WCF 32: Of the State of Men after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead

WCF 32: Of the State of Men after Death, and of the Resurrection of the Dead

Many people are uncomfortable thinking about death. That’s understandable. Death is hauntingly foreign, like traveling to a country from which visitors do not return. But we must think about it because we will travel there. Our discomfort with mortality cannot delay the inevitable. And the matters are vital. What happens when we die affects how we live now. And how we live now determines what happens when we die.

So we must think about death in the only way that will truly help us, by listening to the Bible. Our questions about what happens after death can’t be fully answered by science or experience. And personal opinions and theories are useless. So what does God say about the state of humans after this part of our lives is over? Let’s break that question into two parts.

What Happens When I Die?

Two main things will happen, corresponding to the two parts of our humanity.

My Body Will Deteriorate

This truth is observable. But why our bodies disintegrate can only be explained by revelation. These are the last words of the terrible curse that God spoke to Adam after the first sin: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). God forms us from the same particles that make up everything else on this planet. When our spirit leaves us our elements will again become dispersed.

Still, even in death the bodies of believers “continue united to Christ, and rest in their graves as in their beds” (Dan. 12:2; Acts 24:15).[i] This may seem a strange comfort but God promises that even the dead bodies of his children are in his care. Deceased believers are affectionately referred to as “the dead in Christ” (1 Thess. 4:16), or “those who sleep in Jesus” (4:14). God’s care of our dead bodies is an essential part of his commitment to swallow up mortality with life (2 Cor. 5:4; cf. Rom. 8:22–23).

My Soul Will Return to God

Souls cannot die. Nor do they go dormant after death. When my body returns to the dust my soul will go back to the God who gave it (Eccl. 12:7). It will have finished its probationary journey on earth and will then be sorted to its eternal destiny. 

The souls of the righteous enter heaven. At death believers’ souls will be “made perfect in holiness” (see Heb. 12:23). Christians on earth gain only partial victory over sin. In eternity we will not grieve over past sin, commit new sin, or even consider sinning. Heaven is a place of righteousness; there sin is impossible (2 Peter 3:13). In that beautiful place we will “behold the face of God, in light and glory.” Believers long to see God. But here and now our sense of God is imperfect and sometimes uninspiring. But we have this hope: “As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Ps. 17:15).

The souls of the wicked are cast into hell. At death unbelievers cement their hostility toward God and begin an unending perishing (Mark 9:43–48). Eternity makes unbelief truly tragic. Some people want to make hell sound appealing. But Scripture has nothing good to say about it.

There are no other options besides heaven and hell. Purgatory is a baseless medieval invention. It is true that following death the wicked and the righteous will enter what is called the intermediate state, an in-between stage. The righteous will eagerly anticipate the redemption of our bodies; the wicked, like fallen angels, will enter a sort of “gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6). But the time of testing is now. Death seals our fate forever. Everyone who dies will wait for the consummation of history in the return of Jesus.

What Happens when Christ Returns?

This was apparently the same question that had troubled believers in the church of Thessalonica. So Paul told them “by a word from the Lord” what will happen “when 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” (1 Thess. 4:15, 16).

Everyone Will Receive Eternal Bodies

Humans are embodied souls. Death separates the soul from the body for a time. But everyone who has ever lived will one day be reunited with their “forever” body. One day, a day that none of us can predict, “All who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out” (John 5:28–29). Those who have never died will likewise be summoned to the Lord. And we will all be “further clothed” (2 Cor. 5:4). Paul proclaimed it boldly: “There will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust” (Acts 24:15). “We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.” On the day of Christ “the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor. 15:51, 52). But we will not all be changed in the same way.

The Unjust Will Be Raised to Dishonor

“The Scriptures say nothing about the resurrected bodies of the wicked.”[ii] But they do warn that the wicked will awaken to “shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan. 12:2). Jesus suggests that in eternity the wicked will live in bodies capable of feeling negative sensations. The rich man in Jesus’ parable cried out for relief from the anguish he experienced in the flesh even after death. As the resurrection of the just is a reward of the grace given in Christ, the resurrection of the wicked is based on the principle of retribution. It is just “that the very same body which sinned, be punished.”[iii] Because of the resurrection hell will be a never ending tragedy experienced in the soul and the body of those who reject Jesus.

The Just Will Be Raised to Honor

God made humans to fellowship with him in soul and body. So grace must save both. Salvation must include the transformation of our corrupt, dishonorable, and weak bodies; we must become imperishable, glorious, and strong (1 Cor. 15:42–43). Following Christ’s return he will “transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). Jesus’ body didn’t experience the ordinary process of corruption (Acts 13:36–37). So he is the perfect “firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20). In our new bodies we will be like God (1 John 3:2) perfectly suited to glorify and enjoy him forever.

Humans are forever. Naturalism suggests—with no evidence—that life ends at death. Scripture reveals the truth: You cannot be annihilated. So your present choices matter profoundly. R.C. Sproul was fond of saying, “Right now counts forever.” Use right now to renounce your sins and rest in Christ. If you don’t, you will “face a punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 1:7). If you do come to know the love of God in Christ, you cannot imagine what good things God has prepared for you (1 Cor. 2:9).