What Happens When You Die?

April 16, 2023

Louie Giglio helps listeners answer the question, “What happens when we die?” Everyone has considered this humbling question but few have investigated what is the most reliable and coherent answer in the person of Jesus. By drawing attention to the reality of eternity, Louie urges listeners to be all the more faith-oriented in the life we are given.

Key Takeaway

1. Your eternal destination is determined before your physical death, not after.

2. God doesn’t send people to hell, our sin did that.

3. The staggering gift is that as God’s wrath was falling toward us, Jesus willingly put himself in harm's way.

1. Jesus believed in Heaven and Hell

2. Our body sleeps in decay until the resurrection of the dead at the return of Christ.

3. Those you love who have died in Christ are alive in the presence of Almighty God.

4. The reality of our eternal destiny is the biggest storyline in humanity, yet most ignored by people obsessed with the trivialities of the brief here and now.

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“If you are a believer, death is a seemless transition into the presence of God. If you are without God, death is a transition into a separation from God for an eternity.”

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Louie Giglio

Discussion Questions

What are some theories you have heard about what happens when we die?
What did you grow up believing about heaven and hell?
Pastor Louie says we have to understand “our predicament” before we talk about heaven or hell. What is our “predicament” in your own words?
How does holiness trigger wrath? Try to unpack that theological concept.
What was the illustration of the unconscious person in the line of the subway train about?
What did you grow up thinking heaven would be like? How did this talk inform your prior understanding?
What did you grow up thinking hell would be like? How did this talk inform your prior understanding?
From these passages of Scripture, what can we be confident in about heaven, and what can we be confident in about hell? List some facts together.
What does the glory of the presence of God (or the blessing of being with Him) teach us about the brutality of His absence? What does the brutality of God’s absence teach us about the glory of God’s presence?
Finally, what does it look like to live a life where the reality of heaven and hell are constantly on your mind?

Scripture References

2a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

16For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.

For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

“Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice

and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.

23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

6Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

35But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?”

36How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

37When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

38But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.

39Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.

40There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.

41The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;

43it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;

44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

45So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.

46The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.

47The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven.

48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.

49And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

50I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—

52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

54When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

13Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.

14For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

15According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.

16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

18Therefore encourage one another with these words.

“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.

At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores

and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.

In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.

So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.

And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family,

for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

“ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.

All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,

I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?

When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink,

I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

Louie Giglio

Louie Giglio is the Visionary Architect and Director of the Passion Movement, comprised of Passion Conferences, Passion City Church, Passion Publishing and sixstepsrecords, and the founder of Passion Institute.