I know we are supposed to go through Leviticus, and in fact, I had prepared to preach that. But one of the things Pastor Mitch taught is that we should change our topics and learn to teach people the truths most needed for the situation they are facing. So I worked extra and prepared a sermon I think may be most needed for us. As people of God, we are faced with the death of our dear brother, and tomorrow we have a funeral. So I thought I would bring before you a meditation on what happens in 5 seconds after death.

Death is very unnatural to us. God did not design death when he created a world that was good. The most negative thing in life is death; people avoid talking about death. The Bible calls it the last enemy. It is the most negative thing. But our glorious Lord even took this most negative, strange thing—death—and made it the most positive news for a Christian. It is so glorious. The real fullness of redemptive blessings for a child of God starts only from death. But sadly, today most churches are filled with the perverted prosperity Christianity which only focuses on health and wealth in this life. Suffering, sickness, and death are shown as negative things. False teachers talk about how difficulties will pass away and sickness will pass away, but nobody talks about what happens if we pass away.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:19, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” This is the sad thing about millions of Christians running after these false prosperity preachers who make them believe in Christ only for this life. And that makes them pitiable and completely unprepared to handle the realism of life, the trials of life, suffering, or even death. They get very overwhelmed when they face troubles and are not able to handle them. This is completely opposite to true Biblical Christianity, which tells us suffering is inevitable and makes us think of death often. It encourages us to pray with Moses in Psalm 90:12, “Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” In Luke 16, through a parable, our Lord says he who doesn’t think about death and doesn’t prepare for his death is a fool. We need to align our views based on Bible truth.

Have you thought about your dying day? The first time in our life, breathing in and out stops. All vitals will stop, monitors slow to a flat line and zero, and life goes away. My soul is separated from my body. And where am I now? What happens to my never-dying soul? What happens to my dead body? What happens in 5 seconds after I leave this world as a believer? All biblical truths about death are shortly and comprehensively included in our shorter catechism. Our Shorter Catechism Question 37 has a question:

Q: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death? It lists 3 blessings.

1. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness,
2. and do immediately pass into glory;
3. and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.

This happens within 5 seconds of a believer’s death, while the body is still warm, immediately when the soul has left that body. Three things happen to the believer. This is not the final glory. Theologians call this the intermediate state, not the final, consummate state at the coming of Christ. We will rise with glorious, deathless bodies and join the sinless soul. We will live with the Lord with a body. That is final. All the fullness of redemption is experienced at that time. I am speaking about the intermediate state. Catechism says three things: what happens to our souls, where do our souls go, and what happens to our body.

1. What happens to our souls: The souls of believers at their death are made perfect in holiness. Immediately, our souls are made perfect in holiness. How do we know that? Hebrews 12:22 talks about heaven now. “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect.”

See, not bodies, only spirits. How did they become perfect? At the moment their spirits left their bodies at their death, God, by his Spirit, by the power of his sanctifying grace, in a millisecond, made them perfect in holiness. He puts forth a concentrated degree of divine energy of sanctifying grace that accomplishes more in a millisecond than we have known of sanctification in our whole life. That happens immediately after death.

Think with me for a moment what a glorious blessing this is. What is the greatest burden for a believer in this world? Sin has so terribly affected us, even though Christ has forgiven our sins and we are regenerated. Though sin doesn’t reign over us, sin still remains in us, and that remaining corruption makes us live a life filled with struggles.

We are washed like snow by Christ’s blood; his Spirit fills us. We sense we are the temple of God, the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, his member, united to him. However much we hear the truth, divine truths… God sometimes, by his special presence, comes and kisses our soul in his infinite love, and we are overjoyed. We want to regularly walk and abide in Christ every minute; we are determined to be fully committed to God. One day we feel in heaven, but what happens the next day? We feel as if we are in hell. What drags us down? Our remaining sin. How subtly, unconsciously, it trips and cheats, defiles that soul, like a stain on beauty. How we grieve the Holy Spirit and struggle in guilt and repentance. Sin hinders us from doing good. A Christian is like a bird that would be flying up, that would be flying up to heaven with the wings of holy desire; remaining sin is like a string tied to its legs to hinder it.

