What Happens After Death Part 5

Why did she say this? Because Ben had lost an eye and a leg in the battle at Gettysburg.

Have you wondered whether there would be cripples in heaven? Cripples will be in heaven if they are saved but they will no longer be cripples. The blind will not be blind. I asked a blind woman what she looked forward to in heaven. She said, 'The wonderful advantage I have over others, is that the first person I will see is Jesus.'

She was of course a Christian. She was even glad she was blind because it was her blindness which brought her to Jesus. She was with the Torch ministry for the blind; it was they who showed her how to be saved.

Problems of the Body

Every idea has to be tested by Scripture, so does the Bible say that there will be no physical handicaps in heaven? Well, in the first place it is the soul which goes to heaven. That carries no injuries with it. What about the body at the resurrection when soul and body are reunited? The Bible says God will give us a new body, 'Thou sowest not the body that shall be' says 1 Corinthians 15. By the sowing it means the burial of the body at death. What kind of body is it which is raised from the grave? Colossians 3 says it will be a glorious body, like Christ's resurrection body. On hearing this, someone said to me that Christ still bore the scars, the wounds, the nail prints, and that Scripture says when he returns with power and glory all nations will see those wounds. (That would only be possible, of course, with close-up TV. It could be that God wants all the world to see 'him whom they pierced'. He may be an exception.)

Whether or not, the important thing to note is that Jesus was characterised by his marked body but not handicapped by it. Remember that in his resurrection appearances he walked eight miles to Emmaus on his wounded feet. On that long journey he revealed prophecies to the two disciples which all foretold his death and resurrection. In the Upper Room he showed them the gaping wound in his side but it was not handicapping him. In fact he began to eat a meal with them and then gave them a long thrilling insight into all the Old Testament prophecies which he had now fulfilled.

So you see, although his wounds were devastating and he had died in agony for our sins, he was alive and well three days later. When the handicapped get to heaven, they will enjoy new bodies and when you get to heaven you will be young again. That is the significance, I think, of the angel in the tomb being young. People sometimes refer to when they were young; when you get your new body and talk of the past, you will say, 'When I was old'! So that is the real secret of eternal youth. Why not put your faith in the risen Saviour who says, 'He who believes on me will never die!'

Your Improved Character

What a grand message for all born-again Christians. At the resurrection you will all have new bodies, perfect bodies and they will be resurrection bodies like Christ's. This will happen at the resurrection of the saved or 'those who belong to Christ' as Paul calls them. In 1 Corinthians 15 we read that the change will come in the twinkling of an eye, or in an atom of time. The Word of God is always up to date - as I have already explained to you, all the world today goes by what is called the Universal Time Clock and that works by the throb of the atom. The atom clock measures the tiniest fraction of time, even less than a billionth of a second. 'That,' says God, 'is how quick I shall be in changing your bodies into glorious resurrection bodies - that is if you are born again.' Wonderful isn't it!

But what about grumbling, difficult Christians? Everyone is improved in character by conversion but we all need to be sanctified as well, otherwise we would spoil heaven, wouldn't we? Well, our characters will be completed at the resurrection, too. This is what St John says. In 1 John 3, it says, 'Beloved we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like Jesus.'

Isn't that grand! Paul says something similar in Philippians 1:6. He was thankful for the enjoyment of the fellowship of those Christians and then says, 'The Lord has begun a good work in your characters and will bring it to completion at the day of Christ.'

The day of Christ means his second coming. So isn't that encouraging if you are saved: at your resurrection you will have a perfect body and a beautiful character!

With Christ

We have been looking at reports from listeners to my radio programme on the peaceful and beautiful deaths of friends they knew. You may have noticed a common feature in those experiences. When they were dying they actually knew that they were going to be with Jesus. Many of them actually saw the Lord Jesus Christ. This is then one answer to that question 'What happens after death?' The answer is, the saved believer goes to be with Jesus. Paul said this in Philippians 1:21,23 (NIV).