Short Shot #4: What Happens To Believers When We Die?

[In this Short Shots series you’ll find short audios and their scripts answering big questions in short form.]

What happens to believers in Jesus Christ when we die?

There are two things we know don’t happen.

We don’t go to purgatory to somehow become more fit for eternal life with God. According to the Bible, there is no such thing as purgatory.

We also don’t become ghosts or angels, returning to this world to haunt or help people.

To get an idea of what does happen to believers in Jesus when we die, let’s consider two passages of the Bible, one containing a parable told by Jesus, and the other recounting something Jesus said shortly before His own death on a cross.

The parable is one Jesus tells involving two main characters. The first character is a poor man named Lazarus, seemingly named after one of Jesus’ friends. The other character in the parable is an unnamed rich man. You can read the whole thing in Luke 16:19-31.

Jesus says that Lazarus was extremely poor, covered with sores and defenseless before the world. He begged at the gate to the rich man’s property.

Though he had the means, the rich man refused to help Lazarus.

Later, Jesus says, both men died. While the rich man burned in the fires of Hades, hell, Lazarus was taken by angels to rest in the bosom of the patriarch Abraham. The Old Testament book of Genesis says that Abraham was counted righteous by God not because of his deeds or good works solely but by believing in God. Lazarus too, apparently, had believed in God and despite his painful life in this world, was taken to be in God’s kingdom the moment he died.

Jesus’ parable assumes that believers will continue to live in the presence of God and under the care of God after they die and before they are raised bodily on the day when Jesus returns to this world to judge the living and the dead.

Jesus appears to make this promise even more explicit in His famous interaction with a thief who was crucified alongside Him on the day we call Good Friday.

Remember, Jesus was hung on a cross between two thieves also being crucified that day.

According to Luke 23, the two thieves reached different conclusions about Jesus. One taunted Jesus, making light of Jesus’ claims to be the world’s King and Savior. But the second thief recognizes his own sin and asks: “Jesus, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.” (Luke 23:42) You probably recall Jesus’ amazing response to the thief’s prayer of repentance: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

Before His death and resurrection, Jesus told the first disciples (and tells believers today): “In My Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:3)

There are lots of books and articles these days about near death experiences or NDEs. One problem with them is that they don’t all agree with each other.

For the Christian though, it’s enough to know that when we die before the Resurrection on the last day of this cosmos, we will be with Jesus where He is in paradise, awaiting the unveiling of the new heaven and the new earth in which we will live with God in His eternal kingdom where there is no suffering, tears, death, or sin.