There are no other options besides heaven and hell. Purgatory is a baseless medieval invention. It is true that following death the wicked and the righteous will enter what is called the intermediate state, an in-between stage. The righteous will eagerly anticipate the redemption of our bodies; the wicked, like fallen angels, will enter a sort of “gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day” (Jude 1:6). But the time of testing is now. Death seals our fate forever. Everyone who dies will wait for the consummation of history in the return of Jesus.
Many people are uncomfortable thinking about death. That’s understandable. Death is hauntingly foreign, like traveling to a country from which visitors do not return. But we must think about it because we will travel there. Our discomfort with mortality cannot delay the inevitable. And the matters are vital. What happens when we die affects how we live now. And how we live now determines what happens when we die.
So we must think about death in the only way that will truly help us, by listening to the Bible. Our questions about what happens after death can’t be fully answered by science or experience. And personal opinions and theories are useless. So what does God say about the state of humans after this part of our lives is over? Let’s break that question into two parts.
What Happens When I Die?
Two main things will happen, corresponding to the two parts of our humanity.
My Body Will Deteriorate
This truth is observable. But why our bodies disintegrate can only be explained by revelation. These are the last words of the terrible curse that God spoke to Adam after the first sin: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). God forms us from the same particles that make up everything else on this planet. When our spirit leaves us our elements will again become dispersed.
Still, even in death the bodies of believers “continue united to Christ, and rest in their graves as in their beds” (Dan. 12:2; Acts 24:15).[i] This may seem a strange comfort but God promises that even the dead bodies of his children are in his care. Deceased believers are affectionately referred to as “the dead in Christ” (1 Thess. 4:16), or “those who sleep in Jesus” (4:14). God’s care of our dead bodies is an essential part of his commitment to swallow up mortality with life (2 Cor. 5:4; cf. Rom. 8:22–23)
My Soul Will Return to God
Souls cannot die. Nor do they go dormant after death. When my body returns to the dust my soul will go back to the God who gave it (Eccl. 12:7). It will have finished its probationary journey on earth and will then be sorted to its eternal destiny.
The souls of the righteous enter heaven. At death believers’ souls will be “made perfect in holiness” (see Heb. 12:23). Christians on earth gain only partial victory over sin. In eternity we will not grieve over past sin, commit new sin, or even consider sinning. Heaven is a place of righteousness; there sin is impossible (2 Peter 3:13).