What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?

1. Why are the persons spoken of, in the answer, called [believers]?

Because they have been enabled, by grace, to credit the truth of God in his promise, and to embrace the good that is therein.

2. What is the difference betwixt believers and others, in their death?

Believers die in virtue of the promise of the covenant of grace, wherein death is made over to them unstinged, as a part of Christ’s legacy; 1 Corinthians 3:22 whereas all others die, in virtue of the threatening of the covenant of works, Genesis 2:17 having the sting of death sticking fast both in their souls and bodies.

3. What is the sting of death?

The sting of death is sin; 1 Corinthians 15:56 and the curse, as the inseparable companion of sin. Galatians 3:10

4. What security in law have believers against the sting of death?

Christ’s receiving it into his own soul and body, as their surety, that they might be delivered from it: wherefore the promise of victory over death, made to him, Isaiah 25:8 secures the disarming of it to them. 1 Corinthians 15:57

5. How manifold are these benefits which believers receive from Christ at their death?

They are twofold; such as respect their SOULS, and such as respect their BODIES.

6. How doth it appear, that [the souls of believers] exist in a state of separation from their bodies?

From the Lord’s calling himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, long after their death, as an evidence that their souls were living; for, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living: Matthew 22:32 and from the death of believers being called a departure; 2 Timothy 4:6 intimating, that the soul, upon its separation, departs only from the earthly house of this tabernacle, unto an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 Corinthians 5:1

7. Are the souls of men absolutely and independently immortal?

No: God only is so, “Who only hath immortality.”

8. In what sense then are souls immortal?

In that, as to their natural constitution, they are incorruptible, having no inward principle of corruption, but remaining in a state of activity after the death of the body, “The spirits of just men made perfect.”

9. How do you prove the immortality of the soul from the nature of it?

In its nature, it is a spiritual, immaterial, or incorporeal substance; and therefore where there is no composition of parts, there can be no dissolution of them, “A spirit hath not flesh and bones.”

10. How are we sure that the soul shall never be annihilated?

From the promise of everlasting happiness to the righteous; and the threatening of everlasting misery to the wicked, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

11. What are the benefits which are conferred upon the SOULS of believers, upon their separation from their bodies?

They are [made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory].

12. How doth it appear, that the souls of believers are not made perfect in holiness, while united to their bodies, in this life?

From the remains of corruption and indwelling sin, which cleave to the best of the saints of God, while in an imbodied state.

13. Wherein consists that [perfect holiness], which is conferred upon the souls of believers at their separation?

Not only in a perfect freedom from all sin, as to the very being of it, Revelation 21:4 but in a perfect likeness and conformity to God. 1 John 3:2

14. What comfort may a believer have, in the prospect of the separation of his soul from his body?

That as sin made its first entrance into him, at the union of his soul and body, so it shall be for ever cast out at their separation; in which respect, among many others, death is great gain.

15. Why must the souls of believers be perfectly holy at their separation?

Because nothing that defileth can enter within the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem.

16. What is the necessary concomitant of the soul’s perfect holiness?

Perfect and uninterrupted communion with God.

17. Where is this perfect and uninterrupted communion to be enjoyed?

In glory.

18. When do the souls of the saints [pass into glory]?

As they are made perfect in holiness immediately upon their separation, so they do likewise [immediately] pass into glory.

19. Why is it said in the answer, that they pass [immediately] into glory?

To shew that the fiction of a middle state betwixt heaven and hell, invented by the Papists, hath no manner of warrant, or foundation, in scripture.

20. How do you prove from scripture, that the souls of believers pass immediately into glory, upon their separation from their bodies?

The soul of that certain beggar named Lazarus, was, immediately upon its separation, carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: Luke 16:22 in like manner, the soul of the thief, upon the cross, was immediately glorified; for, says Christ to him, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise,” Luke 23:43 and Stephen, among his last words, prays, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” Acts 7:59 plainly intimating, that he firmly believed his soul would be with Christ in glory, immediately upon the back of death.

21. What is that [glory] which the souls of believers do immediately pass into?

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him,” 1 Corinthians 2:9 However, since naked discoveries of the heavenly glory, divested of earthly resemblances, would be too bright for our weak eyes; such is the condescension of God, that he hath been pleased to represent to us heaven’s happiness, under similitudes taken from earthly things, glorious in the eyes of men.

22. What are the similitudes whereby this glory, which the souls of believers immediately pass into, is held forth in scripture?

It is compared to a kingdom; Luke 12:32 to an house not made with hands; 2 Corinthians 5:1 to an inheritance incorruptible, 1 Peter 1:4 and to a better country. Hebrews 11:16

23. Why is the heavenly glory compared to a kingdom?

Because of the fulness of all spiritual and eternal good, which the saints are there possessed of; and the glorious dignity to which they are advanced, “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father.”

24. Why is it called an house not made with hands?

To signify the unspeakable excellency of the heavenly mansions, above the most stately palaces built by the hands of men.

25. Why is it said to be an incorruptible inheritance?

To intimate, that the happiness of the saints will be of an unfading nature for ever, “Ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”

26. Why is it called a better country?

To shew that there is no comparison betwixt the things which are seen, and are temporal, and the things which are not seen, and are eternal.

27. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death, with respect to their bodies?

[Their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection].

28. How doth it appear, that the [bodies] of believers in their [graves], do remain [still united to Christ]?

The union was with the person of believers, whereof their bodies are a part; and this union being indissolvable, it must still subsist with their bodies in the grave, as well as with their souls in heaven.

29. How may believers be assured of this, from the union betwixt the two natures in the person of Christ?

Because, as at the death of Christ, though his soul was separated from his body, yet neither the one nor the other, were separated from his divine person, but remained as firmly united thereunto as ever; so neither soul nor body of the believer, shall be separated from Christ, by their separation from one another at death, but both of them remain indissolvably united to him for ever.

30. What is the difference of the grave to the righteous and to the wicked?

To the one the grave is a resting-place, but to the other it is a prison-house, where they are kept in close custody for the judgment of the great day.

31. Why are the bodies of the saints said to [REST in their graves]?

Because their graves are like beds of ease, where their bodies lie in safety, till they be awakened in the morning of the resurrection.

32. How is their resting in the grave expressed in scripture?

By sleeping in Jesus; 1 Thessalonians 4:14 intimating, that they sleep in union with Jesus, and that his Spirit keeps possession of every pile of their dust, which he will quicken and rebuild as his temple at the last day. Romans 8:11

33. How long will they rest in their graves?

[Till the resurrection] of all the dead at the great day.

34. How may believers be assured of receiving these promised benefits from Christ, at their death?

They may be assured of them, upon this ground, that the promises of these benefits to them, are all grafted upon the promises made to him, as their glorious head, before the world began.

35. Upon what promise made to Christ, is the promise of disarming death to the dying believer, grafted, Hos. xiii. 14.—O death! I will be thy plagues?

It is grafted upon the promise made to him, of a complete victory over death, “He will swallow up death in victory.”

36. Upon what ground may believers be assured that their souls, at death, shall immediately pass into glory?

The promise of transporting their souls into heaven, immediately upon their separation from their bodies, [“Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise],” Luke 23:43 is grafted upon the promise made to Christ, that when he should make his soul an offering for sin, he should see his seed. Isaiah 53:10

37. Upon what promise made to Christ, is the promise of destroying death, to the dead believer, grafted, Hos. xiii. 14.—O grave! I will be thy destruction?

It is grafted upon the promise made to him, of the resurrection of his mystical members, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.”