What Happens To The Christian After Death?

May 27, 2024

This is copied from the bulletin of Calvary Baptist Church of 472 Ocean Rd in Portsmouth NH. The bulletin date is 05/26/2024.

In attempting to answer the question concerning which there seems to be much perplexity in the minds of many sincere believers, we need only to consider 2 Corinthians 4:16 - 5:10.

"For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us as a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. "

"For we know that is our earthy house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing in God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit".

Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord' (For we walk by faith, not by sight: we are confident, I say and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

This passage abound in striking contrasts. I want to point out more than a dozen. Doubtless a careful analysis would reveal others.

First, we have the "outward man" contrasts with the "inward man". Notice this carefully. The outward man is the physical man, the inward man is the spiritual man. Materialists of all types deny the personality of the spiritual man, but verse 10 distinctly affirms it.

Second, "perish" is contrasted with "renewed". The physical men wastes away. As soon as we begin to live we begin to die, but the inward man is renewed from day to day.

Then, we have three more decided contrasts: "light" is contrasted with "weight", "affliction" with "glory", and that which is "for a moment" with that which is "eternal". Affliction often seems to be tried and distressed saints to be heavy indeed and long - continued, but the Spirit of God calls it "our light affliction which is for a moment." (verse 17) We realize this in all its blessedness when we see it in full contrast with the " far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" which is to be our portion throughout the ages to come.

The sixth contrast is in verse 18, where "the things which are seen" is put in opposition with "the things which are not seen". The former are declared to be temporal and the latter eternal. This sixth contrast is often said by the advocates of condition immortality and other materialistic systems, that the world, generally rendered "eternal" in the New Testament does not necessarily bear that meaning. But here we have this very word put in direct contrast with the word "temporal", which clearly means that which has an end. Enteral, therefore, must mean that which has no end. If we think of several other instances in which the same word is used we will perhaps realize more than ever the solemnity of this statement. we read of the eternal God, the eternal Spirit, eternal redemption, eternal inheritance; on the other hand, of eternal punishment and eternal judgment. Who, with my regard for the authority of scripture to what is good, and to deity itself, but another when it has to do with punishment of the wicked?

The seventh and eight contrasts are found in the verse of chapter 5. Here we have "our earthly house of this tabernacle" and side by side with it, " a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." The one bay be "dissolved". The other is "eternal". Observe that this is the third time we have the word "eternal" used in this remarkable series. Once more it is in direct contrast with that which passes away, ore comes to an end. That which is temporal my be dissolved, but that which is eternal will never know dissolution.

We next have the contrast between being "unclothed", which refers to death, and "clothed upon", which is the resurrection. Mortality will then be swallowed up in life.