What Happens When You Die?

Almost all of us have a picture of what we think it will look like to arrive in Heaven. Maybe you picture the pearly gates or meeting Saint Peter, who greets you with a list of everything you’ve ever done. So, what actually happens when we die? The writer of Hebrews says it this way, “it is appointed unto man once to die, and then to face judgment.” What does that mean, and how does what we have learned about Jesus’ merciful covering come into play? Let’s get started. 

In ancient Athens, the Bema was a wall or platform built so that men could stand atop it and pass judgment within courts of law. This is where Pilate would have sat as he heard the crowd cry out for Jesus to be crucified, and it’s the kind of seat that the Apostle Paul was calling to mind as he referenced God’s Holy Judgement seat in his letter to the Romans. In actuality, for everyone who lives and dies, there is an appointed time when we will stand before the judgment seat of God. 

“All roads lead to the judgment seat of Christ.” -Keith Green

But what happens at this judgment? If we learned last week that our eternal state is decided before we die, then what are we doing facing a heavenly appraisal of our motives and deeds? 

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

1 Corinthians 3:10-15

The Judgement seat in Heaven is a great testing, a great revealing of the motives by which we acted while on Earth. Notice that this passage doesn’t mention a punishment, but instead this testing is one which simply burns away the things that were done for any other reason other than in response to and worship of Almighty God. Everything you ever did for selfish gain will be gone. Every choice you made to try and satisfy an impure heart will be gone. Only the things you did in reverence and response to God will remain. Imagine that.

What will be left of your life? Will you have built up, upon the foundation of Jesus Christ, works made of quality metals or of wood, hay, and straw? This judgment seat should change everything for us, for our eternal rewards are impacted by our lifetime decisions. Yes, if you have put your faith in Jesus, you will still stand before the judgment seat. But thank God you will be covered in the atoning blood of Christ. 

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

This change changes everything. Because Jesus died for us, we can die to ourselves and live with a reconciled and renewed purpose to be ambassadors of reconciliation everywhere we go and to everyone we meet. We are on a mission from Heaven long before we arrive there so that when we stand before that judgment seat, what we have built will last and not burn away. 

“The purpose of the judgment is not where we spend eternity, but how.” - Dr. Charles Stanley

Knowing our future is to stand before God, our goal in life should be nothing other than to please God. Is that your goal today? Is that the scale by which you weigh every decision and action?