Editorial: After Life or Afterlife?

 •  3 min. read  •  grade level: 8
This past July the Lord took home to Himself my beloved mother, nearly 95 years old. When going to make the necessary memorial arrangements, I was struck by the funeral home sign, which proclaimed, “Funeral & After Life Services.”
After Life?!
My! what a hopeless expression—life and then nothing but an end of existence! What darkness to be without Christ—“having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:1212That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (Ephesians 2:12)). What comfort can the most elegant memorial service with the grandest flowers, the most magnificent casket, the most moving music and crowds of mourners provide for those whose loved one is in a condition of after life?
Thankfully that expression is not really meaningful for a believer in Jesus. Having received the gift of eternal life (Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)) from God, through Jesus Christ, there will never be an after to the believer’s life (John 6:5151I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. (John 6:51)). A Christian’s life may come to a close here (but even that is not a certainty; 1 Thess. 4:13-1713But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:13‑17)), but death is no longer a robber or an enemy to be feared (1 Cor. 15:5555O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55)). It is but a servant ushering the believer from this world into that bright glory with Christ which is far better. “Whether  .  .  .  life, or death  .  .  .  all are yours” (1 Cor. 3:2222Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; (1 Corinthians 3:22)).
No doubt the funeral home was seeking to convey to the public their caring and quality service for families after the life of a loved one has ended, for the world would hardly consider it acceptable if a mortuary advertised “Services for the Dead.” The words “After Life” are less gloomy, more acceptable.
But still, this expression is rooted in the fear man by nature rightly has of death. He tries to hide and disguise the melancholy reality of the king of terrors. The funeral hearse at one time was black—now many are white. The morbid finality of death is cloaked in many other ways because people without hope after life don’t like to talk or think about its gloomy certainty—a reality each must eventually face. To the lost, death is sure and unwelcome—a reality to be shunned until its unwanted presence can no longer be evaded.
Afterlife!
The reality of what this means for a believer gives joy and peace in the presence of death. It will never be a question with the child of God of after life, for this life is but the beginning of unending peace and bliss in the presence of the Lord Jesus—eternal life.
Our afterlife is all light—uninterrupted joy—consciously in the presence of our precious Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. The believer who has fallen asleep is “absent from the body  .  .  .  present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:88We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8)). He has assured us that “because I live, ye shall live also” (John 14:1919Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. (John 14:19)). How blessed and comforting—what joyful expectation!
Ed.