This is the burden we feel as we grow in grace. Sin is ever restless. It never rests, never is quiet. “‘The flesh lusts against the spirit,’ the flesh against the spirit warring” (Galatians 5:17). It is an inmate that is always quarreling. However much you beat it, it would never be quiet. Always fighting inside. That is remaining sin. Have you felt it? It keeps nagging, nagging. How often we are overpowered with pride and passion!

One time we are so strong in God, we would do great things for God, fully committed to God. But subtle sin tempts and weakens us, debilitates us, disarms us of our strength. Sin is what makes our life so burdensome and mixes bitterness in everything in this life. The more we grow in holiness and grace, the more we feel terrible when sin overcomes us.

Sin spoils and mingles with our duties and graces. It doesn’t allow us to pray with our whole heart always. One day, a heavenly experience; the next day, prayer is so boring. One day, we sing with angels; the next day, praise doesn’t rise to the ceiling.

How it caused such troubles even for the apostle Paul: “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” Paul was like a man carried down the river current and could not bear up against it. We sometimes feel like crying with Paul, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24). Paul did not cry out for his affliction or his prison chain but for the body of sin.

It is not somewhere outside or just in our head or leg so we can cut it. Sin adheres to us, saturates us; we cannot get rid of it. However much we read the Bible, pray, and grow, it sticks to us. Remaining sin is like a big banyan tree with deep roots in our being. With the axe of repentance, we think we cut the full big tree, but the roots are still there, and it again grows after some time.

In the same way, it makes a child of God weary of his life and makes him weep and cry and mourn in life, to think after God has shown so much mercy that sin is so strong a party, inside him, and he cannot get rid of it. Everywhere you go into this world, there are temptations and traps, even sitting at home. What dangers we face.

For such a believer, constantly living with a war of sin, can you imagine how glorious death is? It will completely free him from sin and make him perfect in holiness. The first blessing a believer has as soon as he dies is that he is made perfect in holiness. Oh! What a blessed privilege this is. Think about it. At death, all the deepest roots of sin are fully and permanently pulled up out of my nature and thrown away. Every stain of sin and fall is eternally removed by death. Perfect holiness consists in a perfect freedom from sin, meaning after this, I will not have the least inclination to sin. What a state that must be—to be “without spot or wrinkle.”

I shall never have a vain thought, never have an envious thought, lustful, angry, bitter, proud, or covetous thoughts. I shall never grieve the Spirit of God anymore. Forget about sinning; I will never even have the inclination to sin. Wow! That will happen the moment I die. Sin brought death into the world, but for children of God, their death shall take away all sin from their soul.

All this not being able to sin is only negative. Shall I tell you the positive? Holiness is not just not sinning, but perfectly reflecting the holy law of God in heart, mind, and will. What does a state of perfect holiness mean? I don’t have to grow anymore in holiness. I will reach the highest level of holiness. Perfect in holiness is an attainment or status of the highest measures and degrees of holiness the creature is capable of.

Positively, I will be fully endowed with every grace, and my soul will be fully, unreservedly conformed to the highest standard of the law of God in all of its breadth and depth, in all of its penetrating demands. My nature will be a perfect reflection of God’s holy law.

Do you know it is a state higher and holier than Adam before he fell, because he was in a fallible condition? I will go higher than that. I will never, ever for all eternity, forget about falling into sin, not even have an inclination to sin, because I am made perfect in holiness. I will even be holier than angels, because angels fell! How glorious!

What will be the extent of my perfect holiness? My head is spinning. I will be perfectly holy like Christ, reflecting the moral perfections of the eternal Son of God. At death, believers shall arrive at the perfection of grace. It is a state of meridian splendor, the highest perfection. Then they will not need to pray for any increase of graces because they are already perfect.

Can you imagine what that is? What is happiness but the essence of holiness? Why is heaven always happy? Because it is always holy. My joy shall be full when I am perfect in holiness.

I don’t know about you, but that makes me jump in joy thinking of death! It makes me cry. My last day will be the best day. To be perfect, never again feel the twinge of conscience for any sinful thought, utterly rid of anything that would require repentance. I don’t have to repent for all eternity because I will be made perfect in holiness.

