Q. 37. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
A. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves, till the resurrection.
Q. 38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the Day of Judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.
For most, delayed gratification is not a natural trait. We want what we want when we want it. We are like little children craving an ice cream cone. Even if they are told the additional benefits of waiting, it is difficult to not succumb and forgo potential future blessings for what we can get right now. The difference for adults is our wants are often bigger/more expensive and we have greater facility in getting them, which makes waiting even harder.
Now, imagine you were told of some great blessings that you could have. They are almost beyond comprehension. Would you want them? Yes, please! Would you like them right now? Definitely! Don’t you want to wait a bit? NO!! Ok, you can have them right now but you have to die to get them. What would you say now?
We’ve been considering how the Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC) sets forth the benefits that Christians enjoy. These benefits flow from our union with our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. He secured these benefits for us in the work He accomplished and graciously applies them to us by the Holy Spirit. Many of those benefits are part of our present experience (justification, adoption, sanctification, etc). Yet, there are some which still await.
WSC Question 37 covers the benefits which are received by a Christian at his death. Death is not a topic we like to think about and we have done much to try and remove its reality from our minds. But historically, people were confronted by the reality of death more often and more directly. Regardless, death is one of the certainties of life. People go to great lengths to deny it or avoid it but it comes for all of us eventually.
But the redemptive work of Christ has transformed death for Christians. In fact, death is the gateway to experiencing more of the benefits of that redemption. Certainly, there is grief and sorrow for the loved ones who remain. But for the Christian who has died, his soul is perfected and passes into glory. There is no more struggle with sin or wrestling with temptation. Notice this is immediate. There is no middle place, such as purgatory, where the Christian has to undergo further purification. Instead, sin is no longer an issue and they are with the Lord.
But that’s not all. The body is not simply cast away as if it was a worthless vessel that had served its purpose and no longer has any use. Instead, the catechism stresses that the body of the Christian is still united to Christ until the resurrection. That means the body is part of God’s future plan for us. It’s why people still treat the body of the dead with respect. Some traditions have elaborate rituals for preparing a body for burial to signify the continued importance of the body. Just think about the care that was shown to Jesus’ body by Joseph of Arimathea after Jesus’ death on the cross and how the women were going to the tomb on Easter morning to care for the body.
As great as all that is, there is a bit of unresolved tension in this separation of body and soul. And so, the catechism reminds us that at the Second Coming of Jesus, we get even more benefits from Christ’s redemptive work. Body and soul are reunited (thus the answer speaks only of believers, not their constituent parts) and they enter into the presence of God. As they come before the judgment seat, instead of rejection and condemnation, they are accepted and begin the full experience of blessedness and enjoyment of God that will never end.
Saints, while these benefits await us in the future, contemplation of them in the present is a good spiritual habit. It loosens the grips of this world upon us. It grants us perspective on what we experience in this life. It feeds our longing for something more and gives us hope because such a future has been secured for us. And it enlivens our worship as we realize our gathered worship is but a foretaste of what is to come. While we certainly don’t want to be so heavenly-minded that we are no earthly good, let us not assume the opposite is better. Instead, let our vision of what is to come empower us to love God and our neighbor well in the here and now.
