In a sermon I suggested that the Bible encourages us to focus our hope firmly upon the return of the Lord Jesus from heaven rather than speak about our hope as us dying and going to heaven, where God is pretty much passive in this hope. That is, the Bible encourages us to place our hope in God decisively acting in history in Jesus coming back again, putting an end to the world, raising the dead to life, transforming those who are still alive, and taking them to be with him in the new creation of his making. Therefore, I suggested that dying and going to heaven was not our ultimate hope. It is not the end point to which we are looking forward. Our ultimate hope will only be fulfilled when Jesus returns. So we ought rather to speak of our hope as the day that Jesus returns rather than simply “going to heaven” (unless by this we mean heaven following the return of Christ! But I do not believe that most Christians are that theologically and chronologically advanced in their thinking when they speak in those terms).
So a number of people asked the question about what happens to Christians between the time they die and the resurrection at the last day? Do we go to heaven or am I suggesting “soul sleep”? In particular, how does what Jesus say to the thief on the cross, (Luke 23:42-43), “Today you will be with me in paradise”, fit into what I suggested ought to be our ultimate hope?
I want to first of all discount what many people call soul sleep. By that they understand that when people die they fall asleep, until Jesus returns and ushers in the resurrection. People who believe this say that just like we can sleep for a very long time and it feel like but a moment so it will be with us when we die until the resurrection. That’s “soul sleep”. That is the way they reconcile the various passages in the bible about the in between time. I don’t believe that!
I do believe that Christians go to be with the Lord immediately when they die. I think Paul’s statements of hope upon his death in Philippians 1:23 where he says “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” than to stay on in the flesh implies that when Christians die they go to be with the Lord immediately. That is why “to live is Christ and to die is gain”. That is why Jesus could say to the thief on the cross “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Secondly, when we die and go to the Lord we are still waiting for the end, for the resurrection, where we will be reunited with our Christian loved ones, clothed with our immortal body, and when the judgement will take place where justice will finally reign. Consider the vision of John:
Revelation 6:9-11 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
This suggests to me two things. Firstly the Biblical metaphor for sleep referring to the death of Christians is more correctly referred to the body rather than the soul (or spirit) of the Christian. That is, the Christian body sleeps waiting for a transformation at the resurrection where the corruptible will become incorruptible, whereas the soul of the Christian (at least the martyrs) go to be with the Lord, and rest with him. But secondly, even in heaven they still wait for more. There is still unfulfilled longing (hope!) even in heaven. The martyrs of heaven seek for justice with much the same sentiment of the psalmists who cry out “How long O Lord!” There ultimate hope has not been realised!
There is something, however, far more important and bigger even then the unfulfilled hope of the martyrs, and that is the unfulfilled purpose of God that he be glorified in Christ Jesus and that he be all in all! If Christianity is all about having a personal relationship with the living God where we seek to glorify him, and make his plans and purposes our plans and purposes then simply dying and going to heaven will not ultimately satisfy us unless God himself is satisfied, even though we get to be with him!
So there are two correctives to our thinking that wish to suggest. The first is that we too often fail to attribute enough to God’s power. We tend to think and speak more about us dying and going to heaven, where God is rather passive in all this. If we focus on the return of Christ and the resurrection then we cannot help but think of the incredible power of God which acts to bring this mind blowing event about.
Secondly, we tend to think too individualistically about me dying and going to heaven. This may even be associated with the grand thought of glorifying God when I get to heaven. But I would suggest that the Bible is rather more God centred than this, and encourages us to think in a God centred way. For it is God who will fulfill his purposes for all the world, wrapping up history, making justice flow like a river, and bringing peace to the whole universe, creating heaven on earth, and where he will be finally glorified and Jesus finally recognised Lord of all, and marvelled at by the whole world. God is working towards this end. He will glorify himself in an awesome manner where every eye shall see and every knee bow! It is this wonderful vision that ought to fill our hope.
I guess what I am encouraging us to do is to think God’s thoughts after him, to see how he wants us to picture the future, and put our hope in God acting, and not being passive, and have a God centred view of reality, past, present and future.