What happens when we die?

Short answer

The Bible teaches that death is not the end: the body returns to the dust, while the person lives on and will face God's judgment. Those who trust in Jesus go to be with the Lord at once and will one day be raised in a new body.

Sooner or later everyone asks this question, often when someone close has died. The Bible does not answer every detail, but it speaks plainly about death, about what comes after it and about the hope that Jesus Christ brings.

Death is not the end

When a person dies, the body returns to the dust it was made from, while the spirit returns to God who gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown and Albert Barnes see in this verse that the spirit goes on living and is not absorbed into God. Barnes adds that the verse says nothing more about the spirit’s future; later Scripture makes that clearer.

Death came into the world through sin (Romans 5:12), and Paul calls it the last enemy that Christ will destroy (1 Corinthians 15:26).

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Heb 9:27 · King James Version (1769)

This verse says two things. First, people die once. Adam Clarke draws the plain conclusion: since we die once and are judged once, there is no passing of the soul from body to body, no series of lives. Second, judgment follows. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown and John Wesley take this as the judgment of the great day, when Christ appears and everyone gives an account before Him (2 Corinthians 5:10). Yet Wesley also notes that a person’s final state is settled at the moment of death.

Believers go to be with the Lord

For those who belong to Jesus, the Bible’s words about what follows death are full of comfort. The clearest example comes from the cross. One of the criminals crucified beside Jesus admitted that he deserved his punishment, turned to Jesus and asked to be remembered when He came into His kingdom. Jesus answered him:

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Luke 23:43 · King James Version (1769)

Albert Barnes points out that the man probably expected an answer in some distant future, but Jesus promised it that very day, at death. Matthew Henry warns against reading this as permission to put off repentance: “true repentance is never too late; but it is as certain that late repentance is seldom true.”

Paul speaks in the same way. For him, leaving the body means being at home with the Lord.

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
2 Cor 5:8 · King James Version (1769)

John Wesley sees in this verse that the happiness of believers is not put off until the resurrection. In another letter Paul says he would rather depart and be with Christ, which is far better (Philippians 1:23). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown conclude from these words that the soul is not asleep while it is apart from the body.

Jesus’ story of the rich man and Lazarus also shows people conscious after death, with their state already settled (Luke 16:19–31). The Geneva Bible notes caution that spiritual realities are described there in images our senses can grasp, so not every detail should be pressed.

What about the Bible’s picture of death as sleep (1 Thessalonians 4:13)? Some Christians take it to mean that the dead are unconscious until the resurrection. The Geneva notes, however, explain it as the sleep of the body until the Lord comes, and modern commentators such as John MacArthur read it the same way: the body rests in the grave, while the believer is with Christ.

The resurrection is still ahead

Being with Christ after death is not yet the final goal. Paul describes how the Lord will come down from heaven, the dead in Christ will rise first, and all His people will then be with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:16–17). Believers who are still alive will not die but will be changed in a moment, and the dead will be raised imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:52).

So the Christian hope is not an endless existence as a disembodied soul. Christ will transform our lowly body, which, as Barnes explains, now knows weakness, disease and death, to be like His glorious body (Philippians 3:20–21). In God’s new creation there will be no more death, grief or pain (Revelation 21:4).

The Bible is also honest that the resurrection has two outcomes. Jesus said that all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come out, some to life and others to condemnation (John 5:28–29). The Geneva notes comment that faith and unbelief will be judged by their fruits. Jesus spoke of eternal punishment and eternal life in one sentence (Matthew 25:46), and Wesley observes that the same word describes both. What decides the outcome is whether a person has trusted the Son of God (John 3:36).

Hope that is stronger than death

Martha believed that her brother Lazarus would rise on the last day. Jesus turned her eyes from that distant day to Himself.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

John 11:25–26 · King James Version (1769)

Barnes explains that Jesus is the author and cause of the resurrection; the whole power to raise the dead is His. Whoever believes in Him may die in body but will live. Jesus showed this by rising from the dead, the firstfruits of all who will rise (1 Corinthians 15:20).

This does not mean Christians do not grieve. Jesus Himself wept at Lazarus’ tomb (John 11:35). Matthew Henry writes that grief over those who die is right, but it should not be like the grief of people who have no hope of a better life (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

What happens when we die depends on our relationship with Jesus. Through faith in Him, death becomes the way into His presence and, in the end, into resurrection life. After His promise Jesus asked Martha whether she believed it, and He asks each of us the same (John 11:26).