Q. 37. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
A. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.
“So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Cor. 5:6-7)
To a world ruled by fate and the whims of capricious gods, Christianity brought the promise of everlasting life. At the core of the Christian faith was the assertion that the crucified Jesus was resurrected by God and present in the church as "the body of Christ." The message was clear: By submitting to death, Jesus had destroyed its power, thereby making eternal life available to everyone. This Christian affirmation radically changed the relationship between the living and the dead as Greeks and Romans understood it. For them, only the gods were immortal - that's what made them gods. Philosophers might achieve immortality of the soul, as Plato taught, but the view from the street was that human consciousness survived in the dim and affectless underworld of Hades. "The Resurrection is an enormous answer to the problem of death," says Notre Dame theologian John Dunne. "The idea is that the Christian goes with Christ through death to everlasting life. Death becomes an event, like birth, that is lived through." - Kenneth L. Woodward, "2000 Years of Jesus," Newsweek, March 29, 1999, 55.
"Souls are like wax waiting for a seal. By themselves they have no special identity. Their destiny is to be softened and prepared in this life, by God's will, to receive, at their death, the seal of their own degree of likeness to God in Christ. And this is what it means, among other things, to be judged by Christ." -Thomas Merton, "New Seeds of Contemplation"
The transition from “earthly” life to “heavenly” life is part of the Kingdom of God and is a reality that all persons face. Reformed faith takes death seriously. While physical death is associated with sin, death is also part of the natural biological processes. For the disciple of Christ the processes of justification, adoption, and sanctification is complete and made perfect in holiness.
The Christian hope of eternal life includes the “resurrection of the body” and the resurrection of the dead as we affirm when we join together in worship and declare our faith in the Apostles’ Creed. This hope emerges from the resurrection of Jesus Christ in his act of defeating death on the cross. God redeems the whole person, not just the “immortal soul,” but the whole existence. Paul asserts that “we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Rom. 6:5)
This resurrection is the new life that emerges from the physical death of this earthly existence, it is God’s act for us. (1 Cor. 15:42ff). Our resurrection bodies will be “ours” in that in some mysterious way, our own selves will be raised from the dead, our own bodies not another human being, but we are the ones who will be “changed” (1 Cor. 15:51-52).
Christians have been accused of chasing “pie in the sky by and by.” They are so focused on the afterlife that they do nothing in this life, “so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” What we believe about the future actually shapes us as much as or more than what we understand about the past. If we have no future to hope in, there is no reason to do anything but despair in the present. If life is not worth living for the days that are ahead, then the present days have no meaning right now.
To believe that we are ultimately striving to bring the Kingdom of God near to us and others in our neighborhoods, even as God’s kingdom is taking shape in small ways in the here and now, then our belief brings to us a hope in the future. We are part of God’s plan for history and beyond. Because Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, so also will we be raised: because he lives we too shall live. (1 Cor. 15:20-28) Our striving brings with it the tension of knowing, we already have achieved the resurrection, but it has not yet arrived. So Paul assures us, “Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Cor. 15:58)
For Roman Catholics there are only two things that survive to eternity: our relationship with God and our relationships with each other. Therefore, the things we do with our relationship with God and our relationships with each other are of mutual significance. So social dimensions are incredibly important, not just political ones. - Father Luke Dysinger of Saint Andrew's Abbey in an interview with Bruce Langford, Pathways, 6, March-April 1997, 10.
Today, I leave you with these words from Paul, “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” (Phil. 3:7-12)
Today’s Lectionary Readings
Morning Psalm: 105:1-22
Evening Psalm: 105:23-45
Jeremiah 18:1-11
Romans 8:1-11
John 6:27-40
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