What a glorious thing! When we breathe our last, this is the first blessing. The millisecond our heart monitor shows a flat line, our body and soul are separated, and immediately we are made perfect in holiness. That is our change in us. This is what God promises to do to us when we die in Christ as his children. Oh, it is glorious to think: our brother Vasudevan, the minute he left the world, will be perfect in holiness. That is what happens to our souls.

This is a glorious blessing, but you know this actually is preparation for us to go to a place. Why are we made perfectly holy?

2. Secondly, where do our souls go? Our souls immediately pass into glory.

Because the purity of heavenly glory admits no sin or imperfection, so we are made perfectly holy so we can immediately pass into glory… immediately. That is my 5 seconds. How can we say that souls immediately pass into glory?

Luke 23:43: “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” Luke 16:23: “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” Stephen, among his last words, prays, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59); plainly intimating that he firmly believed his soul would be with Christ in glory immediately after death. In 2 Corinthians 5:8, Paul says, “To be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”

We pass immediately into glory. What shall I say about this? This is inevitably connected to me becoming perfectly holy. Because without that, I cannot go to glory. Think about it. As a man, Isaiah, when he had his vision of the glory of God, the seraphim and cherubim, though a prophet, still with remaining sin, what happened to Isaiah? He didn’t dance for joy. He was shattered, undone, “woe is me.” But you and I as children of God, when we breathe our last, we get so perfectly holy. Our souls go to the immediate presence of this same God, stand in the full presence of the burning fire of this utterly holy God, and not feel a twinge of discomfort or even a small pain. Jude 24 says, “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.”

t is a blessing that you will pass immediately into glory. This is why Christ said in John 14: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? You will be where I am…your sorrows will turn to joy.”

We shall never fully understand glory until we are in heaven. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard what the Lord has prepared for us.” It is a perfect state of bliss, which consists of the accumulation of all good things—a place of perfect and full joy that immortal souls are capable of experiencing. It is a state made perfect by the gathering together of everything good. As Revelation 21 says, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

Apart from the absence of all sinful and painful problems, I can think of two things that will make us perfectly blissful in glory.

First is the presence of God. The very essence of happiness for us, created in his image, is the enjoyment of God. As Psalm 16:7 says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” God is an infinite, inexhaustible fountain of joy; and to have him is to have all. The enjoyment of God implies our seeing him; our forefathers called this the blissful “beatific vision.”

Second, we shall corporally behold the glorified body of Jesus Christ. This is the great prayer of Jesus in John 17:24: “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me.” Our death partially answers this prayer, and our resurrection fully answers it.

The second joy in heaven is the company with whom we will live. We may lose our friends and relatives on earth when they die, but there are new friends and relatives there. Firstly, there are the angels. Those blessed cherubim will welcome us to paradise. If the angels rejoiced at the conversion of the elect, how will they rejoice at their glorification! How glorious it will be to live with the angels! What joy and what company! It is a fantasy to be carried to Jupiter or Mars, but this is reality.

Then, there is the company of the saints: “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23). I was thinking I have more friends who are dead than alive, because most of the books I read and the advice I take are from those who are no longer with us. The Bible characters and reformed authors—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, the prophets, and apostles—and then Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Whitefield, Spurgeon, Bunyan, the Puritans, Watson, and Owen.

To be with these men when they had remaining sin in this world was so glorious. Think about how glorious it will be when they are made perfect. I felt so joyful to be with him when I went to the hospital… Oh, to be with him when he is perfected.

When we have some worship and fellowship, it is so thrilling. It is a vaporous foretaste of heaven—just a drop. What will it be like there? We can think about how wonderful it will be to live with a group of people where there is absolutely no friction. Here, no matter how much you love your family, there is so much friction with children, husbands, and wives. “Don’t do that, don’t speak like that,” and all this shouting, separation, angry words, and bitterness. But in some good families, when love fills the house, sometimes they hug and kiss one another. Imagine that augmented to fullness in heaven—fullness of love, a world of just men made perfect, in the immediate presence of God and the Lamb. Can you imagine living with an eternal family of love?

