#03 What happens after death?

[AI translation] Many of us are so interested in the question of what happens after death because it is closely related to the question of whether there is a reunion after death. Since we have already dealt in two sermons with the conquest of death by the resurrection of Christ, and the opening of the age of eternal salvation for our souls and bodies, let us now seek an answer to this one question from God's Word, is there really a second sight after death? Here again, as in the previous two sermons, let us hold closely to what God says about it in Scripture, otherwise our pious feelings will lead us into baseless delusion.To the question of whether there is a second coming after death, the Bible's countless statements give us the definite answer that there is! It is a very important question, let us see some divine statements! The death of the Old Testament believers is always announced in the Scriptures: 'He shall die, and be filled with life, and be gathered unto his fathers. In the language of the Old Testament, this does not mean that he is placed in the family tomb, but that he is placed where his ancestors were. When Jacob was informed by his sons that Joseph had certainly been torn to pieces by wild beasts, he said, in great grief: "I go to my son's grave weeping. Not literally to the tomb, but to Sheol, the Old Testament place of gathering of the dead. Old Jacob's last consolation in his great grief was that he would see his dear son there, where they would all be together again! King David, the psalmist, was also terribly shaken by the sickness and death of his little son, but then, with the comfort of a believer, he said to those around him with great compassion, "I will go to him, but he will not come back to me." (2 Sam 12:23) David also knew that he would not be separated from his son forever; the time would come when he could go after him!
In the New Testament we read the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The one is in hell, the other in heaven, both in self-conscious, personal existence, in recognizable form. When the rich man looks up into heaven, he sees Lazarus there in glory, he sees him even from hell, he recognizes the saved soul. He remembers that in earthly life it was he who sat at his door and begged. In the same parable, the rich man wants to protect his five brothers on earth from going where he is. He is afraid to meet them because it would only increase his torment. In the same way, the happiness of saved souls is increased by the joy of meeting and seeing them again. For here on earth, too, what a joy it is to see again someone whom we love very much, who is returning home at last from a long journey, from captivity, from many miseries. How much greater will be our joy in heaven! And not only for those of us who will return home, but also for those who are waiting for us there! If we truly loved them, should we not strive as earnest followers of Christ that they may not wait in vain? So that they may not be disappointed and we may not be absent from where they are? Should we not be more eager to walk the one narrow road that leads to heaven?
"Now therefore abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; and the greatest of these is charity." (1 Cor 13:13) Do you know why the apostle says that the greatest of the three is love? It is clear from the context: it implies that faith and hope are only necessary in earthly life. There, faith becomes a vision and hope is already fulfilled. So faith and hope cease after death, they are no longer needed. But love is still the only possible relationship between souls after death, love will be needed there too. But what is love needed if there is no one to love? It is in the fact that love will remain there that God will take care of the object of love! We can count on the fact that the relationship of love that was established here on earth in Christ (not the immortal love or carnal love sung of by the poets, but the relationship of love sanctified in Christ) will be preserved over there, and will even be made complete and perfect.
Let me give you one more example: on the Mount of Transfiguration, Christ was visited by Moses and Elijah, who had died hundreds of years before. The three disciples whom Jesus had taken with him came to know who the two strangers were to whom Jesus was speaking. But they had never seen them, because they had never seen them before! How is this possible? Somehow it is because the glorified ones bear marks on them that immediately tell you who they are. We heard last time that God preserves the marks that distinguish identity in the resurrection. So we will see and know not only the persons we have known here on earth, but also those we have never seen face to face here. We will see and know the fathers of the Old Testament, the apostles, our ancestors of faith, because we will all be one big family there! Perfect brothers and sisters, children of one Father, redeemed people of one Christ.
And here, finally, is our fundamental hymn, which ends: we shall see Christ as he is. And the Apostle Paul says: we will see and know him face to face. So we will see Jesus Christ from one face to the other. And Jesus said many times that the saved souls are with Him, they are around Him. So if we have the promise that we shall see Him face to face, we shall see with Him those who are with Him, who are around Him. I could go on with the testimonies of divine revelation, but from this much we can see the absolute certainty that there is a reunion after death, and there we shall know one another and be together again!
But if this is so, there is now another troubling question. Are those we want to meet again really there with Jesus? Has our dear dead whom we mourn truly entered a state of salvation? And when we get there, will we not be sadly surprised to find someone missing? Of course, we can never know with absolute certainty whether anyone is waiting for our arrival in the place of salvation or damnation. But especially of those for whose salvation we prayed in their lifetime, we can have good hope. And if any of our deceased loved ones may not have lived a life of faith that would lead us to conclude that they were saved, and all until the moment of death showed no signs of conversion, we cannot know what God may have accomplished in their souls on their deathbed or even at the moment of death. In the time it takes for a man shot in the head to fall to the ground, God has the power through Christ to save a soul unto salvation. Just think of the man who was executed on the cross, whose wild, wild soul Jesus saved from damnation in the last seconds of his life and took with him to heaven!
But what if there is no one there whom we want to see again - because that can happen - what then? Here is something we need to take seriously! We should not measure reunion and getting to know one another by earthly standards. Jesus says: "For in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the angels of God in heaven." (Mt 22:30) "Flesh and blood," says the Word, "shall not inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor 15,50) This means that the blood relationship per se is not valid over there, only the relationships and bonds that have been established here on earth in Christ. So it is not because and not because there is one blood in their veins here on earth that husband and wife, parents and children are united. Earthly bonds only, unconsecrated relationships in Christ, however precious they may have been on earth, are broken in death for the children of God. Those who die in Christ break with death all earthly ties that are outside of Christ. The earthly ties established outside of Christ, that is, the mere ties of blood and kinship, will cease to exist in eternity.
Our fundamental faith says that we shall be conformed to Him, that is, to Christ. This means that we will see everyone in the same way that Jesus sees and knows us. We know, don't we, that even here on earth, Jesus has already placed all those who do the will of His Father above blood relationships. When His brothers and sisters and His mother were looking for Him, "He stretched out His hand to His disciples and said, 'Behold my mother and my brothers and sisters'" (Mt 12,49) The consciousness of our existence in the afterlife is not a consciousness that is grouped around the self and examines who belongs to me, but there the program is already complete and perfected that "I no longer live, but Christ lives in me". My self-consciousness, then, is not an evaluation of the fact that I am me, but of the fact that I am fully conscious of the happy reality that I belong to Christ! The happiness of heaven consists first of all in seeing Christ, in enjoying communion with Him, and from this follows, as an added bonus, the happy communion with all those who have died in Christ. The expectation of the second vision is therefore, for the Christian, subordinated to the desire for communion with Christ. There is a reunion, but only in Christ!
Let this increase our sense of responsibility for the salvation of ourselves and of our loved ones around us! Husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters, if you love one another and wish to spend eternity together in happy fellowship after death, let the precious blood ties that bind you together now be deepened into spiritual ties sanctified in Christ, for the happy reunion awaits you in the glorified Christ alone! If a member of such a spiritually close family has to be separated for a time, what a great consolation for you who have stayed behind to know what Paul wrote to Philemon: "He has been separated from you for a time, that you may receive him back as eternal." (Philem 1,15) Happy is the man who can think of his departed loved ones in this way, even if tears are now streaming down his cheeks!
It is indeed the only true consolation for us, the children of God, that their departure is like a journey to a far country. To a country of which we are also citizens. And we, the children of God, can cry out to our departing loved ones, much more than the earthly farewell they use to say goodbye: goodbye... With Jesus Christ!
Amen
Date: 4 May 1947.