I bought a new cell phone.  My old one was having memory issues, it garbled messages and it was having a rough time recharging.  Which ironically is also how my wife describes me.

The girl at the store opened the phone case and took out the SIM card.  That card contains the essence of my virtual identity.  She slipped the card into the new phone, and I was good to go.

Hooray, my virtual identify was not lost, it was just transferred to a new home.

Believe it or not, this helps me to understand a big existential question – What happens to a person when they die?

Well let’s discuss the soul.  When your parents put your birth on the calendar, God did not withdraw a soul from an existing repository.  Your soul was conceived right along with the rest of you.  It came into being at that moment, but it became an everlasting entity from then on. 

Your soul essence was placed in your body.  I am somewhat disappointed because I feel like my soul should have been placed in athletic body.  But the Lord knows best. 

Anyway, the soul remains in the body until death occurs.  At that time, the body is vacated, and the soul of the Christian goes to be with the Lord.  Like a hermit crab that seeks a bigger shell to inhabit, our soul longs for bigger things.

Paul wrote, “Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth, we are absent from the Lord for we live by faith, not by sight. Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” – 2 Corinthians 5:6-8

He argued that the Christian can only be in one of two places – either on earth confined to our mortal bodies, or in heaven with the Lord.   There is no “time out” in Purgatory for bad behavior, nor does the soul ever sleep.  It’s either fixed in our functional earthly body or in heaven.  Jesus said to converted thief on the cross as he was dying, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”  – Luke 23:43.

The soul of the person who fails to trust in Jesus is also separated from their body at death and immediately placed into a situation that the Bible describes as being one of eternal torment. 

Jesus described it when told the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.  Both men died.  Humble Lazarus was pictured as being carried off to a blissful heaven, whereas the miserly rich man was carried to a painful place.  From there he cried up to heaven, “…send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I am in anguish in this fire.”  – Luke 16:19-31

So, what happens to the soul after all this?   

One day Jesus will return to this earth, and the souls of the faithful will return with Him.  Paul wrote, “God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep as Christians.”  – 1 Thessalonians 4:14. 

Then their interred bodies will be raised and be made new and imperishable – an eternal body fit to house an eternal soul.   Paul went on to say, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.” – 4:16

And that is the journey of the soul.  When our bodies fail us, the essence of who we are does not die.  It just gets inserted into a new eternally fit habitation.  It’s a little more complicated than transferring a SIM card, but God gets the job done.   

So be warmed if you belong to Him.  Be warned if you don’t!  

A prayer: Lord this truth enables us to face the future without fear.  Thank You

This has been Jim Johnson and pickleheavenpress.com.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you!

Scripture passages are from the NETBible ®