ON LIFE AFTER DEATH: Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?

ON LIFE AFTER DEATH: Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11) 

Many people wonder about “the other side,” that is, they wonder if there is life after death. There is something innate in each of us that answers in the affirmative, “Yes, I will experience self-concious existence after the death of my body.” But if there is conscious existence after death, what will it be like? Will we be aware of our past earthly lives? What about others? Will we interact with them? Will we even recognize and meet with people we once knew from this life? We all long for this. 

For the sake of brevity I am refraining from addressing the common, but false assumptions people make in such questions particularly the false assumption that “heaven” will be some kind of disembodied immaterial experience. 

While grieving the loss of his young son, Eric Clapton penned his famous song Tears in Heaven. Contemplating, but perhaps more so speculating, he asks his deceased loved one, “Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven? Would it be the same if I saw you in heaven? Would you hold my hand if I saw you in heaven?” What Clapton longs for is the restoration of a relationship interrupted by death. I'm reminded of King David's words at the death of his own son. He asked and answered his own rhetorical question, “Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Sam. 12:23). 

The universal human experience is that when people die, they die. And they stay that way. No one comes back from death.

Except Jesus.

The Bible tells us that God had promised Jesus that he would not abandon him to the grave (See Acts 2:27). God raised him from the dead, yet when he was risen he was no longer the same. How so? For starters, “Being raised from the dead, [he] will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him” (Romans 6:9). When he appeared to his closest friends he assured them that it really was him and invited them to physically examine him for their own assurance; “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39). They thought they were seeing a ghost, a disembodied entity. Jesus assured them that they were not hallucinating, but that it really was him. 

This is my point. Jesus lived, he died, then lived again. Physically. And what of his relationships? He picked up where he'd left off. The last thing Peter did before Jesus died was deny him. He betrayed Christ in that respect. When Jesus came back from the dead, he made it a point to restore Peter. He reassured Peter of his love and forgiveness. 

So the Bible promises that “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:11).

So about your departed loved ones or soon-to-be departed because of terminal illness. If they die/died in Christ and if you too are in Christ, you'll see them again. In the flesh. Like the father with the prodigal son you will run and fall upon their necks hugging and kissing them. You'll pick up where you left off and the old things will have passed away. You'll remember and they'll remember. How do I know this? Because He is risen.