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Edward Fudge

'PRESENT WITH THE LORD'
A gracEmail reader writes, "What does Paul mean when he says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord?" I have always been taught that those who die go immediately into the presence of Jesus."
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Indeed, the Apostle Paul writes that "to be absent from the body" is to be "present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8, KJV). The Apostle here has just raised the question whether death will mean disembodiment, a state of "nakedness" so to speak, which he considers fearful, inappropriate and practically incomprehensible. Yes, he acknowledges, death does mean laying aside this mortal body, but it does not mean that God abandons us, for he will certainly provide another body in the Resurrection.

In the larger biblical picture, the notion of a human being without a body simply makes no sense. God created us as holistic persons, and to be "a living soul" involves both body and breath of life (Gen. 2:7). The Age to Come will not be populated by disembodied spirits, but by God's people, who will have powerful, glorified, deathless bodies suited to the New Heavens and New Earth (1 Cor. 15:44-42, 50-55; Phil. 3:20-21; 1 John 3:2; Rev. 21:1-5; 22:1-5).

Paul's confident statement with which we began is thus entirely consistent with the Bible's general reference to death as "sleep," for those who die are certainly still in God's presence. They are not outside his scope of love, concern or power. They are rather like a child asleep in the loving embrace of a dear mother or father. The believer who dies is indeed "safe in the arms of Jesus," just as the old hymn assured us.

The time will come -- and it likely will seem but an instant later -- when Jesus will return. We shall "awaken" to behold God's likeness (Psalm 17:15). Then we will arise and enjoy God's conscious presence forever (Psalm 23:6; 1 Thes. 4:13-17).

For more on after death, click here.