So, there are two blessings at death. What happens to the souls? The souls of believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness, and they do immediately pass into glory.

Now, what happens to their bodies? This is the last blessing after death. Their bodies, being still united to Christ, rest in their graves until the resurrection. Their graves are places of rest, beds of rest. Why rest? Because their graves are like beds of ease, where their bodies lie in safety until they are awakened in the morning of the resurrection. That is why scripture shows the death of believers as “sleeping in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:14), intimating that they sleep in union with Jesus and that his Spirit keeps possession of every particle of their dust, which he will quicken and rebuild as his temple at the last day (Romans 8:11).

Oh, how much we need this rest! What a sweet word it is for toiling people. I do not know about you, but I am always seeking rest, but not finding it. One responsibility after another… so much office work, family work, church meetings, calls. So much to do, so much to plan. This is a complete, perfect rest.

We get rest from labor. “All things are full of labor” (Ecclesiastes 1:8). God has made a law, “In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread.” Some people labor physically, and some mentally. But death gives a believer a rest; it takes him off from his day-labor. “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord: they rest from their labours” (Revelation 14:13).

We need mind rest. Even if our body is resting, our mind is not resting. Life is filled with all worries. The mind is full of perplexed thoughts: how to do this and how to do that, and thoughts about children and family. Thinking and planning one after the other. Care excruciates the mind; there is no rest for the mind. Now our long-worried minds can finally have rest.

We get rest from the troubles of life. We rest from fears, from worries, and from the temptation of our enemies: Satan, the world, and sin.

Our bodies rest in the grave. What a glorious rest.

1. The souls of believers are, at their death, made perfect in holiness.
2. And they do immediately pass into glory.
3. And their bodies, being still united to Christ, rest in their graves till the resurrection.

That is why we see believers never feared death. It was a notable saying of blessed Cooper, “Many a day have I sought death with tears; not out of impatience or distrust,” says he, “but because I am weary of sin, and fearful to fall into it.” You know how the martyrs hugged the stake, welcomed every messenger of death that came to them, and clapped their hands in the midst of the flames. Death is a believer’s coronation-day; it is his wedding-day. It is the day he attains perfect holiness, goes into glory, and rests from everything. Death to a believer is an entrance into Abraham’s bosom, into paradise, into the “New Jerusalem,” into the joy of his Lord.

Let me conclude with a list of pointed applications.

Balance: Yes, these views, when deeply considered, will make us eager to die, but we need to have biblical balance in life. Death should come to us as part of the Lord’s will and not because of our carelessness or our failure to take care of ourselves. That is wrong. That is murder.

1. This truth teaches that death should be lovely and desirable in the eyes of believers. As Philippians 1:23 says, “Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.” Death to the saints is better than life. Philippians 1:21 says, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” It is gain for us. That is how we should see death.

Yes, we should take precautions. If something happens to us, we should pray to God to take away the fear of death and fill us with enlightened eyes so we can see such glorious benefits.

2. Christians should neither fear their own death too much, nor sorrow for others’ deaths too much. Yes, there will be a temporary grief for a few days; we cannot deny that. Everyone will have it. But there is no reason to grieve excessively for departed believers, even in our families; they are in the most blessed place. When believers die, this is the hope that should comfort us.

Yes, for us, it is a big loss, but from their perspective, it is a gain for them. We think we love them so much and will miss them. Do we really love them more than Christ loved them? They are in the presence of Christ, who loved and died for them, and that is where they will be most happy. We will meet them again eternally.

3. What a comfort to them that now groan under manifold diseases and deformities of the body. All this is taking you, as a child of God, to the greatest deliverance. Persevere to trust in Christ. No matter what terrible, deadly pains you experience, never throw away your faith in Christ. Like brother Vasudevan, that is what will bring deliverance to you.
4. We know for sure that we will all die one day, but we do not know when. James 4 says, “What is our life but a vapor?” Smoke from boiling water rises and goes off. The Jews have a saying, “In the graveyard are to be seen skulls of all sizes,” which means that death comes to the young as well as the old. The lot is fallen upon all, and therefore all must die. This should make us prepared. All other preparations are to no purpose if a person is not prepared to die. What will it avail a person to prepare this and that for his children, wife, kindred, or friends, when he has made no preparations for his soul, for his eternal well-being? He who prepares for his body and friends but neglects his soul—Christ calls him a fool.

