puts the software back into a renewed piece of hardware that has a concrete connection to the old hardware that came before it. In the resurrection, we get new spiritual bodies (1 Corinthians 15:44), but they have a hard connection to our old bodies. Remember, Jesus still had the wounds of His crucifixion in His resurrected body (John 20:20, 27).

So, how is it with the dead? The Scripture speaks of the condition of the dead in two ways. They are asleep (1 Thessalonians 4:13–14), and they are with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8). With respect to the body, they are asleep. In fact, a dead body looks rather like it’s asleep. And with respect to the soul, they are with the Lord, that is, they are in the Lord’s immediate presence.

This appears to be a conscious presence. Both the rich man and Lazarus are quite aware of their surroundings, the rich man painfully so (Luke 16:19ff). The souls of the martyrs are actively engaged in prayer (Revelation 6:9–10). Yet there is a sense of something more to come, a now and a not yet.

We confess in the Creed that we believe “in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” in that order. We believe in eternal life in a resurrected body where body and breath are once again united forever. This takes place on the Last Day when Christ appears in glory (1 Thessalonians 4:13ff).

The time in between now and Resurrection Day is enshrouded in mystery. Part of the problem is that space and time are not relevant to heaven and eternity. Heaven is not a place in space, and eternity is beyond time. In heaven, everything is now, an eternal present. There are no clocks in heaven, nor is there sun or moon (Revelation 21:23). There is only endless day in the light of Christ. Time, as we experience it, is irrelevant in eternity.

We who are still alive are confined to space and time; the dead in Christ are beyond space and time. They are with the Lord in eternity. “Today, you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). There probably is no sense of waiting in the same way that we wait for something in the future. Luther speculated that rising from the dead would be similar to falling asleep in one’s easy chair and then suddenly being awakened without any sense of the passage of time. One moment you are asleep; the next moment you are awake.

What about those who claim to have returned from the dead? There are plenty of books and testimonials out there. Hebrews is clear; we die once. Yes, Jesus revived three people from the dead: Jairus’ daughter, the widow of Nain’s son, and Lazarus. And there was a kind of resurrection at the time of Jesus’ resurrection (Matthew 27:53), though we know nothing about that in any detail.

Curiously, there are no reports from any of these people as to what the revival from death experience was like. Lazarus never wrote a book or appeared on television. Since death remains a mystery beyond the probings of science, we would do well to approach reports of returns from the dead with healthy skepticism and stay with the Word of God. These are more than likely near death experiences. “It is appointed for man to die once and then the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

What about that judgment after death? Aren’t we already justified in Jesus? The Bible is clear. All will rise to appear for judgment on the Last Day (Revelation 20:12; 2 Corinthians 5:10). The good news for the baptized believer is that you have already been judged in the death of Jesus (John 5:24). Your name is written in the Lamb’s book of life. Yes, your works will be judged, but you will not be judged on the basis of your works. Instead, you are judged on the basis of Christ’s work that justifies you before God. Good news indeed!

One final thought. Don’t spend too much time worrying over or speculating about death. Death is not God’s last word to you. Life is. As a baptized believer in Jesus, you are destined to resurrection and eternal life. Death and the grave are simply a temporary rest stop along the way. The destination is eternal life with God in Christ. All thanks to Jesus!

Rev. William M. Cwirla is the pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Hacienda Heights, California, and the President of Higher Things. He can be reached at wcwirla@gmail.com.