Eternal Life and Judgment: Theme #10 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism

Posted by William Boekestein on 3rd Jan 2024

Many people recoil at thoughts about death. That’s understandable. Death is hauntingly foreign, like traveling to a country from which almost no visitor has returned to report. But we must think about it. Our discomfort with mortality cannot delay the inevitable. And according to Scripture, after death comes judgment (Heb. 9:27). This too sounds negative.

But for the person properly prepared for death and judgment, the topic can actually be encouraging. The phrase “eternal life” occurs almost fifty times in the New Testament, happily inviting us to see this present life as preliminary. This is why the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks about the benefits believers receive from death and at the resurrection (Q/A 37, 38). The answers present seven reasons to anticipate eternity.

1. Eternity Promises Perfection in Holiness

We pray for rescue from evil (Matt. 6:11). And God answers. Still, we repeat our folly (Prov. 26:11). How often have you genuinely resolved to do better only to fall short? Take heart, in eternity redeemed souls are made perfectly holy! Around God’s throne, right now, are “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 12:23). In eternity our familiarity with sin will end. We will no longer wilt at the shame of past sin, commit new sin, or even be tempted to sin. Heaven is a place of righteousness (2 Peter 3:13); its climate is totally inhospitable to evil.

2. Eternal Life Promises a Transition from Death to Glory

At death the souls of believers—even those who had been nearly life-long lawbreakers—immediately pass into glory (Luke 23:43). A believer’s death is “only a dying to sins and entering into eternal life.” Truly, for the believer, it is far better to depart this life and be with Christ (Phil. 1:23), where dust and ashes have no dominion.

3. Eternal Life Promises Safely Kept Bodies

Believers’ bodies will rest in their graves united to Christ (Dan. 12:2; Acts 24:15). This may seem a strange comfort. But God promises that even the dead bodies of his children are in His care. Deceased believers are affectionately referred to as “the dead in Christ” (1 Thess. 4:16), or “those who sleep in Jesus” (4:14). God’s keeping of our bodies in the grave is an essential part of His commitment to swallow up mortality with life (2 Cor. 5:4; cf. Rom. 8:22–23). One day “all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth” (John 5:28–29).

4. Eternity Promises a Glorious Resurrection

God made humans to fellowship with Him in soul and body. So grace must save both. Salvation must make our corrupt, dishonorable, and weak bodies imperishable, glorious, and strong (1 Cor. 15:42–43). Following Christ’s return He will “transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). Then we will be like God (1 John 3:2) perfectly suited for an endless friendship with Him.

5. Eternal Life Promises Open Acknowledgment by God

How wonderful it will be, after a lifetime of imperfect but sincere, plodding faithfulness, to hear the Father say, “Well done, good and faithful servant … enter into the joy of your lord” (Matt. 25:23). Despite our failures in the Christian life Jesus promises that “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 10:32). On the authority of the Son of God the names of the faithful, registered in heaven, will be announced as His precious possession on the day of Christ.

6. Eternity Promises Acquittal of Guilt

The gospel declares God’s pledge of forgiveness. But we forget easily. We fear that we are too sinful to be forgiven. But on the last day, when all our thoughts, words, and deeds will be publicized—even our worst ones—the promise of the gospel will become a proclamation to the world: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Jesus’ blood and righteousness will forever silence every accusation against His blood-bought saints.

7. Eternity Promises Joyful Fellowship with God

We were made to glorify and enjoy God. And believers do. But we don’t fully enjoy God now. We barely understand Him. We don’t always agree with Him. Our basest desires resist His immaculate will. We can’t even fully want intimacy with God. But we are starting to. Here is the believer’s song: “After this life I will have perfect blessedness such as no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined: a blessedness in which to praise God eternally.”

“God has given us eternal life” (1 John 5:11). This promise is a tremendous comfort for God’s children. But eternity also invokes responsibilities. How should the doctrine of the resurrection steel us to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58)? First, we must be sure that we actually in Jesus, since these benefits are only for true believers. The promise for the wicked is truly grim. At death unbelievers seal their fate as enemies of God and begin a sort of never-ending perishing (John 3:16; Mark 9:42–48; Luke 16:19–31). Eternity makes unbelief truly tragic.

But if we are believers we should anticipate eternity (Gal. 5:5), imagine the joy of seeing Jesus (Ps. 16:11; 17:15), persevere in godliness (16:8; 17:5), sow generously in order to reap bountifully (Gal. 6:8), wait patiently (Rom. 8:25), leave judgment to the only perfectly just judge, and have our hearts tuned for heaven by participating in corporate worship.

The Christian life is filled with trouble. But “This light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:17). So eternity is “very pleasant and a great comfort to the righteous and elect, since their total redemption will then be accomplished.” “Comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess. 4:18).