What is your great business in this world but to prepare and fit for the eternal world? Ah, Christians, you have need every day to pray with Moses, “Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.” See that you build your hope upon nothing below Christ! See that you die daily to sin. See that you are fruitful and faithful, and then your dying day will be blessed for you as the day of coronation to the king, and as the day of marriage to the bride.

Finally, I was happily preaching all this will happen to believers. What about the unsaved unbelievers? What will happen to them five minutes after their death? What shall I say about them? Oh, this terrible subject itself should make us weep and weep and fill us with a burden for them. I really do not know what to say and what comfort to offer when any of my unbelieving relatives or friends die. There is nothing to say. I am dumbfounded and feel like beating myself for not sharing the gospel when they were alive.

For those of you here who are still not saved, let me tell you what happens to you immediately. The same catechism says, “What happens to the wicked when they die?” Their souls are immediately cast into hell to experience unbearable torment, and their bodies wait for the coming resurrection and judgment in the grave.

Oh, as an unbeliever, let me give you some picture of your last day. You will suffer terribly in life with a guilty conscience, then you will suffer 101 pains in the ICU hospital. You will not have hope or patience. You will be scared, with fear of death in your eyes. None of your relatives will tell you the truth. They will falsely give you comfort that nothing will happen to you. You will want to believe them, but you feel so much pain. You thought your hospital pains from a kidney stone, gastric problems, or heart problems were a big hell, but your conscience is telling you that something more terrible is waiting for you. You will see dreams and visions of hellfire before you die. You will be cursing God, grumbling and screaming at everyone around you: relatives, children, doctors, and nurses.

And then death will not be like a believer’s death, where you want to die soon and say, “I am ready.” But you will be very scared to die because your sins will fill your conscience with dread for punishment after death. But at the appointed time, the angel of death will drag you like a sheep dragged to slaughter.

Because you do not have any hope after death, you know that death ends all that you lived for; it ends all the benefits you now enjoy. You will say, “Honors, friends, pleasures, riches, credit, etc., farewell forever! I shall never have one more happy moment! Death will be an unwelcome entrance to an eternity of misery!” No one will be with you alone in the ICU. The monitors will show weak signals. You will die sweating, filled with fear, trembling, and screaming. You will see dreams and visions of hellfire before you die. You feel that you are expiring. Death is not pleasant; it is like being dragged to slaughter. Your soul is filled with terror. Black horrors and thick darkness gather round you.

Let me tell you what happens to you five seconds after your death. No angel of heaven will say, “Welcome,” but the angel of death will be there. Your soul will be immediately cast into hell (Luke 16:22-23), which means you will be forcefully pushed into hell. For the first time, you will begin to feel the horror of hell in your veins; you will have begun to feel the wrath of God little by little before you enter upon the state where you shall feel it to the full.

“The rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.” There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. “The worms never die, the fire is not like this world’s fire; it is fire that will torment your soul.”

Then what happens to your body? The grave for saints is a resting-place, but to the other it is a prison-house, where they are kept in close custody for the judgment of the great day (Daniel 12:2).

Oh, how can I describe the horror when I go to the funerals of unbelievers? I cannot tell the wife or parents what has happened to their husband or father. I have to speak kindly and comforting. So I say, “Well, well, we must leave this in the hands of a merciful, sovereign God.” But I go away thinking, “Oh, he is also a God of inflexible justice.” I keep asking myself this question: “Was I faithful to this man? Did I tell him honestly the way to heaven? If he is lost, will his blood be required at my hands?”

If any of you sitting here are still unsaved, I want to be clear of your blood. I have preached the simple, clear gospel to you. You will one day die and face the wrath of God. If you die without Christ, the horror of horrors is unspeakable! The way of salvation is plain: “He that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned.” Believe—that is, trust—trust the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to trust him now. May the Lord awaken you, that you may see where you are and what you are; that he would grant you to break off your sins by repentance and give you a saving faith in Christ.