What happens after we die? What does the Bible teach about this? N.T. Wright is a good place to begin, so...
Remember that Wright and other N.T. scholars are interested in, not how recent cultures (like American Christianity) view biblical texts, but on how the original Jesus-culture heard and understood the scriptures. Wright is looking for a correct biblical view. Here are some things he says about what happens when we die, especially in light of our ultimate hope and final destination.
Wright says the Bible does not say Jesus-followers are ultimately destined for heaven. Instead, at the end of time, God will re-make our physical bodies and return us to a newly restored earth. Heaven is important, but it is not our final destination. The New Testament speaks far more about this final destination than it does about heaven. So, then, what is "heaven?"
Biblically, “heaven” is a temporary holding place. That is "life after death." The Bible gives us few clues about this. Paul says, in Philippians 1:21-23, "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far."
So, immediately after death, we shall be with Christ, in heaven. And that, of course, is good.
While that is important and hopeful, the New Testament is more concerned with what Wright calls “life after life after death.” Or, the "after-afterlife." We have far more information about our ultimate destination upon being physically resurrected. And, that ultimate destination is God's recreation of a "new heaven and a new earth."
To sum up:
- When a Jesus-follower dies they go to heaven, to be with the Lord.
- Heaven is not our ultimate destination. It is a holding-place, until the final resurrection.
- At the final resurrection, God will re-make our physical bodies.
- We will live, in a state of everlasting time, in God's newly restored creation. This will be the unifying of heaven and earth. When "the times reach their fulfillment" God will "bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ." (Ephesians 1:10)
While the age to come will come in its fullness at the final resurrection of the dead, the in-breaking of the kingdom (heaven coming to earth) has been happening since the earthly life and resurrection of Jesus. You and I, as followers of Jesus, are partakers of that reality.
