Doctrine of the Last Things (Part 19): Immortality in the New Testament

Immortality in the New Testament

Today we want to begin to look at what the New Testament has to teach about the state of the soul after death. The New Testament teaches, I think, that the souls of the saved do not perish when the death of the body occurs, but the soul outlives the body and goes to be with the Lord in a conscious blissful state. The soul is not extinguished upon the death of the body, nor does the soul go into a state of unconsciousness. Rather, the soul is in a conscious, blissful communion with Christ during this intermediate state between the death and the resurrection of the body.

In Philippians 1:23, the apostle Paul reflects upon the possibility of his martyrdom. On trial and in prison for Christ, he faced an impending execution. Look at what he says in Philippians 1:21-24. Talking about whether to die or to continue to live on in the flesh, he says,

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

What Paul indicates here is that death is actually a better state, a better condition, because it brings a closer conscious fellowship with Christ. Paul recognizes that he needs to continue in this earthly life because of the ministry that God has given him to discharge. But his heart’s desire is to depart and be with Christ.

Paul discusses this intermediate state of the soul somewhat more fully in 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. Here Paul says,

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Here he uses the image of an earthly tent to describe the present moral body in which we live. The contrast between the earthly tent and the heavenly body which is described as a building from God eternal in the heavens is that the earthly tent is flimsy and easily struck down. But the building is stalwart. It stands and will remain forever. So the contrast here that Paul draws is between this fragile, perishable, mortal body that we presently inhabit, and then the eternal resurrection body that we shall have some day in heaven. He then says,

Here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling, so that by putting it on we may not be found naked.

The state of the soul disembodied – that is, the soul apart from the body – is often characterized in ancient Greek literature as a state of nakedness. Here Paul says that we would rather put on our resurrection body without the need of going through this state of nakedness, this state of disembodied existence. We long to put on that heavenly dwelling so that by putting it on we may not be found naked – that is to be a soul without a body. He says,

For while we are still in this tent, we sigh with anxiety; not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

The verb here for being further clothed is an interesting one. It has the idea of pulling on top clothing over the clothing that you already have on, like pulling on a sweater over a shirt that you are already wearing. Paul is saying that we don’t want to have to go through this state of nakedness – this intermediate condition – we would rather put on our immortal body by being further clothed. In other words, he is describing the best scenario is to live until Christ’s return. When Christ returns, remember we saw that those who are alive at that time will be transformed and receive their immortal resurrection bodies without the need of going through the state of disembodied existence first. Paul is saying that this would be the best scenario – that we should not be unclothed, stripped of the mortal body, but that we should be further clothed so that what is mortal would be swallowed up by life, by the resurrection body. He then says,

He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

We have the Holy Spirit living within us. We are spiritually born again. But, as Paul says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. We have an immortal, regenerated spirit within a mortal, fallen body that is destined to destruction. So Paul says,

So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

This is the same thing that he expresses in Philippians 1:24 – that if you had to choose between this earthly life and the disembodied state of existence, it is better to be in the disembodied, interim state because then you are closer to the Lord. You are at home with the Lord. While we are in this body we are away from the Lord. But when you are in that disembodied intermediate state, you are with the Lord awaiting the final resurrection. That intermediate state is not the best state. The best state will be the resurrection state. The luckiest people are those who don’t have to go through that intermediary period of disembodied existence but who live until the parousia and receive immediately their resurrection body.

But that puts Paul into a kind of Catch-22 situation, doesn’t it? In order to get to the best state you’ve got to keep on living in the worst state! So you are in a kind of Catch-22. You have conflicting desires. On the one hand you’d rather die and go and be with the Lord because that is better than the worst state, but nevertheless it is not as good as the best state. So there are sort of three states that could be ranked here: embodied mortal existence, disembodied existence, and embodied immortal existence. The Catch-22 is that to get to the best state you’ve got to keep living in the worst state.

Paul says nevertheless we’d rather be at home with the Lord than here in this earthly body, and

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.

We will someday stand before Christ and give account of our mortal existence, but Paul says while we are in this mortal existence we seek to live for Christ and honor him, to please him, as long as we are alive on this Earth.

I take it that what Paul is teaching here is that when a Christian dies his soul, stripped of the body, continues to exist in a disembodied state, but in a state of closer, conscious, blissful communion with Christ. He will be with Christ in that condition until Christ comes again, and you will remember what Paul says in 1 and 2 Thessalonians: bringing with him those who have fallen asleep in Christ. They will rise first and be reunited with their resurrection bodies, and then those who are alive at the time of Christ’s return will similarly be transformed without needing to go through the intermediate state.

Jesus himself gave a very interesting parable where he envisioned something very much like this. Let’s look at Luke 16:19ff, the famous parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus. I want to immediately recognize that we must not press parables for doctrinal precision. Parables are simply stories meant to illustrate usually one or perhaps two central truths. It would be a mistake to press these stories or illustrations for doctrinal exactitude, as though they were teaching systematic theology. Nevertheless, what Jesus says in this parable is very interesting. He says,

There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.” But Abraham said, “Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.” And he said, “Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” But Abraham said, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” And he said, “No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.”

Apart from the other interesting features of this parable, what we do see here is that Jesus envisions that in the afterlife prior to the resurrection of the dead, persons exist either in Abraham’s bosom (some sort of paradisiacal existence) or else in Hades, a place of torment. So the person during this intermediate state is alive and in a place of paradise or blissful fellowship with God or in a place of torment.

Finally, Luke 23:43. This is the story of the repentant thief on the cross – one of the two criminals crucified with Jesus. This man says to him in verse 42, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Whether you call it Abraham’s bosom, as in the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, or you call it paradise, this is a state of conscious blissful existence during which people will wait for the resurrection of the dead when Christ returns.

We might ask ourselves: What about these people who have died and seen their relatives in “heaven,” like Colton Burpo seeing his grandfather or little sister? Given that the resurrection hasn’t occurred yet, it is impossible that they could actually have their resurrection bodies. Moreover, why would one be seen as a little girl rather than as an adult woman in the resurrection? He is obviously not seeing these people as they actually are because Christ hasn’t returned and the resurrection hasn’t occurred. So what is going on here?

Well, we could either say that these are just illusions of a dying brain, perhaps like drug-induced hallucinations or something of that sort. Or we might offer a more sympathetic interpretation of such experiences. It is possible that in this intermediate state, in order for the disembodied souls of the dead to have fellowship with one another and with Christ, they have mental projections of other persons so that they look to them as though they are in an embodied condition and so can have relationships and fellowship with them. That would also explain why to one person the other individual might look like a little girl but maybe to another person would look like an adult woman. Why? Because this is a mental projection of the soul in this intermediate state that makes it look as if you are having intercourse with other embodied persons when in fact it is a disembodied state. Interestingly enough, when you look at the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man, you do have descriptions of embodiment that are seen here. The rich man is in flames, in torment, he wants his tongue to be cooled, and he sees and recognizes Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom and converses with Abraham.

So if you do have a situation in the intermediate state where the disembodied souls project mental pictures of other disembodied souls in the intermediate state then that would explain why you could have this appearance of physicality even though the actual resurrection body won’t be received until Christ comes again. This is just a speculation, of course, but it would make sense of these experiences.

Next time we’ll continue further our discussion of what happens to a person when he dies. Until then, I wish you God’s best.^[1]