Some people live in denial about death. They just don’t want to think about it. Others have decided that it’s impossible to know and so they’re just going to wait until it happens. Those who care about what the Bible teaches, look to the Scriptures but can often be confused. This week, a person asked me to reconcile the verses that speak of death as “sleep” with those that describe other things going on after death. What really happens when die? And did Jesus teach that we just go to sleep?

1. People in the ancient world used the word, “sleep,” as a gentler way of referring to death.

As you read the Bible, you can’t help but notice people’s death being referred to as sleep. In the Old Testament, for instance, it says that “David slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David” (1 Kings 2:10). Since they buried him, it’s obvious that it’s not talking about him laying down for a nap. It’s a way of saying that he died. When Stephen is martyred, the Bible describes how he is stoned, prays for Jesus to receive his spirit and then it says, “he fell asleep” (Acts 7:59-60). It’s obvious in these and other passages, that the word, “sleep,” is being used to refer to death. Today, we use other terms as substitutes for death because it feels gentler and more polite to do so. We talk about people ‘slipping away,’ or ‘resting in peace,’ but when we do so, we’re not making any particular statement about what happens after death. It’s not because we believe that people fall somewhere when they die or that death is uniquely restful that we use these terms. They’re just indirect ways of referring to death. Sleep is used in the same way in the Bible.

2. Upon death, people either experience the comforting presence of God or separation from God.

Groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses have taken the Bible’s use of the word, “sleep,” to mean that people are unconscious when they die. They enter a ‘soul sleep.’ How do we know that the Bible doesn’t teach that? The main way is the various descriptions that are given for life after death. For instance, Jesus promised the thief on the cross who had trusted Him, “today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). The apostle Paul expressed great confidence in the face of death because, for him, dying meant being “away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:6). For him, death meant, “to depart and be with Christ,” which he called, “far better.” When Jesus told a parable about the afterlife, he described one man being carried to a place of comfort (Luke 16:22) and the other anguishing in flames (Luke 16:24) and begging to warn his brothers not to come to “this place of torment” (Luke 16:28). There’s clearly no sleeping going on in any of these passages!

3. We can only be spared God’s wrath by receiving His pardon for sin through faith in Jesus.

With such stark options awaiting people at death, we can’t leave the topic without addressing how to find life. No one is deserving of heaven because we’ve all sinned (Romans 3:23) and the Bible says that sin’s penalty is death (Romans 6:23). While we can’t erase our sins or counteract them with enough good works, because Jesus died in our place on the cross, through faith in Him we can be forgiven of our sins and receive eternal life. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The paradise Jesus spoke of and the being at home with the Lord that gave Paul such hope is ours as a free gift that we can receive by turning from our sin and putting our full trust in Jesus Christ.

In awe of Him,

Paul