What Happens When You Die?

 By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

Good Morning,

Two words we don’t usually associate with each other are: death and comfort. Yet, in today’s catechism lesson that is what we are going to focus on. For the passing away of believers is a blessed time of grace and love where we are able to see with unveiled faces the glory of God grounded in the promises of His Son Jesus Christ. Sometimes when ministers get talking about things like justification, adoption, sanctification, or things like perichoresis or supralapsarianism it can sound like theological navel gazing, yet there is nothing more practical than getting the gospel right. It makes all the difference to life, from the new birth to death itself.

One of the more affective portions of the Bible for me personally is the story of the internment of Joseph’s bones into the land of Canaan, at Shechem in the tomb of Jacob, hundreds of years after the former’s death. (Joshua 24:32). There is such a lesson for us in that perseverance of the providence of God to answer the prayer of Joseph to his descendants that should teach us much about the way our Father cares for us, even unto the grave.

A great problem in Christianity today is the demand for immediacy. Whether it be in worship, in experience-oriented activities, or the pressing need of freshness in life we are too often seeking that which is really pagan in its outlook. Our faith is a long-term patient faith. It is a generational faith. We see it most clearly when we come to the question today about what happens to us after our mortal bodies fail. There is such a blessing on offer for us that it should keep us in mind of what is most vitally important as the days pass, and that is our right union with our risen Lord, which the tomb cannot destroy or take away.

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