Life after death (Part 3 of 4)

Man has a body, soul, and spirit. The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:23: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete…” Our body, the one that we have since birth will disintegrate in death. The soul will stay forever, but the Bible tells us it has only two final destinations --everlasting life with God or eternal damnation in hell. This is as certain as believing in God.

It is just sad to realize that there will be many who will go to hell and only few who will enter heaven. Jesus himself said this truth in Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Many pass by this word of Scripture but usually dismiss this eternal truth: there are more who will go to hell than to heaven. This is the truth. Jesus himself said so.

But why? Our problem in understanding God is because we always think of everything in human terms. Thus, we look at sin in varying degrees – small to big, minor to mortal, acceptable and venial as to those that are heinous, cardinal, deadly, and evil. The Bible bluntly cautions us against this thought in James 2:10, “For whoever keeps the whole Law, yet stumbles in one point, has become guilty of all.” There’s no big or small sin. And it’s not even just breaking the law but also not doing what is right. “So, for one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17). The Scripture is unequivocal – “For the wages of sin is death,” (Romans 6:23). And since we are sinful beings, born in sin, we are all spiritually dead unless the Spirit of God regenerates our spirit to commune and be in relationship with him.

This has a crucial implication to the question, “is there life after death?” Our bodies become alive at birth but mortally dies; the soul continues forever, but either forever in the loving embrace of God, or in the bleak separation from him, in hell, described many times in the Bible as a “fiery furnace” (Matt. 13:42), where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Luke 13:28), “outer darkness” (Matthew 25:30), “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46), and “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43), most of which were spoken by Jesus himself. To disregard these realities is disastrous!

To my mind, if there is anything more important to ponder upon in one’s life, it is to contemplate where we would go. For certainly there is life after death but reserved only for few who intentionally decide to receive it. It’s a decision to make, the most important I believe for a man’s life. And we all have to come to that decision between the time we were born and the time we die. The question is, have we made that decision? (To be continued)